Pixiq

I admit it, I was intrigued. I couldn’t resist having a look at Polaroid’s live stream from CES, to see what they and Lady Gaga had up their sleeves. (By the way, Lady Gaga didn’t look as outlandish as you might’ve anticipated. She was in all black. Admittedly her skirt was floor-length and she was wearing a veil, but she wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Victorian high street. Except maybe for the bleached-blonde hair with pink bits.) Right, you weren’t here for a fashion commentary. Onward to the announcement.

First of all came the sunglasses. Sunglasses that can capture images and store them, or share them by the miracle of technology in real time. I said that I wasn’t here to talk about fashion, but how can I ignore it in this instance? As they look right now, I shan’t be buying them in a hurry. If I were to wear them someone might mistake me for an extra from a low-budget sci-fi film. That can’t be a good look.

GL20 sunglasses, for space invaders

The instant mobile printer will be available from May this year costing around US$150. The idea behind it is to be able to print off your pictures from your mobile phone, which you send to the printer by Bluetooth. (But at the moment it isn’t iPhone compatible. They might be missing a trick here.) It also prints from computer via USB cable, or direct from any Pictbrdge-enabled camera.

Polaroid GL10 instant printer

Finally, the instamatic camera meets the digital age. It’s a classic Polaroid camera, but being all digital, it allows you to select from an LCD swivel screen the images that you want to print in 3×4 inch format. It’s a pretty big, retro-looking beast. It’s definitely Polaroid.

Polaroid GL30 instant digital camera

Was it worth staying up for the announcement? Ehm. Well, I was up anyway. I don’t anticipate any of it changing my life, or yours for that matter. Still, it did make me giggle to see Polaroid giving free publicity to Canon. Their booths are next to each other at CES, and a few panning shots emblazoned Canon logos across the screen.