I would be very surprised if CCTV cameras produced a 3.2 megapixel image 10 years ago. Or even today, for that matter. Today's new camera phones are highly sophisticated pieces of equipment, the current phone I use, the Sony Ericsson K800i has the above 3.2MP as well as a real xenon flash. The quality of the photos it makes is comparable to that of what digital cameras made 3-4 years ago. Okay, it dosn't have an optical zoom, but adding one would be impracticle. Who wants a massive lens poking out of their phone? What else does the phone do? Full 3G/UMTS support via a secondary VGA camera on the front of the phone, a huge, high-res screen, a memory stick micro (M2) slot for additional capacity / MP3/3GP Video playback, plus all the standard features (Java, MMS, full HTML browsing). In fact, the only other feature I wish it had was wi-fi support. While not the smallest phone in the world, it still manages to stay fairly compact and light. How much did I pay for it? Nothing. I have a twelve month contract which includes 500 anytime, any network minutes and 600 text messages for £26 a month. The phone was free with the contract, which in my opinion is in itself an excellent deal.
Why is everybody so paranoid about camera phones and privacy or "OMG if that person takes a photo of me doing X activity I could get sued!!!" in the US? There are a few places here like for exmaple gyms where they don't really allow them but not to have them in schools is just darn right stupid. Why were cell phones / PDAs / Laptops invented in the first place? Portable convenience. Not allowing that portable convenience takes away the whole point of such technology, forbidding it we may as well go back to the middle ages. Or worse, using those crappy brick analogue 1G phones of the early 90s.
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I would be very surprised if CCTV cameras produced a 3.2 megapixel image 10 years ago. Or even today, for that matter.
Today's new camera phones are highly sophisticated pieces of equipment, the current phone I use, the Sony Ericsson K800i has the above 3.2MP as well as a real xenon flash. The quality of the photos it makes is comparable to that of what digital cameras made 3-4 years ago. Okay, it dosn't have an optical zoom, but adding one would be impracticle. Who wants a massive lens poking out of their phone?
What else does the phone do?
Full 3G/UMTS support via a secondary VGA camera on the front of the phone, a huge, high-res screen, a memory stick micro (M2) slot for additional capacity / MP3/3GP Video playback, plus all the standard features (Java, MMS, full HTML browsing). In fact, the only other feature I wish it had was wi-fi support.
While not the smallest phone in the world, it still manages to stay fairly compact and light.
How much did I pay for it?
Nothing. I have a twelve month contract which includes 500 anytime, any network minutes and 600 text messages for £26 a month. The phone was free with the contract, which in my opinion is in itself an excellent deal.
Why is everybody so paranoid about camera phones and privacy or "OMG if that person takes a photo of me doing X activity I could get sued!!!" in the US?
There are a few places here like for exmaple gyms where they don't really allow them but not to have them in schools is just darn right stupid.
Why were cell phones / PDAs / Laptops invented in the first place? Portable convenience. Not allowing that portable convenience takes away the whole point of such technology, forbidding it we may as well go back to the middle ages. Or worse, using those crappy brick analogue 1G phones of the early 90s.