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LADY GAGA PIMPS-OUT POLAROIDS NEW PRINTER
A new version of Polaroid’s digital, instant photo printer has arrived to replace the earlier PoGo, using second-gen “Zink” photo paper and using Lady Gaga’s artistic cred to sell as many Polaroid GL10 Instant Mobile Printers as it can.With Lady Gaga having transitioned into adding “creative director” titles to her song-and-dance antics, Polaroid must surely be hoping that Lady Gaga’s artificially knobbly poker face helps sell tons of product, while also hoping the whole thing doesn’t end up a bad marketing romance.With Lady Gaga having been appointed as Polaroid’s “Creative Director”, we at least can see the fruits of her labours, with sellable labours being something that Intel’s “Creative Director”, “Will.i.am” from Black Eyed Peas fame is yet to produce – or at least, as far as I am aware.One of the fruits of those labours is Polaroid’s GL10 Instant Mobile Photo Printer, which definitely wasn’t born this way, but instead born as the older Polaroid PoGo.
What the GL10 offers, besides reversing LG’s initials to GL, is second-generation Zink technology, with Zink being a special type of photo paper that uses heat-activated dye-crystal inks to “instantly” print out photos from your mobile phone, smartphone or digital camera.GL actually stands for “Grey Label”, and besides being produced by Polaroid and Lady Gaga’s “Haus of Gaga”, the GL10 is the first “Grey Label” product.Available in Australia sometime this month (July 2011), it will sell for AUD $199.95, with the older PoGo still featured on Polaroid’s site for AUD $129.95.Like the earlier PoGo version, Polaroid says the new GL10 “frees the millions of digital images trapped on mobile phones, hard drives and digital cameras with the Polaroid Instant Printing Experience”, giving you the ability to “snap, print and share your memories with friends and family”.
Of course, a regular digital camera and a portable photo printer can achieve the same thing, but with regular photo printers usually much bulkier items, the pocket-sized GL10 has a clear advantage.That said, the GL10 does not produce standard size 4×6 prints, but instead, “business-card sized” photos which are 3×4-inches in size.So, how do you print photos to the GL10, and from which devices? Well, if your mobile phone (or digital camera) can send photos via Bluetooth, you can send your photos that way to the GL10.You can also connect the GL10 to your PC or Mac via USB and print photos that way, too.
What about iPhone or Android photo-printing – or the cost of ZINK paper?Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be an iPhone app as yet, or a way for the iPhone to print photos directly to the GL10 via Bluetooth or USB cable, but Android phones do have an app available for wireless photo printing.Lady Gaga said: “Every day, digital photos capture, memorialize and shape our lives – but they are not given the chance to inspire us because they die on cell phones or digital cameras. I created the GL10 because everyone loves to take photos with their mobile phones – and the next evolution is to combine digital images with instant photography, bringing photos to life in vibrant colours that you can share, from the palm of your hand."
Of course, given the fact that the GL10 is a better version of the PoGo, it’s hard to see how Lady Gaga herself “created” the GL10, but as is always the case, Lady Gaga does not let reality get in the way of a good show.Here’s Polaroid’s description of how the GL10 and ZINK (zero ink) technology works: “The GL10 produces Polaroid Classic Border and full bleed 3×4” photos in less than one minute.“Fusing the instant accessibility of today’s digital images with the original Polaroid instant experience and ZINK’s second-generation thermal technology, the GL10 delivers photo-lab quality prints that emerge fully developed and protected by a smudge-proof, water-resistant coating.”Scott W. Hardy, Polaroid’s President, stated that: “For more than 74 years, Polaroid photos intrinsically have carried personal meaning, unique to each person who views them, and now the GL10 fuses this experience with today’s digital photos."As we launch the first Polaroid Grey Label product, old and new fans of Polaroid can experience seeing their photos of today in a way that only Polaroid can deliver, with the instant printing experience."
John Rule, National Marketing Manager, Hagemeyer Brands Australia, which is Polaroid’s authorised distributor down under, said: “We’re excited by the release of the first Polaroid Grey Label product with the GL10. Moving to the next generation of ZINK technology, Polaroid is giving their fans more opportunities to enjoy and share the magic of instant. We’re looking forward to bringing this magic to Australian consumers.”
Available for AUD $199.95, you’ll be able to buy 30 sheets of ZINK GL10 photo paper for AUD $29.95 per pack.Meanwhile, that Polaroid Android app allows “fun, fast editing as well as adding borders and special Polaroid filters to enhance pictures prior to printing”, and is available for free download from the Android Market.So, if you want a simple, portable photo-printing system that turns your Android smartphone into a Polaroid instant photo printer, the GL10 may well be your ideal pocket partner.
However, if you need regular sized photos on the go, a more traditional and full-sized portable photo printer is the only answer.That said, if you’re a photo fanatic, you’ll probably want both, while those looking for a camera and photo-printer in the one, single device can check out Polaroid’s site to take a look at the Polaroid Two, which is exactly that – a camera and 3×4-inch photo printer in the same unit!
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