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Posts Tagged ‘digital frame technology’

Let’s face it; it’s that time of year when one can go a little crazy trying to find that ONE special gift for a special person that is just… well, just perfect. While most of us, at some point in our lives, have been on the receiving end of what we know was the perfect gift, many of us still fail to deliver on what we thought would be a perfect gift.

Why, do we often fall short when it comes to giving what we’d hope was a perfect gift? Well, to answer that question let’s look at what makes the perfect gift “perfect”. First, not only does the perfect gift need to be both useful and meaningful to the recipient; but let’s be realistic, it also has to fit into your gift giving budget. But more importantly, what truly really makes a gift perfect is the fact that it touches a recipient in a profound way. A perfect gift will take into consideration and honor the lifestyle, interests, and needs of the recipient, yet connect on a deeper level than other gifts.

So with that being said, you might be surprised to read that I believe that the typical digital picture frame is NOT the perfect gift… unless you take the time to personalize it so that it connects on a deeper level. A digital frame is just the means of delivery, not the gift. The gift is, as KODAK once said, “the moments of our lives” that are shared and displayed on the frame.

How do you personalize the gift of a digital frame? Well, that’s easy. When you first give a digital frame have it “loaded” ready to display photos that are meaningful to the recipient. However, be aware that digital frames are not like traditional frames that hold a single print. Most (not all) digital frames, usually end up showing the same pictures over and over again. Digital frames can quickly become stale energy sucking lumps of plastic, glass and metal if not updated. Over time, that gift you wanted to be personal over time just becomes annoying.

However, one type of digital frame, known as a “connected” frame, will remotely access new photos and ultimately deliver the perfect gift of fresh new photos for years to come.

Connected frames, such ones made by CEIVA, receive photos sent directly to them from any computer or standard camera phone. Plus, while CEIVA’s can directly connect to a computer via WiFi, these digital frames do NOT have to receive photos in this way. CEIVA frames also receive photos through a traditional phone land-line or Ethernet connection. (Land-line connectivity makes CEIVA frames ideal for seniors and less tech savvy people that do not have a computer or the Internet.)

Regardless of the type of connection used, these unique frames ultimately access CEIVA’s photo hosting and delivery service, known as Picture Plan. Picture Plan makes photo storing, sharing and editing an easy, safe and secure process. It also provides frame owners a way to invite family and friends in to send and share their pictures to the frame. The fact that CEIVA frames can have fresh new photos delivered right to them from loved ones keeps that personal connection alive and ultimately makes them a perfect gift.

Digital cameras and digital frames have made the world a greener place. When you think about it, film is not an ecologically responsible media at all. Film is plastic coated with chemicals. Once manufactured, film is then encased in a plastic or metal cartridge, which then is either put directly into a box or into another plastic container and then boxed for retail sales. The production and packaging of film uses tons of plastic, paper, chemicals and inks… and that is before it is loaded into a camera and a single shot is taken.

Then, once shot, the film needs to be processed. Before processing the film is removed from the cartridge which is then disposed of. Once the film is processed and made into a negative, the image can finally be transferred on to photo print paper. All this film and print “processing” requires additional energy, chemicals (which by the way come in plastic containers), paper and water.

Once printed and taken home, photographs are typically stored in some sort of container. Be it paper box, plastic bin, photo album, traditional frame or even a drawer, photos eventually are stored somewhere. We don’t often think about it, but storage space is typically some sort of container that is made up of material(s)… paper, plastic, wood, glass or metal. However, digital frames can act as storage space too. Unlike traditional frames, digital frames have a dual purpose. Not only do they display photos, but they also can act as storage for hundreds and sometimes thousands of photos ultimately saving space and resources.

Now it is true digital frames do require plastic and chemicals to manufacture, and the paper for packaging to initially market. Plus they will require energy to operate, but in the long run they are much greener solution.  First of all, unlike cell phones, consumers do not upgrade digital frames often. These simple devices can last for years and years. I personally have been using the same digital frame now for nearly 9 years… and have no plans of changing it out. One frame will last a long time.

As I mentioned before, digital frames require energy. But the amount of energy a typical 7” digital frame requires is only about the same amount of energy to light up a 40 watt light bulb. Since most frames can be programmed to “sleep” their energy consumption can be reduced to a trickle.  Energy consumption is further reduced in digital frames that build in other functions such as clocks, radios and phones. These multipurpose frames collapse energy consumed by many devices into one and in turn reduce overall energy consumption.

Finally, there is one other type of green a digital frame can save… that is the green we call “CA$H.”  Using the formula for estimating energy consumption posted on US Department of Energy’s website, a typical 7” frame will consume only $20.47 worth of energy per year based on the frame being turned “on” for 14 hours a day and “sleeping” for the remaining 10.  Considering the hundreds and hundreds of photos a frame holds and the sheer cost that would be associated with processing an equivalent amount of pictures, $20.47 a year seems like a bargain to me.

