The camera shortcut

When Windows Phone 7 was presented, Microsoft's officials seemed to nearly have wetted themselves over the snappiness of the camera. Clicking the camera button from almost any app will open the camera window in under a second, allowing you to take snapshots that really honor their name.

It would have been fine if Microsoft had just stopped here but they decided to take this instant on camera idea too far. The camera button even works when the phone is locked and the screen is off. Holding down the camera button for about three seconds will have the camera window pop up ready for action from almost any state of the device except when it is completely shut down. I do not like this behavior at all. It introduces the risk of accidentally turning on the phone while it resides in your pocket, backpack or suitcase. Just three seconds of depressing the camera button plus a click on the home button will leave you with a phone that displays an active, clickable home screen dangling around.

Above all, the camera shortcut does not even bear the advantage of being a real short cut. Clicking the On button, swishing away the lock screen and triggering the camera button hardly takes longer than the camera shortcut to activate, rendering this feature entirely useless.

Addendum: As I just noticed, this feature can be switched off. Go to "Settings | Applications | Camera" where the option to turn on the phone by depressing the camera button can be deactivated. Neat!