Swipe right for Van Gogh
We’re seeing more and more startups and big names push digital art in the home – from Samsung’s The Frame TV to New York based Aura Frames. Whether or not it’ll catch on as something people are willing to spend money on remains to be seen but the Meural Canvas is as compelling as we’ve seen yet.
It’s a £799 digital frame with a 27.5-inch Full HD display featuring ambient light sensors and anti-glare tech to try to make it look more like a painting than a screen. We haven’t seen it ourselves yet but Meural says its TrueArt hardware and algorithms are designed to make the pieces look “lifelike” and “textured”.
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For $4.95 a month or $39.95 a year, you get membership to Meural’s 30,000 strong library of digital art and photography – a selection of both new artists and publicly available classics. Without the membership, you can access up to 100 images for free plus you can upload your own artwork and photographs.
As well as the standard smartphone app and desktop controls, there’s some nice gesture control on board – wave your hand over the Canvas to browse artworks and ‘playlists’ if it’s placed in an easy to reach spot.
There’s also now Alexa voice controls via a new Meural Alexa skill so you can command the frame to show the next or previous image – “Alexa, next on Meural”, turn it on or off and set the brightness via an Echo or Alexa device.
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The Meural Canvas can be hung or placed both horizontally or vertically in the house and it’ll detect which way it’s positioned. Frame wise, there’s only two options to choose from so far – the Winslow Canvas which is a 1.5-inch walnut frame and the Leonora Canvas which is a smaller poplar frame available in white or black. It’s on sale now and is available from Selfridges, Urban Outfitters, Firebox, Conran Shop and more.
