The Smartphonification of Stuff

Replacing everything we used to carry around with us, smartphones are making purses obsolete. To give an example, today The New York Times's Nick Bilton points out how the smartphone is literally supplanting the digital camera, even for the snobbiest of photographers. "Companies are producing dozens of inexpensive smartphone attachments that can easily convert a mobile phone into a mini-professional camera," he writes. "These products include zoom, fisheye and ultra-up-close macro lenses -- all designed to snap onto a smartphone and make photos look as if they were shot with an expensive single-lens reflex camera." It's not just an inferior substitute, pop a fancy lens on the iPhone 4S's 8 megapixel camera and sophisticated photographers won't know the difference. Phones are becoming digital cameras. And many have already seen the light. A recent survey of 3,000 smart phone owners found that 43 percent had already forgone the camera for the camera-phone.

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.