(Yes, the title is stupid. It's the second stupid title, and I can't think of anything that explains how I feel about my current Nexus 7.)
Would it be ridiculous to buy another Nexus 7 after having two of the 2012 versions and returning them? I thought so.
Clearly, time has changed nearly everything.
Gone is the Tegra 3 with its multiple personality disorder, thankfully. The surge, pause, surge, pause rhythm is a thing of the past, for me.
Can someone with a 32 GB iPhone 5c, packed to the gills, get along with only 16 GB in a tablet? Yes, with Android it's definitely possible. According to the Storage statistics, I have 8.42 GB available still. I have very little of anything but applications (and their data) on it.
Is the graphics performance acceptable? Absolutely. I'm running Galaxy on Fire 2 HD (my 5th version (?), including the Tegra version), and it's quite good.
Is the display better than acceptable? Absolutely. I can't say that there was ever a problem with the 2012 models but this one is quite clear, although the Japanese and Chinese typography could be better. If I can read the iPhone's 4 inch (1136x640) display clearly, why shouldn't a 7 inch (1920x1200) display be even better? Maybe, I've missed a setting.
What hasn't changed? Asus is still the company in charge of the hardware, and Google is firmly in charge of the software and firmware. There is no flash memory slot of any sort still. Google is counting on Google Drive for those things. I have Google Drive, Evernote, and Dropbox on it, but I could add Ubuntu One and Microsoft's SkyDrive (being renamed in the UK) for more cloud storage. Amazon.com has another of those, backed by their own storage that has become rather popular.
The build is better. There is no creaking or flex that I have noticed. I miss the previous texture on the back, but this one will do. This device has two cameras, so you can look a bit silly taking photos or video with your tablet. The buttons feel quite good. Someone actually researched it, it seems. The micro USB port seems to have remained in what I consider the upside down position compared to the devices I've had.
Being that I got it for US$199.99, instead of US$229.99, I feel it's even better, as that took care of an extended warranty including accidental damage. The official travel case was US$19.99 at Micro Center, where I bought everything else.
Getting started with any device is a pain. Nothing is ready to go. Thankfully, I have Google Chrome on my laptop computers and I've allowed Google to sync my bookmarks, etc. After I connected the account on the tablet, things were set in motion, and it was fairly quick to connect the dots for me.
However, the updates took a lot of time, and it's yet to update the operating system to Android version 4.4 (Kit Kat), so that will take some time. Downloading my formerly-used applications also took some time and setup. I also have been reconsidering passwords on accounts. Having been a "victim" of the Adobe, Ubuntu forums, and MacRumors forums hackings, I have changed passwords here and there, though I've left those three since I am not using that combination anywhere else now and I'm not active on those three. I should change the Adobe bits, as I will have something to do with them eventually.
In any case, it's probably not wise to have passwords easily at hand with an Android-based device. They're still too vulnerable. The Bitdefender software is quite good and gives you a fair evaluation of the possibility of privacy problems. I'm at 61% with Twitter, Evernote, Google+, Yelp, and others. Very few applications are clean, and when you connect to the internet, you should consider all of your data publicly-available and work backward to secure it.
I'm not trying to scare anyone. 100% internet security is not possible, so all you can do is help your situation. Even though things are better on iOS, they're not nearly perfect, either, and you have to deal with third party applications anyway. Be safe!
The Bitdefender application makes good use of the tablet display, even though it has the "Designed for Phone" label. It seems to be the exception, although more developers are working toward the goal. Update 2013.12.08: I've spent the US9.95 for the premium status within the app. The company has done good work, and while I'm not sure they can save me from every situation, they can use the money as a vote toward enhancements.
If you can't tell, I'm pleased with the tablet. I'd like to take it out and use it some place in public to see how portable it really feels. Too many times, I've gone to a restaurant and I've left the computer in the car because it's just too much. Even a 10 inch tablet seems too much, but this is about big enough to fit on the tray, alongside your meal, as would a book.
Update 2013.11.26: Kit Kat (Android version 4.4) was downloaded overnight. I'm not noticing any real difference. Of course, this tablet has plenty of storage and RAM, so what might be improved on a lower end device, squeezed for resources, might not be so noticeable here.
