My Polaroid Bluetooth Zink Printer has been sitting collecting dust since last October. Like the iPhone, the G1 (and every other Android device) offers stereo bluetooth, but no support for any of the file transfer protocols (FTP, OBEX, OPP, etc.). Since then, I’ve been waiting for an app to add that particular support. Wait no more.

Bluetooth Fileshare – Bluex is a very simple app that allows you to send and receive files using the OBEX bluetooth profile. You need to have your phone rooted to be able to receive files, but not if you just want to send. Yea sure, this should be a stock feature on Android, but it’s absolutely worth the €1.40 to get to use my POGO printer again.

Using  Bluex is pretty easy; it adds itself to the share menu, making it accessible from any application. Simply pair with your device and Bluex will send the file along, in this case, your photos to a POGO Printer. I have noticed that the 3.2 megapixel images are too large for the POGO to accept over bluetooth, but that can be fixed by first opening the photo in PicSay (max resolution is 1024×768) before sending them along.

Target now sells the Polaroid POGO printer for $70 bucks, which is half the price of what I paid last year. I’d really recommend buying one. There’s nothing cooler than getting to print out those candid cellphone pics, in sticker form no less.

But first, pick up Bluex.

Last November, I posted about Polaroid’s leap back into instant photo gratification with POGO, an ultra-portable photo printer using zero ink technology from Zink. I was pretty stoked about the device; I was big fan of Polaroid back in the day and recently I’ve been looking for a decent method to print out some mobile pictures.

Time goes by and the POGO falls off my radar… that is until I walked into Target today and noticed it was on sale for $129 (original price, $149)! The desire for instant gratification struck instantly. I instantly had to have it and instantly marched to the camera counter. Instantly purchasing it, my compadres and I (we were on a post GBC breakfast excursion) instantly headed back to the car.

I instantly started to free my overpriced photo printer from its cardboard cage welcoming it into my loving realm of mobile gadgetra. Immediately inspecting the instructions, I installed the battery and paper pack; it instantly spit out the paper calibration “smart sheet.” And then it instantly died.

First gripe: put a charge in the battery for Christ’s sake. I know we all are supposed to charge a full 2-24 hours before stuff works, but no one ever does and most everything else has at least half a charge on purchase (ipod, phone, camera…).

With my efforts dashed to justify the purchase with my compadres by showing them the awesome power of instant gratification, I eventually made my way to my office to plug the damned thing in. Eventually, I unraveled the power block and extension cord; the POGO prints while plugged in, but this is a mobile gadget and meant to be carted around in a messenger bag. the construction is solid and metally. I’d say it weighs about a pound, but feels very study. The thing was expensive enough; it better weigh a ton.

On to printing. I tested the pogo with the gamut of photo sources, all routed from my phones bluetooth; you can connect to a digital camera with a USB cable as long as you have a PictBridge enabled camera. First picture was one I took of kirk, taken with my T-Mobile Shadow in  a lot of sunlight; it came out well enough. Then, I emailed a few pictures from Scranto’s flickr to my phone and printed them out with more stunning results. The colors were full and bright, and the resolution crisp. At 2×3 inches per photo, you won’t have to worry that much about mobile phone resolution; anything over a mega pixel will look just fine printed from the POGO.

Since a lot of my BuffaViews and Snaps are in B/W, I printed out skylar from my previous post, and Lafeyette Square from the post before. Since the ZINK technology isn’t CYMK but rather CMY, the b/w photos had a slight blue hue, which I don’t seem to mind at all.

If you really enjoy having hard copies of your mobile photos, then this printer is for you. I wouldn’t recommend this for someone with a shitty camera phone, or a Verizon anything, since VZW cripples bluetooth so that it can only pair with a headset.

Polaroid – POGO

Zink is coming just in time for Christmas, neatly packaged in the form of the first Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer from Polaroid. The title is appropriate because thats what it does: snap a picture with your camera phone or digicam, and send it over to the printer to get a quick but high quality borderless 2×3 inch photo printout. Developed by Polaroid, Zink (Zero-Ink), works with no ink and no toner. Instead, the paper holds tiny micro pigment crystals, that release their colors when heat is applied. This makes for a quick printout and the only refill is the paper.

Here’s a closer look at how Zink works:

No official word yet on a release, but clues point to an of 2007 drop (read: christmas). Zink mentions the printer could also come with an embedded camera, too, thus reestablishing Polaroid as the instant photo kings they one were.

• Via – Engadet
• Zink