When I arrived home today, I was happy to find my newest electronic toy: a Canon S100 digtial camera.

When I was 17, I felt the need to start capturing the beauty around me.  Photography never interested me prior - it seemed expensive and messy.   As digital cameras were just emerging, I promised myself, as soon as I turned 18, I'd apply for a credit card and buy a digital camera.  That first card was Sears, and with a spending limit that just barely allowed for the purchase, my first camera was the Fuji DS-7.    300 kilopixels full of 1997 technology.   Here is a picture I took shortly thereafter:

Of course, a mobile phone free on contract now puts that to shame.

I've had maybe a dozen cameras since then (all digital).  I also currently own a Canon 7D digital SLR and a bag full of lenses.  This new S100 will be my go-to pocket camera.

As a technologist, it's important for me to not only keep up with the latest trends but be passionate about it.  Somehow I always feel that we're on the cusp of a technology revolution that doesn't pan out exactly how I imagine.  We have so many interesting technologies - that while they can in themselves be turned into successful products, it's the integration into our existing habits (intuitive actions) - making the behind the scenes tech completely invisible - that truly makes something groundbreaking. 

I feel as though Apple may approach this from both ends of the candle:  "we have this technology, what will it enable?"    and    "it'd be nice for people to have this functionality, what technology can we use to make it happen?"    The magic is when these two ends of the wick meet.

I am an avid motorcyclist and a few years ago, I bought a Garmin Zumo 550 motorcycle GPS.  It's got a lot of great moto-specific feautres - specifically it's waterproof and has a glove-friendly interface.   The 665 was released recently, and while it's got a bunch of great new feaures, I can't justify paying over $600 for something with less features than my iPhone.  It's time to converge.

This is the first camera I've owned with a built-in GPS receiver.  This allows the camera to geotag my pictures (store the location in the picture's metadata).  Actually, that's not true - my iPhone has had this functionality since day 1.  It's a feature I've been asking for in my digital cameras for many years. During this timeframe, I've had to geotag my pictures manually.  I'd tell my GPS to keep a track log and then use various hacked together apps to insert lat/long into the picture metadata based on syncrhonized camera & GPS clocks.

I'm not "happy" my camera finally has a GPS receiver, I'm saying "finally!"    Even before I turned on the camera for the first time, I'm already disappointed - disappointed that I can't easily fling my pictures up to my TV.  Disappointed that my pictures can't be uploaded from my camera.   These are camera and photo features that have become commonplace on my phone for chrissakes.  I hope this will be the last camera I buy without those features.

I feel that with Bluetooth 4.0 & NFC, we are preparing for another revolution - likely around payments.  Who will be on the forefront of this revolution?  A single company or a consortium?  Will it happen at all or will these technologies simply enable new features gradually?

Finally, a snapshot with the new S100. It's nearly 7PM.