I saw the title to Real Live Preacher’s weblog entry and I immediately thought, “Yeah, and how to clean frozen Diet Coke out of your freezer when you forget about it…”
If that was your first thought as well, you need to click on over to RLP’s site:
I have been doing the same things over and over that it never occurred to me that I could do something different. Here’s to RLP for reminding us that there are different ways to do things.
Singer and song-writer, John Mayer, got an early release of the Blackberry Curve. He shows us pictures here:
When you think of a celebrity blog, do you ever expect them to do a review of their phone? I sure didn’t and I was pleasantly surprised. This isn’t the first time John Mayer has reviewed his gadgets on his weblog. He wrote this entry on his Nike+ a while back:
I wrote about it here:
It seems that John Mayer likes his technology as much as we do and I’m excited to see more from him about his new phone.
We bought this LensPen set from Carson a long time ago. I remember Mike lovingly cleaning the lens of his first Nikon with it, so we’ve had it for at least seven years. I didn’t have much use for it. T-shirt material is really soft and works pretty well to clean off camera lenses. I’m almost always wearing a t-shirt, but I’m never carrying around a Lenspen.
Then I started actually using the camera that’s on my Treo. I was inspired by kitykity and her Blackberry photos. My only problem was the lens on my Treo was covered with smudges, lint and gunk. I tried to use the t-shirt method, but camera phone lenses are so tiny that I just couldn’t get it clean. That’s when I finally found a use for the LensPen.
The LensPen Mini Pro fits perfectly into my Treo lens and cleans it up beautifully. Every couple of days or so, I have to charge my phone. When I do, I use the LensPen on the lens so that it will be clean when I want to take photos. If you use your camera phone as your primary camera, it would probably be a good idea to pick up a LensPen and give your lens a cleaning every week or so. You’ll take better photos.
When I’m out and about, I fill up my SD card on my camera all the time. Especially when I’m filming a lot, my little 2GB SD card can only hold 22 minutes of video. If I’m trying to film a birthday party or another family event, 22 minutes goes by so quickly. I usually lug my laptop around to empty out my SD card, but iWay has created a different option for you: use your 80GB Video iPod to store your photos until you get home.
Unfortunately, the iWay does not work with the Photo iPod or the iPod Nano, but it is compatible with the 60GB and 80GB Video iPods. One other disadvantage is that it also doesn’t support SDHC cards, so if you splurged and got a big 4GB or 8GB SDHC card, you probably won’t be able to use the iWay to empty it out.
Despite these limitations, I’m tempted by the iWay. For 70 bucks, I can stop lugging around my laptop and just carry the iPod in my purse. This would be especially helpful when I’m doing my walking videos. It’s so easy to fill up my cards when I’m filming those.
Update 06-15-07: I just realized that 2GB cards are getting cheaper and cheaper. For that 70 bucks, I could just get a couple extra SD cards and eliminate the need to transfer until I get home.
Via: iWay: an SD card reader for your iPod – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
Holy cow! The AIR tested 17 microphones in the studio and YOU can listen to the results here:
Here is their description of the shootout:
AIR: The Association of Independents in Radio helped organize a mic shootout, seeking to compare a wide variety of announce mics in a neutral setting. In the large, quiet room of Studio A at indre Studios in Philadelphia, a few independent producers set up 17 mics side-by-side. The mics ranged in price from less than a hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. We concentrated more on the less-expensive mics, and the mid-range popular standards, rather than pricey esoterica or cult-classic mics, hoping to find some bargains that might be practical for the independent producer, or to confirm that some of the pricier industry standards might be worth the expense.
They also have a handheld microphone shootout:
At the end of the handheld microphone shootout, they also compare the handhelds to lavalier microphones (those small clip-on microphones). You can hear the audio clips of the lavalier compared to the handhelds.
If you have been thinking of buying a microphone, no matter how much you were planning on spending, you should check out this website!
Via: Jen Simmons on Twitter – Awesome job, Jen! Thanks!
When you live on airplanes, you need to power up your computer somehow. Unfortunately, the Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter isn’t a good option for people with Apple computers:
After spending $60 on the adapter, it was obvious that the design had a major flaw:
I bought a new Macbook and ordered the Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter with it since none of my other airline plugs would work. When i opened it, i was horrified to see that it was a two-part thing: the cord and the cigarette plug part. I knew this was going to be a disaster. Sure enough, FIRST flight, the damn cigarette part gets stuck in the power plug on the plane and i have to leave it behind. I grumble the whole way off the plane about dysfunctional design. Who thinks it wise to make such a thing two-part when the entire structure of a cigarette lighter is to get stuck?
Sadly, there was no help at Apple for the issue…
He tells me he can’t do anything for me but he will tell his manager about the blogs. I ask him if i can just order just the head of the damn thing and finally, he tells me that’s possible but not through the site and i’m like i don’t care, just send it.
It doesn’t look like there are that many options for when you need to charge your computer on an airplane. The only other one I could find was the APC 150Watt DC to AC Inverter with Airline Adapter. Considering how poorly designed the Apple product is, this might have been a better option. APC is a company that specializes in power and battery backup systems and it looks like this adapter won’t get stuck in the airplane.
