Photos can be transferred to the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox in one of three
ways. You can drag and drop photos from within Microsoft file explorer on
your Windows PC (Macintosh isn't supported), directly connect a compatible
flash card reader or directly connect a
compatible
digital camera.
I tested the direct transfer feature using a Canon EOS Digital Rebel
XT. To transfer images from your camera to the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox
you connect the camera's USB cable to the USB connecting cable supplied
with the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox. As soon as you turn on the Gateway
MP3 Photo Jukebox the player will ask if you want to transfer all of
the files. It's that simple! You can also connect the Gateway unit to
USB card readers, freeing up your camera for shooting, assuming you
have a second memory card.
A Viking brand 512MB Compactflash memory card, full of photographs,
transferred in 12 minutes and 43 second. The transfer speed breaks down
to .67-megabytes per second or 40MB per minute. This is not a fast process,
but still a lot more convenient that lugging a laptop on vacation just
for the purpose of transferring images. Not only that, you can transfer
images to the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox while out shooting or when taking
a lunch break, something you wouldn't do with your laptop.
Rechargeable and Removable Li-Ion Battery
The Gateway has enough juice to allow you to transfer six 512MB memory cards full of images to it's hard drive
on one charge. Its possible that I could have squeezed one more transfer out of it since I mistakenly left the Gateway
unit on for about 5 minutes in between one of the transfer cycles. At the end of six transfers there
was still battery life left on the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox, however the battery indicator was the red,
which indicates very low battery life. I tried to do another transfer at that point, but it kept kicking me out
of the transfer mode. Unlike many competitive MP3/Photo players, Gateway has designed this unit with a removable
Li-Ion battery, so if you're frequently away from power, it's nice to know that you can purchase a spare battery.
Battery life on the Gateway MP3 Jukebox for normal operation (playing music, reviewing photo's)
is rated at 8-10 hours. I typically got between 8 and 8 1/2 hours during the couple of weeks that I used it.
Connecting the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox to your digital camera is a simple 3-step process:
- Connect a compatible* digital camera to the Gateway Photo Jukebox, using the USB
cable that came with your digital camera.
- Turn on the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox, press the navigation down ARROW button
once to select the PICTURES option, then use the right ARROW to view the pictures MENU.
Using the down arrow, highlight the option titled "UPLOAD", then select it by pressing
the right arrow once. This will start the transfer process.
upload.
- Once the transfer of images is complete you should confirm that the transfer went
as planned by checking the folders on the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox and looking for
your newly uploaded photos. Once this has been verified you can safely delete the
images from your camera's memory card.
* Supports digital camera's that read as USB mass-storage devices (most newer ones do). Most of my testing was done
using the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, however I did try testing the transfer using my Canon EOS-10D and found
that it was not compatible for direct transfers. Gateway has a
list of tested models on their
website, however there are many newer models that are compatible, that are not listed.
When viewing photo's on the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox, the images will most likely be displayed with a black border across
the top and bottom of the screen. This is because the screen on the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox is square, while the images
taken with your camera are more rectangle in shape. Using your PC, you can resize and crop your images to fit the 128x128
resolution and/or aspect ratio to get "full-screen" images.
