If you are able to modify your DNS server to redirect rss.framechannel.com please drop me a comment. I have something to test.
Thanks.
Tag Archives: kodak
FrameAlbum progress report & FrameChannel halts feeds
As most of you will already know FrameChannel turned off the frame feeds today. I was hoping for few more days of data gathering, specifically around how it handled new frame registration, before they turned it off. Oh well…
Pre-registrations at FrameAlbum are going strong — well over 100 so far! I guess I’d better finish this thing or I’m going to look pretty silly. 😉
Today was work on handling the ‘INFO’ category on Kodak frames. The idea is to be able to pass back to the frame it’s own ID so the user can register it on FrameAlbum. Almost there…
BTW, the initial support will be in English only — I’ll entertain other requests if folks would like to see them locallized INFO screens.
FrameAlbum is ready for pre-registration!
FrameAlbum is open for pre-registration!
Frankly, I’m not real keen on the name but speed was more important than polish for this round so there you have it.
After you register for the FrameAlbum beta you’ll be among the first to know when the site is open with it’s initial feature set.
As with most betas, you’ll need to have a modicum of technical prowess to utilize the service as well as a heaping portion of patience. The initial iteration will offer Flickr feeds to custom RSS capable frames (and news readers).
So, if you’re as sad to see FrameChannel shutdown as I was, and not willing to allow your gee-whiz digital picture frame to devolve into a rather expensive paper weight head on over to FrameAlbum.com and register for the beta!
Progress update — almost there… and a bit of begging.
With all the excitement of the last week I almost forgot it was Fathers’ Day yesterday… almost (#sonfail). I took some time away from the development process to celebrate the day and enjoy friends and family.
I’m back at it today with renewed vigor — I’m anticipating opening the site up for pre-registrations sometime tonight (U.S. Eastern time). I’ll post an entry here and via Twitter (@streamingmeemee).
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By-the-way… If there are any web designers with idle hands and an interest in contributing PLEASE ping me. The <table> tag is the extent of my design skills (that will be VERY funny to the people I’m trying to reach here. 😉 ) so we will all be much happier with a design professional on the team.</begging>
Sample FrameChannel RSS feed
As part of my effort to build a replacement for the FrameChannel service I captured a sample of the existing RSS feed my frame receives.
Fundamentally it is an implementation of the Yahoo MRSS (Media RSS) specification. You can find details here and here.
If you are interested in grabbing a copy of your frame’s feed you’ll need the custom URL for your frame and to set the USER-AGENT header to ‘AVOS/1.1 libhttp/1.1’ (without the quote marks of course).
My frame requested this URL:
http://rss.framechannel.com/productId=KDxxxx/language=en/frameId=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
I’ve removed some of the details so as not to tempt the nefarous among us. The ‘frameId’ field is obviously the MAC address of my frame. I’ve not yet figured out how productId is derived.
FrameChannel replacement – Progress Report
With the help of the FrameChannel Certification Checklist as well as plenty of XML reading (worst summer novel EVER) I’ve cobbled together a frame feed that includes Flickr and Picasa photos.
Next step is to wrap a web interface around it so that others can configure a frame feed for themselves. With a bit of luck I may be able to accept a few ‘alpha’ testers this weekend.