Tom here today for TGIIF. So, you are throwing a party and you are looking for that unique twist to make it extra special - how about photo-enabling it?

As part of our association with the popular TV show Celebrity Apprentice, Kodak was part of a viewing party at a club in the trendy Soho meat-packing district of New York City. (No one got fired last night, I am not sure if I agree with that but I digress!) We used digital frames, cameras, and printers to make the experience richer for the star-studded guests.

First, we set up some Wi-Fi digital picture frames that were pre-loaded with some Celebrity Apprentice behind-the scenes shots.

btw, our digital picture frames have really taking off. Here is an excerpt of what David Pogue, New York Times technology reviewer said last week:

...But here's the best part: Once you've signed up for a free account at Kodakgallery.com and set up some photo albums there, the frame ''sees'' them immediately and begins a slide show of the albums you select. This is huge. It means that you can give the frame to a technophobic relative and send photos to the frame from thousands of miles away. The lucky recipients wake up each morning and enjoy the updated photos from your life.

The full review is here.

...and there there were more frames - 20 in all!

Next, we had people mingling with the crowd taking digital pictures.

We took those pictures and added them to the set of pix being shown on the frames. Kodak's version of a club mix! We also had our AiO printers on hand to make prints for the guests - they loved them!

Speaking of printers it was also the first birthday of our AiO printer line and our CEO, Antonio Perez, and Donald Trump led the crowd in a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday." All in all it was cool night that was made even cooler with photos!

For more a hardcore description of what it took to set-up this experience in a tiny, uber-cool SoHo club see Mike Telek's post at 1,000 Nerds. For your party you most likely won't need to go to this extreme but if you do just drop a line to Mike - he is an expert now! ;-)

To see more pictures from the bash check out this Gallery album.

It took a lot of reading, re-reading and deliberation, but we have our winners for the three Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One Printers.

Joy Cobb
If I won this printer, it would receive a place of honor here in our home, before possibly being lent out as an attraction to the local gallery that is now showing my photos. I would love to be able to print my Kodak photos on a Kodak printer, instead of sending my work out to print. The flatbed scanner would be invaluable in helping to repair our fire-damaged photos (our old scanner blew up in our gas explosion and hasn't yet been replaced). Having the ability to print images of our lovely rural scenes could help promote tourism to our area. In the competitive spirit of the "Apprentice", I would like to be seriously considered as one of your top Kodak/Trump loyal admirers. The photos I've taken on my two Kodak digital cameras have held their own & won awards worldwide, alongside all the expensive DSLR brands, and I think that's a fine testimonial to Kodak quality!



Joy and her daughter are looking forward to their new Kodak Printer.

Deb Less
I would have my very creative, entrepreneurial 12 year old daughter use the Kodak All-in-One printer in her "card company". She makes note card sets from her fabulous photos, and sells them to family, friends, and even at art shows. She specializes in close-up flower photos, but can be creative with photos of fruit, clouds, textures, water, vacation travels and anything else interesting. She even takes super unique pictures at Hardware stores! Her company is a very good experience for her, and we are so proud that she donates 20% of her profits to her favorite charity (the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network), and we would love for her to have the best Kodak printer to create even more donations in 2008! And, the savings in printing costs would allow her to give a larger percentage to charity. Bring it on!



Deb Less's entrepreneurial daughter jumps for joy and flips out when she finds out they are getting a new Kodak printer.

Robert McCoy
I plan on going to college next year and a Kodak All-in-One 5300 Inkjet Printer would be great!! Everyone knows how expensive college can be but having a Kodak printers make all the difference. I could print up my class work, print pictures of me at school and send them to friends and family. It would save me loads of money on ink cartridges and last longer!! When I think of Kodak products I think of quality, dependability, and savings.



Rob will be taking his printer to college.

Congratulations to the winners!

It is February first and Valentine's Day is on my mind. And chocolate.

If you are looking for a unique Valentine's gift for your sweetie here is a great idea. And it is chocolate.

Download these candy bar wrappers with cute and funny sayings and personalize them with your own pictures in a photo editing program. Print them out on your inkjet printer... say perhaps a Kodak EasyShare All-in-One Printer and wrap them around chocolate bars. (If you don't have a photo editing program, print them out as is, cut the heart out with a craft cutter and glue your photo behind the wrapper so it shows through the cutout) You can find more detailed intstructions here.

This was a fun project to create and I think it's a nice gift to receive. (because it is chocolate)

Plus I got to eat the candy bars after we took the pictures for the project page. Yeah!

Candy Bar Wrappers PDF

- Jenny Cisney