Will Apple Head to Digital Frames, Clock Radios?

A recent post over on our other blog, InformationAppliance.com discusses the latest from the Apple rumor mill—digital frames, networked clock radios, and other wireless gizmos.

Check out InformationAppliance.com for the full story!

If HP is entering the Digital Photo Frame Market - Can Apple be far behind?

Digitimes reported on Friday that HP and Viewsonic were both “eyeing Taiwan-based makers which could produce the segment for them.”  According to a Taiwan-based OEM, “The amount of the combined deals from HP and Viewsonic would be at least 600,000 to one million units.” Apparently, HP has recently asked for quotes from selected OEMs.

With the growing discussion of the wireless photo frame as the home “push” information appliance, it is likely that Apple has been eyeing this lucrative market opportunity.  Taipei-based Topology Research Institute is predicting digital frame sales of 9.5 million units worldwide this year, growing to 16.3 million units in 2008 and then to 50.2 million units in 2010.

Could the “iFrame” be coming to a store near you? Time will tell!

Apple TV Is Now a Wireless Picture Frame

A new hack to the Apple TV, Apple’s new set-top box that lets iTunes users stream music, TV, and video to their TVs and home entertainment centers, has transformed the device into a digital picture frame.

Didn’t I just mention that this kind of thing might happen?

The Apple TV has been a big hit with customers, especially technical customers who like to tinker with their toys. The device has been such a big hit because tinkerers have found that the Apple TV is essentially a mini, customized Mac and has built into it all of the features and capabilities of Mac. As a result of this discovery, additions, new programs, and modifications to the Apple TV have been coming fast and furious in the last few weeks.

In recent days, a hack has been announced that lets you add RSS feeds to the Apple TV and display their contents on your TV.

And RSS feeds, as we all know, are how photos are transmitted from photo-sharing services like Flickr to wireless digital picture frames.

That means, with a little hacking, the Apple TV is the first device that combines a computer, TV, home entertainment system - and digital picture frame.

Apple has said that it won’t lock down the Apple TV to prevent users from expanding on it. That’s not the same thing as embracing these new features, of course. If Apple does embrace them, the Apple TV could, in a way, be the first Apple digital picture frame.

In the meantime, you can create your own combined Apple TV/digital picture frame — assuming you’re fairly handy with Unix, that is. If you do, post here and let us know what the experience is like for you.