These reusable digital Polaroids are a clever way to cover a fridge in memories
These reusable digital Polaroids are a clever way to cover a fridge in memories
这些可重复使用的数字拍立得是装饰冰箱的巧妙方式
I love when my friends have their fridges covered in Polaroids. It’s often a visual crash course of what’s been going on in their lives chronicling recent adventures, get-togethers, and other fun moments. But I don’t love the idea of schlepping around a clunky instant camera or paying a premium for instant film with hit-or-miss results. That’s why I’m infatuated with these magnetic digital Polaroids from a small company called VidaBay. They look like instant photos, but use NFC tech and color E Ink screens so you can change the image as often as you want without ever having to charge a battery.
我喜欢看到朋友们的冰箱上贴满拍立得照片。这就像是一场视觉速成课，记录着他们近期的冒险、聚会和其他有趣的瞬间。但我并不喜欢随身携带笨重的拍立得相机，也不想花高价购买那些效果不稳定的相纸。这就是为什么我迷上了这家名为 VidaBay 的小公司推出的磁吸数字拍立得。它们看起来就像即时成像照片，但利用了 NFC 技术和彩色电子墨水屏，让你无需充电即可随时更换图片。
At roughly 4mm thick and 2.5 inches in size, the VidaBay NFC E-Paper Fridge Magnet — also known as the Snap — reminds me of Xteink’s tiny X3 e-reader, but it doesn’t have any buttons, ports, or connectors. The Snap is more like a very tiny version of the Aura Ink digital photo frame you can stick to your fridge.
VidaBay NFC 电子纸冰箱贴（又称 Snap）厚度约为 4 毫米，尺寸为 2.5 英寸。它让我想起了 Xteink 的小型 X3 电子阅读器，但它没有任何按钮、接口或连接器。Snap 更像是一个可以贴在冰箱上的超微型 Aura Ink 数字相框。
The Snap uses the same kind of NFC chip that lets your smartphone double as your credit or debit card. Using an accompanying mobile app, images are wirelessly transferred by aligning your smartphone’s NFC antenna to the one located inside the lower left corner of the Snap.
Snap 使用的 NFC 芯片与让智能手机充当信用卡或借记卡的芯片类型相同。通过配套的移动应用程序，只需将智能手机的 NFC 天线对准 Snap 左下角的内置天线，即可无线传输图像。
Changing the photo the Snap displays takes about 25 to 30 seconds. While the actual image transfer is a 10-second process, the rest of the time is used to refresh the Snap’s E Ink screen. Unlike devices such as the Kindle Colorsoft that use a black and white e-paper screen overlaid with a color filter so screen refreshes happen almost instantly, the Snap uses e-paper with multiple color pigments that take much longer to refresh. The results look better, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for them.
更换 Snap 显示的照片大约需要 25 到 30 秒。虽然实际的图像传输过程只需 10 秒，但其余时间用于刷新 Snap 的电子墨水屏。与 Kindle Colorsoft 等使用黑白电子纸覆盖彩色滤光片从而实现近乎即时刷新的设备不同，Snap 使用的是带有多种彩色颜料的电子纸，刷新速度较慢。虽然显示效果更好，但你确实需要多等一会儿。
The process of updating the Snap with a new image using NFC is easy once you master it, but it can take a few attempts to get there. Out of the box the device comes with a plastic screen protector that’s printed with a guide so you know exactly how to position your smartphone to ensure the NFC antennas line up. But the guide only works for the iPhone. Android is also supported, but it’s up to you to figure out exactly where your device’s NFC chip is located which can take some trial and error. The Snap and your smartphone also need to be held very close for the NFC pairing to work – closer than a case allows. The process doesn’t work with my iPhone 16 Pro inside a leather Nomad case, and even the thin silicone case protecting my OnePlus 12 was too thick for the NFC transfers to succeed.
一旦掌握了技巧，使用 NFC 更新 Snap 的图像非常简单，但可能需要几次尝试才能成功。设备开箱时附带一个塑料屏幕保护膜，上面印有指南，让你知道如何放置智能手机以确保 NFC 天线对齐。但该指南仅适用于 iPhone。虽然也支持 Android，但你需要自己摸索手机 NFC 芯片的具体位置，这可能需要一些反复试验。此外，Snap 和智能手机必须靠得非常近才能完成 NFC 配对——比手机壳允许的距离还要近。我的 iPhone 16 Pro 套上 Nomad 皮套后无法使用，甚至我保护 OnePlus 12 的薄硅胶壳也太厚，导致 NFC 传输无法成功。
One of the many advantages of E Ink’s display tech is that, similar to an Etch A Sketch or Magna Doodle toy, once an image is formed it remains on screen without any additional power. That’s why e-readers have such excellent battery life. The Snap comes with a 2.5-inch E Ink screen, and while it uses color technology similar to what you’ll find in large, vibrant, and expensive E Ink posters, it’s actually a repurposed Spectra 3100 screen that E Ink specifically developed for retail use as an electronic shelf label.
电子墨水显示技术的一大优势在于，它类似于“绘图板”玩具，一旦图像形成，无需额外电力即可保持显示。这就是电子阅读器续航能力如此出色的原因。Snap 配备了 2.5 英寸电子墨水屏，虽然它使用的彩色技术与大型、鲜艳且昂贵的电子墨水海报类似，但实际上它使用的是 E Ink 专门为零售电子货架标签开发的 Spectra 3100 屏幕。
They’re cheaper, but the Snap’s color screen is also limited to only displaying black, white, red, and yellow, which limits its ability to accurately reproduce colors. It’s a big tradeoff, but not necessarily a dealbreaker. The VidaBay mobile app lets you crop, zoom, rotate, add filters, and make basic brightness, contrast, and color saturation adjustments to images selected from your phone’s camera roll. Because the transfer process can take upwards of 30 seconds, the app also generates a preview of what the image will look like on the Snap’s four-color screen.
虽然成本更低，但 Snap 的彩色屏幕仅限于显示黑、白、红、黄四色，这限制了其色彩还原的准确性。这是一个很大的权衡，但未必是无法接受的缺点。VidaBay 移动应用允许你对手机相册中的照片进行裁剪、缩放、旋转、添加滤镜，并进行基本的亮度、对比度和色彩饱和度调整。由于传输过程可能需要 30 秒以上，该应用还会生成一张预览图，让你预见图像在 Snap 四色屏幕上的显示效果。
After using the Snap for a couple of weeks I have a better idea of what images will look good on its E Ink screen, and which won’t. Brighter photos with lots of contrast work well, as do photos with color palettes leaning toward reds and yellows. Blue and green areas in an image end up completely desaturated instead of disappearing, but the results aren’t entirely unpleasant. The limitations of the Spectra 3100 screen actually result in color images reminiscent of the lo-fi aesthetic of classic Polaroid photos.
在使用 Snap 几周后，我更清楚什么样的照片在电子墨水屏上效果更好。对比度高、色彩明亮的照片效果不错，偏向红黄调的照片也表现良好。图像中的蓝色和绿色区域最终会完全失去饱和度，而不是消失，但效果并不难看。Spectra 3100 屏幕的局限性反而产生了一种让人联想到经典拍立得照片低保真美学的色彩效果。