The iFrame! What's feasible?
The announcement of Apple's iPod originally elicited a deafening ho-hum from most of the Mac community: It's just an MP3 player? In spite of this humble beginning, however, the iPod has gone on to become one of Apple's most successful and highly-regarded products in recent memory.
Most of us suspect another digital device is in the works. Many of us also suspect it will relate to digital photography and/or video, to tie into iPhoto and iMovie (as the iPod ties into iTunes).
The possibility of an Apple-branded digital camera is obvious enough, but it's hard to see just what Apple could bring to a market already filled with well-engineered products. Noting this, others have raised the possibility of something at once less ambitious and, yet, potentially even more radical -- a digital picture frame.
Call it the iFrame, if you will -- a flat LCD display coupled with only minimal memory and processing power, it would pull imagery off your Mac and display it anywhere in the home. The iFrame seems just trivial enough that it could really be on Apple's horizon, but don't write it off as a toy too quickly.
Its first use would be decorative, of course. Imagine the beautiful Beach and Forest screen savers filling a full-size frame, hanging on your living room wall. Alternatively, iFrame could swap pictures out at regular intervals -- every hour or so, depending on the user's preference. You could have a scene that transitions from morning to evening as the day wanes.
Video adds a further dimension. Display an animated shot of grass and trees blowing in the wind -- perhaps even a live feed from a local server. Add life to your rooms with (probably silent) home video of the kids playing in the sprinkler. Use it to watch feature length films from DVD (or, further down the road, off the internet) -- no living space wasted on a DVD player.
There are more functional uses, too, especially when tied into Sherlock 3 web services. Hang iFrame in the kitchen to display recipes culled from the web. Hang it in the office for an always up-to-date listing of your favorite stocks and sports scores. Keep it by the phone as a digital phone directory.
These latter functions would really require iFrame to offer some interactivity. A touch screen is probably outlandish, but a few unobtrusive buttons running along the bottom of the frame are quite possible. Use them to change the content of the display -- show me that recipe, give me an update on that game, let me see a slide show of that photo collection.
I think iFrame could be a great complement to a Mac and further its status as the digital hub of the home. I'd like to hear from others about the possibility, and some of the technical considerations. For example:
What size and resolution? Apple will probably keep it small to start, for cost reasons.
How would iFrame be powered? A cord running to an outlet seems very un-Apple, so I tend to think it would have its own battery. How would it get charged?
How would it get its data? Occasional trips to the firewire-enabled Mac, a la iPod? Airport?
How much would it cost? This depends on a variety of factors (most notably the LCD screen), but what would you consider a reasonable price for some or all of the functionality I describe?
And so on...
Most of us suspect another digital device is in the works. Many of us also suspect it will relate to digital photography and/or video, to tie into iPhoto and iMovie (as the iPod ties into iTunes).
The possibility of an Apple-branded digital camera is obvious enough, but it's hard to see just what Apple could bring to a market already filled with well-engineered products. Noting this, others have raised the possibility of something at once less ambitious and, yet, potentially even more radical -- a digital picture frame.
Call it the iFrame, if you will -- a flat LCD display coupled with only minimal memory and processing power, it would pull imagery off your Mac and display it anywhere in the home. The iFrame seems just trivial enough that it could really be on Apple's horizon, but don't write it off as a toy too quickly.
Its first use would be decorative, of course. Imagine the beautiful Beach and Forest screen savers filling a full-size frame, hanging on your living room wall. Alternatively, iFrame could swap pictures out at regular intervals -- every hour or so, depending on the user's preference. You could have a scene that transitions from morning to evening as the day wanes.
Video adds a further dimension. Display an animated shot of grass and trees blowing in the wind -- perhaps even a live feed from a local server. Add life to your rooms with (probably silent) home video of the kids playing in the sprinkler. Use it to watch feature length films from DVD (or, further down the road, off the internet) -- no living space wasted on a DVD player.
There are more functional uses, too, especially when tied into Sherlock 3 web services. Hang iFrame in the kitchen to display recipes culled from the web. Hang it in the office for an always up-to-date listing of your favorite stocks and sports scores. Keep it by the phone as a digital phone directory.
These latter functions would really require iFrame to offer some interactivity. A touch screen is probably outlandish, but a few unobtrusive buttons running along the bottom of the frame are quite possible. Use them to change the content of the display -- show me that recipe, give me an update on that game, let me see a slide show of that photo collection.
