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Digital Photographers Get New Ways To Torture Friends
Digital Cameras & Camcorders | Jan 26, 05
The Wall Street Journal just ran an article describing how everyone from Panasonic to Kodak wants to help you force those close to you to experience the "joy" of viewing those vacation snapshots, or your photo essay of little Billy's first piano recital (some might even let you share every mangled note as well). These torture devices run the price gamut, from Panasonic's TH-50PX25U/P series of plasma televisions, which allow you to insert memory cards and create slide shows with sound (around $4K and up) to the new Epson P-2000, a $499 palmtop-sized device that holds thirty-five thousand pictures (interestingly, the Journal says Kodak is about to release a $149 model that shows 150 pictures, and the NY Times just ran an article saying Kodak is trying to capture the low end of the market. But compared to other devices, is a buck a shot truly down market or just a lame deal – especially if the price of competing gizmos drops). And of course, there's Apple's iPod Photo, perhaps the most stylish and dangerous weapon ever placed in the hands of a proud grandparent.
Yet one wonders whether we really need all this "sharing". Cell phones' potential to annoy was probably elevated to crisis levels by the introduction of customized ring tones; was it truly necessary to make them the means by which you might at any moment be treated to a viewing of that new sweater your aunt knitted for her Chihuahua? And now it appears half the electronic devices in our lives are to be bent to the same questionable purpose. Sometimes it all makes me long for the days when my Grandfather used to pull out that slide carosel projector so we could all relive his trip to Hawaii. The show might be long, but the machine wasn't portable, and, in the dark, a kid had a chance of slipping away.
Posted by jeffrey.trester (Permalink)