So until the next post… that’s the green CeivaJoe knows.

POST NOTE: This post was inspired by blog I read last week entitled Green Tip Of The Week – Go Digital With Your Camera authored by Tracy over on Planet Forward’s blog. Thanks Tracy for the inspiration… you motivated me to look a little deeper and know a little more.

The digital picture frame designers at CEIVA have tapped into the fact that more and more photos are being stored on home computers.  The new CEIVA Pro80 frame has been designed for easy access directly to an entire photo collection kept there. A clever new feature included in CEIVA’s newest frame is its built-in connectivity that allows photo streaming from Windows Media Server back to it.

Like all other CEIVA frames, the Pro 80 ingeniously connects to the internet to allow friends and family across the world to share their pictures by sending them directly into it. This exclusive internet connection is one of services that are bundled within the CEIVA Picture Plan. One year of the CEIVA Picture Plan is included FREE with every CEIVA Pro80.

The CEIVA Pro 80 features a high resolution 8-inch active matrix digital LCD screen, 640 x 480 display resolution, standard memory card readers, WiFi adapter, interchangeable face plates and CEIVA’s Perfect True-to-Photo display that puts an end to photo stretching, cropping or squishing. Internet connectivity is via WiFi or traditional phone line.

The soon to be released (release date 8/10/09) CEIVA Pro 80 has a list price of $179.99.

While digital frames keep evolving, consumer understanding stays pretty much the same… and can be misunderstood. Only after owning and using a frame does a consumer understand what their frame does and doesn’t do. So if you are in the market for a digital frame, answering these two seemingly simple questions will spare you disappointment later.

QUESTION 1: What do you want to SEE on your digital frame?

Now this might seem like a stupid question, but actually there are three content types to choose from when it comes to what a frame can possibly show. Of course there are frames dedicated solely to photo content. Then, while it is not highly desirable, there are some frames that can show short video content.  Finally, there are also frames that can accept information feeds that display instructional, marketing and/or news related content. Since not all frames show all content types, knowing what you want your frame to show will help guide and direct your purchasing decision. This leads us to the second question…

QUESTION 2: How will you connect to load & manage frame content?

Typically consumers don’t give this question much thought. Up until now they were typically sold on “stand-alone frames” (aka card reader frames) that offered what seemed to be a straightforward solution. Connecting to a frame to load it with photo content just by popping a card out of a camera and into the frame seemed simple enough. But over time, consumers with stand-alone frames began to understand that while it may have been simple to load the first time, the loading process becomes tedious as more pictures are taken. Plus, if the content requires any editing, doing so within a frame is an awkward undertaking, if it is even offered as a feature in the first place.

While connectivity to the frame controls content delivery, it does not always control what also is important to customers: content management. What shows, when it shows and how long it shows on the digital frame is content management. To make loading, managing and editing pictures simpler, frame manufactures are beginning to have their frames connect to a PC via WiFi or Bluetooth. Much like sending a document to a node printer connected on a network, content files stored on the PC can be to  “Node Frames” for display. Any editing would take place on the PC before sending.

Some Node Frames can also use the PC as a gateway middleman to a variety of Internet sites for content housed on the site. However, setting up and managing multiple connections from multiple sites to the middleman PC and then back into the Node Frame can be exasperating, tedious and difficult for most. Beware, this middleman PC approach to content delivery and management is currently being “sold” a simple Internet frame solution… but, in reality it can be a whole new approach to frame frustration.

Finally, there are true “Internet Frames” that are designed to connect directly to one site on the Internet via a wireless connection or through a traditional land line.  Unlike the Node Frame, that again depends the PC as content and management middleman, the true Internet Frame connects to one Internet site as the gateway access point to all desired frame content and content management. The Internet site is designed as a one stop content and management solution for the frame.  The site offers and manages all the functions related to picture hosting, content delivery, a variety of information feeds and even photo editing. Conflicts for access to and display time on the frame are eliminated because all content types are managed at one site.

Knowing a little more beyond what is being marketed and sold by most frame manufacturers will ultimately serve the consumer looking to buy a digital photo frame. Asking and answering two simple questions regarding what types of content they want to show and how they want to connect to load and then manage that content  on the digital frame will ultimately save them time, money and frustration… guaranteed.

So until the next post… that’s what CeivaJoe knows!

COMMENT

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS, an electronics industry market research group, recently announced the availability of a new report they have compiled entitled “Wi-Fi Represents Strongest Opportunity in Global Connected Digital Photo Frame Market”.

