Polaroid Cube Lifestyle Action Camera
The Polaroid Cube is a delightful little camera that takes still shots and video. Like the name suggests, it’s a tiny cube just 35mm on a side. It sticks to any and all magnetic surfaces—even your dinner fork. It can be tossed around and taken out on the town and record all of life’s oh-so-precious moments. But so can your smartphone. Does being darling make a difference? Yes, but perhaps not enough to justify your $99.
Some gadgets feel like they need to be handled with care until you settle into a comfort zone and they become part of your life. The Cube isn’t one of those. The moment it came out of the package, I was totally comfortable stuffing it in my pocket. I threw it in my bag; I let buddies futz around with it; I accidentally dropped it a few times. It’s solidly built, but super friendly and maneuverable. It just screams: “I’m here for good times! Enjoy me!”
Polaroid commissioned San Francisco-based studio Ammunition to oversee the entire design, and it shows. Wrapped in what feels like a hard rubber eraser with a “retro” rainbow stripe that runs around the perimeter, the Cube is totally adorable. Ammunition’s the company that created the ubiquitous Beats by Dre headphones, so that makes sense: the company is well-familiar with making distinctive products with mass-market appeal. They’ve proven they know how to make something that people not only want to use, but want to be seen using.
There’s only one button on this baby, a nod to the One-Shot Polaroids of yore. A teensy—like, really small—adjacent light swaps from red to green, flashing or steady, to let you know the camera’s current mode. As you switch between them, a series of corresponding beeps will give you an audible heads-up.Here’s how it works: Hold the button down for three seconds and the Cube turns on. Push it once and you’ll snap a still pic, or press it twice and you’ll start to record video and sound. One more touch will stop recording, and another three-second hold will turn it off again. That’s it. It’s super simple…
The Cube comes in blue, red, and black, each water-resistant enough to be splashed or rained on, but you can opt for a waterproof case. There are also tripod, bike, and helmet mounts, a strap, a “bumper” that envelops the body so the whole thing becomes a kind of pendant; and a sweet little headless monkey. The light weight and tiny size of the Cube makes it easy to attach to all kinds of everyday objects.Which brings me to the best part: the super-strong dime size magnet on the flip-side from the on-off button. It’s awesome. Armed with that little sucker, I stuck the Cube to a fork, a knife, the metal stand that holds your pizza at a restaurant, even a bobby pin in my friend’s hair!
This thing is just plain fun. It’s fun to look at, it’s fun to toss around. It’s super simple to operate. It’s durable.I actually really appreciate the fact that the Cube is not Wi-Fi enabled and has no viewscreen. If this had been a smartphone, everyone would have spent time hunched over it to see what kind of footage we got and how we all looked and oh wait let’s take another then upload it to Twitter and has anyone faved it yet? There is something charmingly old school dare I say, nostalgic about having to wait until later to see what you’ve captured. I mean, we snapped a bunch of clips throughout the course of the night way more than we would have on any normal eve but it didn’t take us out of the moment, and no one was bothered about what the results were going to be. If anything, it freed us up and made for even sillier stuff.
Internet Plunder 