I resisted the idea of having a cell phone, and as a form of silent protest to the idea of being 'networked' and on-call 24/7...have it off most of the time. However, I've come to the conclusion that there is actually some real good to the cell phones that have cameras.

Everyone heard the uproar about the cellphone recording of Saddam Hussein's disgraceful hanging. It flew around the world. Other events are also captured...the Chinese murder of Tibetan refugees by mountain climbers, torture in various countries, and today the gagging of Russian babies...all human rights abuses. All hidden...until the average person captures it digitally. No more smuggling papers across borders, and months of working to bring events to public attention. Snap it and post it (Internet).

The ubiquitous cell phone. A call to freedom. Amazing.

It definitely can have its moments and can be useful, but how useful is porn on a cell phone? Telus Communication/Mobility is now offer porn to be downloaded to your phone. Do we really need people watching porn in public on a cell phone? Hey, I'm a guy and I've seen my share of porn but there is a time and place and one's cell phone I just don't see as a good idea. People are already having accidents driving while talking because they are not paying attention; now we have porn and instead of one hand off the wheel there will be two! And what if kids see it or download it because you know they will regardless if Telus thinks they won't and have barriers to stop them. It's a phone ... you talk on it ... not get off on it.

For all that is good it seems that somebody will find something bad.

Like anything, it can be a source of truth, or a weapon of agenda/propaganda. It can be noble or it can be reprehensible. For every injustice captured on phone cams, there is a 'happy slaping' posted on youtube. For every attrocity exposed, another celebrated (Ken Bigley is a prime example).
It is merely another form of personal communication, and as such subject to the weaknesses and motives of the person using it.

What I want is a cellphone with a built-in defibrillator, which can, if need be, double as a stun-gun, or one with a breathalyser.

I've lived from the time when phones required cranking to work and have only 2 digit numbers. If I was told then that a 'cellphone' is on the way, I wouldn't have even begun to imagine what it meant. Yes, the cellphone will be the definitive icon of the 20th Century along with the Internet of course.

It will be interesting to speculate what the 21st Century will bring. The anti-gravity-machine? or a hospital bed that can instantaneously diagnose illnesses, take MRI scans, administer emergency measures at the touch of a button? Actually I think the technology is available; it just need the commercial incentves to put resources together.

Cell phones and your posting ButterflyPalm more and more remind me of Star Trek. My cell phone is nothing more then the communicator used on this show. The bed you talk about that can self diagnose is from Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry and his writers had some good imaginations of where the future was going. Smaller faster computers, able to talk and see people on their monitors and all of this stuff is now becoming more and more capable with better research and funding. I look forward to seeing what the future has to offer. But like Cord pointed out, they can be used for good or bad so we must be careful the reasoning behind why we need them.

The next stage for mainstream cell phones is higher communication speeds - broadband speeds, same as a cable modem. when that happens, we'll see lots of full motion live video posted on a website via cell phone (think 'cell phone cam').

at the same time, smaller packaging is always the goal of any technology...so it's easy to imagine full-motion real-time video streaming from someone's sunglasses - you see what they see, WHEN they are seeing it.

combine that with something like 'skype', and you have the Diick Tracy watches. we are already there. {ha, the censor blocked out 'D-i-c-k'}

every technology is used for good and bad. even the first telegraph system were used by criminals. The same telegraph that was being used to report them.

suicide bombers in Iraq have started streaming (at slow speeds and resolution) their own deaths which are posted on finatical websites as some kind of twisted recruitment and boasting tool. cell phones also are used as remote detonation devices.

of course, voice and video are not the only things that can be digitized and transmitted. technology is in use that already transmits vital signs from off-site patients, geological and atmospheric mesurements, and any other sensor you can think of.

The really weird ones are still in their infancy, but will eventually emerge in our lifetime. digitizing smell and taste, for instance, would be weird. imagine a restaurant transmiting the sample taste of their dishes in Italy to a tourist website. Or being able to smell the incense from inside a Buddhist temple in Kyoto from your living room.

It will be a long time before teleportation technology is available...but the way the technology heads now, slowly eliminates the need to actually be th..e..

{crap. the battery to my crystal ball just went dead. can't see nuthin now. }

bump

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7012984.stm

It is interesting to see how different governments are responding to the internet shedding light on various practices.