With the release of the DSC-T50, Sony has relinquished almost all of its "hard-buttons" for a much smoother, dynamic touch screen interface. I assume this is indicative of a slow trend towards (at least in some cases) a soft GUI (where hard is a physical button), allowing the approaching "do it all" device of the future to come that much quicker. While cellular phones seem to be approaching this nexus, they still dont do most of their intended uses very well. The advent of a face that is entirely touch screen means that much more added flexibility to this device, aiding transition from, say, video playback to video phone to video recording.

Im hoping this device will come, come shortly, and im hoping ill have one. How sick would it be to have some minimal device that does games, plays movies, surfs, conferences and provides GPS for when you cant find that party your friend told you about? Im just hoping some good design hands (and minds) eventually get behind it, so we wont be suffering from the "1,000 button remote" syndrome that our current understanding of "do it all" machinery promotes. On the right are the two newest remotes to enter my parents house: CD / MP3-CD Player (left) and DVD Player. Its quite clear that they subsribe to two different schools of thought (even the thickness of the left remote is just over 1/3 of the right one). The Sony universal remotes are even scarier, but at least they actually are intended to control multiple devices; the one on the right is for one device. ONE device.

Combining this much potential power, with an apple designed casing sound about as delicious as a bean, cheese and rice burrito does when you live in england.