Image: LifePrint
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"You get swept away in that nostalgia," he said. "It's a much warmer experience" than nowadays, when "with the flick of your thumb you can look at 200 photos in less than 2 seconds."And clearly, there’s something about analog media that’s hard to shake. Most people still prefer paperbacks to e-books, and the big hit at the SXSW trade show last week was a DIY machine that reverts digital music files back to vinyl. "There's a tangible difference between looking at that photo through pixels and looking at them in your hand," said Macauley. "It's this ethereal thing. It's hard to put your finger on."Macauley himself was “always the guy showing up at the party with a big Polaroid camera in my hand," he said. Then the company went bankrupt, his camera broke, and it became cost-prohibitive to get your hands on the equipment and film. Soon after that, he got his first iPhone, and photographs became tiny thumbnails behind a glass screen instead of something lining the apartment walls. That’s when the idea for LifePrint started to germinate.The plan is to eventually build out a network of printers so users can search for and follow friends, favorite photographers, or celebrities. The company launched a Kickstarter campaign this morning and is hoping to raise $200,000 to finish developing the printer prototype and bring it to market, at $199. Seems a bit steep when you can already take and share vintage-looking photos instantly, for free. But in the long run, it may still end up cheaper than the dollar-a-photo Polaroid prints—plus you can skip those blurry, off-center ones where you accidentally blinked.