The compact camera market is fascinating: on one side it’s being savagely attacked by smartphones and their ever-improving cameras, and on the other by affordable DSLRs and hybrids.

But there’s still a place for compacts – taking snaps indoors in low light being one obvious example – and companies such as Samsung continue to deliver fresh ideas.

For example, there’s Mobile Link: a way to wirelessly transmit photos from your camera to any Wi-Fi equipped phone, tablet or computer.

Admittedly, wireless in itself isn’t new. We saw this in the SH100, which I blogged about from last year’s CES. However, Samsung says that it’s “doubling down” on wireless, and there are now five wireless-enabled cameras and camcorders in its line-up.

What else can you do with them? Here’s a video from a Samsung spokesperson who I spoke to at CES:

So, you don’t need to upload photos to your PC and then to Facebook (and other social-networking sites); you do it straight from the camera. That’s convenient if you’re at home, but even better if you’re abroad and at a wireless hotspot.

There’s also a nice little feature where you can use your Android smartphone or tablet as a viewfinder for the camera; with a remote control shutter, that could be a real boon.

Then there’s the capability of backing up to SkyDrive; with 25GB of free storage, it’s a potentially brilliant feature.

I’m less convinced by the ability to wirelessly back up photos to your PC – it’s simpler to remove the card and place it in your computer’s media slot, surely – and the idea of emailing photos to friends directly from a phone seems an unnecessary hassle.

But that’s just me. I’m curious what other people think. Will your next camera be wireless, or will you simply cut out the middle man – and accept some loss of quality – and use your smartphone’s camera instead?

As PC Pro’s resident “Eco Warrior” – a term that’s used with more than a hint of sarcasm by the rest of the team – I was chosen to attend the recent Green IT conference in London.

All the speakers gave food for thought, but one stood out in particular; James Page has over a decade’s wireless engineering experience at Nokia, and is an active member of the Green Party, too. He was also speaking independently, so was probably free to be a little more forthcoming than those there under a corporate banner.

He was talking specifically about the environmental impact of wireless technology, in particular, mobile phones and the infrastructure that supports them. In the past it’s been the hardware that we, as consumers, interact with that gets the negative attention with regards to power consumption.

“We’ve had the finger pointed towards mobile phone chargers for a while, that’s something that I think we’ve absolutely cracked,” says Page, speaking of the so-called vampire power consumption of power adapters.

Handsets are also a solved (or at least improving) problem, he explained, as customers push the industry towards efficiency by demanding models with longer talk time.

The main problem is that the infrastructure is so inefficient. Much as your home computer’s energy use is just the tip of the iceberg, with power being consumed by servers all around the world to serve you in different ways, the network infrastructure consumes vastly more power than your handset does.

It’s not that the hardware itself is inherently inefficient, but that it’s duplicated several times over because of the way that networks operate in the UK. In fact, the total amount of power used by the four largest mobile operators in the UK exceeds that used by the entire rail network of the whole country.

“Should the regulator actually have the remit to start looking at energy efficiency as well? There’s a lot of duplication and redundancy in the group of networks as a whole,” says Page, and that “an enormous amount of energy could be saved”.

Unfortunately, that just isn’t the case at the moment. “They simply don’t believe that they’ve got the legal ability to take environmental issues into account,” says Page, who said he imagines that in certain circumstances they could themselves face legal troubles if they did attempt to.

Two thirds of the Pro news team went out last night to a silent disco. If you’ve never heard of this, it’s an odd concept straight from Holland that involves everything that a standard disco does; a DJ, music, a large venue, some booze and dancing, but has one little twist – there are no speakers. Everyone listens to the music on wireless headphones. It’s a very odd experience.

This was even stranger than your usual silent disco, though, as the Fun Lovin’ Criminals also played a silent set. Pop the headphones on and you heard Huey and the rest bashing through their greatest hits, but take them off and all you got was a faint, muffled drummer from within his glass enclosure.

While watching I got thinking about what exactly was going on behind-the-scenes. Not only was the sound being transmitted to us over RF, but it was also being broadcast live online and sent over to Holland were it was transmitted on local radio.

The musicians had wireless instruments, too, and the staff had walkie-talkies so they could chat without having to run all around the venue. Everyone in the crowd had phones, and many were making calls as the room was practically silent. Further complicating matters, cameramen were also walking around the venue, wirelessly transmitting HD video to the sound desk where it was mixed and sent back to HDTVs on the stage.

All of this was going on at once, and all of it was perfectly normal. The only odd thing about the whole night was that it all worked. All of these confusing and conflicting wireless protocols managed to beam themselves around Koko without breaking each other, and the whole night went off without a hitch.

This all lead me to one question: why doesn’t my wireless router stretch to my kitchen?

We’ve been arguing about mobile phones in the office today, specifically when and where it’s appropriate to have one, and if anyone ever goes out without it. It all started around holidays and traveling – do you really need to take a mobile phone with you; is it an unnecessary distraction, or a useful backup in case of trouble?

Nowadays we seem to have them on us at all times of the day and night. For many people its even the first thing they see in the morning, as they use it as an alarm clock. We are even protesting to be able to use them on planes.

One unnamed debater, who ironically has the loudest and most irritating ring tone I have ever heard, argued that they should be left at home when on holiday at least. Another suggested that in case of an accident you may be grateful that you have it with you.

Personally, I’m terrible at keeping hold of them – I’ve lost several in the last few months, rarely keep them charged and never remember to transfer friend’s numbers to new handsets. It’s currently been around two weeks since I last turned mine on, and the world has yet to crumble around me. I simply don’t feel like I need it in my day to day life. However, when I travel it comes with me and when I go on a long solo bike ride it comes with me – you never know what will happen.