By purchasing Kodak’s Digital Imaging business, Brother will also assume the deferred service revenue liability of the business, which equals $67 million. The deal will not close until the court approves it however. The deal has to comply with regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. While the court is still in the process of analyzing the deal, Kodak will be allowed to seek out a better offer for its Digital Imaging business from other buyers, or through a court-approved auction. If all goes well, the deal should close in June.

Kodak’s Digital Imaging business will compliment Brother’s current offering of products and services. Brother will receive a portfolio of scanners, and image capture software and services. All of the products will enhance Brother’s appeal to enterprise users. Dolores Kruchten, the President of Document Imaging for Kodak, says,

“We are pleased that under this agreement with Brother, Document Imaging will continue to strengthen its position as a leader of information capture and management solutions for enterprise customers. Our valued customers will receive the highest quality product, world-class customer service and reseller support that have been the hallmarks of our business.”

Alongside its Document Imaging business, Kodak also hopes to sell its other businesses before the second half of this year. Earlier this year, the courts approved the sale of Kodak’s patents to many major companies, including Google, Apple, and Microsoft, for the grand total of $527 million. Eastman Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in January 2012, and it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy this year.

Curiously, you can plainly see in the background of the photo here the Kodak PIXPRO Digital Camera branding. It’s unclear if this will be the S1′s official name or if that was another camera unveiled during the JK Imaging press conference. We don’t have all the details on the S1 at this point, but we do know it is a mirrorless camera.

That means a new Kodak-branded micro four thirds camera will be coming to market. If you’re somehow unfamiliar with micro four thirds cameras, they offer interchangeable lenses and significantly reduced size compared to normal DSLR cameras. That significantly reduced size is thanks to the fact that micro four thirds offerings don’t have the mirror system required of a DSLR.

The few specifications that JK Imaging is promising for the camera include Wi-Fi connectivity and apparently the camera will have some sort of smartphone interactivity. I would assume it would have the ability to shoot images over to your smartphone to share on the go. The camera is supposed to release in Q3 of this year at an unannounced price.

[via The Verge]

That certainly seems like a significant amount of money, but it’s actually a very depressing amount for Kodak. The company was originally hoping to net $2 billion for the sale of its patents, so the amount it’s actually getting is a fair bit less than its target. In any case, Kodak will now use this money to climb out of bankruptcy, hopefully becoming a more efficient company in the process.

What’s more, this sale marks the end of a lot of patent litigation for Kodak, which is most important aspects of this deal. In all, 1,100 patents were sold off, but Google, Microsoft, and Apple weren’t the only buyers. It seems that a lot of big names were interested in snagging some Kodak patents, with companies like Facebook, Huawei, RIM, Adobe, Samsung, and Fujifilm also participating in the purchase.

Now Kodak has a tough road ahead of it. It’s never easy for a company to bounce back from bankruptcy, and it might be even harder for Kodak considering how much ground it has lost in recent years. Still, shedding a lot of pending litigation while raising a little cash on the side is definitely a good start, so we’ll just have to watch and see what happens to Kodak from here on out.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Other companies who bought digital imaging patents from Kodak include Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, Adobe, Fujifilm, Huawei, HTC, and Shutterfly. The auctioned patents — more than 1,100 of which related to the capture, manipulation and sharing of digital images — were previously estimated to be worth as much as $2.6 billion.

However, a spokesperson for Kodak said that the sold patents are just a fraction of the company’s complete portfolio. Kodakd retains ownership of about 9,600 other patents for their ongoing businesses. Furthermore, the patent buyout resolves all patent-infringement lawsuits between Kodak and the 12 companies mentioned above.

Kodak needed to sell these digital imaging patents for at least $500 million, according to an agreement made last month. This would help obtain $830 million in financing to exit bankruptcy in the first half of 2013. The patent sale had to be agreed upon by January 31 and must close by February 28.

[via Reuters]

According to Kodak, “a portion” of the roughly $525m will be paid by each of the licensees, each company getting the rights to use patents in the portfolio, as well as “certain other Kodak patents.” Another chunk will be stumped up by Intellectual Ventures itself, which will net it the patents – as well as the new licensees.

