Will You Zink?
I just heard about a new printer that has the potential to change the face of journaling. Here's the skinny.
The technology behind the new printer is called Zink or Zero Ink. The printer is the Polaroid Pogo. It's a tiny thing that weighs half a pound and would probably fit into a shirt pocket or a nice little cosmetic bag to protect it from the contents of your handbag and vice versa. (Reminder to self to check out D&B for possible containers although I bet it would fit into a wristlet nicely.) The technology embeds ink crystals into layers of polymer that are activated by varying degrees of heat and pressure inside the printer.
The printer itself will connect to your camera via Bluetooth (for mobile phones) or via a USB cable from your digital camera. There's even a version that has the printer embedded into a digital camera for an all-in-one solution. I'd like to see what that weighs! Half a pound is ultralight for a printer but the opposite for a point & shoot digital camera.
Pricing looks decent. The paper is supposed to retail for $19.95 (MSRP) for 100 sheets. The printer will hold ten sheets at a time and is supposed to MSRP for $99.95. Once demand and supply even out, I'd expect the street price to be about $75 to $80.
I'm sure that there will be many more applications for this technology, but here's what is cool about it for journalers.
It prints 2" x 3" photos from compatible cell phones and digital cameras in full color. The paper has a peel-off, sticky back that will allow you to take a photo of something, print it, slap it onto a journal page, and then discuss it as you like in your journal entry. If you're shopping and you see some really cool graphics on some dishes or a throw pillow, you can use them for the background of your next entry.
For those who like to network, you can take a photo of someone who has just given you their business card, print it out, and slap it on the back of the card for a much better connection the next time you meet or try to think of that person! How many times have you mentally 'seen' the face but couldn't figure out which card it belonged to?
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. See someone driving irratically or driving away from an accident? In a couple of clicks you can hand the evidence to the officer in charge.
The other thing I am wondering is what will happen with the technology once the really creative people start to manipulate it. We could see some really fun ways to use Zink paper.
I just heard about this less than an hour ago and I'm still thinking up great ways to use it. What I'm really wondering is why I just heard about it. A guy named Don Dodge who works for Microsoft (AKA the Evil Empire of Redmond), blogged about it in November of 2005. It's taken forever to get out there in a usable/salable format. Fuji has a similar concept out there that has failed to hit the mainstream.
So much for technology being obsolete before it even hits your desktop.
The technology behind the new printer is called Zink or Zero Ink. The printer is the Polaroid Pogo. It's a tiny thing that weighs half a pound and would probably fit into a shirt pocket or a nice little cosmetic bag to protect it from the contents of your handbag and vice versa. (Reminder to self to check out D&B for possible containers although I bet it would fit into a wristlet nicely.) The technology embeds ink crystals into layers of polymer that are activated by varying degrees of heat and pressure inside the printer.
The printer itself will connect to your camera via Bluetooth (for mobile phones) or via a USB cable from your digital camera. There's even a version that has the printer embedded into a digital camera for an all-in-one solution. I'd like to see what that weighs! Half a pound is ultralight for a printer but the opposite for a point & shoot digital camera.
Pricing looks decent. The paper is supposed to retail for $19.95 (MSRP) for 100 sheets. The printer will hold ten sheets at a time and is supposed to MSRP for $99.95. Once demand and supply even out, I'd expect the street price to be about $75 to $80.
I'm sure that there will be many more applications for this technology, but here's what is cool about it for journalers.
It prints 2" x 3" photos from compatible cell phones and digital cameras in full color. The paper has a peel-off, sticky back that will allow you to take a photo of something, print it, slap it onto a journal page, and then discuss it as you like in your journal entry. If you're shopping and you see some really cool graphics on some dishes or a throw pillow, you can use them for the background of your next entry.
For those who like to network, you can take a photo of someone who has just given you their business card, print it out, and slap it on the back of the card for a much better connection the next time you meet or try to think of that person! How many times have you mentally 'seen' the face but couldn't figure out which card it belonged to?
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. See someone driving irratically or driving away from an accident? In a couple of clicks you can hand the evidence to the officer in charge.
The other thing I am wondering is what will happen with the technology once the really creative people start to manipulate it. We could see some really fun ways to use Zink paper.
I just heard about this less than an hour ago and I'm still thinking up great ways to use it. What I'm really wondering is why I just heard about it. A guy named Don Dodge who works for Microsoft (AKA the Evil Empire of Redmond), blogged about it in November of 2005. It's taken forever to get out there in a usable/salable format. Fuji has a similar concept out there that has failed to hit the mainstream.
So much for technology being obsolete before it even hits your desktop.
Labels: journals, printers, technology
posted by Wabbit at
9:55 AM
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