14 DAY TRIAL // Some months ago, Dutch company Compaan launched a tablet for seniors which also dubbed as digital photo frame. But in the world of social media, where life’s precious moments are shared instantly via Facebook, your grand folks might be left out of the loop.
So another Dutch company going by the name Famatic is taking it up on itself to solve the problem. Families who want to help their senior members receive updates from their social media accounts, will soon be able to pick the so-called “social” photo frame.
The frame can be detached from the stand it uses to keep it in the upright position and used as a tablet, as well.
At the moment, the project is up on Kickstarter gathering funds and is hoping to raise as much as $75,000 / €54,772 in order to send the device into mass production.
If you’re looking to secure one of these social frames for your gramps, you can do so for a pledge of $189 / €138.
Anyway, before you do that we should tell you more about the product itself, so you can see if it’s worth your money or not.
You might be wondering, what’s the point of a social photo frame? Why not go out to your local store and buy granny a low budget Android tablet or if you have more to spare, a fully-fledged iPad.
Famatic co-founder, Thijs Suijten, explains why buying a tablet for your grand folks might not bring about the desired effects.
“I’ve been there. My mother-in-law was not on social media and was missing out on all the family photos I share online. I tried getting her on Facebook, gave her an iPad and shared photos with Dropbox, but this didn’t work out, she just wanted something simple.”
So, this is how the idea of Famatic came to be. Basically, the device is half internet-connected photo frame and half Android tablet. It runs a highly customized version of it, as to make things as simple as possible, so you won’t be seeing Android 4.4 KitKat here.
Tech-savvy family members will be able to control the device remotely from a website and they can invite other relatives to connect their Facebook/Instagram accounts so they can share their photos directly to their grand folks’ living room.
The tablet/photo frame also has a camera and speakers and more features will be added soon to bring more variety to the table.