Read about it yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._litigation#Apple_v._Microsoft.2C_Intel.2C_and_San_Francisco_Canyon_Company

Patent troll nothing. Microsoft was caught red handed with code lifted *DIRECTLY* from the Quicktime codecs. This was not trolling with a concept or buying patents to then leverage against someone else, this was outright plagiarism.

The image quality is nowhere near what an SLR can deliver, but you are getting away from the original posters intent and my point of using the camera that you have to learn how to compose images. Sure, cell phone cameras are not going to have as many conveniences or the same image quality as a camera with a sensor larger than a pinhead (about the size of cell phone camera sensors), but you have it with you.

Ideally, I am waiting for a camera company to comet head on with Leica, but at lower prices. I just cannot justify a digital rangefinder in the $7-9 thousand range for the body alone when the image quality out of my Canon's is better. I wish I could as they are remarkably compact and discrete. The Fuji cameras are sooooo close. They need interchangeable lenses and slightly larger sensors, but I can easily see going with a solution like that when available.

Indeed. I regularly use two Canon 1D bodies and the associated lenses that can add up to over 30lbs of gear when on assignments, but I am not going to haul those bad boys around with me wherever I go. For lots of places, particularly when doing something like wearing a suit, a 1D and 70-200 f/2.8 is not always going to make the fashion police cut. ;-)

He *might* not have a good camera in his cell phone... or he might not think about using it do learn more about photography... Why would you assume that he has?

I used to say that and carried a P&S with me wherever I went... Until the iPhone 4 came along. I've been really, really happy with the iPhone 4 camera never before posting images to Jonesblog from anything other than a dedicated camera until then.

A fading light shot is here: http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/2011/10/evening-light/

and an indoor shot of the inside of an instrument is here:
http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/2010/12/gravity-probe-b/

To get me back in the point and shoot camera buying club, the camera companies are going to start to have to do something exciting again, like Olympus and Fuji are now doing with the larger sensor sizes.

A good cell phone camera... honestly. The best camera you can learn with is one that you will always have on your person. The latest cell phone cameras can make some really beautiful images: http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/2011/06/time-and-space/

When you are ready to go beyond framing and composition, then step up to a basic SLR like a Canon Rebel or a Nikon D40.