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USB film rolls let you store your photos the old-fashioned way

Did you ever wonder what happens to those film canisters after you drop them off at the lab? What? You don’t know what I’m talking about? OK. Let me start over.

Many years ago, back through the swirling mists of time, cameras saved their pictures on a special kind of memory card. It was called “film”, and came in long strips, rolled up into a brightly-colored, metal-and-plastic tin. The clever thing about film is that it was both an SD card and sensor rolled into one. The bad part was that the sensor stayed on all the time, so that if you opened up a canister it would suck up all the light and the photos would be gone forever.

We took these films to special labs where they would unfurl them in darkened rooms and bathe them in magical potions. Then, a couple days later, you would go pick up your photos. Only they weren’t photos. They were pieces of paper with pictures printed on them. It was kind of like an iPad, but way thinner and you needed one for each picture. Also, no pinch-to-zoom.

So, now you know what a film canister is. And so you may appreciate these retrofitted canisters which let you store your photographs as God intended: on a USB stick. These repurposed cans come from real labs, so you never know what brand you’ll get, and they each hold 4GB (did I mention that when they were first used, these can held a maximum of 36 photos?)

The USB Film Roll can be had now from Photojojo for $20 each.

USB Film Roll [Photojojo. Thanks]

See Also:

• Digital Film Concept Could Resurrect Dead Film Cameras
• Toshiba Announces Write-Once SD Card, Film Nerds Rejoice
• Field Notebook Records EXIF Metadata for Film Photographs

New Yorkers, this is your “Taxi of Tomorrow.” After two years of deliberation, Nissan’s NV200 was chosen as the city’s exclusive taxi yesterday, edging out models from Ford Motor Co. and Turkish manufacturer Karsan. The four-passenger van is slated to hit New York’s streets in late 2013, after which it will be gradually phased in on a more widespread basis. With a manufacturer suggested retail price of around $29,000, the commodious NV200 boasts a 2.0L 4-cylinder powertrain, transparent roof panel, driver navigation system, overhead reading lights and a mobile charging unit, replete with a 12V outlet and two USB ports. Nissan also placed an emphasis on passenger and pedestrian safety, with front and rear-seat curtain airbags, standard traction control and an external lighting system designed to alert others when the NV200’s doors are opening. The van’s microbial seat fabric should help assuage the fears of many germophobes, while its “low-annoyance” horn promises to put a (probably miniscule) dent in the city’s noise pollution. Mayor Bloomberg definitely won’t realize his all-hybrid dreams by 2012, but Nissan has agreed to participate in a forthcoming EV pilot program, involving up to six of the company’s electric LEAFs. Until then, New Yorkers will have plenty of time to get used to the city’s new soccer mom approach to taxi transport. Cruise past the break for full PR and video.

Continue reading Nissan NV200 van named NYC’s ‘Taxi of Tomorrow,’ Travis Bickle cringes (video)

Nissan NV200 van named NYC’s ‘Taxi of Tomorrow,’ Travis Bickle cringes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 15:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Soon enough you’ll be able to transfer photos from your digital camera straight to your Xoom, provided you’re willing to shell out $20 for the Xoom Camera Connection Kit. We already knew that the tablet was capable of reading USB drives with a little trickery, but Motorola’s upcoming update will officially unlock that functionality (albeit in a limited form). The glorified micro-USB cable isn’t available online yet, but we’ve heard if you call Verizon and ask nicely for item number MOTMZ600ADPKIT they’re more than happy to send one your way. If asking for a random series of letters and numbers seems a little strange, just pretend you’re a secret agent and it’s some kind of cipher — preferably one that doesn’t remind you to drink your Ovaltine.

Xoom Camera Connection Kit makes us lust for Photoshop on Honeycomb originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 11:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This wouldn’t be the first time a company repackages old routers for the new year, but to be fair, there haven’t been many technological advances recently for them to do much else. Belkin happens to be one such company, which has just announced five N-series 802.11n WiFi routers ranging from $39.99 (N150 at up to 150Mbps) all the way up to $129.99 (N750 at up to 450Mbps with dual band and USB). Frankly, a quick glance at the specifications doesn’t show much of an improvement from last year’s models, and that “exclusive” MultiBeam range-extending technology seems to be just a fancy name for MIMO. Still, you gotta give it to Belkin’s designers for the new chassis design — we much prefer this rounded look to the previous boxes. You can now grab an N150, N300, or N600 DB in the shops, whereas the N450 and flagship N750 DB will be showing up in mid-May. See press release after the break for the full details.

Continue reading Belkin repackages old wireless routers for its new N-series lineup

Belkin repackages old wireless routers for its new N-series lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This one’s been a long time comin’, but the iTunes forced backup / syncing issue is no less real today than it was a decade ago when iTunes began to play a larger-than-life role in the operation of Apple’s iDevices. As it stands, it’s effectively impossible to use an iPhone, iPad or iPod without also using iTunes, and while Apple’s done an exemplary job ensuring that it works with most major platforms (yes, Windows included), there’s one nagging question that just won’t go away: why?

Continue reading Editorial: Hey Apple, why does it take an hour to put an album on my iPod?

Editorial: Hey Apple, why does it take an hour to put an album on my iPod? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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