Aura introduces a $499 e-ink digital photo frame that lets you go cordless

aura Introducing its new model, $499 ink framewhich comes with a 13-inch color e-paper display of the company Otherwise LCD-based lineup. The Kindle uses a six-color ink system to create the illusion of a million tones, similar to technology found in ColorSoft e-readers. More importantly, using e-ink technology allows the frame to finally be cordless.

This makes it ideal for hanging in places in your home where a corded display would look unsightly, such as a living room wall, stairs, or anywhere else a cord would spoil the aesthetics.

The company, founded by early Twitter employees, has wanted to work with e-ink technology for some time, but it wasn’t up to the task of sharing color photos taken on your smartphone. But as the e-ink system developed, Aura changed her mind.

The new frame uses Spectra 6 technology that delivers six primary colors — white, black, red, yellow, green and blue — with better saturation and contrast, making it more adept at displaying photos.

Additionally, the Aura has added a front light to the frame, taking a cue from the Kindle Paperwhite. This helps improve contrast, notes Eric Jensen, Aura co-founder and CTO.

“It’s a very subtle light compared to an LCD. It can be a sixth of the brightness of an LCD,” he told TechCrunch in an interview. “People often don’t notice it has a light until they’re in a dark room and it turns off,” adds Jensen.

On top of the Spectra 6 technology, Aura has developed its own proprietary dithering algorithm, which uses error propagation.

“We had to go back to ancient dithering algorithms like newspaper technology, where you had to figure out how to mix these dots to simulate other colors,” says Jensen.

Although the e-ink technology means you can go cordless, the frame still requires occasional recharging, meaning you’ll need to take it down from time to time to power it up. However, Aura claims the frame can get up to three months of battery life, so this isn’t a huge disadvantage. (We don’t have a long enough frame to report on battery life at this time.)

To reduce its energy demand, Kali uses motion and sensors to turn off lights when no one is around. In the accompanying mobile app, customers can also choose to configure their own on/off schedule if desired.

Like other Aura frames, the Ink has an upgraded look and feel, with a graphite-inspired bezel, paper-textured matte and glass front, making it feel more like a traditional photo frame than cheap tech bought online. (As it should, given the price.)

The frame itself 13.3. inches with a 1600 x 1200 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio. The box includes wall-mounting hardware, stand and charging cord. Aura says the frame can be used in portrait or landscape mode, and with both the display and frame, the Ink measures 14.1″ x 11.4″ x 0.6″.

The frame also includes a USB-C port, status lights, and button controls to move between your photos If you don’t want to manually adjust photos, you can rely on the frames updating to the latest photos in your pre-configured rotation overnight.

In testing, the frame delivered more muted colors than existing Aura frames, but that makes it look better next to photos printed on the wall. Depending on the image, it may not be immediately obvious to guests that it is an e-ink frame from a distance.

One thing that might throw you off at first is the photo-loading experience. It flashes the screen repeatedly with a yellow-ish light, which can turn off. But Jensen says the frame updates its photos overnight, so customers don’t have to see this transition.

“The change is a little annoying. It’s definitely a trade-off with this technology,” he admits. “You can adjust it up to 12 times a day if you want, but there’s a trade-off with battery life. The more times it changes, the more battery it uses, obviously.”

The company believes that customers can be more selective about the number of photos added to the frame as a result. Perhaps they’ll just add a single photo that they always want to display, then change it when they’re ready for a new one.

Aura raised $26 million in 2022 after selling 1 million frames and reaching an app Used by 3 million users. (For example, families often use the app together to add new photos to frames given to them by grandparents.) Earlier this year, it off A $60 million growth capital investment from the LAGO Innovation Fund. Today, the company has sold “single-digit millions” of frames and is profitable. Its app has seen over a billion photos shared so far.

Although founder Jensen and CEO Abdur Chowdhury, Welcome to the early days of TwitterAura’s focus is now more on personal social networks built among friends and family, who use Aura’s apps and devices to share photos.

“We think that this space of sharing — not just photos, but connecting with loved ones — is really underserved. It’s obviously poorly monetized by advertising,” says Jensen. “The marriage of a hardware device and that space works really well as a business,” he adds.

The company still considers itself a startup, as it is constantly developing new products and considering updates to the Aura app that could expand beyond frame management.

“We’ve done a lot of prototyping around software that’s not just tied to the frame,” he notes However, the company worries that focusing on a personal photo network on its own may not be as good as business.

“We sell a hardware product that has a very simple value proposition: no subscription, unlimited photos. It works really well with the Personal Photo Network. And we’ve seen a lot of companies try the Personal Photo Network on their own in the past and couldn’t find a business model for it,” says Jensen.

The Kali frame goes on sale today On Aura’s website.

Updated to revise from “double-digit” to single-digit million for profit.