Conspicuous by its absence is an official list of all the involved parties, however. According to Kodak, the twelve-strong consortium of buyers and licensees was led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation; no other firm gets a name-check.

However, both Apple and Google are believed to have been involved in the purchasing process, having each supposedly attempted to buy the patents independently for a lesser sum. Tellingly, Apple had worked with Intellectual Ventures on its previous bid (as well as Microsoft), while Google had worked with RPX Corporation (as well as several Android device manufacturers).

“This proposed transaction enables Kodak to repay a substantial amount of our initial DIP loan,” Kodak CEO Antonio M. Perez said of the sale, ”satisfy a key condition for our new financing facility, and position our Commercial Imaging business for further growth and success.”

Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy back in January of this year, showing $5.1 billion in assets and $6.5 billion in debt. That debt includes a rather hefty $950 million Citigroup loan, which Kodak will pay off in part with the money it makes from the patent sales. If all goes as planned, Kodak anticipates being out of bankruptcy by June 2013.

It is not uncommon for companies to form a group and jointly bid on patents. Before joining up, Apple and Google both led their own groups in pursuit of the patents. Apple was joined by the likes of Microsoft and Intellectual Venture Management LLC, while Google was joined by manufacturers of Android smartphones and the RPX Corporation. The offers for the patents fell between $150 million and $250 million.

Recent examples of companies jointly acquiring patents includes 2011′s band of Apple, RIM, EMC, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony shelling out $4.5 billion for 6,000 Nortel Networks patents and patent applications. Google did not offer a comment when questioned about the matter, saying only that it doesn’t comment on rumors. Likewise, Apple has remained silent amidst the speculation.

[via Bloomberg]

All of you Apple dissenters will definitely want to watch the iPhone 5 get destroyed by some powerful lasers, and Sharp reassured today that it’s making plenty of iPhone 5 screens, which are rumored to be the bottleneck on production. Today we got a closer look at the vibrator inside the iPhone 5, and learned that it costs less than $1 to charge your iPhone for an entire year. Microsoft has assured that it has tested Windows 8 thoroughly ahead of next month’s launch, and it seems that Kodak will soon be dropping out of the inkjet printer business.

Google now lets YouTube creators re-download their movies in their original format, and the FCC has approved an auction to reclaim broadcast TV spectrum. HP has launched Open webOS 1.0, and Amazon gave us a little video detailing the technology behind the Kindle Paperwhite. Good news for all of you Call of Duty fans: Modern Warfare 3 is free-to-play on Steam this weekend, and there are rumors floating around that HP will soon be jumping back into the mobile market.

Microsoft was spotted lamenting the lack of highly skilled technology workers today, and Notch is refusing to certify Minecraft for Windows 8, despite Microsoft’s requests. For the first time ever, Instagram has beat Twitter when it comes to daily mobile users, Sony has invested $640 million into slowly dying camera company Olympus, and a new BlackBerry 10 video gives us our first look at RIM’s new QWERTY device. Finally tonight, Chris Davies takes an up-close look at RIM’s Q2 results, which were posted yesterday, while Chris Burns has a new review of the movie LOOPER, starring Bruce Willis and Jason Gordon-Levitt. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy your weekend everyone!

Kodak won’t be jumping out of the printer business entirely, though. Even though they’re dumping all of their consumer inkjet printers out the window, the company plans to continue its business in the commercial printing industry. The market for consumer-level inkjet printers hasn’t been on any kind roll lately, since a lot of users are going digital and sharing documents over computers and mobile devices.

We’re also not too surprised that Kodak is killing yet another part of their business. Earlier in the year they dropped their digital camera business shortly after they filed for bankruptcy. And later in the year, they recorded a $366 million loss. Kodak expects to lay off 200 more people, on top of the 2,700 they already laid off this year.

Kodak said it expects to lose $90 million just for shutting down its consumer printing business. However, the company will continue to support its current inkjet printers by continuing to sell ink to its existing customers. The company also mentioned that it may abandon its efforts to auction of 1,000 of its digital imaging patents (which was attracting little attention anyway), and set up a new licensing company to help repay creditors instead.

