Digital Camera News

Kodak Adds Extras: Picture Frames, DVDs, Insurance, Motorola Options

Las Vegas, Nevada, January 7, 2007 – Along with the announcement of three new EasyShare cameras, Kodak announced today a host of new accessories and service options for Kodak customers. The extras include new digital picture frames with Wi-Fi, more DVD availability, a Picture Protection insurance plan, and Kodak-Motorola connection.

As manufacturers increasingly offer more photo printing and gift options, Kodak is offering a few of its own services besides just cameras for their customers.  Kodak recently released new "Cool Stuff" accessories on their website, including new style-conscious camera pouches, camera skins, and jeweled wrist and neck straps. 

Among Kodak’s new accessories announced today are the Kodak EasyShare Digital Picture Frames for photo and video slideshows, with Wi-Fi capabilities, and links to their EasyShare Gallery photo-sharing site. The photo frames, available in 7, 8, and 10 inches, are compatible with JPEG, VGA, and MP3 formats.  The frames come with built-in speakers, a remote control, and PictBridge compatibility.
The Kodak digital photo frames accept CF, xD, sD memory cards, and flash drives. The frames also come with 128 MB of internal memory.

The 7-inch Kodak EasyShare Digital Picture Frame retails for $129 while the 8-inch frame costs $179.  The 8-inch wireless frame is $229 and the 10-inch wireless frame is $279.  All photo frames will be available in silver, black, matte, and wood grain styles in March.

Along with the digital picture frames, Kodak is also offering more widespread availability for custom DVDs.  Already available to order through the Kodak EasyShare Gallery online, the DVD slideshows will now be available at the Kodak Picture Kiosk at 85,000 retail locations. Users can make personalized slideshows with borders, transition effects, and music that can be played on any standard DVD player or DVD-ROM computer.

Additionally, as part of a ten-year partnership between Kodak and Motorola, Kodak is also announcing cross-branded Motorola phones with Kodak’s signature "Share" button to directly upload camera phone pictures to the EasyShare Gallery.

To help ease the customer’s mind with saving those photos, Kodak is also offering a Picture Protection service for its Premium Gallery users.  For $24.99, a user can become a Premium member, receiving insurance in case of the dreaded computer crash, flood, fire, or any other disaster that destroys digital photos.  The Picture Protection plan offers up to $500 in reimbursement for EasyShare Gallery publishing such as prints, photo books, DVDs.

Finally, Kodak announced plans to release Facial Search Technology to sort through images on a PC computer.  "Kodak will be demonstrating a Facial Search application that makes it easier to find pictures of friends and family buried on hard drives in folders and albums," stated a company press release today.  Although more details have not yet been released, consumers can only guess the upcoming application to be something along the lines of an automatic image sorter such as Google’s Picasa or Fuji ’s Face Recognition system in playback mode, not to be confused with Face Detection in recording mode.

Customers will now find more of the Kodak name not just on their cameras, but their digital frames, DVDs, and even on their phones.