Pepcom’s Digital Experience is like a small, tame version of the full CES, and yet it’s still overwhelming. My strategy this year was to hone in on a couple of companies and see what I could learn. First stop: GiiNii.
I targeted GiiNii because of the company’s new Wi-Fi photo frame. My experience with eStarling’s early wireless frame was ill-fated. It refused to work any farther than five feet from a router, the screen was smaall, and the troubleshooting process was less than satisfying. GiiNii and several other companies this year are looking to take Wi-Fi frames to the next level. The GiiNii product I saw at Digital Experience, part of the new Pixplus line due out in mid-2009, sported a large 10.1″ display with touch panel at the bottom, and offered up RSS content in addition to photos. This may be the future of the widget station. Buy an Internet-connected device to show off photos, and use it secondarily as a display for other non-TV, Internet content. The GiiNii frame shows streams of content from FrameChannel.com and HowStuffWorks.com – from weather, to sports scores, to stocks, and more.
Meanwhile, the PixPlus digital frames weren’t even the highlight of GiiNii’s portfolio. The company had an iPod Touch knock-off called the Movit Mini with a 4.3″ touch screen. Engadget dug it and its apparent Android platform. I imagine we’ll see several variations of this theme at cheaper-than-iPod prices in the coming year.
Plus, GiiNii had a patent-pending add-on for cameras letting amateur photographers set up reasonable self-portraits. This is one of those innovations that seems beyond obvious when you see it. The picture below shows how the camera reflects the photo it is taking for the objects of the picture to view. Wonder what your picture will look like before it snaps? GiiNii can help you out with C-U-C-Me technology.
I had never heard of GiiNii before this evening, but I’ll be keeping an eye on them. The company has an impressive line-up… if it can survive the economic woes of the CE market in 2009.
“…The company had an iPod Touch knock-off called the Movit Mini with a 4.3″ touch screen. Engadget dug it and its apparent Android platform..”
It *IS* Android and I can verify its actually running the yet-to-be-released Cupcake branch.
To say the Movit Mini is merely a iPod Touch knock-off is short sighted since listening to music and playing games is only a tiny aspect of its potential. Compare to the “one trick pony” iPod Touch with its closed, vendor locked OS, the Movit Mini will provide much more utility.
Interestingly they weren’t hyping the Android aspect last night. However, I’d posit that everyone and their mother will be coming out with a MID in the next 12 months. I’m curious how long Apple can maintain its dominance.
The Cult of Mac is the Cult of Mac, and I love them for it. iPhone & iPod Touch users have single handedly force the industry to come out of its coma and get in the game. Epic win for us long suffering Consumers.
I doubt all the pending Android powered MIDs, especially the ones that don’t offer GSM/3G connectivity, will ever eclipse the iTunes ecosystem – but there’s more to mobile computing than music and games. The discriminating geek will want much higher levels of utility and personalization.
I would love to see some kind of rough tally by Dave and Mari as to the number of Android powered gadgets at CES this year.
Right now it appears like Movable Type is the best blogging platform available right
now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your blog?