My buddy Tom from Ex Post Facto sent me a link to this good-looking new Olympus camera. I love the retro styling, it feels straight out of the 70s (and I like the 70s!). If only the trim were leather, as on the (much, much more expensive) Leica M9.

As for replacing entry-level SLRs, they still have a few advantages: 

1. Very fast startup and shutter speed
2. Large selection of lenses at all price/quality points
3. Even bigger sensors for better low light performance
4. Optical viewfinder for precise composition

Of those, (1) is typically the big thing that makes people switch to SLRs – they just feel better. However, if this camera performs well in that regard, I could see a lot of people opting for it over a bulkier SLR.

In general, I believe the camera market will split in two very distinct segments. On one end camera phones will replace any camera that can fit in your pocket. Phones aren't going to get much smaller due to screen-size usability constraints, so as internals shrink and battery performance improves, there will increasingly be space for larger, better photo sensors. On the other end will be large pro and semi-pro SLRs with top-quality performance and interchangeable lenses.

Update: as my friend German Bauer pointed out, this was unfortunately just a concept design. The final model ended up looking much blander. Sigh.

The Revive smartphone is a great concept phone. I like that they're innovating at all levels: interface, materials, assembly and even business model:

The concept also includes a membership system that rewards users for keeping their phones longer.

Make sure to watch the video at the bottom, it's cute. (originally via Anil Dash)

It's perhaps a minor issue but one of the things I like about WP7 is that it's not a digital UI pretending to be analog. The user interface is flat. There are no photorealistic depictions of real world items, no shading, and no 3D effects. Everything is conveyed through the use of fonts, shapes and color. It's digital and it's proud. Overall, I like it, and the more I use it, the more I prefer it.

Though I have yet to see a Windows 7 phone in person, I really like this observation by Michael Gartenberg. The compass, notes and recorder apps on the iPhone have always seemed awkward to me.

I have seen a lot of technology for the blind, and I can safely say that the iPhone represents the most revolutionary thing to happen to the blind for at least the last ten years.

Amazing article about how the iPhone changes a blind man's life. Make sure to read it till the end, it's worth it.

As a side note, I used to ask interview candidates to design a cellphone for blind people – never did a candidate suggest an almost buttonless slab of touch screen.