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Frame Media Expands FrameChannel® Service With Content From Twitter, CNET, and Eventful

Posted on May 28, 2009 by emily at 12:02 pm

WELLESLEY, MA–(Marketwire – May 28, 2009) – Frame Media Inc., the company that is defining the content experience on wireless digital photo frames and other new types of connected display devices, today announced that it has added content from Twitter, CNET, and Eventful to its free FrameChannel® (www.framechannel.com) service.

Together, these popular content brands are providing a total of 29 new content channels to FrameChannel’s selection of more than 1000 content channels in 19 categories. FrameChannel makes it easy for users to select the local, national, social networking, or photo sharing content they care about most and program their wireless digital photo frames and other connected devices to feature that content. Now, as users move through their home or office, they can view a rotation of the latest news, weather, sports, traffic, financial data, Twitter feeds, and much more, in addition to the latest photos from their favorite photo sharing services.

“Frame Media’s goal is to simplify and automate the content gathering process for consumers, while bringing new value to connected display devices,” said Alan Phillips, CEO of Frame Media. “Participation from top content brands like Eventful, Twitter, and CNET is an essential ingredient. These companies recognize the opportunity to extend their brands via these emerging media devices, and are looking to us as the catalyst that makes the process seamless.”

“Eventful provides the world’s largest selection of local events, from concerts and sports to singles events and kids activities,” said Jordan Glazier, CEO of Eventful. “A key to our success has been our multi-platform approach, helping users discover local events however they prefer to receive information. FrameChannel is a great fit because it helps consumers discover events within a new category of consumer electronics devices.”

Eventful delivers local content to FrameChannel users across nine channels including local kids events, concerts and live music, galleries and art, neighborhood events, and more. Users simply enter their zip code and their preference of Eventful channels to customize the content to their own interests. CNET has added 18 news channels ranging from Green Tech, to Business Tech, to Personal Tech, to a selection of popular blogs and technology review features. Twitter has added channels that let users view Tweets from both people they follow, and for their favorite search terms.

Frame Media is riding the wave of rapid adoption of “connected” display devices, or what Phillips calls “the 4th screen.” In a recent study, Parks Associates sees the connected consumer electronics market almost doubling by 2013. A connected device is one that allows access to files stored on a home network or the Internet, and can be anything from a TV, to a Blu-Ray player, to a game console. By 2013, an estimated 100 million of these devices will be sold each year, compared to the 57 million that are expected to sell in 2009. Consumers will seek entire-home access to media, and will require a terabyte of storage space for their shared media. Frame Media has been forming alliances with hardware providers such as Kodak, Samsung, and D-Link to incorporate FrameChannel access into these devices.

Content providers who are interested in creating channels on FrameChannel should fill out the submission form available at http://www.framemedia.com/plusframechannel.php for a response within 48 hours.

Consumer electronics providers who are interested in customizing, co-branding, and integrating FrameChannel with their devices should go to http://www.framemedia.com/certification.php to learn about the FrameChannel certification program and FrameChannel Integration Guide, which is built on the Media RSS standard.

About Frame Media, Inc. (www.framemedia.com)
Frame Media is a leader in delivering content to “the 4th screen,” or the new category of connected devices that includes WiFi photo frames, connected TVs, media players, and more. Its free FrameChannel service (www.framechannel.com) can be customized and integrated with these devices, and is today available on a growing number of products by top brands such as Kodak, Samsung, and D-Link. FrameChannel users can easily select their favorite local, national, social networking, or photo sharing content from more than 1000 channels, and program their devices to feature that content. FrameChannel intelligently streams the most timely content from the selected channels, so users can always view the very latest information as they move through their homes or offices.

GE PhotoPhone Is Phone, Frame

Posted on Jul 2, 2008 by Sam Costello at 2:09 am

The GE PhotoPhone is exactly the kind of convergence device that would have been predicted for the year 2000 maybe 30 or 40 years ago, and now here it is. The device does almost exactly what you’d expect — it’s a phone that displays a picture of the person calling and doubles, when the phone is not in use, as a digital picture frame.

The device sports a 7-inch LCD screen, a wireless handset, and weighs in at just under 4 pounds. It can be had for about US$140.

While it doesn’t have any Internet features yet, it does seem that that kind of expansion would be reasonable, especially in light of devices like the OpenFrame.

Digital Frames Hitting Critical Mass, Gizmos Must be Next

Posted on Apr 25, 2008 by Sam Costello at 2:47 am

It seems like you can’t visit any gadget website these days without tripping over the new announcement of a new line of digital picture frames. In just one week in early April, there were no fewer than two major companies, and one smaller one, announcing new lines of digital frames.

Overall, a cursory check reveals the announcement of 8 new lines of digital frames in just the first half of April! That’s a hot market (5.2 million frames sold in 2007 alone, according to IDC).

To me, this says that digital frames are starting to reach critical mass. There’s a lot of growth room for the market – after all, they could easily end up in most homes and businesses and they’re not that ubiquitous yet – but it also tells me that some businesses are going to be looking for the next digital picture frame soon.

Those businesses, looking to get in on the ground floor of a new market, will be seeking areas of big potential growth.

I suspect they’re going to find it in wireless-enabled gizmos. So, while we can count on lots more choice of digital picture frames in the next few years, I think we’re going to see a major explosion of wireless gizmos, too. And I say bring them on.

A Philips Digital Photo Frame at the Bedside

Posted on Apr 9, 2008 by Sam Costello at 2:42 am

Philips wants you to have your favorite digital photos at your bedside – and to wake you up in the morning to boot.

The company’s new AJL308 Clock Radio is – no surprise – a clock radio and a 7-inch digital picture frame all in one. Digital photos go into the frame via memory card – no wireless yet, but bring it on!

WiFi seems like an obvious expansion — waking up to a joke of the day, sunny photos, or the box scores to last night’s game seems pretty compelling to me.

Polaroid’s Retro Digital Photo Frame

Posted on Apr 7, 2008 by Sam Costello at 12:16 pm

Perhaps there is no more iconic photo product than the Polaroid instant picture – you know, “shake it like a Polaroid picture.”

Polaroid has abandoned that product line – a casualty of the transition to digital – but is resurrecting the spirit of those photos in a new digital frame. The Polaroid Instant Digital Picture Frame is still under development, so there’s no news about availability, price, or features, but it’s got a great look and an association with great memories.

The best part? The images can fade in to mimic the old experience of waiting for the film to develop.
Here’s hoping Polaroid includes WiFi in the initial version of the frame. I bet a lot of FrameChannel users would love to stream their content to this stylish device.

Pandigital Integrates Digital Frames into Kitchen

Posted on Mar 28, 2008 by Sam Costello at 2:08 am

Pandigital isn’t the first company to bring the digital photo frame into the kitchen, but no one’s done it with this kind of style or versatility.

Witness the company’s new $400 15-inch frame designed to be an HDTV, digital frame, digital cookbook, and a lot more (link is to a PDF). The frame is shown built into kitchen cabinets and as a standalone device – both appealing options.

There’s no WiFi connection in the product yet, but other Pandigital photo fames offer that, so I’d expect we’ll see it here soon, too. And once that’s in place, the digital photo frame will be the perfect FrameChannel hub for the kitchen.

Look for the frame to become available in June.