Meet the Photo Album of the Future

Also: a video phone. Good luck teaching Gram how to use that.

October 27, 2016 9:00 am

While modern technology should make sharing pictures with family in far-off lands as easy as pulling a photo out of your wallet or picking up the phone used to be, it often falls short.

The reasons for this vary: bad wifi, dead batteries, total user incompetence, etc.

To make things a bit more seamless, San Francisco-based California Labs created a device called the Loop that’s specifically made for hosting video chats between multiple people and seamlessly sharing pictures and videos.

Equipped with a 9.7-inch HD screen, stereo speakers and capable of being controlled by voice, gesture and old-school knobs, the multimedia device allows users to create private and public channels to determine who can see what as well as share content from YouTube or a GoPro.

“The story of Loop started with a simple problem,” according to the company. “Brian wanted to send pictures of his infant son to his dad who lived across the county. Nothing seemed easy. So he built the first prototype of a wifi connected screen and connected it to a homegrown app.”

Obviously grandpa loved it, and the rest is history. 

Priced at $199 for one, $179 each for a pair and $149 each for a three-pack, the first batch of Loops should ship by Christmas, and the second run is due to go out sometime in February.

Get yourself looped in

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