As if it weren’t enough that we have useless features on our point-and-shoots, now we have to have them on our printers as well. First of all, the idea of taking my photos, editing and adjusting them, doing red-eye reduction and so on in-camera, then printing them out on the spot is so ridiculous that I can’t even convince myself that it’s done by anyone on this green Earth. A screen on the printer seems so superfluous a feature, and such an expensive one, that I can’t believe it is being touted as a positive. Enjoy slideshows on your printer! It sounds like a fake ad. Nevertheless, these crimes against nature will be available from Sony in April. Okay, I guess other printers have screens too. My scorn expands easily to encompass them as well.

The abominations only print 4×6″, which precludes them from usefulness altogether; consider how often you’ll need to print a 4×6″ photo right here and now, no matter what, and now consider how often you see a Walgreens or Bartell’s, where you can get a hundred photos printed in 15 minutes at superior quality for 15 cents each. For comparison, the white printer above will cost $150 and the black one $200. I’m sorry to come down so hard on these devices, which I’m sure are very effective at what they do, but they really seem like the most useless stay-in-a-box-forever type doodads I’ve seen in a while.