The media must be making the economy and wars look worse than they are since Congress seems more interested in tweaking technology than solving those problems. First the Senate votes to delay the DTV switch, and now the House is considering a bill that will require all camera phones to produce an audible click whenever a picture is taken. That is the ultimate goal of HR 414, better known as the Camera Phone Predator Alert Act.

When it comes to cameras, there is a great big variety to choose from, from camera phones to point and shoot to those fancy SLRs. It seems like every company is trying to sell you on the fact that you need their model. So, how do you know which one is right for you?

It’s about you

What it boils down to is what you are actually going to be doing with your camera. Are you just going to be taking a few pictures to email to your friends of you guys hanging out in the dorm partying? Do you want one that you can use to take shots of little Johnny playing soccer? Are you into wildlife photography? Do you want one where it does all the work for you, or do you want to have full control over the settings?

There’s plenty more after the break. Gadgetell’s resident photography expert, Jodie Andrefski, lays it all out for you. Plus, get some tips on how to make any of your photos better.

The recently announced Sony Ericsson C905 has made the required FCC appearance. We have already seen the official announcement, so unfortunately we are not able to offer anything new in terms of specs, but the good news is that it seems to be on the way to an actual release. As of now, we are more »

Next in the line of LG 8MP-touting mobile phones is the just announced LG-KC780 slider phone. According to LG, this camera phone, or rather portrait phone, has special features that make it ideal for shooting portraits. Measuring a mere 13.9 mm thick, this portrait phone comes with a Schneider-Kreuznach certified lens, which is actually common in most Kodak digital cameras.

Complementing this lens is the portrait phone’s face detection and smile detection technology, which automatically searches for your subjects’ faces and angle of their mouths to focus on their best angle. These features help make for high quality portrait photos. More info on this phone after the break.

Finally, LG has officially announced its 8MP camera phone, the KC-910 which from now on will also go by the name LG Renoir. Like we told you before, the LG Renoir is a slim and feature-rich multimedia phone with a touchscreen interface, Dolby Mobile sound technology, Wi-Fi connectivity and, of course, a full-function camera which according to LG can even surpass the capability of some regular digital camera models.

The LG Renoir has Schneider-Kreuznach optics, Xenon Flash, auto and manual focus ISO sensitivity up to 1600 and a feature which is quite popular lately – geotagging. But the most interesting camera feature of the LG Renoir has something to do with its touch-screen interface.

Keep reading for more details on the LG Renoir

It’s been discussed many times before, but how would you like it if your cell phone could read barcodes? You don’t really need to answer as GS1 is pushing to have it done already. GS1 has standardized the standard barcode, and wants to standardize the 2D dot matrix barcode, and soon possibly the Quick Response (QR) code. The company believes that consumers should be able to “scan” these barcodes for a variety of uses.

Possibly the most important use of the barcode “scanning” would be what GS1 calls “extended packaging.” For this, when you scan a barcode with your phone, you receive more information about the item on your phone. This information can be allergens, instructions or any other information that might not fit on the packaging. This seems pretty simple until you think that with this companies could possibly cut down on packaging, saving money and resources in the process. Thinking further than grocery items, perhaps movies or video games could have less packaging, with most of the information that would be on the back of the case instead sent to your phone through the barcode. That would be a long way off, but it could be possible.

What else does GS1 have cooking for barcodes? Read on to find out

I’m too sexy for my phone, too sexy for my phone… Well, that just may be what users of the new un-sexy Samsung Rugby may be singing. But, too sexy for their phone or not, their phone will probably have no problem being able to hold up their end of the relationship.

The recently released Rugby, with its clamshell handset, is the first military-spec phone from AT&T. It complies with Military Standard MI-SID-810F (dust, shock vibration, rain, humidity and solar radiation proof, as well as the ability to hold its own at altitude and temperature extremes). It comes equipped with Push-to-talk, an Integrated aGPS, Quad-band UMTS and HSDPA, Bluetooth connectivity, One-way Video Share calling, a 2″ display, 1.3 megapixel camera, and 128MB internal memory.

Feedback I’ve found out there by actual users of the phone has been pretty positive so far.

Samsung has just granted MetroPCS the honor of being the first wireless carrier to release the Samsung Messager, otherwise known as the SCH-r450. Although the Messager may not be the most popular Samsung handset due to the lack of hype surrounding its release, it still packs some great features that could probably earn it a more »

Call it a fashion phone, but the LG KF300 Wine is certainly a worthy addition to LG’s current line-up. Touting 2 display screens, the LG KF300 features a 2.2-inch QVGA internal display and a 1.3-inch external screen with 128×160 pixel resolution. Additionally, the tri-band LG KF30 mobile phone also boasts of network support for GSM/GPRS/EDGE, more »

In a world still without the iPhone, two years ago, Samsung had announced a cell phone with a gargantuan 8 megapixel camera, and just a few months ago, the thinnest 8 megapixel cellphone module. Today, it looks like Samsung is finally ready to make 8 megapixel cameras the standard in their mobile phones, with their new device, the i8510.