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

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

#101

Post by fnordpiglet »

ghaff wrote: post #73
fnordpiglet wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet he leaves it out in his apartment more reliably than if you gave him a book off Amazon. The fact he can’t access the contents of the book isn’t the point. It’s that he takes pride in something he wouldn’t normally read is because it’s yours. That’s why a DIY project for your parents is better than a shrink wrapped piece of future garbage.

Sure. And a book has a cover with the author's name on it. But he really wouldn't thank me (not that he'd say so) for some DIY project that wasn't as transparent to use as commercial versions--and he'd end up not using it. He appreciates that I've put together the photo collections given that I've scanned and kept a lot of photos he wouldn't other have access to but he'd like actually displaying them to be as easy as…

Yes, but that’s your family where you write books. If you’re a nerd that makes eink displays of photos, I bet their family appreciates their children just as much as your father appreciates you. The nice thing about eink for this is once your family member eventually unplugs or somehow disconnects the device from the network; it’ll continue to display the last photo.

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

#102

Post by LASR »

jwong_ wrote: post #91
LASR wrote: post #45

For those who want less tikering: Two 24 inch monitors bought from a design house auction connected to 3rd Gen Chromecasts. They automatically boot up and display a Google Photos album that contains pictures of the family and pets. These monitors are set to power on at 8 AM and off at 10 PM. Initially my wife hated the idea of having two monitors in the living room. But after I put them in place, we both found it is…

What is a "design house auction"? It sounds like a museum auction or something? If so, that sounds like a nice way to promote an environment to enjoy things. Would make a great entrance/foyer hallway feature.

Design firms frequently upgrade their hardware. So you can frequently find great hardware at very low prices. Also snagged a fully loaded Mac Pro trashcan for $1200 back in 2017 when they all went for the iMac Pros.

I spent $50 for each monitor and additional $50 for 2 x Chromecasts.

Net out, 2 x 24” auto-updating photo frames for <$200.

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

#103

Post by jwong_ »

LASR wrote: post #102
jwong_ wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a "design house auction"? It sounds like a museum auction or something? If so, that sounds like a nice way to promote an environment to enjoy things. Would make a great entrance/foyer hallway feature.

Design firms frequently upgrade their hardware. So you can frequently find great hardware at very low prices. Also snagged a fully loaded Mac Pro trashcan for $1200 back in 2017 when they all went for the iMac Pros. I spent $50 for each monitor and additional $50 for 2 x Chromecasts. Net out, 2 x 24” auto-updating photo frames for <$200.

Wow that's extremely good value.

Where did you end up finding the auctions for these? Contact the design firms directly?

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

#105

Post by zacharycohn »

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.

Look up the "Aura frame". It syncs with Google photos and iCloud photos. Works great.

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

#108

Post by willseth »

eli wrote: post #24
darknavi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem here is that iCloud is the proprietary crap. They don't offer an appropriate API to get photos out. It'd be easier if you were starting with pictures in something more accessible. That said, I think Aura frames will sync from iCloud via their phone app. Not sure how well it works.

My MIL has one and loves it. It even plays Live Photos.

There are multiple apps that will keep your iCloud Photos synced to various blob storage services. If you just want to maintain a copy or have direct access to photos, that will be a lot easier than a webservice API anyway.

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

#109

Post by willseth »

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.

There are already good products out there and I doubt Apple could make much money off of it anyway. If it’s not at least a billion dollar business, why would they even consider it?

Edit: maybe if they make it a HomePod too it would make sense? Just please fix Siri first.

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

#110

Post by codethief »

foxandmouse wrote: post #104

On a sidenote, what happened to all the Gallery 3 eink devices we were supposed to get this year? I can't wait to finally have a proper comic book e-ink reader.

Good question. Having had a quick look at my favorite search engine's results, screen responsiveness and ghosting seem to have been major issues, which is why many people suspect manufacturers are abandoning the technology.

https://goodereader.com/blog/e-paper/what-happened-to-all-th...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ereader/comments/15s7tgo/what_happe...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ereader/comments/zms0br/new_eink_ga...

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