LCD trading cards

Italian trading card company Panini's latest trick: LCDs in the traditional form factor. Each will have 2GB of space and come pre-loaded with highlight reels for a sporting icon. They're rewritable, too, meaning you can use them for other stuff. The hacking shall commence in June, but you won't be able to just buy them: they'll be a "a limited insert" secreted inside card packets for an upcoming NBA promotion. Panini Introduces HRX, the Industry's First Video Trading Card [Panini via Wired

• [Buffalo Heart]

  The “old fashioned” paper / cardboard trading cards are more interesting and will retain value. The LCD cards will be a waste of IT engineering and manufacturing process. Some folks, like maybe kids who still get allowances from their parents who use their lots of money to keep them over-entertained will love them, and someone will make lots of money maybe (?)

• [redesigned]

  just curious…what is the battery life on these things? can you recharge the battery as a regular consumer? how long can they sit on the shelf or in a collection before they are DOA?

  @_sin07_ – These will only work in the spokes of your WII bike :-)

• [vert]

  You might not be able to get the cards, but the company who’s make the tech has a few cool things available that could be fun to hack: http://www.videonametag.com/

• [Gutierrez]

  But these won’t fit in standard hard case, and how can I get a piece of electronics that runs on batteries professionally graded and sealed? This is completely worthless to the collector! Who do they think should be buying these things, kids? Why they’d scuff the edges taking the cards from a NRMT-MT to a NM just removing them from the pack!

• [Anonymous]

  Explain to my high school dropout self who cannot program why the 2 gig onboard memory cannot be used as a buffer to watch a whole movie that lives on an 8 gig flash drive in little 1 gig chunks or so with some wiggle room to load the next chunk. Or why I can’t open the back and solder in more memory. Because screw the action figure. I want to buy the MOVIE, and wear it around my neck on a chain.

• [scruss]

  How on earth are you going to keep a stack of these down your sock (*the* in-vogue way to carry Panini stickers, circa 1978) and do the got-got-got-want-got routine with your mates?

• [Anonymous]

  Here’s the dev kit for them if anyone is interested.

  http://shop.videonametag.com/Video-Name-Tag-7168.htm

• [shatterjack]

  Once again Snow Crash called it:

  “A baseball hypercard could contain a highlight film of the player in action, shown in perfect high-def television; a complete biography, read by the player himself, in stereo digital sound; and a complete statistical database along with specialized software to help you look up the numbers you want.”

  • [Michael Smith]

    Once again Snow Crash called it
    Yeah but hypercards IIRC were objects in the metaverse, like a hypertext link with meta information.

• [Anonymous]

  Do we really need more electro-trash clogging the environment? What was wrong with recycling friendly cardboard?

• [Anonymous]

  Now where did I put my handy little neodymium magnet and my fingerless glove…

• [Ceronomus]

  Old news AND Upper Deck is beating them to the punch.

  http://www.beckett.com/news/2011/03/upper-decks-evolution-will-be-first-video-trading-card-on-market/

• [bitman362]

  the cover doesn’t even fit on that board.

• [Baron Karza]

  Nice new way to get fresh Italian malware onto your computer!

• [redesigned]

  how come there are wires sticking out of the piece of gum? ;-P

  ANIMATED GARBAGE PAIL KIDS!!!
  no offense to baseball fans, but screw video baseball cards, video does not make baseball more interesting as the tele proves…I’d love to see fully animated garbage pail kids cards, now that is a million dollar idea refresh.

  BUSINESS CARDS WITH VIDEO PORTFOLIO!!!
  I wonder how much blanks would retail for?
  I want video business cards that I can load my portfolio onto.

• [Telecustard]

  These would be great for the old “porn stash disguised as a sports card collection” trick.

• [Anonymous]

  not what I was expecting, having read the title as LSD trading cards…

• [EvilSpirit]

  you won’t be able to just buy them

  Well, assuming “just” buying means “buying retail.”

• [Anonymous]

  “…they’ll be a “a limited insert” secreted inside card packets…”

  presumably these card packets are of a size/shape/rigidity that it won’t be trivial to determine which packets contain the (relatively) thick rigid LCD ‘cards’ as opposed to just regular cards without first opening, hence purchasing, the packets.

• [technogeek]

  OK, who really believes that the wholesale purchasers won’t be going through the box, gently flexing each pack to find these, and then eBaying them?

• [_sin07_]

  I’m not so sure these will do well in my bike spokes.