According to the report, in the first half of 2009 prices for digital photo frames have dropped to affordable levels causing the  market for digital photo frames to take-off. However, due to the down turn in economic conditions and the trend to purchase digital photo frames as gifts, pre-loaded with personal pictures, most units purchased are still quite basic and lack advanced features such as connectivity to the Internet.

The report also states that it is expected that wireless-enabled internet connected photo frames will be a key growth sector and will grow at two times the rate of overall digital photo frames in 2010.

The report also goes on to make the following points:

• Worldwide unit shipments of all digital photo frames are expected to reach 50 million by 2013.

• Nearly 60% of US respondents to consumer survey identified integrated wireless connectivity as a desired feature on their next digital photo frame purchase.

• The total silicon opportunity for digital photo frame suppliers will exceed $550 million by 2013.

• Microcontrollers comprise the largest opportunity in non-wireless enabled devices.

• The BOM for a wireless 8-inch digital photo frame will fall below US$36 by 2013; the LCD, with the wireless module and the enclosure being the dominant cost items.

So while more frames will become connected to the internet, the industry still has yet to understand the value of having frames connected to each other. The importance of sharing photos easily across family & friends’ networked frames, via a secure sharing service such as CEIVA Picture Plan, is the primary reason why CEIVA owners value being “connected.”

Further details of Electronics.ca new Digital Photo Frame  Industry Report’s table of contents and ordering information can be found on HERE on their web site.

So until the next post… that’s what CeivaJoe knows!

COMMENT

Two evenings ago, the New York Times posted an article in their “Gadgetwise” column entitled: Filling a Photo Frame via a Celluar Network. Rik Fairlie, the author, describes how bothersome it can be for adult children to keep the digital frames, given to parents as gifts, stocked with fresh photos. He writes, “you’re probably tired of driving over to your parents’ house to deliver a new SD card that refreshes the photos.” Fairlie then goes on to say that  “Soon, you won’t have to. A new company called Isabella Products will start a service called Vizit in mid-October that lets you send photos… to digital photo frame remotely.”

HUH? WHA? SOON YOU WON’T HAVE TO???

We here at CEIVA started offering photo sharing services to remote frames over 9 years ago. In fact, the New York Times wrote a story about CEIVA providing this type of service back in 2000.  Then in 2002, they wrote a story about grandparents and how the CEIVA photo share technology can keep them connected to family.

Now, I do not have a problem with telling the Vizit story and writing of the service they want to provide. But to taut this type of service as NEW… that just isn’t right. I mean let’s give credit for innovation where credit is due. In today’s information age, a little bit of research would have set the record straight.

So for the sake of journalistic accuracy and clarification, I thought I would post a comment on the “Gadgetwise” article citing how the New York Times had already announced this innovation years ago. Written below is a copy of what I wrote as a comment… which, at the time of writing this blog, oddly has not been posted.

All I can think of is “Imitation is the most serious form of flattery.”

While the ability to share and send digital photos to remote frames may seem new to some, actually it is a service we here at CEIVA have been providing our frame owners for nearly a decade now.

In fact, The New York Times has covered the CEIVA story from our start back in 2000. Here are some excerpts from past New York Times articles:

1.) NYT ARTICLE: STATE OF THE ART; A Frame To Hold Your Pixels, By Peter H. Lewis Published: Thursday, March 2, 2000 “Using Ceiva’s technology, one can send up-to-the-minute pictures of the kids to Grandma’s bedside table anywhere in the country…”

2.) NYT ARTICLE: Digital-Generation Gifts for Radio-Generation Parents, By Jeffrey Selingo Published: Thursday, November 21, 2002 “…interested in sending your parents new pictures of the grandchildren every day, you might consider the Ceiva picture frame…”

3.) NYT ARTICLE: When a Picture Is So Good It Deserves a Frame, By Wilson Rothman Published: June 5, 2007 “Ceiva, which pioneered the connected frame concept more than seven years ago… downloads pictures that you have uploaded or family members have shared.”

We here at CEIVA continue to improve our products, and in the time since these articles were written our digital frames have evolved and improved a great deal.

While our users have been able to send pictures from their cell phones to a CEIVA Frame for quite a few years now, last November we created a FREE iPhone app called CEIVA Snap… which our users love.

Facebook users also enjoy the FREE CEIVA Sender app we have developed. This simple app allows users to send pictures directly out of their Facebook Albums and into family and friend’s CEIVA Frames.

CEIVA is proud to have been the innovative leader in the world of photo sharing to digital photo frames… and we look forward to developing new ways to make the photo sharing experience even more rewarding as time and technology moves on.

So for now, even though the New York Times has forgotten it… that’s what CeivaJoe knows.

COMMENT