instant

Polaroid this week announced a new instant camera, the Polaroid 300. At first glance, you might mistake it for the Fujifilm Instax Mini, but that's only because the new Polaroid shooter was indeed developed in partnership with Fujifilm, which explains the similarity in camera design and technology.

It's unclear whether the Polaroid 300 will accept the same Instax Mini film used for the Fujifilm equivalent. But if you dive into the technical specifications, you'll realize that both snappers have the same features.

The Polaroid 300 will be available come May for approximately $90, and the Polaroid 300 … Read more

Now more than ever our interpersonal relationships are dictated by electronic communication, which in turn depends upon some form of the written word. Text is of course a great way to express oneself, whether in an e-mail, an instant message, or a text message. However, when it comes to interacting with your friends, family, and business associates in this way, there are a few things you may want to keep in mind:

DO send a text to convey quick details, such as a time and address for meeting with a colleague or friend. Texts are also a great way to … Read more

Sometimes it's enough to download a video or song by itself, but other times we find ourselves with multiple downloads going, which can get confusing and hard to manage. InstantGet is a download manager that helps organize downloads and claims to make them faster. Although we're not sure that the program's claims are accurate, overall, it seems to work well enough.

The program's interface is fairly basic, not differing significantly from that of other download managers we've encountered. It's not the most intuitive program we've ever seen, but with a bit of poking … Read more

Since it was introduced in late 2008, VoxOx has tried to cut a name for itself in the competitive multiprotocol chat client market by providing users with an aggressive feature set. These include VoIP, a "personal assistant" for managing incoming calls with more than a simple redirect, and SMS and Web-based callback to cut down on the cost of long-distance, transnational calls. The latest improvement is a universal translator that translates all text-based messages in real time, and with a reasonable amount of accuracy, for both the Windows and Mac versions of the program. It will work with … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--It seems that the 2010 version of the Game Developers Conference here isn't just about social and iPhone games. It's also about services that can stream console-quality titles directly to gamers.

On Wednesday, OnLive announced its launch date--June 17--and said it would be working with partners like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, THQ, and others to deliver AAA games to anyone anywhere.

Rival InstantAction made a similar announcement on Thursday. InstantAction's catch is that it lets players choose how they consume a game, whether it's to play by the hour or to buy. Publishers set the … Read more

A recent update to Digsby, a controversial multiple-protocol instant-messaging client, focuses on enhancements specific to Windows 7 and tweaks several social-networking features.

Given the problem it had last year with its CPU cycle-grabbing shenanigans, one would think that Digsby would hold back from adding another service requiring those who don't want it to go through a post-installation opt-out process. But Digsby build 76 beta, released February 11 and announced broadly on Thursday, does just that with a OneRiot trending-news service it automatically added to users' social feeds. Users can disable the service in the General & Profile menu under … Read more

As a longtime fan of Meebo, the browser-based, cross-platform instant-messaging service that requires no software and costs no money, I've been waiting forever for an iPhone companion.

The wait is over. Meebo for iPhone is here, and it's perfect. I can't envision myself wanting or using any other IM app.

Meebo supports all the major networks--AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Windows Live, Yahoo--and dozens more you've probably never heard of. (Batanga? Decayenne? Outspark? Guess I'm not as social as I thought I was.)

If you're already a Meebo user, just sign in; the app … Read more

Correction 1:05 p.m. PST: Boy, did I get it wrong.

Writing off available information this morning--the AIM beta download site and a few news reports--I assumed the Facebook-AOL interoperability was the result of a corporate partnership. Instead, it's because Facebook actually did open up its technology, embracing rather than neglecting the approach I called for. In this case at least, the bad instant messaging network habits from the past were not carried over.

I have to say I'm impressed with Facebook's move, and not because it makes the crow I'm eating any tastier. What … Read more

Multi-protocol chat client Trillian follows up its resurgence last year with a long-rumored Mac version. Trillian for Mac is an unstable alpha, lacking many of the features that make Trillian Astra appealing on Windows, but even so it offers users a good idea of what's to come from Cerulean Studios.

This build isn't really ready yet to compete with the popular Adium, but cross-platform users will appreciate that the contact sync works. Enter in your Trillian username and password and all of your other instant messaging accounts will be imported, including passwords. Basic IM functions are fine, with … Read more