Just when you thought the old instant Polaroid pictures where gone for good, they come out with a digital version called the PoGo. http://www.polaroid.com/pogo/us/index.html This handy little 8 ounce device lets bluetooth cameras and cell phones send pictures to it and have them print out almost instantly.
Just the other month I was at a local carnival with the family and there was a pony that kids could sit on and get a free picture. The woman pulled out an old Polaroid camera and snapped a shot of my oldest daughter brightly smiling on top of the pony. They handed my daughter the Polaroid picture and said not to touch it and the image would appear in a little while. That immediately brought me back to when I was a kid doing Polaroid pictures and how cool it was technology wise back then. My daughter had never seen this before (heck when was the last time you’ve seen a Polaroid camera or picture…) and found it interesting that the image slowly appeared.
This experience got me thinking about why Polaroid or others have not come out with some in stat picture camera for the digital age that has a much higher quality that the old Polaroid pictures. I figure that could be a market out there for something like this then out of the blue, someone in my office tells me about the PoGo. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it does seem to get the instant tactile pictures in your hands almost immediately.
The concept is great, and probably very fun and useful for many situations, but having to carry around another device would be a pain for regular everyday picture taking (then again if you have a camera bag full of stuff already – this might be a small enough edition). The PoGo only prints out small 2×3 pictures but they are rather resistant to abuse being tear/water proof. The device can print out 15 pictures on a charge which could be rather limiting on the road.
Maybe someday they will integrate this with the camera allowing you to take digital pictures and print out some on the fly if you ever wanted to. It would be the 21st century Polaroid camera for today’s generation.
