This partially refurbished Barbie Polaroid camera is oozing childhood nostalgia

Fans of both vintage film cameras and Barbie can now grab a camera that’s covered in childhood nostalgia. On Barbie’s 61st birthday, March 9, Retrospekt, a company restoring classic film cameras, launched the limited edition Polaroid 600 Barbie Throwback. The camera uses refurbished parts from 80s and 90s Polaroids inside a new plastic body with a classic Barbie look. The camera is made from classic Polaroid 600 camera parts restored and tested by Retrospekt. The company takes old Polaroids and strips everything down to the basic parts. After cleaning and inspection, the classic innards are paired with a new molded-plastic housing. Despite the part-refurbished parts, the camera is officially licensed by both Polaroid and Mattel, the owners of the Barbie brand. The all-new pink, purple, and green exterior is inspired by a Barbie camera launched in 1999 and uses the script font Barbie logo that launched with the earliest of these cameras. The company says that they worked with a chemist to ensure the new plastic would match the real 1990s camera. Like original Polaroid 600 cameras, the camera doesn’t need a battery, because it’s built into the film pack. The film cartridge itself has metal contacts that transfer power to the motor to eject the film and operate the flash. The camera takes Polaroid Originals 600 film, which is widely available in black and white or color. Even the box, Retrospekt says, is inspired by the original packaging, though it adapts a holographic front.  Polaroid 600 cameras were popular in the 80s and 90s, favored for the simple point-and-shoot use and low price point. Polaroid often launched special edition designs, and, now, Polaroid Originals keeps up that tradition with new styles for the Polaroid OneStep 2. Retrospekt is a Wisconsin-based company that refurbishes old cameras, cassette players, and game consoles with a mix of old and new parts. The company has re-mixed both instant film and 35mm cameras. The company also offers repairs. The Polaroid 600 Barbie Throwback is available for about $150 from Retrospekt’s website. The company says the Barbie throwback cameras will be done in a limited run, but did not specify how many models would be sold.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55. In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
Yet, 23 years later that future is at least partlially here in the online world and threatens to spread to other areas of daily life which are increasingly ‘connected’, such as the inside of cars. And the new testing grounds, according to online security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, might very well be automated-driving vehicles, such as Waymo’s robotaxis.
On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
But as we all get used to ads targeting based on everything that’s somehow connected to the web, it seems a once-distant vision of the future may be just around the corner. The iPad Fold, as it’s being touted, could arrive as soon as next year. A new report suggests that the first folding iPad could be on track to land in 2026.