About the Apple Patent that can disable cameras

Patetntly-Apple-Camera-Disabler

Must be a slow Tech news day for and old story making the round again.

Stereogum:

Apple Patents Technology To Disable iPhone Cameras At Concerts

Jason Snell chimed in and said:

I hope this is one patent Apple puts in the drawer and never, ever implements.

Then Gruber said:

This must be patent anything you can get a patent for patent.

Déjà vu! I remembered reading abou this some years ago.

Patently Apple on June 02, 2011:

This example could easily apply to movie theatres trying to stop customers from filming a movie for illegal distribution or any kind of music concert to protect an artist’s image from being photographed or videoed illegally

Even back then a lot of us agreed that this is just like what Gruber just said.

To quote Bad Religion:

Strewn about the battlefield of life are the remainders of history.
When convenient, we exalt them and pay them such respect,
As if we’re all in an equivalent trajectory.

Apparently a lot of people can easily forget.

Megapixel per se

iPhone 6 Protruding Camera Lens

Joanna Stern, writing for WSJ.com:

A quick camera reminder: Looking at the megapixel numbers when comparing phones won’t help you at all. An 8-megapixel camera with a superior sensor can take far better photos, even more detailed ones, than a 21-megapixel camera with an inferior one.

I’m really glad to see Joanna Stern mentions this. For years, a lot of so-called Tech Journalists still measuring the quality of a camera by the pixel-count alone.

Some few years ago, a clerk/salesperson at a store that shall remain nameless adamantly told me that a 13-Megapixel point-and-shoot camera captured better image than an 8-Megapixel DSLR Camera.

On a personal note, Joanna Stern lost one point for using the term “phablet” for a product category. Just call it a big-ass phones and it would’ve sound much better.

Kodak Picture Kiosk with a Save File Symbol

Kodak Picture Kiosk with Floppy Drive

Compact Flash card slot; check!

SD card slot; check!

xD card slot; check!

SmartMedia card slot ……. (Does anyone remember that?); check!

USB port; check!

CD/DVD slot; check!

Um, Isn’t it the “Save File” symbol?

None of the photos I took using my current cameras at theirs native resolutions can fit in a Floppy disk anymore.