GPS phones have been on the market her ein Japan for about 8 months. Video phones have been around for about the same time in various forms as well.

I may be wrong, but I think the GPS and triangulation of a location are two seperate issues. I remember hearing about the privacy concerns several years ago, but I thought it was probably resolved by now.

Jeff

<<<-- Originally posted by Adrian Douglas : Ed,

The stuff happening here in Japan at the moment is amazing. Talking to some of the engineers at Hitachi who develop CCDs is interesting. I'd say that the next two years are going to be really interesting in the terms of improvements in imaging technology.

From what they are saying 4000 line video resolution is not too far away. It won't be in consumer/prosumer cameras but that isn't to say that there won't be improvements. The Japanese are digital camera crazy, both still and video. They have cameras in their cell phones, I saw a video cell phone the other day for god sakes, and the picture looked quite good.

The bottom line is good things come to those who wait. -->>>

A bit off topic (or maybe not) but when I was in Japan in August I saw an article in a newpaper about cameras in cell phones. The article quoted a source which said the cell phone cum camera had become a great boon for teenage prostitution. :-) Just another commercial adjunct, I guess.
Sandy

This sort of thing is for true digital film like Star Wars Episode II and beyond. Like everything else, I'm sure consumers will benefit from it someday, but not today.

Interesting comments all round... some things I've been wondering myself.

I think there is probably an equation which sums this all up nicely:

An idea times the number of people talking about it = the square root of some geek who has already been working on it for months times a factor of greed and timed release (like those cold capsules... except that new technology is always brought in little by little, being careful not to skip steps that might take our money away - how's that for cynical Sunday morning...)

I also liked the comment about fewer lenses being manufactured helping to save the environment. Be nice if companies were actually that responsible, but capitalism just doesn't seem to want to work that way. Produce and consume baby.

As far as recording to HD goes, Sony has the DSR-DU1 already that looks quite sweet.

Ken

<<A bit off topic (or maybe not) but when I was in Japan in August I saw an article in a newpaper about cameras in cell phones. The article quoted a source which said the cell phone cum camera had become a great boon for teenage prostitution. :-) Just another commercial adjunct, I guess.>>

The kicker about technology is the fact that it has a human-side. Leave it to journalists to pinpoint the "boon to teenage prostitution" aspect when there are god-knows-how-many positive applications for it. Whatever sells newspapers, I guess.