It’s mystifying to us when gadget makers assume that devices that do one thing well should be re-engineered to multitask. Testing the Memoir FS80, it took us back to when basketball god Michael Jordan tried his hand at Major League Baseball. It’s, like, why?

Skyla took a quality digital photo frame and added the ability to scan snapshots--a neat party trick, but not the most efficient way to digitize all your snapshots.

The FS80 is an 8-inch digital photo frame that incorporates a 300 dpi scanner. As digiframes go, it’s a winner, with 1GB of onboard memory (to hold about 500 high-quality images), a bright 800x600 screen, handy infrared (IR) remote, and built-in slots to read CF, SD, and xD memory cards. The onscreen menus are easy enough for any second-grader--or slightly tech-savvy grandparent--to navigate.

But the scanning process was far from foolproof. We experienced multiple misfeeds because the mechanism on the feeder simply couldn’t grab the photo in the right spot. Scanning 4x6 snapshots was also relatively slow--25 seconds on average for a 300 dpi scan, and up to 35 seconds from start to finish when we encountered misfeeds.

The FS80 is a nifty device that does its job adequately but solves a nonexistent problem. If you really want to "digitize your photo albums" as Skyla claims its customers do, there are more efficient ways to do it.

Memoir FS80
COMPANY: Skyla
CONTACT: www.skyla.com
PRICE: $219.99
REQUIREMENTS: None
Simple enough for any member of the family over 7 to use.
Slow compared to a dedicated scanner.