You’re Probably Going To Laugh, But…

by Carlo Longino on 11. Nov, 2008 in Mobile Society

cameo.jpgI think this is a great idea — a picture frame with a GSM radio so it can receive MMS.

Nokia announced the SU-7 Image Frame a few years ago, but the price of the frame was pretty steep and finding a reasonably priced way to keep the SIM in the frame alive wasn’t very easy. T-Mobile’s on the right path, with the frame at $100, but $10 per month service might still be high.

I doubt I’d ever use one of these, but I can see grandmothers around the world loving it, and looking forward to getting new photos and updates from their kids and grandkids.

—–>Follow us on Twitter too: @russellbuckley and @caaarlo

Share this post:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Reddit
  • But here is the really cool idea -- why assume this is limited to static images? Why not an application that outputs in JPG format on a periodic basis? A simple example is a stock graph, but imagine that any application can generate its output as a graphic and push it out to one of these screens. Sure, the input would have to come from a different device -- an SMS message, an email, access to a web page... any of those could trigger a new graphic being generated to your GSM video screen...
  • Tomi T Ahonen
    no happy with no mobhappy..... me no happy if no mobhappy.... where are the happy blogs of mobhappy.... paging mobhappy....

    You two must be very busy with such deafening silence on the mobhappy blog. But seriously, you guys have tons of fans who are getting very depressed here in mob-land without our daily fix of the mobhappy..

    Your biggest fan

    Tomi alsohappy Ahonen :-)
  • I've seen some like that, Ricky... but the ones I've seen have been pretty expensive and with even worse service charges than T-Mobile's $10 a month.
  • Ricky, those aren't so far away. We're already at about $150 for wifi photo frames that lock you into one particular online service, and roughly $200 for wifi photo frames without lock-in.
  • I've often wondered where these internet-connected appliances that we've been waiting for are. Why isn't there a $50-$100 picture frame that connects to my home WiFi, that my parents and other approved-parties can 'send' photos to?

    I'm with you, Carlo, this has the potential to be a really cool gift, but the network charges need to go down significantly.
  • Carlo,

    I think its a great idea, but I do think in some markets it might hit a good christmass present, I just dont understand why at this stage you need a $10 a month subscription, you can buy prepaid, and as far as I know, receiving MMS is still for free. So when it will cost 100$ and will be free, I will buy one for all my parents.

    Volker, I agree its probably not massmarket, but its a great and awsome gift, if today preconfigured by "todays future grandpas" :)

    Jan
  • Carlo,
    Along the same vein we had the people from the Bluetooth SIG give a cool demo at Mobile Northwest last month that included a video frame with the new Bluetooth 2.0 stuff. With the new version you just hold your phone to the frame to Sync. Uploading photos from your phone is just a one step process; no more password syncing.

    David Adams
  • Sold by the operator, no config necessary. All they have to do is plug it in.
  • Come on, Carlo: grannies configuring GSM picture frames for $10 a month? I can't see that... Wait until the uber-geeks of today become grandfathers and -mothers; then you might have a chance. Until then? Nah...
blog comments powered by Disqus