Isabella Products has been promising its Vizit photoframe for almost a year, and last we heard was due to land at retailers in “fall 2009.” Now Isabella has pushed the date back to “early 2010,” but it wants folks to know its touchscreen-enabled photoframe that’s supposed to offer fully interactive two-way connectivity is on the way…and the wireless connectivity will be provided by AT&T.
“Digital frames have been a great step forward in viewing convenience, but there has not yet been a single product that allows consumers to fully interact with their photos in a meaningful way,” said Isabella founder and CEO Matthew Growney, in a statement. “With Vizit, one can now interact with their photo collection, as opposed to only receiving photos to view. Vizit combines two-way capabilities with an attractive, innovative design and an interface that makes it simple for anyone to use.”
The Vizit will offer a 10.4-inch display, and enable users to see all their images in a gallery, rotate or zoom images, set up slideshows, and more. When new images arrive at the photoframe—via MMS or email using that AT&T wireless connectivity—users can send replies back to their friends an families without having to use a computer. Users will also be able to manage their photo collections remotely via a Vizitme online account, as well as invite friends to access their albums, set up captions, and more. The Vizit frame will also keep itself up to date automatically by downloading software enhancements over the air; Isabella plans to enable commerce capabilities too, potentially enabling users to order prints or photo albums directly from the photo frame.
But all this won’t come cheap: the Vizit photoframe will carry a suggested retail price of $279.99, and will also require a monthly or yearly subscription plan to keep the wireless goodness going. There’s no word whether one can opt out of the wireless connectivity and just latch the device onto an existing home network…but for folks looking for an easy-to-set-up solution they can just drop at the grandparents’ house and just work like magic (assuming they’re in an AT&T coverage area), the Vizit may bear some consideration when it ships next year.
