hackaday did a great work with the creation of a 100% DIY picture frame. It seems to be a must have gadget, because you can build one by yourself.
„We set out to build a 100% DIY, scratch-built digital picture frame. Our frame has a 12bit color LCD, gigabytes of storage on common, FAT-formatted microSD cards, and you can build it at home. “
This how-to will provide a detailed guide to implementing your own Web/WAP enabled home automation system. The home automation system allows you to control the on/off state of up to eight 3A appliances via either a web browser or a mobile phone. The system provided is fairly cheap and effective, but has a few prerequisites:
An always-on internet connection (or at least on while you want to control things)
An always-on computer (see above)
PHP enabled Web space, or your own web server. (Of course if you are serving from home you already have the first two!)
WAP/web enabled phone if you’d like to use the mobile control features of the system. All modern mobile phones are capable of controlling the system.
Some beginner-level soldering skill. This project uses a PIC16F84, a cheap programmable chip.
Assuming the above, the total cost of building this system should be no more than about AU$50, plus AU$15 for each 240v switch. You can also extend the usefulness of the system by setting up an internet-viewable webcam, using a usb webcam and any freely publishing programs, providing some visual feedback.“