Digital Photo Frame App Brings Make Old Hardware Useful Again

I love it when I find an app that solves a problem I didn't know I had. I am always reluctant to get rid of any Apple hardware that still has any life left in it. Sometimes finding a practical use for an aging iPad or Intel Mac can be challenging. But now that I've discovered what I think is the best in its class app for displaying digital photography, I think Aura Photo Frames are great gadgets, but they are expensive and have limitations. Macs and iPads generally have better displays. They have network connectivity built in, and using one of them with the right software gives you a huge variety of photo sources. You can even use the app on an Apple TV to do things you can't do natively with the built-in app.

When I have company coming over, I make slide shows featuring my guests and set them to play. Anyone who needs a display for a trade show or presentation can use this app a lot more easily than setting up a rotating PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. I also like to make slideshows of trips I go on to keep the memories alive after I return home.

I use Digital Photo Frame and Slideshow, a universal app that works on the last six versions of macOS (Catalina-Sequoia) and iOS/iPadOS (iOS12-iOS26). The app has over 1K App Store reviews and a 4.8 rating. It's been featured by Apple in "Apps We Love." You can read plenty of testimonials and get support at the developer's website.. I contacted him while working on this review. Based on my interaction and his reputation among users, you should have no problem getting help should you need it or getting a response if you have a feature request.  I asked about adding support for WebDAV  cloud services and he let me know he's working on adding that support (and for other services available through the Files app). Digital Photo Frame is updated frequently.

Photo Sources and Display Controls

• Include: local photo roll, albums, and smart albums
• Can also use iCloud photos and shared albums
• Syncing services like Google Photos & Flickr
• Supports Unsplash
• Displays live photos and videos
• Interval times range from three seconds to 24 hours
• Photos can be shuffled or displayed in a fixed order
• Multiple transition styles, including the Ken Burns effect
• Photos can be in portrait or landscape mode

Information Overlays

• Current date and time
• Current weather
• UV index and air quality reports

Digital Photo Frame and Slideshow includes timers to start and stop slideshows automatically. The Apple Photos slideshow feature lacks audio continuity and detailed timing controls.

Recent Updates

If you've used the app in the past and moved on to other options, you should take a look at some of the recent developments. Version 6 introduced:

• Offline slideshow support that allows you to cache photos so you can run without network connectivity
• The Apple TV app
• Improved shuffle behavior and album sorting
• More localized language support

My Favorite Features

• So easy to use that my youngest grandchildren can design their own slideshows
• I can keep music playing in the background (unlike with the native Apple app)
• The whole family can add photos to slideshows by contributing to shared albums

Affordable, But Not Cheap

There's a lifetime purchase option and a subscription option. You can try out the app on all your compatible devices for as little as $2.99 for a month. A yearly subscription is currently $29.99, although, according to AppRaven, there have been sales for as low as $12.99 a year. If you just want to buy the app outright, knowing that you should be able to use it for years to come on multiple devices, it's $69.99.

If you have hardware that's so old you can't run a compatible version of a Mac operating system on it, try Digikam, a FOSS photo management app. I use it on two 2009 iMacs. One runs Debian and the other Xubuntu, but you can run older versions of Digikam on vintage Mac operating systems.