The cell phone camera. To most, an innocuous bit of technology that doesn't work well enough to be significant, in either a good or a bad way, to our lives. To some, however, it's a crime-stopper. According to the NY Post:

Get set for the YouTube version of 911. Mayor Bloomberg revealed yesterday that the city plans to equip 911 emergency-call centers to receive instant cell phone photos and videos from New Yorkers who record a crime as it's happening.

To others, it's a singular socio-cultural event, changing the way we perceive ourselves, our place in history, and the behavior of others -- mostly for the worse, which surely encouraging people to take pictures of crimes will only exacerbate. Says Slate's Michael Agger:

There have also been news reports of graphic videos showing beatings and accidents, such as an unfortunate boy in Birmingham, United Kingdom, who impaled himself on his bicycle. ... In glorious retrospect, it seems like a terrifically bad idea to give the world a spy camera that looks and functions like a cell phone.

Whoa. Seriously? Are we really talking about something unique to the mobile cam? To me, it seems like the most interesting innovation is the delivery, not the phone. YouTube and 3G networks, for example, deserve the credit here. After all, cameras and the Internet have been around for a while. Heck, so have oil paintings and carrier pigeons. It's the fact that there's a super-easy way to share images that's significant.

And by the way, would your cell phone cam actually take a legible picture of anything not right in front of it, in full sunlight? Mine wouldn't. These, however, might do the trick.