I can’t remember the last time I picked up a proper camera and took a photograph; every picture I take these days is on a smartphone. The problem with that is, I usually end up transferring them to my Mac, and then that’s where they stay. Forever. Making good quality prints isn’t as easy as it should be.
Polaroid is hoping to change that. The company has announced that is to open a bunch of new Fotobar stores across the United States that are dedicated to printing your smartphone snaps. You can pop in, upload your pictures, edit them, and then print them.
If the current custodians of the much-abused Polaroid brand have any sense, they’ll call this upcoming camera the Polaroid Android, and they’ll license the Radiohead song of (almost) the same name to promote it.
Or they could just rip off the song, just like they appear to have ripped of the design: If the 18.1 Megapixel IM1836 looks familiar, that’s because it’s almost identical to Nikon’s J-series cameras.
With the advances in smartphone cameras, it’s getting to the point where separate point and shoots are no longer needed. Although we’re not quite there yet, Polaroid has taken an opposite approach and brought the smartphone to the camera. Introducing the Android powered SC1630. It’s half smartphone, all camera. Although I’m still not keen on having to carry around two devices, the SC1630 makes a strong argument for one to put their phone back in their pocket and start using a camera again.
![Polaroid Announces The Android Powered SC1630 Camera [CES 2012]](http://cdn.cultofandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/androidpolaroid1.jpg "androidpolaroid")
