Lyve Digital Photo Vault First Look

With the amount of pictures that I take every year, making sure they are backed up and easily accessible is a primary concern of mine. In the past, I have been burned by losing all my digital photos from a drive crash. Once that happened, I vowed to never let it happen again. Now, at … Read more

The Ceiva Zigbee Home Control Photo Frame

Remember Ceiva? One of the original digital photo frames… that incorporated Internet connectivity (!) to receive pushed pics from remote family as we did about 10 years ago for Mom. Apparently the company is still alive and kicking, having just pushed the Ceiva HomeView widget station thru the FCC. While the Ceiva HomeView (SHR558) is capable of … Read more

What We Know about Black Pearl Systems

LyveMinds

GigaOM’s Janko Roettgers has been dogged about trying to discover the raison d’etre behind stealth start-up Black Pearl Systems, and now, six months after first revealing the company’s existence, Roettgers is finally able to give us details on what exactly the company aims to do. Black Pearl has launched its new consumer brand name, Lyve Minds, and plans to introduce a product called LyveHome next spring that lets users share and back up their personal media across a variety of devices and apps.

The big deal with Black Pearl, er Lyve Minds, is the management team behind it. The CEO and co-founder Tim Bucher used to be head of engineering for Apple, and the rest of his team brings in experience from companies including Netflix, Danger, YouTube, Microsoft, TiVo, Roku, and Amazon. Interestingly, I discovered separately that co-founder and Content CTO Scott Smyers left the company in October, and has now moved on to a VP role at the audio company DTS. It seems odd that one of the co-founders would abandon the pirate ship before launch. Perhaps a management disagreement? Or maybe something far less interesting, like logistics or start-up fatigue.

In the meantime, here’s what we know about the LyveHome product:

Read more

Eye-Fi Enables Web Self Publishing

Eye-Fi is out with an API update this week that enables personal web publishing. Their clever WiFi-endowed SD card lineup has traditionally beamed one’s digital photos from the camera to a personal computer or photo sharing services in the cloud (Flickr, Picasa, etc). Now, the more technically savvy amongst us, have the opportunity to transmit photographs to their own Gallery 3 powered web site via Eye-Fi. From the email blast:

Eye-Fi has just made available a document that shows you how to use simple APIs to have the Eye-Fi card send photos & videos to your own site. This has been one of the most requested features.

Head on over to Eye-Fi’s Developer page or grab the PDF integration doc for inetegration details.

Read more

My Next Camera? (Canon Elph 500 HS)

Canon’s announced several new digital cameras, both of the dSLR and compact point & shoot varieties. Regulars are probably familiar with my portability prioritization at the expense of some quality. Which is why only models from the P&S lineup would appeal to me. If a camera doesn’t fit in my pocket, it’s not coming with … Read more

MultiTouch Has a Smarter Big Screen

Smart TVs are making a lot of the headlines this week, but a company called MultiTouch has a different genre of screens on display, and they are wicked cool. The MultiTouch Displays are similar to the Microsoft Surface technology that was all the rage a few years back, and to the HP TouchSmart product that Dave got a chance to play with at CES 2009. However, the displays from MultiTouch are modular, meaning you can connect multiple screens together; they’ve been implemented all over the world in tables and walls; and the platform is open so developers can create their own applications for the touchscreen interface. And oh, what a touchscreen interface it is.

The applications on display in the MultiTouch booth include a Twitter wall, a photo table, and a table application that was created for Dom Perignon with interactive champagne bubbles, a customized menu, and even table games. The company says it also has the technology deployed in medical, military, museum, and university environments, among others. The screens support an unlimited number of touch points from fingertips, to 2D markers, to household objects like coins. And because the platform is open, the possible applications are virtually limitless.

At CES, MultiTouch has announced the next-gen version of its platform and dubbed the technology MultiTaction.  The resulting displays are thinner, and scalable for screens ranging from “32 to 100 inches and beyond.” The company also says it will be ready to ship for the consumer market no later than Q3 of this year. The displays aren’t cheap, but at $4,000 a pop, they’re not out of reach for a certain slice of the population. And that’s the price this year. Surely eventually mass production will drive the price down further.

Read more

Kodak Refreshes Playsport Vid Cam & Pulse Frame

While I imagine Kodak was hopeful of refreshing their semi-ruggedized Playsport Flip-style video camera prior to the holidays, I suppose it’s better late than never? Incidentally, I did exchange emails with Kodak this past fall wondering when/if there might be a new model… as I frequently recommend v1 (Zx3, ~$125) over the various Flip cams. … Read more

5 Photo Gift Tricks for the Holidays

I’m a big fan of photo gifts around the holidays, and after years of making my own, I’ve learned a trick or two. Here are five tips to help keep you sane while turning photos into personalized presents this holiday season. Use a Batch Resizing Tool If you need to upload a bunch of photos … Read more