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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

#41

Post by throwaway83242 »

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.

Not really. Software for each of them is clunky. You have to first buy one which is wifi enabled. Then you have to download an app from manufacturer and create a login password. Then you have to manually move/upload photos from camera roll to the corresponding app. After this, you have to to back to digital photo frame interface, select the appropriate picture and then tap "display this photo".

All of this should be one step. Ideally Like airdrop. I say "share" and it should magically show up on the photo frame. I should be able to download pics from reddit/imgur and display it on photo frame using a CLI/API.

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

#42

Post by CharlesW »

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.

> They don't offer an appropriate API to get photos out.

There's this: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photokit ("The framework provides access to photos on the person’s device and in iCloud.")

If you want to use undocumented APIs on non-Apple devices directly, there are projects like https://github.com/steilerDev/icloud-photos-sync and https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do... that appear to be able to do this.

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

#43

Post by rahimnathwani »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #32
rahimnathwani wrote: post #19

The device is running an Android app, rather than an OS and app optimized for an always-on device. I wonder whether the power consumption is much lower than that of a regular tablet?

Come on, Isn't Android, the mobile OS, optimized for always on devices?

I guess, but perhaps having an app in the foreground increases power usage? For example, if this app accesses the network a lot (not just when it's time to update the image) this would result in the wifi chipset being awake for longer.

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

#44

Post by gigel82 »

I'm curious how long the battery lasts. Since it's Android based I presume it doesn't have a deep-sleep option. Ideally I'd want it to wake up once every 10-30 minutes, fetch a frame to display from a LAN server and go back to sleep.

I know it's doable with a custom e-ink display and something like an ESP32 but reusing an e-reader that already has a nice frame and everything is so much nicer.

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

#45

Post by LASR »

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 a constant reminder of good times - which was helpful in many subtle and unexpected ways.

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

#46

Post by michelb »

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.

Yeah, and almost all of them suck, in terms of build quality, features, privacy and software.

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

#47

Post by jph »

afavour wrote: post #31
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.

I wish Apple would let you do it with old iPads. I know there are apps you can use but it’s a notably inferior experience to a dedicated frame. I have a second generation (I think) iPad mini that can barely run most web sites and has an OS version too old for most apps. Would be a great boost to Apple’s claims for caring about the environment.

If you're open to donating it, you can give it to an elderly care home of your choice, so the home can use it for WiFi FaceTime. For examples see https://BoldContacts.org.

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

#48

Post by Shadowmist »

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.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aura-frames/id990062908

I didn’t check to see if it can play from a photo stream directly, because I prefer to use the share button in Photos to send to the app. It handles Live Photos just fine, and will put vertical photos side by side.

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

#49

Post by gigglesupstairs »

robluxus wrote: post #39

> iCloud photo albums have no API. However, if you share an iCloud photo album to a public link [...] How do folks feel about the security vs. convenience aspect of this? I almost talked myself into doing this for our shared family albums, but I know I really shouldn't do it. Some of our older family members run Windows and iCloud sharing is just horrible there. Basically, the photos keep disappearing from their comp…

Apple should just pull that windows app/feature if they’re being this shitty with their users. That thread was infuriating.

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

#50

Post by afavour »

CharlesW wrote: post #38
afavour wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Apple would let you do it with old iPads. I know there are apps you can use but it’s a notably inferior experience to a dedicated frame. I have a second generation (I think) iPad mini that can barely run most web sites and has an OS version too old for most apps. Would be a great boost to Apple’s claims for caring about the environment.

> I know there are apps you can use but it’s a notably inferior experience to a dedicated frame. Can you elaborate on how it's inferior? I was thinking of doing this and imagined it'd be straightforward with Single App Mode.

I'd love for someone to prove me wrong here but I have a Google Home that I'd like to replace with an iPad. One thing it does beyond just showing pictures is brighten and dim the screen according to ambient light. When the lights are off it dims entirely into a night mode-like display that just shows the time. I've not seen an iOS app capable of the same (I'm not even sure if API access allows it?)
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