One incredibly good thing, and I don't know whether it's part of 4.3 or 4.4, is the ability to have multiple users on the device. Just like with the laptop computer, I'd like to keep my photographic business separate from my monkey/personal business. (No, I don't trade in monkeys, but that would be a barrel of fun.)
Update 2013.11.27: It's been about 1 week, and I think that Asus and Google have really hit the mark on this one. The only better tablet at this point would possibly be the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX but reports I've read would suggest that it would have a lesser life for upgrades, and of course, you have to deal with Amazon's way of doing things.
Update 2013.12.08: The tablet continues to work smoothly, although there seems to be a continual stream of updates, something I remember with my previous encounters with Android. It could be a good thing when dealing with security issues, but for other issues or enhancements, it might be too much. Since this tablet is WiFi only, I might be putting my mobile hotspot account at risk, since I'm limited to 12 GB per month. I got a warning a few days before the end of the last period when I'd crossed 9 GB after just getting the tablet and doing updates and downloads.
Update 2013.03.24: It's been about four months now. I'm amused that if I leave the tablet off the charger overnight, it has half the charge in the morning, even with WiFi completely off. If I take it with me when I'm driving 50 miles or more, the battery seems to be depleted quite a lot the next time I try to use it. Checking the battery usage, it seems to be "normal" Android business.
Otherwise, nothing much has changed. There seem to be a steady stream of updates, many times from the same developers, every other day. There is something to be said for waiting 1 week on non-critical updates, especially if your update causes the problems.
Google seems to be more concerned with loading extra crap over the bugs instead of fixing the bugs first and then, adding new features. They're not much worse than Apple, but I suspect that they only do minimal, very directed testing inside their development environment. Apple never seems to test on a bad internet connection, so anything that doesn't work perfectly is a result of someone's connection.
Re-booting seems a must, on either platform. Despite all the elegant multitasking, Android doesn't seem to be any better at handling real life. It feels as though it will be another 20 years before these devices feel stable enough to be like watches or appliances. For that matter, I've had computers since 1981 and the new ones don't seem all that stable over the old ones.
Update 2015.04.27: It seems to be dead as far as Google is concerned. They've apparently stopped selling it on their site.
Update 2015.08.15: Now with Android version 5.1.1, you'd think that the tablet would perform better than ever, and it doesn't. Maybe, you have to start off with a clean tablet every few months with Android. This is Google's brand on the tablet--why is it not exemplary?
They're not replacing it apparently. Tablet sales are way down overall. Phablet sales are up. I use my iPhone 6 almost all the day, and I didn't even power on the Nexus 7 for a couple of months. Sad, isn't it?
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Fixing the 2013 iPad mini price problem
Those who have read about my reaction to the higher than expected price for the 2013 iPad mini, or those who have talked to me about it, may be able to sense how ridiculous I felt for waiting for the updated tablet as I saw the announcement. While the display density increased greatly and the performance is much, much, much better, the display quality is lacking, and the price is rather high when you consider the size and the display quality.
As an alternative, I thought about waiting for a refurbished unit or buying a refurbished iPad Air or 4th generation full sized iPad.
Last week, I looked a bit and thought about every opportunity to make the wrong decision. This week, I went out to take a look at several tablets, including the following:
First, Windows RT was low on my list. I have a good feeling about Android and iOS. There may come a day when I warm to Windows RT but that was not today. Being comfortable is a great thing, and knowing that Google and Apple are willing to update their products within a certain range of time gives me a good feeling. I'm still uncomfortable with all of the WP7 phones that were pushed to extinction by Microsoft.
Second, the display had to be better than average. You can have a high density display that looks terrible, just ask 2013 iPad mini (Retina) owners. That display covers only something like 66% of the sRGB gamut, which is quite low, especially when the cost of the whole product jumped US$70. I need to be able to read Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and legal-ese--that fine print you can't normally see clearly. Western languages are fairly easy to read on most displays. We used to use a 7x9 print matrix to printer western characters in the 1980s. If not for Japanese and Chinese, we may never have pushed past that "spray painting" type of printing.
