Two decades ago, Bill Gates began filling his enormous mansion with digital picture frames to display the world’s best art. Now you can too.

“The Frame” is a Samsung TV made to look like a painting, complete with a matte finish. With a $5 a month subscription, it displays 2,300 pieces of digital art, including a new Salvador Dali collection in partnership with an institution founded by the painter himself.

The 2023 model is considered a vast improvement over the version that came out in 2017. For one thing, it’s a lot thinner, nearly melting into the wall.There’s no gap.

It’s a smart TV too. But when the TV’s off, the Frame goes back to displaying art. It even has a motion sensor to detect when someone enters the room. At that point, the next painting springs to life. Alternatively, you can make it show the same painting for hours without any burn-out. Hundreds of museums, institutions, and private collections across the world supply the art. You can display your own images too.

Besides the usual apps, the Frame can handle video phone calls. It also has a special app for exercise videos. A camera analyzes your technique to let you know how you’re doing.

The Frame starts at $600 for the 32-inch version and goes up to $3,500 for the 85-incher. If you buy from Samsung’s own site, and use their chat window to talk to a sales person, they’ll throw in a special art frame for free. Apparently, even The Frame needs a frame.

Phone Service Blues

You probably don’t want to hear another scary story about switching cell phone carriers,” a reader wrote. “Yes I do,” I said.

The reader’s son wanted her to switch to his T-Mobile plan because they had a “buy one phone, get one free” offer. So she did. That’s when her trouble began.

“I had been very satisfied with Cricket but agreed to change,” she recalls. Then her son went through phone-call hell to set it up, and even more trouble trying to get it to work. Somehow, calls could only take place between T-Mobile customers. When he called to get that fixed, they kept putting him on hold, finally transferring him to another department. It’s similar to what I experienced with Xfinity.

“Finally it’s working,” the reader said. “But T-Mobile accidentally sent me another phone which had to be returned. I don’t know what I would have done if my son hadn’t done all this for me. I should have stuck with Cricket.”

Keep Your Old Phone

I kept my old phone even after Xfinity sent me a brand new one. Maybe you should keep yours too, at least temporarily, unless you’re trading it in.

Just a month after getting my new phone, I found a relative who wanted my Motorola. But that’s just one reason not to throw it away. Here are four more.

First, you might want to use it as a backup. Second, the old phone might have a headphone jack, allowing you to use a wired headset without first buying an adapter. (The adapter for my new phone came as a two pack. One broke a few days after I wrote about it and the other stopped working entirely.) Third, you could use the old phone as storage for extra photos and videos. Fourth, you could use it to watch movies or listen to music, saving your new phone’s battery for other things.

It’s estimated that over five billion phones were thrown away last year. Experts say that only about 12 percent of electronic waste is recycled. I’m glad I kept mine out of the trash.

Grammar Check

If you’re unsure whether a phrase is grammatical, type it into the Google search box. Next, look below it to “Grammar Check.” It will tell you what’s right. For example, I typed “I could of gone.” Underneath the words Grammar Check, it told me I should have typed “I should have gone.”

Numbers Report

Forty-one percent of college-bound high school seniors use ChatGPT, according to Intelligent.com. Thirty-four percent of those say they are ‘“somewhat” or “very likely” to use it to write their college application essays.

Checking Out the Traffic

To check traffic from your computer, go to Google maps and click the square in the lower left that says “Layers,” then click “Traffic.” On your phone, there’s a Layers icon in the upper right.

Fast areas will show up in green, slow ones in red.

Internut

“This little robot cleans your pool autonomously.” Search on that phrase to see Mashable’s article on a robot vacuum for swimming pools. Looks amazing.

-30-