[via Fox Business]

This verdict comes on the same day that Tim Cook wraps up his first year as Apple CEO, and elsewhere in the world, a similar lawsuit between Apple and Samsung ended with both companies facing bans in South Korea. Ouch. After a bit of a shake up at the OnLive headquarters, things seem to have calmed down a bit, and Steve Perlman will be staying on as OnLive CEO. LG has teased an incoming smartphone with an S4 quad-core processor, and Google’s legendary I’m Feeling Lucky button has been given a pretty major update. It isn’t the same I’m Feeling Lucky button it once was, of course, but we think it’ll begin to grow on you after awhile.

The presidential campaigns will soon begin receiving donations through text messages, and the Nikon D600 full-frame DSLR camera may be getting a release in September. Speaking of cameras, beleaguered Kodak has come up with a new way to raise some quick cash after patent auctions left something to be desired. The much-rumored iPad Mini has apparently popped up in some photos for a pre-fab case, and it seems that Samsung has a new smartphone called the Galaxy Stellar coming to Verizon, which is all well and good, but Samsung actually has yet to announce the phone or release a list of specs.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has beaten the iPad when it comes to profit margins, and for the third time this week, Rockstar has released a new batch of Grand Theft Auto V screenshots. Astronomers have discovered a pair of new spiral galaxies that have a lot in common with our own, and it would appear that Amazon has leaked its tablet plans through a new advertisement. Wrapping up the news tonight, Facebook is having its developers use the Facebook app for Android in order to get them motivated to fix it, or at least that’s what the rumors say.

As is usually the case here at SlashGear, we didn’t just have news for you today, as Chris Burns provides a review of SuperTooth DISCO 2 for you to check out. Have a good weekend everyone!

Kodak has now announced that it intends to sell its consumer film, photo kiosks, and commercial scanner businesses. Kodak will get assistance from Lazard Ltd as it tries to sell the units with the hope of completing the sales in the first half of 2013. Once the sale of Kodak’s personal imaging and document imaging units are complete Kodak will only have inkjet printers and commercial film units left.

Kodak’s commercial film unit sells film stock to the movie industry. Kodak is working on an extended patent auction as it attempts to raise money and interest in two different patent portfolios. So far, courts have prevented Apple from filing suit against Kodak over some of the patents Kodak wants to sell. Apple alleges that it owns some of the Kodak patents after it and Kodak worked together on a digital camera in the 90s.

The court previously ruled against Apple on two of the patents in question saying that Apple had waited too long to assert its ownership claim. The court has also previously denied Kodak a summary judgment on eight other patents stating that Kodak could renew its request with more details. Kodak says that 20 parties have signed agreements to view confidential information ahead of offering bids on the patent portfolios. Kodak and its creditors have agreed to extend the patent auction deadline beyond August 13. Apple expected the two patent portfolios to sell for around $2.6 billion. Sources claim that bids submitted so far have only been around $150 million-$250 million.

[via Bloomberg]

Apple’s patent auction has moved ahead and the first round of bids are in, and they’re much lower than previous valuations. Kodak maintains that the patents could be worth as much as $2.6 billion since it announced it would auction off the portfolios. The initial bids are said to be much lower than that amount. Low starting bids could mean Kodak doesn’t have the money left over after paying creditors that it thought it would.

The WSJ reports that people familiar the process are saying two investor groups, with one representing Apple and the other representing Google, submitted starting bids around $150 million-$250 million. That range is a fraction of the $2.6 billion Kodak was hoping for. However, the auction is far from done and with tension between Apple and Google, bids could skyrocket as each tries to keep the other from winning the patents.

During a bankruptcy hearing in January a Kodak attorney told the court that the company thought the patents were worth between $2.2 billion and $2.6 billion. However, the WSJ reports an unnamed source says that a winning bid of $600 million would be “healthy for the patents.” Kodak is trying to sell 1100 patents.

[via WSJ]

Judge George Daniels has denied Apple’s request to move its patent suit against Kodak into his courtroom. Judge Daniels said that before Apple could have the case moved to his court, Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper, overseeing Kodak’s bankruptcy proceedings, must rule on key issues. Daniels said that Gropper should have “an opportunity to render a decision on the motion and to have an opportunity to control and move forward the process.”

