Archive for Wireless Picture Frame Peripherals

Updates From FrameChannel!

It’s been awhile since our last update. In the past few months there have been lots of updates and new channels added to FrameChannel.

Updates

Now Playing – Ever see a headline on your screen and want to read the whole article? Now, if you sign into your FrameChannel account and click on the Now Playing tab, you can will see a list of your channels that have associated stories. For text based channels such as People, BBC, Time, RSS feeds, etc. you can now click through to the full story on the source’s website!

My Account – We’ve streamlined the registration process and the My Account page. Some of the information that was once in My Account (your account’s RSS address, PIN and device settings) is now located on the settings page. You can access these by clicking on the green Advanced button on the top left.

New channels – We’ve been very busy adding lots of new content! A few of our new channels are listed below. To see them all, go onto FrameChannel and check it out!

• Deutsche Welle – 16 new international news and sports channels

• Lottery – Lottery results for the US and Canada

• Better Homes and Gardens “Better Blog” – Content from the magazine’s popular blog

• Sports headlines – 11 new channels covering major league and college sports

• College Football and Basketball – Scores and standings for US college teams

• Hockey – Scores and standings for NHL teams

• High School Sports (US) – Get your local high school’s sports schedule and results

• Entertainment Weekly – Get EW’s daily picks for music, TV, movies, and more

• Facebook® Birthdays – Never miss a friend’s birthday again with birthday updates

• Memeo Share – Share your photos from Memeo

• Digg – View the daily Diggs in 8 categories, from business Diggs, to Gaming Diggs and much more

• US House of Representatives – Search for your local representative and subscribe to their Twitter feed. Don’t know your Rep? Choose the Local category then the US House of Representatives sub category and browse through the listings!

WIth all these changes and additions, we’re sure some of you will have questions and feedback. We want to know what you think! Contact us via our helpdesk with any questions or comments!

Follow us on twitter! We add a new channel everyday that we announce on Twitter. Come check it out to know when we add new channels!

Thank you for using FrameChannel!

Sincerely,

The FrameChannel team

Thinking Screen Adds iCal Support to FrameChannel, Bringing Timely Calendar Content to Internet Connected Screens

Marketwire has the scoop about Thinking Screen Media’s latest !

EW.com Is First to Provide iCal Content With Updates on Major TV, Music, and Movie Events

WELLESLEY, MA–(Marketwire – October 1, 2009) – Thinking Screen Media (www.thinkingscreen.com — formerly FrameMedia Inc.), the company that is defining the content experience for screens in the Connected Home, today announced that it now supports iCal-formatted calendar- and event-based content on FrameChannel (www.framechannel.com). Entertainment Weekly’s EW.com, the first content provider to participate, has launched several iCal-driven channels on FrameChannel, through which users can view details on the hottest upcoming TV, music, and movie events.

“We are always looking for new ways to share our content, and FrameChannel is a great example of that,” said Cyndi Stivers, Managing Editor of EW.com. “Those who subscribe to our iCal content for FrameChannel will get EW editors’ picks for the best in pop culture every day of the week.”

FrameChannel is a Web services platform that allows users to browse online and select from more than 1,000 content channels, configured for delivery on media players, connected TVs, digital photo frames, video game consoles, Internet radios, telephones and other information appliances. The FrameChannel platform is featured on dozens of devices in the market today from top brands such as Kodak, Motorola, Samsung, Toshiba and many more. Users can combine their personal content (photos, tweets, messages, and favorite RSS feeds) with commercial content such as news, weather, sports, financial and local information.

“We are experts at configuring a wide range of digital content formats for an optimal viewing experience on connected screens,” said Jennifer Sagalyn, VP, Content Partnerships for Thinking Screen Media. “As millions of connected screens hit the market, FrameChannel becomes the perfect service for combining all your photos, social media and information channels, providing a constant stream of personalized information at a glance. iCal support is an ideal addition, giving users access to calendar-based appointments and events from any ical formatted feed.”

Content providers interested in featuring their content on FrameChannel should go to http://www.thinkingscreen.com/content_partners.html. Consumer electronics manufacturers interested in customizing, co-branding, and integrating FrameChannel with their devices should go to http://www.thinkingscreen.com/hardware_partners.html.

