Most people use their smartphones to capture photos and videos today, sharing them via social networks. This digital content is then viewed in passing on another smartphone or computer and then often never viewed again. The ability to quickly capture images and video and then share that content via wireless networks makes digital photo frames great again.
While at CES in January, I met with the folks at PhotoSpring[1] and was impressed by the Smart Frame system they were demonstrating. I've been using one for the past month and discovered it is one of the best ways for others to enjoy your digital content. As we capture so many more photos and videos since there is always a camera with us, these connected frames may be the best solution for family and friends to share your life experiences.
It was nine years ago that I reviewed one of the most modern, connected frames at the time in the form of the T-Mobile Cameo[2]. That's right, while most frames required you to manually put photos on an external storage card, T-Mobile actually used wireless connectivity to enable photo sharing. The subscription service required that you were a T-Mobile customer and the service shut down after a year or so.
The new PhotoSpring Smart Frame doesn't have a SIM card like that T-Mobile unit, but uses WiFi to connect to a network and then incorporates today's sharing technology and smartphone apps to connect it to the world. You can share the frame with family and friends so they can share photos and videos to it, you can download and use a smartphone app to have photos shared to the frame automatically, and you can share photos and videos