Kodak has already filed suit against Apple accusing Apple of interfering with its plans to sell its patent portfolio by claiming ownership of 10 inventions the two companies worked on together. Those 10 inventions are covered in various patents that Apple claims Kodak filed for alone when both companies worked on the technology. The product the two companies worked on together included the QuickTake digital camera.

and[via Appleinsider]

The blow to Kodak was more than simply losing in its intellectual property case against both Apple and RIM. The court ruled that the patent, which Kodak had been making money licensing already, was invalid. The patent in question has to do with the way images are previewed on digital cameras and is one of the about 1100 patents Kodak is trying to sell.

With one patent in the portfolio been ruled invalid, bids will likely be significantly lower than they would have previously. Kodak’s says that the patent in question had been ruled valid in prior cases, and that it intended to appeal the ruling.

“Any time one of your prime assets is considered invalid, it hurts the overall value of your patents in a major way,” says Dean Becker, chief executive of ICAP Patent Brokerage.

[via WSJ]

Another big problem for Kodak and its patent auction plans was that Apple, and a company called FlashPoint objected to some of the patents that Kodak planned to put up for auction. Apple claimed ownership of 10 of the patents Kodak is trying to sell as part of a Kodak and Apple collaboration on the QuickTake camera in the 90s. Kodak denied either of the two companies own any of the patents in its portfolio.

Despite Apple’s objections and claims of ownership for some of the patents, the court cleared the way for buyers to submit bids on a confidential basis for the auction expected to be held early next month. The auction will be for two patent bundles with one containing about 700 patents covering image capture, processing, and transmission technologies for digital cameras and other devices. The second portfolio has about 400 patents covering tools for image analysis, manipulation, tagging, and more.

“The Apple and FlashPoint claims are baseless and Kodak will still seek dismissal on summary judgment in July,” Timothy Lynch, Kodak Vice President and Chief Intellectual Property Officer, said.

[via AFP]

Kodak has been trying to attract what’s known as a Stalking-Horse bidder on its patent portfolio. This sort of bid is when a company comes in and bids a set amount to generate interest in the auction. Typically, if the Stalking-Horse bidder is outbid, they get some sort of breakup fee as a consolation. According to analysts, this sort of bidder usually increases the selling price of the stock portfolio by creating urgency with other bidders. Much of the reason for Kodak’s inability to generate interest in its patent auction stems from a court ruling that a key patent Kodak held was invalid. That key patent had to do with image previewing for digital cameras.

The reason that invalidation hurt Kodak so much was because it was considered the crown jewel patent for one of two portfolios going up for auction. Kodak has been using that patent for two years in an effort to squeeze licensing fees out of major smartphone makers, including Apple and RIM. Kodak has previously said it will appeal the court’s ruling in patent. If Kodak fails to attract a Stalking-Horse bidder, it could be forced to liquidate patents and other assets hurting its chances of generating the revenue needed to emerge from bankruptcy.

[via WSJ]

The judge found that the iPhone 3G and several of RIM’s devices did violate the patent, but the “obviousness” of the idea made it invalid. Kodak was hoping to secure a ban against Apple and RIM products in the United States relating to this patent, but the judge in the case has made sure that won’t happen. It also raises questions about the value of Kodak’s patent portfolio if it can’t stand up in a legal battle. The company says it will appeal the verdict, however.

It also has implications for the current licenses to the patent. Samsung and LG have paid a combined sum of $1 billion to Kodak for its use, and the company has agreements with a total of 32 companies. The patent potentially applies to tablets that includes cameras as well, another area of revenue that could now be lost due to this ruling.

[via WSJ]

The reactor was kept securely in a bunker with two-foot concrete walls, and was decommissioned in 2006. When the uranium was removed in November 2007, it was taken away in protective containers and escorted by armed guards. While the facility was mentioned in several research papers and a few public documents on federal websites, its existence was otherwise restricted information following security concerns after 9/11.

Experts are perplexed as to how Kodak acquired the material. Miles Pomper, senior research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Washington, told the Democrat and Chronicle: “It’s such an odd situation because private companies just don’t have this material.” That doesn’t mean Kodak were plotting anything nefarious, using the reactor to check materials for impurities and in neutron radiography testing.

