Finally: Digital Cameras that Make Phone Calls!

One of the reasons I have bought good digital cameras over the last couple of years and not bought a cell phone is because I've been waiting until phones provided photo ability that was worthwhile. Looks like it's finally happened. The current issue of Wired magazine lists four new cameras with five megapixels of digital photo ability.

Here are the four in order of Wired's ranking (best to worst):

1. Nokia N82 ($629) Carl Zeiss (wow!) lens; one touch posting of pix to Flickr via the web, onboard photo editing, etc. (8 of 10)
2. Sony Ericsson K850i ($500) (7 of 10)
3. Samsung G800 ($500) (6 of 10)
4. LG KE990 Viewty ($500) (5 of 10)

I'm not buying -- but this is an indication that phones have crossed the two-megapixel barrier that's been in place for a while. Good news.

The downside of this advancement is that it's going to make real-time blog posting all the more ubiquitous:

Snap/post: "Here's a picture of me pulling into the Target parking lot."
Snap/post: "Here are the socks I'm looking at."
Snap/post: "Here's the Target restroom."
Snap/post: "Here's the Target cashier who I'm paying for my socks."
Snap/post: "Here I am leaving Target's parking lot."
Self-portrait/post: "And that was my trip to Target!"

Just what we need. (Look who's talking.)