I think iFrame could be a great complement to a Mac and further its status as the digital hub of the home. I'd like to hear from others about the possibility, and some of the technical considerations. For example:
What size and resolution? Apple will probably keep it small to start, for cost reasons.
How would iFrame be powered? A cord running to an outlet seems very un-Apple, so I tend to think it would have its own battery. How would it get charged?
How would it get its data? Occasional trips to the firewire-enabled Mac, a la iPod? Airport?
How much would it cost? This depends on a variety of factors (most notably the LCD screen), but what would you consider a reasonable price for some or all of the functionality I describe?
And so on...
Comments
Companies like Ceiva have tried to sell them along with Hosting/subscription services to make up the money but the economies of scale will be hard until LCD's come WAAAAAAY down.
there is a little market for it, but if Apple made it, i would probably want it anyway, woe it the consumer who loves the red bumpy sphere <img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" /> <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
<strong>Companies like Ceiva have tried to sell them along with Hosting/subscription services </strong><hr></blockquote>
/whacks head
I forgot about .Mac! Publish your iCal calendar on iFrame, sync iFrame with you contacts list, etc.
[quote]Originally posted by hmurchison:
<strong>I like the idea. I just think LCD screens are a little too much money currently.</strong><hr></blockquote>
What if we were only talking about a 6"x4" 600x400 screen? I don't expect to see a Cinema Display iFrame any time soon, but wouldn't something much more modest be possible for less than $1000?
If color is out of the question, I suppose Apple could start with a small black-and-white LCD designed only for displaying the content of the aforementioned web services. I hesitate to anticipate such a device, though: It would preclude the iPhoto/iMovie stills-and-video element, making it much less superficially appealing; and it would come awfully close to being nothing more than a crippled PDA.
(It could be argued that the iFrame as described above is nothing more than a crippled "tablet Mac," but I think relegating iFrame to a display-only device both makes it feasible to produce and narrows its niche to a realm which has so far been left untouched -- devices which push digital content out of the computer room and into the rest of the home.)
<strong>I think it's perfectly feasible to take that iFrame and smash it on your head and anybody else's that comes up with these stupid gadget ideas.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't know if we need to bash heads or not, but I agree with the sentiment of your message.
The "iFrame"...why, why, why? What market niche does this fill? Who is out there demanding that Apple create a better wall-hanging video frame? Where is the outrage about current wall-hanging video frames?
Though plenty of MP3 players already existed, Apple came up with a way to do it better. The iPod fits into Apple's digital lifestyle, has a practical use, and though it costs a little more than the competition, it really is worth it.
The iFrame isn't a terrible concept...when we've reached a stage where an 8x10 video screen w/AirPort and an amazing battery that needs charging only once a month AND can sell for $199 or less, let's talk again.
No one is going to pay more than that for a fancy digital picture frame. The technology hasn't yet caught up to the concept. Doesn't mean the concept is bad...but it's not time to waste energy imaging this is what Apple is working on in secret labs at 1 Infinite Loop.
-- Ensoniq
Craig
<strong>I think it's perfectly feasible to take that iFrame and smash it on your head and anybody else's that comes up with these stupid gadget ideas.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Not you're market... that's all well and good but no need to be nasty.
When you get a little older get married and buy your own home you will look at things A LOT different than you do now. This idea has a real market and the people who would be interested in such a things are the types that have money to spend on such things.
The only real problem I see with such a device is POWER.
Low end:
I see a frame with LCD + Airport and a few buttons for control. The LCD would 'dock' into a charging station that would have to be plugged into the wall (sucks) but yea I sure as heck see a value to it and if Apple waits for LCD's to drop a bit more then they could make it Rendezvous aware (with new versions of iPhoto, iTunes, iCal, Address Book, iMovie, Sherlock etc)
High end:
Same thing but touch screen (yea I still want a Tablet) running Full OS X netbooted over the 54Mbs version of airport (802.11g)...
The only other 'issue' (power is the other) I see with such things is trying to design it so it looks 'okay' in a living room.
Think about it... You have just entered the heart of TWD (The Wife Domain)
All that being said... Yea I'll buy one.
