Remember Polaroid cameras? Back in the day, the idea of snapping a picture and seeing the results instantly was amazing.
Now, our favorite camera -- the smartphone -- doesn’t allow for instant prints, but a small company based in France might soon make that function a reality. The startup Prynt is developing a smartphone app and case that works as a printer to print pictures straight from a phone.
CEO Clément Perrot stopped by the TechCrunch headquarters to show off the prototype.
The whole thing appears to work simply enough. You can snap and print a picture instantly with two clicks of a button, or open the app and pull photos from your camera roll or social networks to print them.
The current prototype holds one sheet of photo paper and prints a photo in 50 seconds, Perrot explains in the TechCrunch video. However, the company aims to have the device print photos in 30 seconds and hold up to 30 sheets by the time it launches next year.
Photos are currently sent from a smartphone to the printer using Bluetooth technology, but the final product will plug into the phone, making the process quicker, according to the company’s site. Within the app, users will be able to order the paper, estimated to be 30 cents per sheet, according to TechCrunch.
The product is expected to sell for $99 in a Kickstarter campaign to be launched in January 2015, Chief Marketing Officer Vikram Chudasama told The Huffington Post via email. The prototype currently fits smartphones with about 4-inch screens, but Perrot told TechCrunch the company plans to make bigger models as well. The app works with iOS and Android.