[via Gizmodo]

Featured: Here are some of this week’s featured articles:
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You want a Galaxy S III, not a Google Galaxy Nexus

Other Stuff: Of course, lots of other stuff made news this week as well. HTC is working on a Facebook phone, but will it be terrible? And we have even more news on the Nexus front, which is that Samsung is rumored to be making Google’s next Nexus.  A nice bit of news for all you Google people out there – Gmail gets 10GB bump plus Google Drive bonuses. Speaking of cloud-based things, Apple is also doing quite well in that space: Apple’s iCloud hits 125 million users since launch. And finally, in other Apple news, we have a new bit of info about what could be a new entry in the iPhone family – iPhone mini will be half the size

Kodak has attributed the continued downward spiral to its disappearing traditional, film-based business, declining digital camera sales, and a one-time $61 million revenue cut from a tax refund. The company also recently decided to shed its digital camera business altogether.

Its cost cutting measures did save them $84 million compared to the same quarter th e year before. It also consolidated its Consumer and Commercial business segments, which both saw slight improvements. The last time Kodak turned a profit was sadly back in 2007. The once iconic brand has been struggling with restructuring since and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this past January.

[via MarketWatch]

The terms of the deal will have Kodak transferring all Gallery customer accounts and images from the US and Canada to Shutterfly. Users of Kodak Gallery could create public or private galleries and upload photos to the service. The Kodak service has 75 million users today and customers who don’t want their photos transferred to Shutterfly will have that option.

I’d wager most of those Kodak Gallery account holders wouldn’t care who hosts their photos since many were probably only using the Kodak service because it was highly integrated with some Kodak digital cameras. Kodak and Shutterfly need the approval of bankruptcy courts before the deal can complete. Shutterfly has been on a buying spree over the last year and previously acquired TinyPrints for $300 million.

[via Techcrunch]

The news marks the end of an era for Kodak, which was founded back in 1889 – the camera pictured above is one of the first to be sold by the company. Unfortunately for the business, it reacted too slowly to the rise of digital imaging, finding its products outclassed by cheap digital models from rivals and subsequently cannibalized by photo-capable smartphones.

Today, three-fourths of Kodak’s total revenues come from its digital businesses, though those include Digital and Functional Printing, Enterprise Services and Solutions, and Graphics, Entertainment and Commercial Films units. The company expects to incur a $30m one-off cost in shuttering its digital camera arm, though that should be more than offset by the predicted $100m yearly operating cost savings.

Kodak says it has more than 100,000 kiosks and order stations for digital prints worldwide, as well as integration with social networks and online galleries. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-January, after selling off assets including its digital camera sensor business simply to stay afloat.

[Image credit: National Museum of American History]

The Kodak Theatre has been the stage not just for the Oscars but for so many Hollywood spectacles. For the nerds out there, it has also been the setting for many of Nintendo’s E3 press conferences. The theater sits at the majestic Hollywood & Highland outdoor mall and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the area. It has become a staple in the city, rivaling other staples like Staples Center (had to throw that in there). But clearly $75 million is a lot for a company that can’t even afford to pay its own employees.

The story of Kodak, which has itself won a multitude of Academy Awards for innovation in film and theatrical technology, is one that will go down in the annals of the changing tide in America. It will also be a lesson in business textbooks of the future, proving no company is too big, too iconic, too legendary to fail, and everyone needs to not only stay on top of the changing trends, but be the trendmakers themselves.

[via WSJ]

“At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003. Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core IP assets. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company” Antonio M. Perez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kodak

In the meantime, Kodak has managed to organize $950m of debtor-in-possession credit, with Citigroup stepping in with an 18-month deal. The company will use that money to settle its old debts and restructure moving forward.

In the meantime, Kodak will continue to sell its existing range, honor warranties and refunds, and work with suppliers.

Kodak has set up a specific site discussing the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Kodak Transforms, to explain what customers, investors and partners might need to know about the process. Yesterday, the company began what now appears to have been the first step in clawing back cash: suing Samsung over digital imaging patents.

