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.
Uncategorized
CNET, connected device, d-link, Eventful, Frame Media, FrameChannel, internet tv, Kodak, samsung, twitter, Wireless Digital Photo Frame, wireless digital picture frame
Posted on Mar 27, 2009 by Sam Costello at 2:28 am
Digital Foci’s got a neat-looking new product, the Photo Book. The device is basically a portable digital picture frame, with an 8-inch screen, 4GB of memory, 2.5 hours of battery life, and support for all kinds of memory cards and photo and music files. What it doesn’t have is WiFi.
While no doubt a useful product in this incarnation, I suspect it would be even more useful with a network connection. As services like Flickr and PhotoBucket – and later FrameChannel – have proved, people want to be able to share their photos over the web. That functionality would be especially cool on a portable device like the Photo Book. Wouldn’t it be neat to get new photos streamed right to your backpack?
I suspect part of the reason for not including a network connection in this device is to keep cost down and battery life up, which are both valid concerns. I hope, though, that when Digital Foci looks to create Photo Book 2.0, they add in WiFi – it’ll be an even greater product.
Posted on Jan 10, 2009 by Sam Costello at 2:58 am
Despite the efforts of industrial designers at companies like Apple, the wireless router is still basically a boxy little thing that doesn’t do much for the décor of your home. D-Link has taken the wraps off a new device, though, that won’t make you embarrassed to have your wireless router sitting out for all to see.
The D-Link Xtreme N DIR-685 information appliance combines an 802.11n wireless router, network attached storage device, media server, and – best of all – digital picture frame sporting a 3.2-inch LCD all into a single device.
The Xtreme N DIR-685 offers standard wireless router features such as printer and USB device sharing, and adds the ability to stream all kinds of content from the web to the device and devices connected to it.
The streaming web content is provided by the device’s out-of-the-box integration with FrameChannel, which is not only smart, but makes using the service and frame together even easier.
No word on price or availability yet, but I suspect we’ll see this guy displayed on tables in house nationwide soon rather than later.
Posted on Dec 15, 2008 by Sam Costello at 2:10 am
It seems like a fairly natural combination – a digital picture frame and a photo printer together in a single gadget. Keian Japan is offering just that in the form of its P71-A2-JP.
The device sports a 7-inch LCD with 480 x 234 resolution, SD card and memory stick slots, USB, and MP3 playback. The print outs are at 300 dpi and apparently not wonderful. No word on US availability, either.
Still, the idea of the device is an appealing one. It could be made even more appealing with a WiFi connection. Imagine being able to send the latest snapshots to your family’s digital frame over the Internet and, when they find a photo they like, they can print it out and slap it into a photo album. That would be pretty neat.
Posted on Sep 18, 2008 by Sam Costello at 2:39 am
GiiNii.com has a neat project for those of you out there who are technically inclined and like to spend your nights and weekends on DIY tech projects.
The project they’ve got – with video instructions, even – is a wall of digital picture frames that can not only provide a neat array of pictures all grouped together, but also offers the possibility of making each frame dedicated to a particular kind of content (each frame could be for a relative who lives far away, for instance, or photos on one screen with sports on another and news on a third).
And since this project is based RSS feeds sending the content to each frame, it would work perfectly with FrameChannel.
Posted on Sep 11, 2008 by Sam Costello at 9:29 am
A nifty new bit of software debuted earlier this week that seems destined to show up on wireless digital picture frames and other information appliances soon.
The software, called gloop, lets users share digital photos directly between web-connected frames over the Internet, without needing to use a PC or photo sharing website to move the pictures around. The software also allows direct Internet phone calls between frames and the attachment of voice memos to photos being shared — imagine not just getting a birthday greeting image, but also hearing from your friends or loved ones when looking at it. Pretty neat.
Though gloop only runs on digital picture frames now, it seems the software could be modified to work on any information appliance or connected device that runs digital photo software or displays information updated over the web.
The software isn’t in use on any frames yet, but it’s available for license by frame manufacturers and I’d expect we’ll see it in use sooner rather than later.
Tip of the hat to Ubergizmo for the link
