We’ve been at SXSW for about two days and so far we’ve seen several nerds wearing Google Glass, drunk hipsters flooding Sixth Street, Darth Vader pedicabs, and of course, the beloved Grumpy Cat. But there’s been so much more we wish we could document, and those fleeting moments went by so quickly, they were unsnappable. Namely, Molly McHugh thinks she saw Anna Kendrick party hopping last night, and we’re pretty sure we ran past Tumblr CEO David Karp several times (wearing some more Google Glass, no less). Alas, we didn’t have enough time to whip out an iPhone to snap a pic.
So in comes Memoto. The miniature life logging camera made headlines last fall when it broke its Kickstarter funding goal – garnering more than $550,000 from its initial goal of $50,000. We sat down with Memoto chief marketing officer Oskar Kalmaru who flew in from Sweden to show off the prototype of the little camera everyone wants their hands on.
At first glance, the square Memoto camera, measuring just a bit over an inch per side, is extremely light. Once the user has the camera clipped on his or her shirt, bag strap, or jean pocket, the product is virtually unnoticeable. One may think of it as a sneaky spy cam, but it’s designed to blend in naturally, Kalmaru says, so you don’t have to think about document your daily life. Instead, the camera automatically does it for you. Memoto takes a 5-megapixel photo every 30 seconds, essentially creating a stop motion video of your day. It’s also got 8 GB of internal storage and a battery that’ll last for approximately two days of shooting. The photos are initially stored locally, but the final product will also stream pictures straight to a cloud service for backup.
But why live log? For Kalmaru, it’s the little instances of daily life that seem mundane now, but may be precious in the future. “For example,” he says, whipping out the Memoto app on his iPhone, “here is a video of me taking my son to daycare. It’s little moments like these that you want to hold on to – everyone has photos of their first and last day of school but nothing in between. [Memoto] captures the real part of life.”
While the camera specs may not rival that of the latest point-and-shoots or smartphones, the little stop motion clip makes for a good way to create GIFs – especially for those who are obsessed with all things Internet. Users can also drag the video back and forth to find specific moments from the gallery that one may ordinarily miss in real time. Still, not everyone may want to live log every single moment – some parts of life might be better kept intimate and unrecorded. Unfortunately, there is no off button on the Memoto; Once you’re on the boat, you must stay on – unless you take the camera off and store it away.
The Memoto live logging camera will ship late April to early May, with the starting price of $280 plus the cost of online service subscription. Be aware, however, that the final product won’t look as naked as the current prototype. Users will have the option of selecting a Memoto camera in Arctic White, Graphite Gray, Black, and Orange in either a matte or glossy finish.
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