Dave
MP3 players, digital cameras and cell phone/PDAs are the things that people are clammering for. There is a real market for these things and the world needs Apple to introduce some (more) innovatice products here. As a Mac user and an Apple shareholder I sincerely hope Apple hasn't invested more than $0.10 in a digital picture frame device.
Apple
[ 08-06-2002: Message edited by: thegelding ]</p>
Craig
For those who question the extent of a market for the iFrame -- the market is simply anyone with a digital camera. Sure, you can print out your digital picture and present it in a traditional frame, and do it again when you want to change the picture... and keep the unused prints in a shoebox somewhere.... multiple shoeboxes eventually, stacked up in the coat closet with hastily-scrawled labels, while others reside in several motley photo albums floating about the premises...
iPhoto + iFrame would simplify this very quotidian activity (storing and sharing visual memories) in the same way that iTunes + iPod simplifies the process of listening to music.
(Here's another thought -- publishing pictures to others' iFrames across the internet. Yes, you can send them through email -- and hope that the recipient's mail server doesn't bounce the attachment, that her mail client doesn't garble it and that she knows what to do with the attachment once she gets it. And if she wants to see it again later she'll have to sit down at the computer and dig it up. The process is much less "elegant" than it could be.)
DaveGee raises an interesting point. If Apple introduces such a "home furnishing," it will need to accomodate typical decor. Perhaps several styles of iFrame would be in order: traditional wood, modern metal, and iStyle polycarbonate (for the diehards whose rooms are already defined by Apple products anyway).
thegelding: <a href="http://www.serenescreen.com/Order/indexmac.asp"; target="_blank">maybe sooner than you think</a>...
[ 08-06-2002: Message edited by: iconmaster ]</p>
<strong>
When you get a little older get married and buy your own home you will look at things A LOT different than you do now. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Funny, unless you know something I don't, and my wife secretly divorced me and sold the house, I'm all of those.
I still have the urge to smash these stupid gadgets over people's heads though. Let Sony, make them, OK, let Samsung build them. Not Apple, for chrissake, not Apple.
Not when the PowerMacs have been getting the step-child treatment for the last two years. It adds insult to injury.
However, I also see where Apple is coming from. Folks aren't buying PCs like they once did. Upgrading has lost its urgency and for most people, the latest and greatest has ceased to offer any benefit besides bragging rights. If you're a PC-maker in this situation, what do you do? If you're smart, you probably try a strategy pretty much like the one Apple's attempting: extend the computer into more facets of the customer's daily experience, using the technology to simplify things she's already interested in.
And while we can more or less envision the next PowerMac (hint: it's faster), the future of digital devices like iPod and iFrame (if it ever comes to pass) is more nebulous and, for that reason, potentially more radical. IMO.
[ 08-06-2002: Message edited by: iconmaster ]</p>
An 'Apple Digital Remote SYSTEM'.
- When I'm home I listen to music on my reciever that has speakers in the living room / kitchen and den. (not in the computer room on my mac) .
- When I'm home I watch DVD's on my 8' DLP projector with my DD5.1 audio system or our 36" TV (not my mac w/17" display and two crappy speakers).
- When I'm home (with guests) I pass around photo albums of our vacation I don't invite people into the computer room to view them on my mac.
- When I get a digital camcorder I'll want to show off my videos on my above systems (not my computer room).
- When I want to make phone calls I look at our ragged address book in the kitchen (torn up because the drawer it's in is filled with junk) not on my mac with Address Book.app open.
- When I want to look up something to cook I'm in the kitchen NOT by my mac.
A tablet that can 'Apple Remote Desktop' into my main computer would solve MANY of these problems. Sure I'd still have to wire the audio and video out of my mac to my entertainment areas BUT once that's done (or better wireless systems come out to fix things) I still need a way to CONTROL my Mac from the kitchen, living room, theater room, bedroom etc.
This is what I want Apple to provide... this will TRULY make the Mac the CENTER of just about anyone's 'digital world'.
Dave
[ 08-07-2002: Message edited by: DaveGee ]</p>
Off topic, but thegelding's discussion of the 'virtual' fishtank just made me think of this. Have you tried <a href="http://www.serenescreen.com/"; target="_blank">SereneScreen's aquarium screensaver</a>. This thing is the closest to real video I have ever seen on live-rendering 3D screensaver.
[ 08-07-2002: Message edited by: Michael Grey ]</p>