Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 11 June 2008 14:57
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Given the fact Australians, Asians and Europeans have had 3G for years,
the lack of a second front-facing video camera on the iPhone 3G is
weird. What’s weirder still is one of America’s top technology
journalists making one of the oddest comments I’ve ever heard.
David Pogue, top technology writer for arguably the US’s most prestigious newspaper, the New York Times, has made an odd statement.
Pogue suggested that Apple might have needed to remove the iPhone’s camera from the back and moved it to the front to deliver video conferencing, or perhaps place a second screen on the back, and even body contortions, as though the idea of two cameras on the one phone – front and back - had never occurred to him before.
Take at look at his
article on “iPhone 2.0: What Might Have Been”.
After reading it, I wondered if Pogue has ever been out of the US, where 3G phones – and video calling is old news.
It’s a clear sign the US phone market is quite backwards when it comes to 3G, for it seems that the concept of TWO cameras on a mobile phone is alien enough to stump even one of the most well known and read tech writers in the world.
The backwardness of the US telephony market beggars belief, especially when they’ve been leading the technology space for decades in other ways, from computer processors to space shuttles.
And yet the US has MacBooks and iMacs on sale, which have a front facing camera. Skype is available there, too. Logitech cameras are on sale in the US.
So, it’s obvious that the US knows video conferencing exists. It’s been in Hollywood sci-fi movies for years, after all. But Pogue’s comments on the lack of videoconferencing or videocalling on the iPhone just have me stumped.
So, what did Pogue say that was so strikingly strange?
Well, to find out, please click over to page 2.