About Thinking Screen Media, Inc. (www.thinkingscreen.com)

Thinking Screen Media is a leader in delivering content to “the 4th screen,” a new category of Connected Screens that includes WiFi photo frames, connected TVs, media players, set-top boxes and more. Its free FrameChannel service (www.framechannel.com) can be customized for any screen, and is today available on a growing number of products by top brands such as Kodak, Samsung, Toshiba, Motorola, ViewSonic 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 real-time content from the selected channels, so users can always view the very latest information as they move through their connected home.

Wi-Fi Enabled Televisions Among Highest Growth of New Product Introduction

SOAWorld Magazine has posted a fascinating article about the “1H09 Wi-Fi Products Tracker Database” directory:

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “1H09 Wi-Fi Products Tracker Database” directory to their offering.

The Wi-Fi Products Tracker Database provides summary data of branded WLAN end-products by product name, vendor, 802.11 technology, category, and subcategory in pivot-tables for quick analysis of trends. Detailed data is provided for in-depth analysis of product releases from 2007 to 1H09

Wi-Fi Connectivity Becoming Pervasive on Devices. Over 1000 New Wi-Fi Products Are Launched in 2008

Wi-Fi enabled products continue to proliferate across nearly all categories, including computing, networking, consumer electronics and mobile devices. Over 1,000 new products were launched with Wi-Fi in 2008; 2009 promises to surpass that mark, reports this latest report.

Among the key growth areas is stationary consumer electronics (CE) devices with Wi-Fi. Stationary CE devices include products that require access to a power source, such as televisions and digital photo frames. In 2008, manufacturers introduced nearly 100 new Wi-Fi enabled stationary CE products, up from 22 in 2007. Introductions are increasing in 2009, with over 55 in the first half of 2009.

Digital photo frames and digital audio players with Wi-Fi were among the key device types to see a surge in product introductions in 2008 compared to 2007. In 2009, Wi-Fi enabled digital televisions are among the highest growth of new product introductions for stationary CE devices. Philips consumer electronics was among the most aggressive competitors, pushing an array of new Wi-Fi-equipped digital audio players and digital TVs. In the digital photo frame category, adoption of Wi-Fi in 2008 new product introductions was broad-based across 17 different competitors

Recent research found the following:

Hewlett Packard had the most Wi-Fi enabled new product introductions of any manufacturer in 2008, and nearly tripled their new product introductions in 2008 compared to 2007.
Cisco leads the market in first half of 2009 with 802.11n-enabled product introductions overall. Samsung electronics leads market in 802.11n consumer electronics.
802.11 b/g solutions are still the dominant Wi-Fi technology in new product introductions in 2008. However, 802.11 Draft n 2.0 solutions are gaining rapidly, and are expected to become the most popular Wi-Fi technology across most product categories by the end of 2009.
Philips, looking to grab a market leadership position in Internet-enabled television sets, released more Wi-Fi enabled television sets than the rest of the market combined.

Recent research, 1H09 Wi-Fi Products Database is part of the new “Wi-Fi Product Database”. The database provides detailed tracking of the progression of Wi-Fi adoption in computing, consumer electronics, mobile phones and other electronic devices that are announced.

The database includes a detailed log of branded WLAN end-products by product name, vendor, 802.11 technology, product category, and subcategory. The data is provided in formatted pivot-tables for analysis of technology and product trends, as well as competitors.

Digital Photo Frames Market Driven by Gift-Giving Status

According to the Market Alert over at In-Stat.com, digital photo frames will be purchased mainly as a gift for someone else.  Well, it IS almost time to think about the holidays!

The leading reason future digital photo frame purchasers will buy a frame is as a gift, according to new research from In-Stat http://www.in-stat.com.  Among consumers planning to purchase a digital photo frame in the next 12 months, 38% of respondents to In-Stat’s survey said they would buy the photo frame as a gift for someone else.  As a result, the coming holiday season will be crucial for competitors in the digital photo frame market such as HP, Kodak, Pandigital, Philips, Samsung and Sony.

Overall, global shipments of wireless and wired digital photo frames are on the rise, as prices decline to affordable levels.  In-Stat expects worldwide unit shipments of digital photo frames to reach 50 million by 2013.

The weak economy is certainly slowing growth in this market, as consumers cut back their discretionary spending. However, pricing continues to fall and awareness is growing.  In addition, competitors are introducing next generation digital photo frames that support advanced functions, such as multimedia playback of movie clips and audio files, and include support for Wi-Fi or bluetooth connectivity.

The full article may be found on the In-Stat website.  For more information, In-Stat recommends that you read their full article about Wi-Fi as a global opportunity in the connected photo frame market.