06-14-2004, 02:00 PM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Embedded Camera Backlash Begins
"The booming popularity of camera phones which can snap and instantly send photos - and, with some models, short video clips - have piqued fears about workplace security. The prospect of sensitive information being snapped and sent to other phones, copied to websites or e-mailed to others has prompted the likes of Intel, the phone maker Samsung, the UK's Foreign Office and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in the United States to go as far as banning camera phones from their buildings."
The BBC story that the quote above was taken from, hits the nail on the head. There are a lot of firms that are tightening up their security procedures with the increasing availability of devices with embedded cameras. Due to customer demand Sprint have released a version of the Treo 600 smartphone without a camera, but isn't that the wrong way around? Surely phones and PDAs should come without a camera, unless there is specific customer demand for such a toy?
"Although convictions for the misuse of camera phones have so far involved invasion of privacy rather than corporate espionage, those with secrets worth stealing worry that it is a matter of if, not when. Tim Donahue, of Sprint, says those in the fields of finance, government, hi-tech manufacturing, and research and development are most concerned. "They're just scared to death someone might take a photograph of something.""
Quite apart from those problems, there are privacy and child protection issues as well. My local fitness centres has banned cameras on the premises and I understand that the same thing goes for the local schools. The BBC article concludes that embedded cameras are soon going to become ubiquitous. If this is the case it is important for those who want/need their PDAs with them at all times, to let the manufacturers know that they don't want cameras embedded.
So, what are your thoughts on the issue? :dilemma: I will put a poll up tomorrow to get some hard numbers and to see what the general consensus about PDAs and embedded cameras is.
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06-14-2004, 02:31 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 6
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Here in Germany, it's often forbidden to take camera-enabled phones to pop-concerts and other cultural events, too. One more reason why I've changed my P800 smartphone to a PPC + phone (T68i in this case) solution.
Herrner
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06-14-2004, 02:45 PM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by herrner
Here in Germany, it's often forbidden to take camera-enabled phones to pop-concerts and other cultural events, too. One more reason why I've changed my P800 smartphone to a PPC + phone (T68i in this case) solution.
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So you're actually downgrading to an older phone? Interestingly enough I am trying to source that phone as well. It may be obsolete, but one of the few decent phones (syncs with outlooks, lots of features etc) with Bluetooth and without an embedded phone. I *DON'T* want to see Pocket PCs go the same way, with folks actually looking out older obsolete models as they don�t come with camera embedded. :|
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06-14-2004, 02:55 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 119
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Personally, I think the move to add cameras to cell phones was stupid. We have become such an immediacy-addicted society that now people can't even bear to wait to send a digital picture via email when they get back to their computers. I mean, what's the rush?!?
--Welmoed
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06-14-2004, 03:04 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 84
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Since I've started working at my current job ('93) it has been forbidden to have any type of camera on the premises. For those locations where security issues exist, this is hardly anything new; what it forces is a lengthy checkin process at the front desk.
Do you have a laptop? Does it have wireless? Do you have a cell phone? Does it have a camera? Do you have a PDA... ad nauseam.
Nothing new, but we do have to shop for accessories carefully. 
D.psi
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06-14-2004, 03:08 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 34
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Consumers want so many things.. the more they have of it, the better. Even if the item isn't going to add much to the product.....
Cameras in the phones and PDAs were a bad idea. I have heard of people saying that certain industries use the camera features from the phone and PDA but I can't understand why since it doesn't provide enough resolution to be helpful....
Companies need to stop thinking about the consumers and think more about big business. Or they should make both versions at the same time and let the customer decide at that point. Hopefully it will be a cold day in Heck before RIM starts integrating cameras in their products. Personally All PDAs and phones have lost their usefullness in the past few years... Give me a Monochrome screen for a Phone with Months of talk time, that would make me happy. Give me a small and useful PDA that does PDA stuff, I don't want to watch a movie on my PDA.
A little off subject, but cameras are a no no for me. 
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06-14-2004, 03:10 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 559
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I love the embedded camera in my i-mate!
I just spent a week in NY and I was able to snap instant pictures and email them back home instantly. Everyone I sent them to absolutely loved it!
I don't have a job where cameras are forbidden, thankfully. I'm sure I'd feel different if I did, but for now, I think it's one of the best features!
And with so many negative posts about this, I'm sure glad I got a camera device now before they stop being produced. :mrgreen:
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06-14-2004, 03:21 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,734
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Quote:
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Surely phones and PDAs should come without a camera, unless there is specific customer demand for such a toy?
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vs
Quote:
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"The booming popularity of camera phones which can snap and instantly send photos - and, with some models, short video clips..."
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Dont you people understand that the thing that is fueling the current upgrade cycle for mobile phones are the cameras? Cellphones are consumer accessories, not fueled by business needs. Why do you think cell phones have colour screens? Is it to make the battery last longer (NOT!)? Its to woo consumers, who like shiny things.
I think the luddites here need to get together and start their own mobile phone OEM, making cell phones for business. They could weigh a pound, have a 1 line lcd screen, be destruction proof, last 3 months on one charge and could be used as a door stop in addition. That would address the needs of business perfectly, and let the rest of us consumers get on with enjoying the features that we, paying our own money, obviously demand. Manufacturers can not impose features. If they did it would just crash and burn in the market place.
Surur
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06-14-2004, 03:26 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,389
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I have the new Motorola V600, nice bluetooth and camera. It is wonderful. I went on a trip to Kansas City and never got my camera out. I took over 80 pictures with my phone. At 640x480 they are not too shabby. I wouldn't use it to photograph a wedding but for most things it rocks. I love integrated cameras. It was one of the things on my wants list when I was shopping for a new phone. Bluetooth was on the needs list.
I would love to have a camera in my ppc. But I would want to be able to use it for wireless video phone say with Microsoft Portrait more than to take pictures. I could probably get along with the HP SD camere but that is just one more thing I have to carry around. Too bad I could not use my mobile phone as a bluetooth web cam for my ppc... now that would be cool.
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06-14-2004, 03:28 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 734
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by welmoed
Personally, I think the move to add cameras to cell phones was stupid. We have become such an immediacy-addicted society that now people can't even bear to wait to send a digital picture via email when they get back to their computers. I mean, what's the rush?!?
--Welmoed
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For one, because I don't carry my camera with me all the time. It's bulky, heavy and loves batterys. Why take it with me on the off chance that I *might* want to photograph something? I don't have a camera phone (yet) but I do have a Clie TH55 with an embedded camera. I can take reasonably good quality pictures with it and send them to friends anc family through BT or WiFi.
A while ago I was pen shopping. I'd bought a new one, and wanted to put it in my blog. So, I took a picture with the Clie and uploaded it to my blog! Straight from cam to net, without the need for a PC.
<edit> Jason Lee, That reminds me: I *can* use my TH55 as a wireless webcam ;-) Just another way technology is evolving in new and fascinating ways.
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