When I was at CE Week NY earlier this summer, I met the folks from WowWee, Inc. and talked to them about their upcoming robot products. As we talked, they gave me one of their little selfie camera products called Snap Pets to check out.
The Snap Pets are a line of colorful little alien looking toys that have a bluetooth camera built in. The single button on top turns the Snap Pet on and off, plus is used as the camera shutter button. A curved mirror surface on the front of the camera is perfect for selfies, since it lets the user see themself in a slightly distorted way to line up the camera. The Snap Pet holds up to 10 pictures on the device itself, which are transferred to the iPhone via bluetooth.
Setting up the Snap Pets on the phone is fairly simple. Install the app, select the bluetooth sync from within the app, and follow the simple instructions to connect the Snap Pet to the phone. Once connected, the Snap Pet can transfer any pictures stored on the phone or be used in conjunction with the app. With the app open and the Snap Pet connected, pictures taken with it will be sent directly to the phone or the Snap Pet can be used as a remote to take pictures with the phone.
The Snap Pets is not the highest resolution (VGA at 0.3 megapixels), but that is mainly to keep the transfer times down between the device and the phone. It isn’t bad and obviously works best in well lit areas. It’s also worth noting that the Snap Pet itself makes no noise, so it can be used surreptitiously without anyone else knowing it is being used to take pictures.
The Snap Pets are a cute little device. I am not the target market, and don’t see much use for me, but I can see the younger demographic that it is targeted at to be very into it, snapping selfies and taking pictures without needing to have cellphones with them then transferring the pictures later to their phones or their parents’ phones.
