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Posted: 6:00 a.m. Friday, Jan. 25, 2013

New easy ways to get photos off smartphones

Polariod, Sugar Sync look to the mobile market

By Clark Howard


Polariod has come up with an easy way for you to get pictures off your cell phone and into a frame.

Ten brick-and-mortar stores called Fotobars will open this year in several major markets.

As HLN reports, "Customers will be able to wirelessly transmit photos from their mobile devices, or from social networks like Facebook and Instagram, and have them printed, matted and framed. Besides standard photo paper, customers can choose such materials as canvas, metal, wood, acrylic, or bamboo. Polaroid will ship the finished product to you within three days. "

Meanwhile, my executive producer Christa read about a free app called Sugar Sync in Real Simple magazine. Sugar Sync allows you to seamlessly sync up your digital devices with your computer. It's available for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and more.

So in theory, all those pictures I have on my Android phone that I can't do anything with could be automatically migrated to my computer. Then I could print them out or do whatever else I wanted.

Speaking of taking pictures, all the camera makers at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month were trying to get customers interested again in standalone digital units. They're trying out lower price points, special features, and enhanced photo-taking capability.

I'm not sure the camera companies can revive this dying genre. We all do our photo taking on our phones these days. The era of the standalone camera is mostly gone, I believe, except for people going on sightseeing trips.

One final note: The price points on low-end Android phones are phenomenal thanks to an influx of cheap Chinese models. Look for street prices of around $50 to $100. In some very rare instances, wireless carriers may give Android phones away, as I saw Cricket doing recently for a limited time.  

 
 

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