Amusingly, my first thought was "here's another gadget for Michael Jennings to carry around".

they have made it impossible for some goon in a uniform to tell if you are taking photos, or merely texting or some such thing. If challenged while doing the former, you can protest that you were merely doing the latter. Simply, they couldn't and can't ban public photo-ing because they can't spot when it's happening.

Alisa

You are right that the law is very powerful, and could crack down on all this stuff.

But, goons in uniforms are a distinct menace, and visibility or invisibility matters, a lot. These people now just make up rules as they go along. Whether they actually can see you doing whatever it is they want you not to do is a very big deal. If they don't see you, or if you can simply deny everything, they are in a far weaker position.

What the goons threaten is that they can ruin your entire day by calling the police. They can unleash a system on you that they may understand far better than you do. Even if you are completely within your legal rights and even if the particular goons you are up against are actually nincompoops whom the police will ignore, you may have to spend the whole day proving your case. And by the end of it, the police may have you tagged as a trouble maker. Who wants that risk?

What the goons cannot now forbid, because they don't know about it, is what people will continue to do. What people continue to do, they will not want being illegalised. Okay, not perfect by any means, I agree. But, important.

Brian, I've just realized that where I live, the only goons in uniforms are the police itself - so I guess I missed your point in that regard. Still, another point to be made regarding the 'law'/goons, is that the list of things they don't want you to do is constantly growing, simply because anything you do which you are currently allowed to do is in some way, direct or indirect, contradictory to some preexisting rule that prohibits you from doing something or other. An example of this are the various rules limiting the amounts of money you are allowed to move around without reporting to the 'law' - a result of the rule which prohibits you to deal in drugs - which in turn is the result of the rule that prohibits you to use these drugs - etc. So by this logic i will not at all be surprised if in those place where you are currently prohibited from taking pictures, soon enough you will be prohibited from carrying a cellphone entirely. And not long after that you'll be subjected to a patdown just in case you are carrying the offensive gadget. And if they make cellphones in the shape of pens, then you'll be prohibited from carrying pens - you get the idea.

It's unfortunate that the atmosphere of increasing authoritarianism has allowed some to subvert the rule of law for "because I say so". All completely predictable from the response to 9/11 of course (and to those with their eye on the ball, just from the incident of the event itself).

As to the device itself, fairly neat. I have seen other kinds of stick-on lenses before (wide angle, polarized filter) but zoom is a new one on me. Anathema for the photography purists I'm sure but for someone who appreciates "good enough" like me... I guess the only question is is it available for non-ipod devices? (I don't see why it wouldn't be).

One might be a bit tempted to scoff at this sort of adapter, thinking the iPhone an unworthy photographic instrument. That is, until you've seen the iPhone Fashion Shoot video.

1. It's $30 at USB Fever, available since Nov 09: 8x Telescope with Hard Case.
2. Also Magnetic Lenses

Cheers

I fail at gooning in uniform. My first thought on seeing this was, "will there be one for the Droid?"

Sunfish, is there any other type of gooning you're good at?:-P

I confess that I don't really think this device makes sense. The reason you use a camera phone is that it is a camera you carry with you everywhere, because you carry your phone with you everywhere and it has a camera in it. So if "the best camera is the camera that you have with you" camera phones are great. The fact that you don't need to remember to take them with you is the point. However, they are not great for anything else, as they have tiny sensors, partly due to the other stuff that has to fit in a phone, and partly because phones are thin, meaning that phone cameras have tiny focal lengths. If you are going to carry a better lens around with you, you might as well have a better sensor (ie a camera) attached to it. A £50 camera is going to give better pictures than a £50 lens with an iPhone, and it is not going to be much bigger.

"...i will not at all be surprised if in those place where you are currently prohibited from taking pictures, soon enough you will be prohibited from carrying a cellphone entirely."

Alisa, you can't take any cell phone into the U.S. embassy in London. It's a real pain getting in the embassy because you can't take a bag or briefcase. If you protest these idiotic rules you just get told that it's for "security".

I know it Elaine - all too well, in fact. I was going to mention my recent visit to the US embassy in Tel Aviv, but the truth is that I give the US and Israeli diplomatic facilities somewhat of a pass (you should see the Israeli Consulates in the US), because I think that they are in fact prime targets for an attack, and also because most of us don't need to visit them too frequently. I do that, mind you, as long as I'm treated cordially and fairly - which, unfortunately, is not always the case.