I should be working tonight, but I’ve been sucked into my wildly out of control bloglines feeds, helped along by some link-filled email dialogs with friends about net freedom (some of which may make it into an Essay in the near future — you’ve been warned). Sometimes it’s best to just give in and go with the flow.
So, Bob is talking here about Kodak’s new EasyShare One wi-fi camera (gizmodo review here). Nice looking machine, and what could be cooler than snapping a pic and having it wirelessly uploaded to a central server. No messing with flash cards or USB cables. Take the pics and away they go. Kodak has even kindly arranged for all T-Mobile hot spots to let you upload for free (in the US that means all Starbucks) — what could be better than that?
Well, I’ll join Bob in telling you what could be better: Letting you actually access your photos later without paying through the nose would be better. Bob writes:
you lose ownership of your own pictures. Or maybe you shouldn’t think of them as yours — they effectively belong to Kodak and you get only controlled access
and,
This is part of the larger trend that is fighting to keep control. The record industry doesn’t want to let you have any control over the bits you buy and Tellywood wants to wrap everything in a very tight DRM straightjacket
but you should really click-through to his post for his analysis.
This is a classic example of a company seeing an emerging technology (ubiquitous wireless), and trying to use it in a fashion that puts customers at their mercy. In my world view, this is not the way to try to succeed in business. And it’s sad to see a great brand give in to the dark side, but I don’t really know their history and maybe they’ve been Sith for a long time.
And, just for grins, I wonder how long it will be till someone hacks some new firmware for the camera that let’s you upload over Google’s free wi-fi network to flickr? Now that’s something I could use.
I currently use a Kodak EasyShare DX 6490 (in addition to a Canon Elph, which I like for its portability, but not its picture quality) and am on a waiting list for an EasyShare 1 wi-fi camera. Though Bob makes good points about some scary trends in the management of Intellectual Property rights by corporations, I need to stick up for my new camera:
The EasyShare 1 ABSOLUTELY DOES give the owner access to the photos that he or she takes. It has both a memory stick port and the same docking ability the other cameras in the series have. And the main reason that I’m buying it is that it allows me to upload photos to a PC or Mac via wi-fi, which means to me that I’ll be sending photos to family and friends in a much more timely manner.