Like virtually every other tech company under the sun, Polaroid, one of the most recognized brands in the world, took to CES to show off latest innovation.
Among the announcements that are of interest to our Apple-focused readers, Polaroid showed off a mobile printer, a social instant camera and a Wi-Fi connected camera that all work with iPhones and iPads.
They also announced a new Android-driven tablet, an easy to use automobile dash cameras designed to capture the unexpected, a 65-inch 4K ultra high definition LED TV with HD ultra slim sound bars and TV wall mounts and more.
Polaroid iZone camera
This compact, Wi-Fi connected camera with built-in flash measures just two inches square and boasts an 8x optical zoom, 18-megapixel resolution and NFC for pairing with iOS or Android devices. The iZone (not to be confused with Polaroid’s I-Zone camera they abandoned in 2006) joins the new retro-inspired Polaroid Socialmatic camera (see below) and the Polaroid Cube HD lifestyle action video camera which will be featured at Polaroid’s CES booth along with both of their full lines of accessories.
Polaroid Socialmatic camera
Now shipping, this digital camera sporting vintage design that’s undeniably Polaroid lets you print, post and share photos. Driven by Android, it has a fourteen-megapixel sensor out the front, a two-megapixel shooter out the back, an LED flash, a 4.5-inch touchscreen and custom software to add text, icons and clip art to your shots. The images can be saved to a Micro SD card or to the camera’s 4GB of internal storage.
It instantly prints your images in under a minute using the ink-free Zero Ink Printing technology. A built in Wi-Fi lets you share your shots to social media, to other devices via Bluetooth or to another Socialmatic camera to be printed and shared. Every camera and every photo has its own individual QR code so you can scan the code from the picture to view its history, track its whereabouts and continue to share and follow it anywhere in the world.
The Polaroid Socialmatic is available for $300 at Amazon and Photojojo.
Polaroid Zip Mobile Printer
A compact mobile printer which pairs wirelessly to any smartphone, tablet or other mobile device via Bluetooth 4.0 or NFC. It uses a dedicated mobile companion app for iOS and Android which streamlines and simplifies the process of printing 2×3 inch color photos from any image on your device.
The app allows you to edit images, change brightness, contrast, saturation and tint, choose among twelve color filters, use a collage mode to feature up to nine images on a single print, draw in the paint mode, apply frames, stickers, stamps, emojis and animations, create business cards from templates and make your edits private and only viewable by scanning an individual QR code.
Like the Socialmatic camera, this printer uses ink-free Zero Ink Printing technology developed by Zink Imaging for smudge-proof images without ink cartridges, ribbons or toner. An internal battery provides enough power to print up to 25 Zink photos on a single charge. The device weighs 186g (.41lbs), measures 2.91-by-4.72 inches and is less than one inch thick.
The printer will be available this Spring and retail for $130.
Miscellaneous
Polaroid has teamed up with the popular online photo journal and social network Blipfoto to give users a place to document their lives with just one photo each day.
A new Polaroid L series of tablets is being showcases, comprised of the seven-inch L7 and 10.1-inch L10 tablets, both driven by quad-core processors and running Googe’s latest Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system.
The Polaroid 65-inch 4K TV set will be demoed, in addition to HD ultra slim sound bars available in ultra slim 32”, 42” or 50” models and the new line of Polaroid TV wall mounts available in full motion tilting, ultra slim tilting and ultra slim flat models.
Last but not least, Polaroid’s new automobile dash cameras capture events that occur on the road, with added safety features that provided an extra level of security for new and experienced drivers.