Poladroid beta is seriously awesome

Geezers like me probably remember Polaroid cameras. Before the instant gratification of digital, we stood in the back yard shaking a slowly-developing print of Aunt Shirley sitting with her sheet cake. The result was a square, over-saturated print that would be passed around with calls of "Don't get frosting all over that!"

While the Polaroid corporation stopped production of the bulky cameras in February of 2008, you can still find a few in stores. Or just try Poladroid.

Poladroid creates Polaroid-style images from your photos. The UI is a lot of fun. Drop your photos onto the Poladroid "camera," and after a few seconds, it spits out your unprocessed print. Watch it slowly "develop," or speed up the process by -- you guessed it -- shaking vigorously.

You can create an image at any stage in your print's development by double-clicking and selecting "Take a sample." When your print is fully ready, a red "x" appears on the bottom.

This application, while in beta, is a whole lot of fun. I dropped a dozen pictures onto it in the first five minutes and the results are just great.

I'm really looking forward to the progress of this little app.