The five patents named in the lawsuit include US Patent No. 6,292,218, US Patent No. 7,210,161, US Patent No. 7,742,084, US Patent No. 7453,605, and US Patent No. 7,936,391. All of which involve the capturing of digital images and transferring of the images over a cellular or wireless network. It’s not clear, however, which Samsung devices are specifically being singled out.

The iconic photography brand is rumored to be on the verge of bankruptcy. It has been attempting to sell off its patent trove to raise enough cash to stay afloat and to transition into a printer company. It’s recent lawsuits appear to be part of its patent marketing efforts to show that it still has some useful IP in its portfolio.

[via Forbes]

The lawsuit claims that Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod as well as HTC’s smartphones and tablets use image transmission technology that infringe on Kodak’s patents, which it has already licensed to over 30 companies, including Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Nokia. It claims to have had numerous discussions with Apple and HTC on the matter but was unable to reach a satisfactory agreement.

The company is requesting the ITC to ban the importation of the infringing Apple and HTC devices, but says that its primary interest is not in disrupting the product flow but to obtain fair compensation. With rumors that Kodak is heading into bankruptcy and attempting to sell its patent trove to stay afloat, this could be a last-ditch effort to market its intellectual property.

[via Cult of Mac]

Kodak is said to be currently in talks with potential lenders for $1 billion of debtor-in possession financing to keep afloat during the bankruptcy filing period. Once under Chapter 11 protection, Kodak will attempt to sell its 1,100 patents via a court-supervised bankruptcy auction and remain in normal operation. The company is still attempting to sell its digital patents in hopes to avoid the bankruptcy filing.

The New York Stock Exchange has already warned Kodak that if it could not turn things around within the next six months that it would be delisted. Its shares have been closing under $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. Once an iconic photography company, Kodak is now attempting to transition into selling commercial and consumer printers.

[via WSJ]

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the WSJ says that Kodak has approached photo-sharing websites, competitors, retailers, and private equity firms about purchasing its Kodak Gallery unit. According to the source, Kodak is seeking “hundreds of millions of dollars” for the unit, but its declining user base isn’t justifying the asking price.

Kodak is aiming to sell about $200 million in non-central assets to help raise $1.3 to $1.4 billion in cash by the end of the year. The money is needed as part of its planned turnaround to transition into selling printers. The company has warned that it could go out of business by next year if it doesn’t gather up enough cash for the next 12 months.

The price of the sale was not disclosed, but Kodak confirmed today that the deal had closed. The company also assured that it was only selling the assets that would not impact its ability to turn itself around into a profitable and sustainable digital company. It would continue to have access to the image sensor technology that was sold as part of the deal.

The technology is used in manufacturing a wide range of high performance solid state image sensor devices and applications, including precision manufacturing inspection, digital radiography, earth imaging satellites, traffic monitoring, DNA sequencing, and studio photography.

Kodak is aiming to gather up $1.3 to $1.4 billion in cash by the end of the year, assuming that it would sell about $200 million in assets that are not central to its operations.

[via WSJ]

For Kodak, it means some much-needed cash to the tune of $10 million, plus undetermined royalty payments for at least ten years. That’s an important chunk of change for a company whose stock has lost three fourths of its value in the last year – shares were up an eyebrow-raising five percent on the news. The licensing deal is part of a $250-350 million plan for the company to pay off its considerable debt.

On IMAX’s part, the new technology will allow it to replace older digital and analog projectors in more of its theaters. IMAX’s equipment is specialized and extremely expensive, so when they upgrade, they intend for it to last. In addition to generally high-quality digital projections, IMAX films using the new patented process will be considerably brighter than their older counterparts. The new projection system is also much more cost-effective, and even for a company that isn’t on the verge of bankruptcy, every penny counts.

This raises an interesting proposition for Kodak, the vanguard of film photography and videography: will the company, now entering its thirteenth decade, become a firm principally composed of its ideas and techniques? With digital competitors like Canon, Nikon, Sony and the rest outpacing them in just about every market except budget point-and-shoots, it might not be bad way for them to continue.

