Thursday, August 21, 2003 Technological convergence (or, Hello & Cheese) Sony Ericsson SO505i Combining wildly different functions into electronic devices seems to be quite the trend these days. Combining mobile phones and PDAs (Handspring), digital cameras with MP3 players built in (my friend Liz has one of those), MP3 players with built-in PDA functions (Apple's iPod), and--big in Japan, at least--mobile phones with built-in digital cameras. The pictures you get from the mobile phone cameras are, frankly, pretty crappy--MXG had one for awhile, but the novelty wore off for her. Still, as I wander around Tokyo, I can see people (especially at the tourist areas) holding up their mobile phones to take pictures to e-mail to friends. Not the sort of thing I find interesting. Sony Ericsson SO505i On the other hand, last night I saw a new model of mobile phone with camera that I actually considered buying (or perhaps I should say that I wished I'd bought, sinceI already own a recent model mobile phone and a brand-new digital camera). This would be the Sony Ericsson SO505i, for NTT DoCoMo service. This new phone actually has a real 1.3 megapixel digital camera--tilt the phone horizontally, slide off the lens cover, and boom, you're taking pictures. Tilt it vertically, swivel the screen, and now it's a mobile phone. It's like using a phone designed by the Transformers people. If you want to see the phone in action, you can view their Japanese TV commercials (with Quicktime or Windows Media Player), which they've titled Hello & Cheese.   10:22:47 AM    Comment on this post! []