the shape of things to come

A friend just dropped by the office for a quick chat and showed off his shiny new Sony DSC-M1 Cybershot camera. A hybrid video/photo device, it's pretty interesting. It takes the form of something closer to a camera phone than it does a traditional camera, holding the brick upright, with a swivel viewfinder and small lense buried at the top of the device. Clever usability too -- a two big circular buttons on the back: the one on the left is for pictures, the one on the right is for video. It takes MPEG-4 and saves it all on a MemoryStick.



I think the most striking thing about it was the shape and form. Good bye typical camera form, with handgrip on the right side, lense in front, and shutter button on top. Hello new-fangled phone/cam/video/device-thinger, rectangular in shape and powered by your thumb.