Treo 600 sans camera to be released
TreoCentral is reporting: a non-camera version of the Sprint Treo 600 will be available in late April (4/21). There have been companies and government installations where the Treo 600 was not allowed because of its camera.
Alan Reiter posted a story about enforcement of a nationwide ban on cameraphones in Saudi Arabia. After mentioning that Saudi newspapers are reporting that schoolgirls have been expelled for using cameraphones, he posits: As I wrote in January 2003, totalitarian regimes hate camera phones. Saudi Arabia says it doesn't want men photographing women in compromising situations. Well, what about the girls in school?
Kids taking pictures of other kids is no threat. The real danger to tyrants is citizens with camera phones documenting government abuses, poor living conditions, police brutality, etc.
Picturephoning reports: A new study from InfoTrends Research Group projects that worldwide unit sales of camera phones will reach nearly 150 million in 2004, or just over a quarter of all mobile phone sales, according to a company press release.
It could be argued that a similar ban should be considered for the hospital or clinic setting, and certainly will the limited quality of VGA cameras, it not possible to use them for technical photography. However, I recently discussed with an EM physician that as these cameras increase in quality as well as bandwidth for data services, EMTs or even the public could transmit still or video images to an ER. Some ER's are setting up stroke centers with neurologists available for rapid diagnosis. A recently-completed study have shown dramatically better outcomes in patients who received thrombolytics in less than 90 minutes from the onset of stroke.
Wireless Technology Speeds Stroke Diagnosis was posted at thewirelessweblog. It describes the use of a WLAN in providing a telemedicine consultation services for an ER. It's not hard to imagine a system that would utilize cellular wireless.
8:24:25 PM 
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