This is the 70th anniversary of Polaroid, a company that once owned the words “instant pictures” for decades. They are back this year with a Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer using ZINK's zero ink printing technology and bluetooth. So you can print photos taken with your Blackberry or iPhone. This time around it is going to be less expensive. The joy of instant prints is now more affordable ($150 for the printer). This pocket sized digital instant printer is the first truly mobile digital printer. It uses ZINK Zero Ink Printing Technology, a heat-activated printing process, to create full-color pictures. With ZINK Zero Ink -- like the name says -- there is no ink involved. Polaroid Digital Instant ZINK Photo Paper is a composite material that houses cyan, yellow and magenta dye crystals in a protective polymer overcoat. Before printing, the dye crystals are colorless, so the photo paper appears white.
Interesting enough, ZINK was founded in 2005 by private investors who bought many technologies from Polaroid as it was coming out of bankruptcy. Now Zink and Polaroid are based in the same complex in Waltham, Massachusetts and working together back in their old trade. This is an interesting product, but it definitely takes more than a hit to bring the company back.
Talking about portable printer, here's one mobile printer with thermal paper designed for people who want to print out messages from their Blackberries. This $300 Printstik from Canada-based Planon Systems is less than 2 pounds but prints in black and white. After a connection via USB cord or Bluetooth wireless, the Printstik can churn out paper copies so you can read and write your comments on the. Not a bad idea. I won’t mind one if it is cool looking, preferably with an Apple logo.
One idea that really interests me is the Fujitsu's Fabric PC concept. It is still a concept. With advances in Fujitsu's e-paper (flexible display technology) now allowing for color displays, Fujitsu was showing off the idea of a fabric PC that could open up the display for larger screen size. The technology is here but we're 4-5 years away from mainstream adoption. I would like to pre-order one with kind of a Vera Wang deisgn..all white, deliver to me 2001 before Christmas.
