Filed under: Accessories, Peripherals, iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage
Polaroid: Help us convince Apple to add Bluetooth transfer support
We received an interesting email this morning from Polaroid -- they are asking for the assistance of iPhone owners to convince Apple to provide Bluetooth transfer support for the platform. Adding Bluetooth transfer support would make it possible for the iPhone to print to the new Polaroid PoGo Instant Mobile Printer (photo at right). The PoGo (US$99.95) is a pocket-sized inkless printer that prints full-color photos from cell phones using Bluetooth. Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn't have Bluetooth transfer capabilities, although a solution for jailbroken iPhones has been in the news lately. As a result, the PoGo and iPhone don't play together.
Polaroid would like to change that:
To encourage Apple to become compatible with the Polaroid Pogo printer, we are asking iPhone owners to submit an enhancement request form at the following link and to express their interest for better Bluetooth transfer capabilities including OPP profile so they can print to the Polaroid Pogo printer.Would you consider a pocket printer for your iPhone if Apple made the necessary changes to the OS? Leave us feedback.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
Thanks in advance for your help!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Nezza said 4:11PM on 1-30-2009
I already have a Pogo. Pretty cool in that Polaroid way, I use it to add photos to my journal as they are just the right size.
It does annoy me that I can't use it with my iPhone. I can use it with my Mac, my friends Eee, my brothers £30 POS mobile phone, but I can't use it with the one phone to rule them all? Bah!
They can also fix the Bluetooth to support A2DP as well.
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Andrew said 10:37PM on 1-30-2009
Hmm maybe its Polaroid that needs to fix the PoGo so it supports transfers over WiFi from the iPhone.
I believe there is already an app from HP that lets you do just that, print from your iPhone to the HP printer over WiFi. I would love to see that in a little device like the PoGo.
Do it Polaroid! make a iPhone compatible WiFi PoGo.
Michael Redig said 4:12PM on 1-30-2009
Even tho, based on principle, I avoid most Polaroid products, (due to bad experiences with them) I'm 100% with them to do this. There's absolutely no point in making artificial restrictions on what hardware can and can't do.
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Aaron said 3:44PM on 1-31-2009
I wholeheartedly agree.
Flunky Carter said 4:11PM on 1-30-2009
DONE.
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Rodan said 4:19PM on 1-30-2009
I wonder if my chances really went up five times, now that folks have been reminded of the contest. I'm estimating with new people entering who would not have otherwise participated, my chances probably went up by three, so it still helps. Thanks, DDH software, we love free software giveaways at TUAW.
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Brenden said 4:21PM on 1-30-2009
I have a PoGo and usually I don't have a problem just sending pictures from my Mac once I transfer them from my iPhone, but it would be pretty nice to send them straight from the phone to the printer. I knew the iPhone wasn't compatible, but I figured it had to be eventually, either built-in to the phone or perhaps through a special app.
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Devan said 4:20PM on 1-30-2009
It's not just Polaroid. There are so many other (potential) devices-- like mini-projectors debuted at CES, file/photo transfer to other devices, exchanging contacts from Address Book, playing (lightweight) games with other users over bluetooth, GPS antennas. Do it now, Apple!
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Rodan said 4:23PM on 1-30-2009
Sorry, still figuring out 1Passwords autosave function--it saved my previous comment.
My actual comment:
Speaking of which, how about some support for Apple's bluetooth keyboard! Would this take care of that major deficiency?
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bc said 5:45PM on 1-30-2009
IMO part of the problem with Bluetooth is that there are SO many different "profiles" to support. Just because a device supports a Bluetooth keyboard (HID profile i.e. Human Interface Device) does NOT mean it can automatically support file transfer, or audio, or handsfree, or networking, or printing, or sync, or... ... if I recall, there's over 20 different profiles defined by the Bluetooth SIG.
usually these profiles are implemented in firmware of the Bluetooth chip, and with limited ROM space, you simply can't support all profiles. Put another way, the more profiles you support, the more expensive the implementation cost of the Bluetooth subsystem.
of course it would be nice to at least support the few popular ones!! (hint, hint, Apple!) but I can see why some products only have limited support
I notice that Polaroid is asking Apple to support the OPP Object Push Profile, which I think is a subset of the full file transfer profile. OPP was originally designed for simple object transfer, like vcards. So even if Apple supported OPP, you might not be able to use it to do everything you'd expect with full file transfer capability (like creating folders, or browsing directories for example)
anyhow, it's interesting Polaroid is asking users to help ask for this support, it seems logical to do, and the PoGo printer seems like a great little device to use with your iPhone. I hope it will happen, and I hope it opens up other ways to print from your iPhone.
Robert said 4:24PM on 1-30-2009
I wouldn't buy a photo printer for my iPhone, but I definitely want Bluetooth File Transfer on my phone. So, I submitted a request, even though it isn't for the reasons Polaroid wanted.
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Steve Tsuida said 4:29PM on 1-30-2009
Wait wait wait... Polaroid® is still in business? They need to write an app that forces you to shake your iPhone in order to make photos preview on screen, and even then, only after twenty seconds or so.
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Jon said 6:02PM on 1-30-2009
There is an app where you can do that but I forget what it's called.
Aaron said 4:38PM on 1-30-2009
Yeah, sure because all of us asking for "cut & paste" has worked so well!
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brian said 5:26PM on 1-31-2009
While we're at it, I'd also like MMS, video recording, and tethering. And a pony.
Capuozzo said 4:45PM on 1-30-2009
I already own a Pogo and would love to be able to print from it! Pleeze!
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Russ said 4:43PM on 1-30-2009
do it. do it. do it.
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Ben said 4:54PM on 1-30-2009
According to my understanding, they can always create a separate app for it's hardware.
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alex said 5:21PM on 1-30-2009
No they can't. No dev access to the radios.
Reginald E Johnson said 12:26AM on 1-31-2009
Hell, I'll be happy when I can cut and paste, shoot video and or either get Flash so I can look at my email!
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