The memory card slot holds up to 32GB cards and you can get the camera with a SD card or without. The camera has a small LCD on the rear and controls for settings, playing video, deleting files and changing from still photo to camcorder mode and vice versa. Power comes for an internal lithium polymer battery.

The camera has 18MB of internal storage in addition to that SD card slot. The camera is also dust and drop proof. The battery is charged and the camera content can be transferred via an integrated USB connector to your computer. Still shots are only 1MP and it will record 720p HD at up to 30 fps. The rear LCD is 2-inches wide and it has 2x digital zoom. The camera with a 4GB SDHC card is $119.95 or $99.95 for the camera alone and it will launch this fall.

Like the original, the new EasyShare Touch M5370 features a 3-inch capacitive touchscreen LCD and 5X wide-angle Schneider-Kreuznach optics. It also offers special shooting modes such as Kodak Film effects, photobooth, and more than 20 scene modes. The large touchscreen lets you easily tap the screen to add effects like background blur or spot color.

A face recognition and tagging feature recognizes up to five faces at a time and lets you add names to the pictures. There’s a one-touch share button that marks the photo for sharing by email or through social networks such as Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. The photos are shared automatically when the camera docks.

The Kodak EasyShare Touch M5370 comes in four colors, including silver, blue, pink, and red. It should be available later this fall and is priced at $179.95.

[via Kodak]

With consumers and small businesses becoming more connected and mobile, Kodak has produced the Hero printers to meet the demands of this new lifestyle. The Hero printers work with Google Cloud Print as well as Kodak Email Print, allowing users to send documents or photos to the printers from any internet-connected device, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets.

“Google Cloud Print feature lets users print from an app, on any device, to any printer without the need for drivers or a PC connection,” said Google Product Management Director Mike Jazayeri. “The service works with existing printers as well as with a new generation of Google Cloud Print Ready printers, so we’re very excited that Kodak’s new HERO All-in-One Printers support the service.”

There are five models in the series with the top of line being the Kodak Hero 9.1, followed by 7.1, Office Hero 6.1, 5.1, and 3.1. The differences between the models include number of paper trays, paper capacities, size of the color display, and whether the display is touchscreen or requires a separate control panel. Prices start from $99.99 and go up to $249.99.

[via Kodak]

The Burton edition of the camera will have all the award-winning features of the original PLAYSPORT. It’s waterproof and shockproof making it perfect for extreme conditions in the snow. The interface is easy to read and the buttons are large enough to operate with gloves on. The camera is capable of full 1080p HD video capture as well as 5-megapixel stills for 16:9 widescreen HD images.

Videos can even be captured at 60fps for fast action that’s also perfect for slow motion playback. The Burton edition bundle comes with an HDMI cable, remote control, 4GB SDHC memory card, a tripod and carrying case. Priced at $199.95, the camera will be available this fall on Kodak.com and all major retailers.

The Kodak ESP Office 2170 will be able to directly print from your Blackberry device, as well as your iPhone, iPad, iPad 2, and iPod Touch. The printer is also cost efficient since the largest amount of money spent during a printer’s life is on the ink. The Office 2170 can churn out 670 black text pages on a single black ink 30XL cartridge and 550 color pages on a single color 30XL cartridge.

The printer can print stills directly from video files such as mov, .avi and .mp4 file types. But perhaps its most unique feature may be the 3D photo feature, one of the first among consumer inkjet printers. You’ll also be able to edit images to adjust color tone, red eye, blemishes, and skin tones from the 1.5-inch display. The Kodak ESP Office 2170 goes on sale in the U.S. in June for $149.99 MSRP.

[via Kodak]

The patents in question deal with low resolution image previews. Kodak has already received close to $1 billion in a settlement from Korean tech companies LG and Samsung related to the same patent. The judge that ruled in the LG and Samsung case was a different ITC judge than the one from the Apple and RIM case. The ITC can’t enforce monetary damages, but it can block imports that infringe on U.S. patents. That is more than enough reason to compel companies to settle.

Kodak initially sued Apple back in January 2010 over the patents and alleging that Apple’s iPhone infringed on their patents. Apple came back with their own countersuit about several digital imaging patents they alleged Kodak of violating. An ITC judge ruled in favor of Apple and RIM in January of this year and said that the patent in question was invalid because it was an “obvious variation of an earlier invention.”

