The Polaroid GL10 Mobile Instant Printer
The GL10 (I’ve been fondly calling it the Polaprinter) was designed to be the center of attention at any party, and as a mechanism to easily print the images we’re all making everyday on our mobile phones, point-and-shoots, etc. Until you’ve actually handed one of your friends a print from their 21 run, from a 2am escapade on the dance floor, from the birthday bash, or last night’s dinner party, you might not get it. But from that point on, you will. These days a little print is a rare treat. Now we’ve finally got some photos to put back on the fridge rather than leaving them locked up in a thumb drive or on Facebook.
So the GL10 is great for all that, but since I’ve been able to talk rather openly about it since January…[hit ‘continue reading for more images & links]…you know it’s been a fresh little workhorse for me. I created the first piece of fine art with this new printer back in January (which I’m proud to say immediately sold to a patron on the board at the Seattle Art Museum) and–more recently–it’s one of the tools I have been using it to print the ongoing Dasein: Invitation to Hang show here in NYC. She’s a worthy steed. And until you’ve printed bunches with her, you’ll have to take my word how nice it is to A) never have to futz with formatting a basic snapshot before hitting ‘print’; and B) never have to shell out bank for costly ink cartridges that ultimately just add to the landfills.
Here’s the nuts and bolts you wanna know about the GL10:
_it prints on 3×4 inch Zink (zero-ink) paper
_the Zink paper comes–in heritage Polaroid fashion–in packs of 10 sheets
_it prints in two formats: full bleed or with the traditional Polaroid frame
_it is USB and bluetooth enabled for printing from computer or mobile phone
_is battery operated OR can be plugged in
If you’re a tech-spec geek, you’ll want to check on the tech sites in forthcoming days for all the detailed info. You should know that there’s desktop software available AND mobile app software in the dev pipeline. Also, to date, Apple has still not released its Bluetooth API for printing, so sadly the iPhone doesn’t enjoy the benefits of other platforms for direct printing. I’m…ahem…banking all that gets worked out soon.
Wanna buy one? They’re available for pre-order now at Polaroid.com for $169.99 OR if you’re really jonesing for one: I’ve heard they will be on shelves this morning in limited quantities in an exclusive sneak peek at Bloomingdale’s on Lexington Ave here in NYC. They’re in the Mens Accessories section. GL10 availability at Bloomingdale’s isn’t being highlighted to general public until later this morning when they unveil some posh storefront windows displays (check those out tomorrow if you’re into that sort of stuff), but by then you’ll probably have gobbled all of the printers up anyway.
Set to be unveiled tomorrow here on Lexington Ave. But you found out today.
Updated: here’s a couple snapshots of the prints with my iphone. Obviously no technical analysis here, just to give you flavor.
Hey Bro,
I love your stuff as always. This blog post reads like an ad; so I would appreciate it if you would disclose if you have a financial arrangement with the company. Because if you don’t; that makes it very cool. But, if you do – then really – you should make that note.
hi james. I’ve had a disclosures page on my blog (sidebar) since long before it was the norm and a thanks to polaroid in that sidebar for same amount of time – on every page of my blog. as it says in that disclosure, i’m excited to have a relationship with lots of brands. I choose them carefully and only thumbs up things/brands that I actually dig. take that as you will. specifically as such, i’ve had a relationship with polaroid that’s been well publicized in the media for at least 6 months (just checked and there are 65,000 results on google for those combined search terms). hope that helps.
Chase, thanks for taking the time to read the comments – yeah I checked out your disclosures before I commented but I wasn’t aware of your relationship with Polaroid. If you feel it is more than sufficient then dump my comment; I don’t want to rain on the Polaroid parade. I’m a big fan of Edwin Land and all the good stuff that came from his work (or the modern derivatives).
Well its still little expensive.
Oh! i’ve been waiting for it badly. sad to hear that we cannot print drictly from the iphone!
I normally don’t enjoy blatant product placement, but this actually seems like a fantastic idea/product so it’s cool 🙂
Might consider getting one myself.
Seems to fit in really well with the snapshot project you’re working on!
Chase, can you link a picture from a photo printed with the new Pola-printer? My Pogo has a real problem with the battery length and all the pictures show stripes on them.. and i’m wondering if it’s fixed with this bigger update.
no striping here. i’ve been keeping them plugged in since i’m printing such a high number. since those deets are my forte, check out one of the tech sites for spec info on exact battery life, tech specs, etc. Only think I know from experience is that it takes about 40 secs to print one image. no ink necessary – thermal printing.
HI CHASE. I KNOW THAT THE PRINTER WILL NOT PRINT VIA BLUETOOTH FROM THE IPHONE. HOWEVER, WILL IT PRINT IF DIRECTLY CONNECTED WITH THE IPHONE CABLE? THANKS AND I LOVE YOUR WORK! JEFF