This 4K display turns digital art into an analog experience (and that’s OK)

We love looking at art, and we have plenty of it on our walls in our homes. But the one thing we don’t love is having to replace them when we get bored of something. Which is why the Depict Frame is exciting. It’s a huge 4K digital display designed to showcase art you’ve created or purchased, which you can easily change through an iOS app.

The 50-inch display has a native resolution of 3,840 x 2,160, which is the standard for 4K Ultra HD. However, it isn’t a television, so don’t expect to tune into your favorite show. Think of it like a tabletop digital photo frame, but the extremely high resolution makes digital paintings and photography resemble more like those in museums rather than a digital signage (perfect for cameras that can shoot 4K photos). The large physical size also gives the artwork more impact. Because it supports animated GIFs, you can display interactive art too.

But the Depict Frame doesn’t want viewers to know that it’s a digital screen. Its industrial designers intentionally made it to resemble a regular framed art – digital meets analog. The frame is made out of natural birch wood. All the electronics are hidden, and there are no ports or anything to worry about, except the power cord. Once it’s hung on a wall (you can also leave it on a floor, if that’s what the decorator in you prefers), it can easily pivot from landscape to portrait.

Digital art displays aren’t new, but Depict’s frame was created to work with the Depict iOS app and service.. Within the app, you can browse for a variety of art, many costing as low as $8 each. Depict adds digital watermarks to each piece, so it sort of makes them exclusive to Depict users. Once it’s purchased, you simply “cast” the art to the Frame. Depict says the app will be updated to allow Frame owners to cast their own art or photos.

Attendees at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair recently had a chance to see the Frame is use. Depict partnered with artist Rashaad Newsome to debut his latest digital artwork, ICON. For the rest of us, Depict is taking preorders now for delivery in June 2015.

At $1,800, the Frame is pricey for a limited-purpose item (naturally, some of the Frame’s first buyers are the well-heeled of Silicon Valley). And, sure, one must wonder about power consumption. But for those of us who can’t afford the Frame, we can turn our regular big-screen TVs into one. With Chromecast or Apple TV, you can use the Depict app to cast art to the screen, just as you would with the Frame. Unless it’s a 4K TV, you may not get the same visual experience out of a Full HD display, but it’s a cheaper solution using something you already own.

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What is ‘Emagon’? Sony teases a mysterious reveal for PlayStation Experience

Sony released a mysterious trailer on the official Spanish PlayStation Blog for something called “Emagon.” According to the post, “PlayStation’s best kept secret” will be revealed on December 5, 2014 at the PlayStation Experience event in Las Vegas, which marks the console brand’s 20th year. Until then, all we know is from this lovely looking trailer:

Related: How the PS4 and Xbox have raised PC system requirements

NeoGAF user Cess007 posted this translation of the Spanish narration:

“20 years. It’s a lot of time. Look around you and see everything you’ve obtained. You’ve ruled in infinite places, you’ve conquered and freed. You’ve built and destroyed. You’ve been the light against the darkness. However, this time is different; this time, it’s real. For the first time, your actions has real consequences. They need your help. I know you can hear them. The power to change things is in your hands”

It’s not a lot to go on, but at least the serene landscape is beautiful. Sharp readers might have already noticed that “Emagon” backwards spells out “No game,” which might be pertinent. It’s also worth noting that this trailer has yet to be hyped by any other Sony source that we’ve found.

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How To Improve Your Customer Experience: Be More Opinionated, Make Things Simple

The other night we were wondering what to eat – neither me nor my wife felt like cooking, so it was down to takeaway options. We thought about the usual suspects but then twitter helped us out. A local eatery called Chatsworth Kitchen on Chatsworth Road, Hackney, tweets its menus, and this one appealed:

Spicy Moroccan meatballs with lemon couscous and yoghurt, roast Sicilian vegetable with dill pilaff, banana pudding, raspberry trifle

So here is the thing- the menu only lists two items for main courses. But they both sound completely delicious, don’t they? I am a vegetarian, but my wife is very much not. Two items- and they fit us like a pair of gloves. And the desserts? Oh my gosh – yum! So I ran up the road to Chats Kitchen. I jokingly tweeted at the time I was at my local opinionated eatery. Sarah, the proprietor, looked at me with a well cocked eyebrow:

“You’re calling me opinonated?”

Well yes Sarah I explained, opinionated is a good thing. It improves the customer experience- too much choice doesn’t make dining any easier or more appealing. How many times have you been to a restaurant with a five page menu and struggled to pick anything out. I said in application development, Opinionated Software is a good thing. Ruby On Rails is the canonical example. Of course David Heinemeier Hansson is rather opinonated himself, and he built this into a software architecture for building web applications. Developers loved the freedom of not screwing around with config files. Class naming conventions and so on are standardised.

The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they’re not just looking for features, they’re looking for an approach. They’re looking for a vision. Decide what your vision is and run with it.

But being opinionated isn’t just about software development. Take Apple- which has to be the most opinionated company in the world, right now, when it comes to product design. Apple doesn’t do focus groups. Apple doesn’t options or too much customer choice. Very often fewer options improves the customer experience.

I was talking to Alistair Rennie, Lotus Software general manager last week, and I said Lotus success will be predicated on what you take out, not what you put in. Funnily enough he agreed with me – and confided that recently he had had to kill some work from an engineering team because the functionality was unnecessary. Lotus won’t break out by serving endless “customer requirements”, it will do so by focusing on user experience. Lotus needs to be more opinionated, like Chats Kitchen.

Now I know that Sarah is a marketing professional by trade, and this is her first food startup. She took the plunge. Arguably a complex menu would have been just too difficult. But here is the thing: Sarah made less choice a strategy. As I rambled on about application development, she just said:

“Oh I call that choice architecture”

Great phrase. I haven’t read Nudge yet, but I like the idea for sure. I was talking to another client Actuate yesterday, and they have been finding that newer customers have been using BIRT open source analysis tools to focus on user experience without recourse to focus groups, and long requirements cycles. Instead these firms are opionionated, and are choosing open source software to package up great user experiences.

Of course choice architectures can go too far- I find Apple’s Permission-based Web a little stale. Or take the look and feel of Facebook, another walled garden. Totally opionated. We can all learn from opionated business. These are the options, their aren’t too many of them- we’ll be more productive working together than spending time wondering what choices to make.

Whether you’re a product manager, a designer, developer or General Manager less is more. Freedom doesn’t mean more options, it means more flow.

RedMonk itself tries to keep things opinonated with our Simple Subscription Service for Startups. You see- little companies don’t have time to screw around negotiating with a A La Carte, or a buffet – they just want a good offering at a good price. Too much choice is so last century.

If you enjoyed this post I suspect you will also enjoy my last riff based on a small business chalkboard – On Soup, Microcopy and User Experience.

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