Consumer Electronics Show in January, there will be lots of new digital photo frame models capable of receiving updated photos via Wi-Fi wireless network connections.
Some of these smart picture frames will be powered by a new chip from Samsung Electronics. The Korean electronics giant is announcing today that it has designed a series of media processors for the digital photo frame market. The S5L2010 series of processors will be the brains behind frames that can process audio and video.
The company says its chips can process 57-megapixel photos in just one second. It can also process a wide variety of video and audio formats. The chips use an ARM9 core, or a processor's heart that is licensed from ARM Ltd. The chip will be in mass production in the first quarter of 2009.
The picture above is the eStarling ImpactV being launched at CES. It's an example of how smarter chips are transforming previously dumb and static devices into internet-connected gadgets with the smarts to do things such as receive photos directly from a camera as soon as you snap them. There are a bunch of ARM-based chip makers that compete with Samsung.
Digital photo frames are one of the brights spots of consumer electronics. They've been flying off the shelves, with sales expected to hit 42 million a year in 2011, according to International Data Corp.