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First US Camera/Phone
Ch_Omega writes "According to this article over at Infosync, Sprint has announced that the Sanyo 5300, the first US phone with a built-in camera, will be available on their PCS Vision network in mid-November. It's still only 640x480, but unlike Nokia and Sony Ericsson's models, it will have a built-in optional flash as well. The official press release from Sprint is here."
There were commercials on tv for this over a month ago. It's still cool though. It shows that someone in the us is trying to catch up and replace our old crappy wireless phone tech. I'm still waiting for the all-in-one handheld device. Until then I'm not buying anything.
By all-in-one I mean I want a Digital Camera/Cell Phone/Pager/mp3 player/PDA with wireless networking all in one no bigger than palm-sized package. Yes, I know it will cost a lot of money, but I don't see it as an impossibility. We've already got combinations of the different parts, there just isn't something that encompasses all of them in one device. When someone finally does it, I'm there. Yes, I know about the treo and the clie, they come close, but not close enough.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Remeber the old belief (maybe true?) that telephones could be activated without a ring and so serve as covert microphones? With GPS and video cameras in these new cell phones, what sinister new uses could a covert turn-on enable? (Insert obvious p0rn reference here...)
Until I can actually use these for video purposes (video calls), I am still not buying this service. There is absolutely zero excuses at this point. We have the bandwidth, we have the technology, but we're being restrained from using it for anything other than playing bland, shoddy Tetris clones (with no interactivity) and paying $20.00 a month to download Disney ring tones.
You know what? You can count me out.
Pay-per-kilobyte, indeed.
One of these commercials features Siegfried and Roy, a pair of very popular Las Vegas performers; a woman in the store takes a picture of one of S&R's trained tigers and sends it to her friend. Another shows a guy in Chinatown (or perhaps actually in China) looking for a lavatory, but he is flummoxed by the language barrier; his wife saves the day by emailing him a picture of a toilet.
One might think that these commercials were subtly making fun of the "average American", i.e. somewhat tacky; often ignorant of other cultures; and insisting on the application of technology when a book would serve just as well.
Or am I reading too much into them?
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
My next dwelling will have a real Bell System telephone, one of the armored black ones.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Cell phones are never going to be anything other than giveaways to sell the service. Once you start to charge real money, the phones have value and the theft rate makes the whole concept questionable.
Have them distribute a few thousand phones with some prepaid minutes in the DC area, so if anyone sees the sniper, they can grab a photo and transmit to police. Even if nobody uses their phone to catch the sniper, the media will talk about it for a while.
After that, they should have no problem finding real people for a "switch" campaign. "Sure I switched because it was a corporate giveaway, but then I discovered all these neat things I can do with the phone, so I'm keeping it."
It doesn't elicit the same reaction as when you see someone pointing a camera (politely get out of the way, don't step in front of a picture-taker when walking, etc).
Completely offtopic, however as a personal rule I've given up on trying to avoid the pictures of tourists, etc. It is the picture takers responsibility to find a good location to take a clear picture (and to wait for a clear break in the traffic without impeding everyone else), not the random guy going about his business who needs to worry about it. Most touristy locations have set aside special "picture taking" locations specifically where they don't impede with the movements of everyone else, and if they didn't then too damn bad: Deal with it and find a picture.
Why did this elicit this response? A couple of weeks ago in downtown Toronto I was outside on the side waiting for my wife to get out of a play, when the patrons started streaming out. Out came a family who proceeded to get on one side of a TREMENDOUSLY busy downtown sidewalk, while the photographer got on the other, and these anti-social, inconsiderate, tremendously selfish morons then actually scolded everyone who walked into their picture! A show full of several thousand people, apparently, should wait while they get their picture. Across the street was an empty park with all the same backdrops and more, but that would have required some effort on their part. I've seen the same scene play out in many different places, always with the photographer believing that pointing a camera yields some sort of magic barrier that shouldn't be intruded.
This service started a few years ago when I was in Japan. Like everyone, I got skeptic and said to myself "huh?". But if you think about it, it makes so much sense. How many times you guys went shopping for your wife and got the wrong product? Wouldn't it be simple to take a snap shot and send it to her cell phone? You'd get a confirmation right away. Think convenience... What if you get in a confrontation, accident, etc and want to take a quick picture? Hey this might enable police to find your killer if you get a chance to take a snapshot... Think security... You can think of many usefull things. Don't think of this as a high quality digital camera. You will never get this product for another 2-3 years (if not longer!). Think of it as a "digital post-it"... I never had the chance to use it while in Japan but some of my friends did and I can confirm it *IS* useful... (unlike some of you might think). No wonder why technology is far beyond Europe and Asia, every new product brings so much critisism from US buyers! Be open and accept it as cool, and not as "crap"...
-- Leeeter than leet
All these features that Sprint, et all are pitching like games, color displays, et cetera: how much battery are you gonna have left when you want to use your phone for calls? Call me a minimalist, but I don't want a PDA with my phone or Legend of the Return of Kung Fu.
I bought one of the first mp3 capable cell phones, and have used the music function maybe 3 times in the past year. I think that multifunction devices are a bad idea unless each of the functions have something in common, or are both usefull for a single task. You would get more for your money buying separate devices in almost all cases, and if you want one device ... duct tape 'em together.
I agree, that would be helpful. The problem, here in the UK anyway, is that's it just far too expensive to use these services. This causes a knock on effect. The provider brings out a service (WAP for example), it's expensive so only a handful of people use it, provider thinks no one is interested so brings out another service (GPRS). New service is even more expensive and so the same thing happens. No one bothers to use it because of the cost, provider thinks it's useless again and roll out something else (MMS). Now MMS is even more expensive, ridiculously expensive from what I've seen (just looked but couldn't get a price, although it's daft money).
I'd love to be able to use GPRS, bring the price down and I'll put it to use. Until then, continue bringing out your new services and gimmicks and I'll continue to watch them fail.
And as for getting a snapshot of your killer, you're assuming they didn't kill you for your phone in the first place.
"Dre don't get as high as me.... I'm Cheech and Chong" - Snoop Dogg
For those interested, I put my Nokia 7650 pics up at http://nokia7650.fotopic.net - you should be able to get an idea of quality from there. It's... not very good ;)
Smegma.
http://tuxscreen.net/
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.