ZinkPhotoPrinter
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Insert Coin: Instaprint offers portable photo booths for Instagram (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. While the design hasn't changed much since we spied Instaprint precisely a year ago, the creators behind the Instagram-connected photo printers are now looking for cash -- your cash. Pitched as an event or party service, you can assign specific tags or locations to the printer, hopefully assuring all those instant snaps have at least a passing connection to whoever or whatever paid for all that photo paper. The technology is all a bit Polaroid, as the printers themselves are ink-free Zink types, limited only by however many blank sheets you have inside. Instaprint has set itself the heady target $500,000, with $260,000 of that sum going towards existing hardware and future production. The $399 investment option will net you your very own InstaPrint system, while sepia-tinted image obsessives can offer up £1,449 for the pro kit, containing one WiFi hub printer, three more connectable InstaPrint devices and 80 sheets of inkless paper for your premier cat photo collection/ food gallery get-together. See how it all works right after the break.
Instaprint service is the Polaroid of the Instagram generation, no shaking required (video)
Sure Polaroid brought its headline product into 2011 by teaming up with Lady Gaga, but most of us are just fine with using our phones to quickly capture memorable moments. Well, Instaprint aims to recreate the photo craze of yesteryear by tying it in to Instagram -- the wildly popular (and currently iOS-only) app that lets you apply various filters to your photos for quick sharing among friends. The Instaprinter (our term, not the company's) is essentially a modified Zink photo printer with internet connectivity and tie-ins to the Instagram API, that automatically prints items tagged with any hashtag you choose. As of now, the company is planning to rent Instaprint boxes and demo the service at SXSWi, targeting it as a novel way to capture all angles of whatever event you may be hosting -- which to us seems like a fun idea. That is, until someone starts abusing the system and tags a photo of their derriere with #GrandmasBirthday. You can try it out now by tagging your shots with #Instaprint, and see it printed live in the stream embedded after the break.
