Reiter's Camera Phone Report

Cook County Illinois court doesn't allow camera phones

Robert Grosshandler, the founder and CEO of iGive.com, wasn't allowed into the Cook County (Illinois) courthouse because he was carrying a camera phone -- a Handspring/palmOne Treo 600.

Robert writes me that he was only "partially surprised" that camera phones were banned, but he was "very surprised" that a sheriff's deputy recognized the Treo as a camera phone. The deputy wanted Robert to take the handset back to his (Robert's) car, but the deputy agreed to check it, instead.

I wrote on Sunday that a Detroit News article noted that courts are banning camera phones because they don't want law enforcement officers or jurors photographed.

So where should you put them?

This could be a real pain for many folks who unwittingly take their camera phones into a courthouse and are told to remove them from the premises. If courthouses don't check camera phones -- and the users didn't drive their own automobiles to get there -- where are camera phone users supposed to dump their phones?

Eventually, the word will get out that you shouldn't bring a camera phone to court. But this can be a real pain in the ass, especially if you need your phone to make calls outside of the court.

[Update] Check out the comment posted by Ernest Svenson, a New Orleans attorney and one of the most well known bloggers under the name of Ernie the Attorney.

Time magazine names camera phones a runner up as coolest invention of 2003

Okay, so I'm a few weeks late posting this......Time magazine in the November 17 issue called camera phones one of the coolest inventions of 2003. The article in Time says, "Take two popular gadgets. Merge them into a single point-and-click device. Then watch the world go nuts over it."

The writer, Anita Hamilton, offers a brief roundup of uses -- good and bad -- for camera phones. "Sometimes the true measure of a technology's impact is not how quickly it spreads but how long it takes for the backlash to set in. No sooner had cell phones with built-in digital cameras caught on in the U.S. this year than they started getting banned -- primarily in health clubs and corporate headquarters.

"Abroad, concerns about misuse of the gadgets got so bad that Saudi Arabia outlawed them altogether....

"But with an estimated 80 million camera phones sold this year -- 6 million in the U.S. alone -- the cat may already be out of the camera bag. Like it or not, these hot new gadgets are here to stay."

What the best invention of 2003?

The "Invention of the Year," according to Time, is Apple's iTunes Music Store.

External camera for Motorola's MPx200 cellular phone: Expensive kludge?

From an entry in Gizmodo I learned that Motorola's new Smartphone, the MPx200 using Microsoft's OS, will be able to use a camera that's inserted into the SD card slot. The 640 x 480 camera is expected to cost $120.

That's $40 more than the cost of the phone if you go through Amazon to sign up for a two-year contract from AT&T Wireless and mail in two rebates: From AT&T and Amazon.

There is just about no reason to purchase an external camera for a cellular phone -- except if your company bans camera phones -- because it defeats the purpose of having a camera that's always with you. If you always carry a cellular phone with an integrated camera, you will always have a digital camera.

Based upon the low cost of regular VGA cameras and the high price of the Motorola offering, I predict this will be a failure. The phone itself, the camera notwithstanding, has been receiving rather good reviews, although it certainly isn't perfect.

The future isn't "external"

As I've said before, the future of camera phones is with integrated, not external, cameras.

Detroit News reports on good and bad effects of camera phones

The Detroit News today (Sunday) posted a fairly long article about the good and bad effects of camera phones. I'm quoted and the reporter, Karen Dybis, said I was one of the few people who are defending camera phones! My comment is she hasn't spoken to enough people.

In Detroit, General Motors bans camera phones at its Tech Center in Warren, Mich. because it doesn't want employees taking photos of new automobile designs, the article says. Oakland (Mich.) County judges have banned camera phones in courts because they want to protect the identity of undercover cops and jurors.

The article also reports that a chain of health clubs has banned camera phones in its five clubs, although I'm not sure if that refers to phones just in the locker rooms or in the entire club.

Good and bad of camera phones

I provided the reporter with lots of information about the value of camera phones as well as the dark side. Dybis used the good examples I discussed and the "dark side" from other sources.

For example, she reports that one Detroit radio station encourages listeners to take camera phone photos of people with "mullet hairstyles, ugly outfits or working in drive-through windows" and posts the "winning" photos on the station's Web site.

Another example is a Michigan government official who attended a concert of the heavy metal group Goldsmack and had to lock his camera phone in his truck or it would be confiscated. Goldsmack didn't want any cameras in the audience.

Borders Books is beginning to ask authors who are speaking about their books before an audience in the store whether they mind camera phones, Dybis reports.