Kodak CEO Antonio Perez told Bloomberg that his company “deserves to win,” but we’ll just have to wait and see how the ITC rules. Kodak has been struggling mightily with the rapid decline of the camera film market. In the past year Kodak has lost almost half of its market value and revenues fell to $7.2 billion, nearly half the amount it made in 2005. The company is making income mostly from its patent portfolio nowadays. It licenses its digital imaging technology to around 30 companies, which include Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia.

[via Daily Tech]

The analyst forecast for 2010 had been $2.11 billion. In total, digital revenue is down 25%, while the consumer digital imaging group’s revenue is down 40% to 731 million. While the company PR wizards did their best to put a positive spin on the press release, you can’t fool the market.

Eastman-Kodak‘s shares are down 17.04% as of 12:20 PM. That’s an adjusted loss of 37 cents per share, well under the 5 cents expected profit analysts predicted. This makes two straight quarters of losses for Kodak, and a stock decline of 30% year-to-date.

Kodak’s failed suit against Apple and RIM certainly isn’t helping the outlook.

[Via Kodak Press Release]

The device will be highly focused on sharing, allowing the user to upload to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Email, and Kodak Gallery with easy image and video formatting. Capturing video in full 1080 and 5MP HD images, the PlaySport will not only be durable, but powerful as well.

The PlaySport 2 will be shipping this spring for about $179.99.

The Easyshare mini is a $99.95 camera that is about the size of a credit card with 10MP resolution, 3x optical zoom, and a mirrored front for self-shots. The rear LCD is a 2.5-inch unit and it has video recording and more. The Easyshare Sport will sell for $79.95 and is waterproof to ten feet and dustproof as well. It has a 12MP resolution and a 2.4-inch LCD.

The Playful Video Camera will sell for $149.99 and can record in 1080p resolution and shoot 5MP still shots. The camera is aimed at sharing video online and has an easy to use Share button for uploading. The Playsport Video Camera will sell for $179.95 and is waterproof to ten feet and shockproof as well with 1080p video and 5MP stills.

The digital photo frame is the Pulse and is has a 7-inch screen version for $129.95 and a 10-inch version for $199.95 and will turn itself off when it sense no one is in the room. It also has an email address so friends can send pics to the frame. Kodak has also announced that it is launching 3D photo prints from Kodak AIO printers with software and printing solutions.

From the name of the service you really get no idea what Kodak has unveiled. You go to the store with your photos on media of some sort. You pick a frame style that you want hanging on the wall or sitting on the table and scan the bar code for the frame at the Pynk kiosk.

Then you select the images that you want in the photo frame via whatever method you chose to upload them and the kiosk takes those photos, sizes them, crops them, and then prints a single sheet with the photos on it perfectly arranged and sized for the frame you choose. Before you had to spend time cutting, printing, and sometimes taping photos together in one of these collage fames to compete the same thing. Kodak isn’t talking price on these things and if it costs too much it will fail. However, for the right price, this could be a very cool service.

Kodak are pretty proud of the EasyShare M590, what with it being the thinnest point-and-shoot with an all-internal 5x optical zoom, though at 0.6-inches it’s certainly not the slickest digital camera around.  Still, the zoom gets you nice and close, and there’s a 14.5-megapixel sensor inside too.  Style-wise it’s a little on the bland side, but the straightforward button layout does at least mean there’s little in the way of user confusion.  It’s priced at $199.95.

As for the PLAYTOUCH, it’s more expensive – at $229.95 – which could hurt in a market where cheaper point-and-shoot camcorders are already under attack from 720p-capable cameraphones.  Still, the capacitive touchscreen is responsive and bright, and the build quality is good; Kodak’s simple UI should make for a relatively straightforward experience with non-techy users, as well.

Finally, the Kodak 10-inch PULSE, a WiFi-enabled digital photo frame.  The company was showing the new model next to the original 7-inch version, and while the difference might not sound much on paper, in practice you get far more viewing pleasure.  At $199.95 it’s reasonably competitively priced, and Kodak’s wireless sharing feature is easy to use.

More hands-on shots in the gallery below.