Kitykity got a Blackberry Pearl for an early Mother’s Day present and she has been using it to blog:
As an early mother’s day present, Scott got me this new blackberry pearl I’m typing on. It’s white, and I love it. Since I have this great gadget that takes pictures, I thought it would be a great way to force myself to start updating my Blog again.
I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the photos that she has been able to get out of that phone. Here is a simple example. This photo of the Sonic Drive-In sign is so clear that you could order a meal from it. Click on the photo for full size:
The detail that came through on this photo is amazing. She’s not using her best photographic techniques on these pictures. She’s just clicking photos, yet the Blackberry Pearl is able to get detail and clarity.
I’ve seen the lens on a Blackberry Pearl. The thing is no larger than a dime. Some of the talent goes to kitykity, of course, for rock solid stability and good photographic technique, but even the best photographer couldn’t get pictures this good out of my Treo 650.
Cameraphones just crossed over from toys to tools. Did you notice?
Back in January when I attended CES, I was able to get the people marketing the Slim G4 PCMCIA mouse to sell me one. I thought it would be perfect because I could just store it in my laptop’s PCMCIA slot. It wasn’t. I put in away in a drawer and forgot about it until I saw this entry from Engadget.
Does it work?
Yes, it works like a good optical mouse should. The scroll-touch pad scrolls without any special drivers and the tracking is very similar to a high-end mouse.
I didn’t review the G4 because it wasn’t available in the United States and it still isn’t. The Slim G4 mouse is a really good idea, but there are a couple of problems with its design. In the end, it really doesn’t compete with my inexpensive Targus travel mouse, despite the size. Before you send your hard-earned money overseas to buy the Slim G4, watch this video:
The Slim G4 seems to have a lot of advantages over the Targus travel mouse:
It fits in the PCMCIA slot: Yeah, that’s true. It does. The first time I put it in the slot and popped it back out, a little foot at the bottom of the mouse stayed in the computer. I was lucky enough to get it out of my card slot with a pair of tweezers. I would just take off all of the feet, but without them, the mouse doesn’t move on the table very well. You get that teeth-gritting feel of metal on wood, so you need the feet, but there was always the threat that they would end up stuck in my computer, so I never stored the Slim G4 in the PCMCIA slot.
It’s smaller: Yep, it’s mighty thin and kinda pretty, too. Thing is, if I have to carry it around in my laptop bag anyway, the difference in size with the Targus isn’t that noticeable.
The disadvantages far outweigh the advantages:
The scroll-touch in the middle doesn’t give as much feedback as the scroll wheel on the Targus: The clicky scroll wheel on the Targus feels better than the scroll-touch on the Slim G4.
It’s a pain to get out: As you can see in the video, the Slim G4 is a bloody pain to open up. It’s even worse to get the thing back together. I was able to zip and unzip the cord of the Targus a couple of times in just seconds.
What is the Slim G4 good for?
If you want to impress people, there is nothing better than popping an origami mouse out of your PCMCIA slot. It’s a gadget-lover’s conquest to have something that few other people have, but in the end, the practicality of the Targus travel mouse will catch up with you and you’ll leave the Slim G4 in the PCMCIA slot untouched.
Steve Ballmer might think that the iPhone isn’t going to affect the cell phone market. That’s because he had the inside knowledge of the new innovation coming out of Microsoft soon: the Microsoft oPhone!
Why settle for a multi-touch screen when you can have three keyboards and a circular screen instead! This Microsoft-created phone spoof is actually really funny. I love it when Mel Sampat explains how easy it is to write software for the oPhone:
Coding for the oPhone is so easy, a five-year-old can do it. In fact, even a four-year-old can do it. All you need to do is use the right GDI APIs. Just GetClientCircle instead of GetClientRect. DrawCircle instead DrawLine.
At least the guys at Microsoft have a good sense of humor.
I noticed this extra feature on Flickr the other day and I was completely surprised and delighted!
Flickr displays the what kind of camera photos are taken with. This picture had been taken with my old camera, but I uploaded it to Flickr with my Treo. It is really cool from a historical standpoint. Wouldn’t it have been nice to be able to track every photo Ansel Adams took to each camera he owned. He kept such good notes that it’s almost possible, but not all of us are that meticulous.
When you click on more properties, you get all the photo information that your camera stored such as exposure, aperture, focal length, ISO speed and more. Things that Ansel Adams meticulously wrote down and kept track of are now automatically stored for you in the photo data by your camera. Flickr lets you easily access that information for whatever photos you upload to them.
How do they do that:
Almost all new digital cameras save JPEG (jpg) files with EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data. Camera settings and scene information are recorded by the camera into the image file. Examples of stored information are shutter speed, date and time, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern and if a flash was used.
Source: Digicamhelp.
This is an awesome feature that I knew NOTHING about until now. I would have never found it out if I hadn’t noticed that little note to the side of my photos on Flickr.
After I read a book of Ansel Adams’ notes he wrote for EACH and EVERY photograph he took, I felt a little guilty for snapping thousands of photographs without so much of a thought of taking notes. Now, I don’t need to feel guilty. My camera takes meticulous notes for me.
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