"autofocus matrix metering"

I can imagine what this is, and if it is what I think it is, it could be very cool: Figuring out the ideal focal point and exposure, based on all objects in the photo, rather than just focusing on one central object.

Matrix metering is something most SLR cameras have. It is, as Jon said about taking information from the whole frame rather than just spot metering which takes the information from one point.

Yeah, but the addition of "autofocus" to the phrase is new, isn't it?

Not really, my SLR can take into account multiple focal points and adjust as needed. There's a menu buried in there somewhere that will even allow me to set which point, or group of points is being used.

Automatically? Or manually?

When the camera is in full automatic mode, then it does it all automatically. Beyond that it's all about how much I want to do manually. It really just sounds like Apple is bringing a bunch of SLR features into play on the camera phone.

Even though the principle of deciding on the ultimate focus on an SLR can be done by sampling different points, it's not usually called matrix. That term is currently used for exposure only in common parlance. Is Apple just talking about same old same old by extending a metaphor, or are they doing something new?

Are they using the exposure array in the autofocus process? Do the sensors that measure difference somehow look or behave significantly like the exposure array?

Look at the autofocus points section of this [link] What have cameraphones traditionally been using? Even the example on the left isn't called a matrix, though.

Also--what kind of focusing do most cameraphones use?

Well, rats. My 7-year-old laptop won't launch Win7 normally, won't launch in safe mode, and won't launch from the rescue disk. It will boot from my Damn Small Linux CD, but only in failsafe mode, and I don't remember enough command line stuff to be useful.

This could be a problem.

I suspect you've already tried it, but have you given it a hard reboot by taking out the battery for a few minutes before restarting?

::kicks self::

I'm embarrassed to admit, I forgot to try that.

The bad news is, it didn't fix the problem.

The good news is, the recovery utility from here did what I needed.

I am up and running and busily making fresh backups of everything.