aura Introducing its latest model $499 ink frameWhich brings a 13-inch color e-paper display to the company’s otherwise LCD-based lineup. A six-color ink system is used to create the illusion of million tones, similar to the technology found in the Kindle ColorSoft e-reader. More importantly, using e-ink technology makes the frame ultimately cordless.
This makes it ideal for hanging in places in your home where a corded display might look bad, such as a living room wall, a staircase, or anywhere else where a cord would spoil the aesthetic.
The company, founded by early Twitter employees, has been wanting to work with e-ink technology for some time, but it hadn’t yet come to fruition for sharing color photos taken on your smartphone. But as e-ink systems have advanced, Aura has changed its mind.
The new frame uses Spectra 6 technology that delivers six primary colors – white, black, red, yellow, green and blue – with improved saturation and contrast, making it more efficient at displaying photos.
Additionally, Aura added a front light to the frame, taking cues from the Kindle Paperwhite. This helps improve contrast, says Eric Jensen, Aura co-founder and CTO.
“It’s a very subtle light compared to an LCD. It’s probably one-sixth the brightness of an LCD,” he told TechCrunch in an interview. “People often don’t even realize there’s a light on unless they’re in a dark room and it’s off,” says Jensen.
On top of the Spectra 6 technology, Aura created its own proprietary dithering algorithm, which uses error propagation.
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“We had to go back to ancient dithering algorithms, like dithering technology, where you had to figure out how to blend these points to simulate other colors,” says Jensen.
Although the e-ink technology means you can go cordless, the frame still requires the occasional recharge, meaning you’ll have to take it down from time to time to turn it on. However, Aura claims the Frame can get up to three months of battery life, so this isn’t a major inconvenience. (At this time we don’t have a long enough frame to report on battery life.)
To reduce your power needs, Ink uses motion and sensors to turn off lights when no one is around. Customers can also choose to configure their own on/off schedule in the attached mobile app if they wish.
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 the cheap tech you bought online. (As it should be, given the price.)
The frame itself is 13.3. inches with 1600 x 1200 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio. The box includes wall-mounting hardware, a stand, and a charging cord. Aura says the frame can be used in portrait or landscape mode and including 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 light, and button controls for moving between your photos. If you don’t want to manually adjust photos, you can rely on the frame updating to the latest photos in its pre-configured rotation throughout the night.
In tests, the frame provided more muted colors than existing Aura frames, but that made it a better fit next to printed photos on the wall. Depending on the image, it may not be immediately obvious to guests from a distance that this is an e-ink frame.
One thing that might bother you at first is the photo loading experience. Due to this, the screen starts flashing yellow light again and again, which can be harmful. But Jensen says Frame updates its photos overnight, so customers don’t have to notice the change.
“Change is a little jarring. It’s definitely a compromise with this technology,” he admits. “You can adjust it up to 12 times a day if you want, but it has a trade-off with battery life. The more often it changes, the more battery it uses, obviously.”
The company believes that as a result customers can be more selective about the number of photos they add to the frame. Perhaps they’ll just add a single photo that they want to always 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 a frame gifted to grandparents.) Earlier this year, it closed a $60 million growth capital investment from the LAGO Innovation Fund. Today, the company has sold “single-digit millions” of frames and is profitable. One billion photos have been shared on its app so far.
Although founder Jensen and CEO Abdur Chowdhury have been around since the early days of Twitter, Aura’s focus is now more on the private social network built between friends and family who use Aura’s apps and devices to share photos.
“We think this space for sharing — not just photos, but connecting with loved ones — is really underserved. It’s obviously poorly monetized by ads,” Jensen says. He added, “The combination of the hardware device and that location works really well as a business.”
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 built a lot of prototypes around software that isn’t just tied to frames,” he said. However, the company worries that focusing on private photo networks alone might not be such good business.
Jensen says, “We sell a hardware product that has a very straightforward value proposition: no subscription, unlimited photos. It works really well with private photo networks. And we’ve seen a lot of companies try private photo networks in the past and not be able to find a business model for it.”
Ink Frame sale starts today On Aura’s website,
Updated to correct “double digits” for profitability to single digit millions.
