Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman) wrote: > On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:52:51 +0100 Helge Hafting <helge.haft...@hist.no> > babbled:
> > but more to the point - travel around japan. watch people on holiday (the > japanese) or watch them when they travel. guess what the camera of choice is > that they pull out? not their nikon d80 or canon ixus or whatever. it's their > phone. they are always taking tonnes of photos with their phones. it's > probably > the most used type of camera (if comparing against compact cams + dslr's) by > quote a margin. and they are happy with it. > Making a good small lens is not a problem, a good small sensor is. Japanese tourists may be satisfied, but perhaps they just aren't that good photographers. Small-sensor images can be reasonable under ideal lighting conditions, but hopeless for most other cases. But then, tourists go where the sun is. > the problem is - if you make it optional it all becomes more expensive as you > need to have multiple production lines and multiple case designs - in the end > its CHEAPER to ship a camera for everyone. that's the reality of the embedded > market. I see. Well, you can have the same case and just provide a lid for the camera-shaped hole. If camera for all really is cheaper, consider putting it on a plug. Users who really don't want (or aren't allowed) a camera can then remove it themselves without de-soldering or breaking warranty. >> And of course, a pop-out camera leaves room that can be used for >> something else. Such as room for several SD-cards, perhaps even that >> secondary SIM option. More SDcards is good - one for the OS and one >> that can be changed with the system running. (Or RAID, for the specially >> interested :-) Two SIMs are what business users want - one for >> private use and one for company use. > > moving parts == bad. prone to failure/break - even at production time as > testing may say "go" but the part loosens during shipping as its intended to > be > loose/move. it's something makers like to avoid if they can. > Something pluggable isn't that bad - we have plugs for USB and headset anyway. :-) Perhaps a modular phone is too expensive, it'd still be nice with a slot for an extra card. No moving parts, just a slot similiar to a cheap card reader. And accessible without removing the battery, so a reboot won't be needed. There are other phones with such a slot, it sure isn't impossible. High-speed USB and a fast interface to the card would come in useful too - the phone used as a card reader for the pc should match the speed of any other card reader. Software would launch quicker too. Helge Hafting _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community