Last week, news broke that Kodak was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a long battle with digital photography and the proliferation of photo-sharing apps on the iPhone 4. Lest it be defeated, today at CES Kodak announced two new cameras that integrate with Facebook for easy photo sharing. The cameras also have two anti-social media applications for printing images from Facebook profiles. Kodak is banking on the idea that Facebook users may have a secret desire to print hardcopy photos from their Facebook profiles. Judging by digital-to-print image app Postagram, among others, they might be right.
Kodak offers two Facebook-integrated cameras. The first is the Easyshare Wireless Camera M750, which is Wi-Fi-enabled and works with an app for Apple, Android or Blackberry devices. With this app, users can email images either to an account or directly to the Kodak All-in-One Printers, to the Kodak Gallery or to Facebook. The Playfull Dual Camera is a combo 1080p/60-frame-per-second HD video camera and digital camera. Using the Kodak Share button, users can upload photos to Facebook, email and YouTube.
Kodak also announced two Facebook apps: With My Kodak Moments you can create photo books from Facebook albums. Kodak Photo Collage Print is an app for creating print collages out of Facebook photos.
With iPhone apps like Postcards on the Run and Cards for the iPhone 4S, users snap a photo with their iPhones and send out a real paper card.
This suggests that there’s still a market for smaller collectibles like postcards from friends.
The same could apply to intimate Facebook photos of friends – online or offline, a picture is still worth a thousand words. But do you really want to take that Facebook photo offline?
