The age of digital media convergence is at hand, and LOOQS is there to help guide you. This fledgling company, based out of the Netherlands with offices in the United States, is poised to offer a whole range of unique media streaming and storage products. LOOQS's goal is to make it easier to share movies, music, and photos throughout the home and over the Internet in unique and innovative ways. They were showing off their brand new showcase of products at CES 2010 in Las Vegas, and I'm here to give you a preview. I'm pretty excited for the LOOQS products and what they can do; their unique spin on media sharing devices is a refreshing change from the norm.
MeeBox NAS
The MeeBox NAS is a full-featured, robust network attached storage product with a full range of features and capabilities for your digital needs. The MeeBox comes with 2 3.5" hard drive bays that can store and back up your precious data - but it's so much more than just standard storage.
- Remote File Access: Grab any of your files from over the Internet.
- Photo Server: Stream your photos to MeeFrames across your network.
- Integrated uPnP Media Server: Stream media to uPnP devices.
- Web Server: Full integrated web server with MySQL support.
- iTunes Server: Stream easily to iTunes.
- BitTorrent Client: Download torrents directly to the MeeBox.
There's even more features to the MeeBox - read more and download full specifications at the LOOQS official site.
MeeFrame
If I may put it simply: the MeeFrame is a sweet concept. I already have a digital photo frame in my home, but it's missing some wireless mojo. It's really a pain when I want to put new photos on it; I have to manually figure out which ones I want, organize them, copy them to an SD card, then plug it into the frame. The MeeFrame aims to shake up "typical" digital photo frames by adding wireless features and Internet connectivity.
- Email photos directly to your MeeFrame
- Built-in alarm clock that can use your favorite music
- Touch screen control
- Internet weather forecast
- Listen to Shoutcast Internet radio stations
- Stream photos wirelessly from MeeBox, MeeChannel, Flickr, or Picasa
Basically, the MeeFrame has about everything I would ever want in a digital photo frame, short of perhaps a built-in toaster or back massager. Find out more at the official site.
MeeCeiver
The cleverly named MeeCeiver is a set-top box designed to stream your photos, videos, and music from your MeeBox NAS to your regular television - and a whole lot more. At first glance, it might seem similar to other media streamers, but there are couple of very unique features I haven't seen elsewhere. The MeeCeiver can connect to shared content from your friends' MeeCeivers - let's say they also have a MeeCeiver and are sharing content. You can connect to their MeeCeiver right over the Internet. A few other unique features include UseNet support and IMDb movie data.
- Stream data from MeeBox NAS or any uPnP certified device
- Photo, music, and movie players
- Listen to Shoutcast Internet radio stations
- MeeCeiver content sharing
- IMDb Movie Details
- UseNet content
- BitTorrent client
- Auto firmware update
You can find more information about the upcoming MeeCeiver on LOOQS' official site.
MeeChannel.com
Not stopping at hardware devices and innovative software, LOOQS is also bringing you a cloud-based sharing service called "MeeChannel." With this service, you can perform a variety of media sharing and editing functions with the convenience of online storage.
- Online photo storage that can stream to your MeeFrame, or even someone else's
- Photo editing features right within the app
- Upload to MeeChannel by PC or email
- Share with friends
- Email photos directly to other MeeFrames
Click here for more info on MeeChannel.com.
"LOOQ" to the Future
By now, most aficionados of digital media have been inundated with choices - multiple media streaming devices from multiple brands crowd store shelves almost everywhere you go. For someone new to all of this, how would they choose? What makes one different from another?
LOOQS promises to throw some unique features and sharing options into the mix to provide a truly dynamic and shareable environment for your photos, videos, and files. Features such as wireless photo streaming and sharing to other "friended" Mee devices really make LOOQS stand out from the crowd.
