Well, given that this thing appears to be a netbook from a hardware standpoint, it's hard to complain if it costs about as much as a netbook!
Before you conclude that the only thing preventing people from owning netbooks instead of appliances is the price, be sure to spend several hours pondering the lessons of Slashdot's infamous initial review of the iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
It doesn't matter to me whether they needed the equivalent of a netbook to drive the thing; it matters whether it delivers $250 worth of value. I'm not sure. At that price point, there are too many substitutes to consider.
I'll say this: if the iPhone came in this form factor, there'd be a $3.99 app that would log the contents of your pantry, submit Peapod/Urbangrocer orders, and aggregate/display all viable recipes from Cooks Illustrated. Tapulous would make $2,000,000 off it in their first year. And I'd buy a Picwing to get it.
I think this frame is pretty exciting, even if the Chumby is more cuddly.
I was going to buy a Chumby a while back, but they never made one without leather, and I don't buy animal products, so I think the Picwing is more cuddly than the Chumby, since I don't want to cuddle with dead animal parts.
My first reaction to this video was, "Ooh, now I can finally have a totally awesome alarm clock, and it's not a leater-encased Chumby!" Unfortunately, though, I just got a nice iPod docking clock radio for Christmas from my folks, so I'm not really in the market anymore.
If it's priced at $249, I'll probably pass, since I already have too many random small computing gadgets around the house (XO, G1, DS, Chinese pirate game console portable, Wii, and several regular desktops and a laptop). But, I think for the folks who would be buying a picture frame, spending an extra $100, or so, would be a very easy decision to make. At least, if those folks buying can be made aware of the Picwing.
