Comments on: Wi-Fi Photo Frame the New Trojan Horse?

By: Photoframe Gal

Photoframe Gal — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:56:30 +0000

I have to say that Wi-fi photoframes ar4e something that I haven’t seen before and while they seem like a useful concept, I think there is a more problems that could arise from these. Thanks Kim xx

By: Bruce Lewis

Bruce Lewis — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:07:59 +0000

I look forward to your FrameChannel coverage. I’d like to know more about them.

I think you’re right that wifi photo frames aren’t widely used yet. One of the features I implemented to support them is an obvious one that anybody who owned one would ask for, but no other photo-sharing sites have it. That tells me these devices aren’t on their radar yet.

By: Mari Silbey

Mari Silbey — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:46:45 +0000

johnny0- I almost added a line about an Apple tablet. Problem is, Apple doesn’t want to bring the cost down to where it would need to be for this kind of device. Spend money on an Apple tablet, and I doubt it’ll stay in one place to be a display.

Bruce- I have a call set up with FrameChannel next week. Very interested in their future plans.

Glenn- My husband and I have been talking about creating our own connected kitchen display for years, for calendaring, contacts, etc. Would love to have someone do it for me. But again, I don’t know that anyone can create that market without the device already being something people use.

By: Bruce Lewis

Bruce Lewis — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:28:03 +0000

Geof, don’t get too excited about that email address. Just point the frame at a photo-sharing service that lets you upload by email. OurDoings lets you create as many addresses as you want, so you can give one out to everybody at a party, then remove it 2 weeks later while keeping another in your phone the whole time, for example.

By: Geof

Geof — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:47:17 +0000

Check out the Smartparts SPX8WF. It is WiFi and feeds from Microsoft FrameIt and comes with its own email address that you can send photos to.

By: Bruce Lewis

Bruce Lewis — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:44:25 +0000

Glenn, the great thing about frames that use Media RSS is that you aren’t locked into a specific service. You pick your own; it could even be a free one.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:05:50 +0000

Dave,

I do think the remote photoframe for viewing the grandkids is interesting, though yet to be seen what kind of monthly cost people would be willing to bear. I’d be more inclined to go with a “Kindle” service model of don’t charge me unless I change the pictures…

My favorite for the next category that might blow up big would be the “kitchen touchscreen”. A touchscreen model with a decent sized screen (15″?), a touchscreen interface, and Wifi. Good family-calendaring software (like the new Palm Pre?) that can gather calendar data from multiple places live off the web. Contacts. Sticky notes. Weather widget. Reminders. Recipes. Web video. Music streaming. Etc.

Course the category has been tried before, but there’s some advantages to the kinds of things that can be built now. In particular, using netbook guts they can be sold for very low prices, see Eee Top. I think netbook pricing has shown the way here–if its cheap enough it won’t be the ONLY PC you’ve got, just one more.

The whole touchscreen thing might even be doable with Windows 7. Problem is ASUS probably can’t deliver the software needed to make this useful. Probably means it will come from HP or somebody like that. Which means it’ll be too expensive.

We’ll just have to see what happens.

Myself I might pick up a Dell Studio Hybrid, one of the other category of small/low-power media center PCs that just might start selling a few more this year. For watching Hulu etc. Thinking Boxee might do the job though…

By: Bruce Lewis

Bruce Lewis — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:02:25 +0000

Yes, custom RSS feeds work with a lot of wifi photo frames. FrameChannel has a blog where they review a lot of frames, and if it’s FrameChannel compatible it almost certainly lets you put in any Media RSS feed. FrameChannel is another company after the “trojan horse” you describe. For me, I’m more interested in photo frames as photo frames. I run http://ourdoings.com/ (a photo-sharing site) and AFAICT it has better wifi photo frame support than any other.