Latest gadgets designed to get the most from your cell phone

Tag : cell phone stickers

If you get a new cell phone every few years, there's a good chancethe accessories you bought for your old phone won't work with yournew one. So when possible, it's a good idea to buy ones that arecompatible with a variety of phones. This week I tested two new products which fit this bill: the newJawbone Bluetooth headset from Aliph and the Polaroid PoGo. The Polaroid PoGo is a compact mobile photo printer that couldrecapture the magic people felt when they used Polaroid's iconicinstant camera for the first time. It weighs 8 ounces and printsphotos from a cell phone via Bluetooth or from a digital camera viaUSB. One of the coolest things about the printer is that it doesn't useany ink. Instead, it uses thermal paper called "ZINK" (for zeroink), which produces the colors needed to print photos when heated.The PoGo creates 2x3 prints with adhesive backs so you can use themas stickers. Unlike the original Polaroid photos, the pictures donot need to dry so you don't need to shake them. And you get tochoose which photos to print, so if you take a bad photo, you don'twaste money printing it.

The ZINK paper costs $4 for a pack of 10 or $10 for a pack of 30. Of the hundreds of products I saw at this year's ConsumerElectronics Show, the PoGo (which previously had the less hip name:"Polaroid Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer") was the only onethat really captured my imagination. The device struck a similarchord with co-workers when I demonstrated it in the office thisweek; a few of them were excited that they could finally freepictures of their children from their cell phones.

I was disappointed that it does not work with all Bluetooth phones.Jon Pollock, a Polaroid spokesman, said the PoGo is compatible withabout 80 percent of the Bluetooth phones sold during the past twoyears. I tested it with 11 phones and was able to print from onlyfive of them. One phone that's noticeably absent from the list ofcompatible phones on Polaroid's Web site is the Apple iPhone. If the PoGo does work with your phone, it can be tricky to figureout how to print from it. Polaroid lists phone-specificinstructions on its Web site, but not all compatible phones arelisted. So before you buy, check to see whether your phone iscompatible and make sure you can return the device if necessary.