The PoGo inkless printer produces wallet-size pictures that can be turned into stickers.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)Polaroid, the company that brought the world the iconic snap-and-print camera, is ready to introduce a new instant-photo product fit for the Digital Age. The PoGo, a mobile, inkless printer with a cute name, is small enough to fit in a pocket and prints wallet-size pictures that can be turned into stickers.
The company--which continues its attempt to transition from an analog past to a digital future--hopes the Polaroid-on-the-go will revolutionize instant photo printing.
The PoGo is small enough to fit in a pocket.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)Polaroid showed the little 8-ounce PoGo to CNET News.com on Tuesday. The product receives images via Bluetooth from a camera cell phone or through a USB cord from any digital camera. Then it uses inkless Zink technology to heat up the photo paper and bring out the colors embedded in the paper's dye crystals.
Without ink heads, printers can be smaller and save money on ink. However, the Zink paper will still cost extra--an average of 35 cents per print. Future plans include larger prints that rely on the the same mobile, inkless concept.
Jon Pollock, vice president and general manager of product planning and new technology at Polaroid, said the product is aimed at teens and young adults who want to print from their cell phone cameras and get instant access to their shots.
The back side of the photos can be peeled, turning pictures into stickers--perfect for slapping on an unsuspecting victim's back, but ideally used for decorating or making collages.
Although Polaroid sells digital cameras and other gadgets, it almost missed the digital wave. Pollock admitted the company suffered about five years ago when it still dealt with analog cameras, but it appears ready to climb back to the top of the photography world. By 2009, the classic instant Polaroid camera will finally fall by the wayside. Pollock said the PoGo is its replacement.
Polaroid's PoGo will be available at Best Buy on July 6 and in most department stores by the fall. The printer retails for $149.
Every once in a while we say goodbye to a technology that has been replaced by a demonstrably superior successor, yet we still hold onto a bit of nostagia for the old way. One of those about to go extinct is Polariod instant film. Even though I hadn't used it for years, I was sad to hear on NPR's All Things Considered that the film is going out of production.
Digital photography is our efficient, truly instantaneous modern standard, but there was something magical about a Polaroid picture. Even if the final prints were not as good as standard film, Polaroid had its own mystique.
The whole process had a satisfying, ritualized nature to it. You composed the photo, clicked the shutter and heard that distinctive whirr. The seemingly blank film shot out. You'd fight to see who got to grab it, shake it (for no real reason--it just seemed like it needed to be shaken like a mercury thermometer), and watch as the image teasingly developed before your eyes. The film was expensive; about a dollar a shot if I remember correctly. You'd have to carefully parcel out the ten shots in a pack to make it last through a whole party.
A few artists had clung to the medium for their work. They are mourning the end of the Polaroid era, saying that for some applications, nothing compares to the look they could get from this film.
For me, it is strange to see something that I remember as cutting-edge technology as a kid become so thoroughly obsolete. So while digital photography may be superior in almost every way, let's say one final "click, whirr" farewell to Polariod.
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