Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

ben.page

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 144 posts

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#11

Post by yetanother12345 »

acdha wrote: post #7

I’m mildly surprised that this isn’t an official product. I have half a dozen relatives I’d give “AirFrames” to if Apple made them or let a third party do it, especially if they had decent handling of Live Photos.

The keywords that you would want to enter into your preferred search engine are:

   Digital Picture Frame
At this point in time that is already a regular product category. The OP could just have bought one, but chose the DIY path.

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#12

Post by Thrymr »

yetanother12345 wrote: post #11
acdha wrote: post #7

I’m mildly surprised that this isn’t an official product. I have half a dozen relatives I’d give “AirFrames” to if Apple made them or let a third party do it, especially if they had decent handling of Live Photos.

The keywords that you would want to enter into your preferred search engine are: Digital Picture Frame At this point in time that is already a regular product category. The OP could just have bought one, but chose the DIY path.

But none with an official fruit logo!

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#13

Post by darknavi »

yetanother12345 wrote: post #11
acdha wrote: post #7

I’m mildly surprised that this isn’t an official product. I have half a dozen relatives I’d give “AirFrames” to if Apple made them or let a third party do it, especially if they had decent handling of Live Photos.

The keywords that you would want to enter into your preferred search engine are: Digital Picture Frame At this point in time that is already a regular product category. The OP could just have bought one, but chose the DIY path.

Show me one that hooks up directly to iCloud though. We got one for grandparents and its just full of proprietary crap specific to that app.

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#14

Post by ratg13 »

misterbwong wrote: post #9

This is really cool! I love pet projects like this. Although, I can't help but wonder why OP didn't put a frame around an ancient Fire tablet or something else with an LCD screen and web browsing out of the box. Seems like it would result in a better experience (color) with much less work and about the same price point.

You’d have to constantly power an LCD display.

With an e-ink device you could create something that only needs to be recharged 1-2 times a year, or that is passively charged off your WiFi.

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#15

Post by benborgers »

misterbwong wrote: post #9

This is really cool! I love pet projects like this. Although, I can't help but wonder why OP didn't put a frame around an ancient Fire tablet or something else with an LCD screen and web browsing out of the box. Seems like it would result in a better experience (color) with much less work and about the same price point.

I thought about this! An old iPad also wouldn’t have to be rooted to show a website.

But ultimately I wanted something that could be in a bedroom without glowing at night, which e-ink felt better suited for.

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#16

Post by bradly »

yetanother12345 wrote: post #11
acdha wrote: post #7

I’m mildly surprised that this isn’t an official product. I have half a dozen relatives I’d give “AirFrames” to if Apple made them or let a third party do it, especially if they had decent handling of Live Photos.

The keywords that you would want to enter into your preferred search engine are: Digital Picture Frame At this point in time that is already a regular product category. The OP could just have bought one, but chose the DIY path.

I wanted to get a simple, high quality digital frame for some older relatives and I had a hard time coming up with many options to choose from. It seemed like there were two groups of frames. Amazon cheapies and $600+ art frames. If you just want a nice 10" inch digital frame of high quality and at least moderate privacy from random apps with photo access good luck.

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#17

Post by carlosjobim »

acdha wrote: post #7

I’m mildly surprised that this isn’t an official product. I have half a dozen relatives I’d give “AirFrames” to if Apple made them or let a third party do it, especially if they had decent handling of Live Photos.

The official product is E-Ink Spectra, as of 2023 it has a complete colour spectrum. Not cheap, though.

https://myereader.net/e-ink-spectra-6.html

https://youtu.be/TEqTg-Pjiag

Edit: And I don't know of any consumer-ready solutions.

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#18

Post by jgrahamc »

I've built a few things with eink displays and I strongly recommend NOT using simple picture frames (unless they fit perfectly). One way to get a really good looking result is a custom frame. There are tons of custom framing company that will cheaply make you a frame that fits the display with the appropriate cut out.

https://blog.jgc.org/2023/05/a-better-case-for-my-inkplate-1...

Re: Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album

#20

Post by wpsimon3 »

darknavi wrote: post #13
yetanother12345 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keywords that you would want to enter into your preferred search engine are: Digital Picture Frame At this point in time that is already a regular product category. The OP could just have bought one, but chose the DIY path.

Show me one that hooks up directly to iCloud though. We got one for grandparents and its just full of proprietary crap specific to that app.

We kinda got something like this working for a relative. They have an "Aura" frame, and in their app you can set a watch folder/album. So we have a shared iCloud album set as the source and it automatically updates based on the images in that shared album.
Post reply on HN