In the Ideal Gifts series, The Next Web team shares personal recommendations for gifts to give this holiday season.
I’m not above admitting that I represent the Millennial generation at The Next Web. It’s not like I chose to be born the year I was!
If you’ve got that young’n in your life to please this holiday season, take the opportunity to teach them that memories are not disposable, and not every photo needs to disappear Snapchat-style. It’s my love for the physical reminders of life’s precious moments that brings the Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 up to the top of my Christmas list.
What’s not to love? All the fun of instant cameras wrapped in a retro, vintage-inspired casing. In this updated version of the Fujifilm Instax, the Neo Classic edition rocks a rechargeable battery, so no more fussing with those annoying double A’s.
The camera also comes with a double exposure mode for “happy accidents,” and various brightness and shutter speed settings to capture light trails or fast-moving scenes. It’ll make you forget that Instagram was ever a thing.
Of course, if you are going this route, be sure to grab extra packs of Instax Mini film to help keep the memories rolling. There’s no better gift than nostalgia.
➤ Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic [ $147 on Amazon ]
PS: You can see the rest of the Ideal Gifts in this series here
HTC introduces waterproof Desire Eye smartphone with 13MP camera on the front and back
At its HTC Double Exposure event, HTC introduced its newest smartphone, the Desire Eye .
The new phone comes with a 5.2-inch HD 1080 x 1920 display with 424 ppi and has the same 13MP wide-angle camera on the front and back of the device. Both lenses also have dual-LED flashes, so no more dark seflies.
The phone has a unibody construction with a plastic case that’s IPX7 waterproof up to 30 minutes in one meter of water. It also sports front-facing HTC BoomSound Speakers.
[youtube https://www.youtubeom/watch?v=GVH0d0FOPS0]
The phone comes in two two-tone trims (white with orange trim and dark blue with light blue trim), is 8.5 mm thick and weights 154 grams. It’s powered by a quad-core Snapdragon processor and 2GB of RAM.
The phone ships with HTCs new Eye Experience camera software that has an Voice Selfie feature that understands voice commands. “Say Cheese” and it snaps a photo. Say “Action” and it starts shooting video.
There’s also a Live Makeup feature that where you can smooth your skin and a Face Fusion feature lets you see what happens when you cram two faces together. Helpful when you want to see what your potential baby will look like with your significant other or Ryan Gosling.
Plus, you can also take photos with the front and back cameras and super impose your selfie over the image taken by the back camera using the Crop-Me-In feature. It’s like a composite selfie. The camera software knows where to crop you out of the front photo and you can just overlay that photo on the composite.
The Eye Experience software is rolling out HTC devices today. The HTC Desire One is currently only available via AT&T in the US this month. It will also be available in Asia and EMEA this month.
➤ HTC Desire Eye
Framed is pitching its 24 and 40 digital picture frames and an art marketplace on Kickstarter
The idea of a digital photo frame is hardly new, and the idea of having one connected to the internet has also been seen before. Indeed, Electric Objects launched its EO1 digital photo frame on Kickstarter already this month and now Framed wants to get in on the action by attempting to raise $75,000 with its own crowdfunding campaign .
Launching today on Kickstarter, Framed’s digital displays come in either 24-inch or 40-inch models and are designed to let you easily populate your home, office or gallery/display space with digital artworks.
Accompanied by a Framed iOS app which allows you to find new pictures online and send them to your frame in the flick of a finger, each unit also has in-built gesture controls, so you can find and replace content without pressing a button by standing in front of your frame and making a few simple motions. To achieve this it has a 720p camera and motion sensors built in, which can also help you to create reactive artworks.
Supported files include GIFs, videos, various graphics file types and Flash, and there are stereo speakers on board for any videos with audio. Ahead of the Kickstarter launch, Framed has already developed its portal and worked with designers like Aaron Koblin and Universal Everything . Rather than have it as a place of pure consumption though, the Framed platform also functions as a marketplace where you can show-off or sell your own creations.
The 24-inch model is available from pledges of $399 or above, but you’ll need to shell out at least $1,500 to get your hands on the 40-inch version during the crowdfunding campaign. Post-campaign pricing hasn’t yet been set.
While it’s the first consumer-facing screen that Framed has worked on, the first version is actually already installed in a few fashion and design shops in Tokyo, a spokesperson for the company told TNW.
As with all Kickstarter projects, it’s buyer-beware when it comes to what you choose to fund, but with a little production and manufacturing experience already under its belt, that’s one potentially tricky hurdle that Framed has some experience in navigating.
➤ FRAMED — A Revolutionary Platform For Digital Art [Kickstarter]