Amazon has done a great job with their tablets in order to sell media. Each tablet is a winner. I'm even thrilled with their execution of the walled garden to take care of the customer experience. I could live with it, much the way I live with Apple's way. No fuss, no muss.
Barnes & Noble is leaving the hardware business. They have exceptional prices on their equipment. Their largest tablet was US$179, which had an 8 inch display. However, while I was listening to the Barnes & Noble people having trouble with the tablet they were using to show someone, I was concerned that there were issues other than the speed of the internet connection. 1 + 1 = 2, does it not? Being twice as nervous is not good.
EVGA Tegra Note 7 looks like a good tablet at a good price. However, I can't get the notion out of my head that an nVidia Tegra processor is going to be a problem again, as it was with the 2012 Google Nexus 7.
Once bitten, twice shy? Given that I had two of the 2012 Google Nexus 7 models, and wasn't happy with either, I had cause to be concerned. However, a lot of the same concerns were boldly announced in reviews for the 2012 model and were not to be found in the 2013 models. I tried the 2013 model at a couple of stores and found it to be strong and quick with a better than average display. The number one item to Google's favor was that they would provide system updates faithfully where the others might not, especially for the bargain tablets.
Speaking of bargain tablets, I saw a couple of Lenovo IdeaTab (Android, right?) tablets at discount at Best Buy. One was US$119, like one of those cheapo tablets that never gets an update and you wonder where the company went with your money three months later. Lenovo does a great job with premium products, but I rarely hear great things about their bargains.
Samsung, oh, Samsung, how you make me wish you'd stayed just a component supplier. You provided everyone with great components and let them do the user experience work and it was a great combination. Then, you decided that you could make more money by competing with them, and you developed the whole product, except that you always shortchange on the development. You leave bugs in the software, and the user experience is less than ideal. Your checklist formula is great for you but it's not great for the consumer.
After all that, I ended up with a 16 GB 2013 Google Nexus 7 at a US$30 discount. I bought a US$20 travel case and the US$30 protection plan that was reduced in price because of the discount on the tablet. It still came to quite a bit but the difference between everything I bought and the price of an Apple iPad mini was still over US$125.
I hope my experience is good. Android 4.3 is on the device (and supposedly 4.4 is getting to everyone slowly). It's been doing a lot of updates, as you could expect from a new product. It's still amazing to me how many things are not really good on a tablet. It's been 3 years since my Android-based phone and Android 2.2, so what's the problem? Why are they having to code individual fixes for several devices instead of providing one application for tablets and another for phones? Google has recently implemented "Designed for phones" to let tablet owners know that an application won't utilize the extra space so well. Wasn't it CEO Eric Schmidt who said that they didn't need separate layouts for tablets and phones?
I look forward to finding what works well. As I use a certain filling station chain for diesel fuel, I've accumulated quite a few points and used 10,000 of those points to buy a US$10 Google Play gift card. It's not a lot but it should get me started without emptying my wallet of real money.
I wonder how many others are thinking similarly. Apple have opened a huge hole between them and the less expensive competition. Will people buy the iPad mini? Undoubtedly, there will be many buying it. The iOS ecosystem is wonderful. The Android ecosystem is coming along, but I'm still seeing far too many copyright violations where people use well-known characters in copies of their games. However, they are fewer than in 2011. If Google can abstract the hardware well enough that a developer can develop for two layouts, instead of focusing on hundreds of individual devices, the software problem will vanish. Since Ubuntu and Firefox are new names to mobile devices, it gives Google incentive to fix their problems NOW. Oh well, my tablet is working well, so far. Hopefully, it stays that way.
I hope Apple is as happy with my solution as I am.
Update 2015.04.08: There are rumors about the iPad mini 4. Nothing has really been said about the processor, and that is what has to be the best to generate real excitement and sales.
Now, the tablet market is fairly stagnant. My 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet hasn't been replaced by Google yet. It could probably use a stronger processor, but I suspect that they're trying to make up for losses they took on the front end that made it such a great bargain. Apple seems to be making their money all along.
I really believe that for a tablet to be portable, it needs to be 7-8 inches diagonally across the display. I've seen plenty of people trying to take photos of video with ~10 inch tablets and it's just silly, especially when you consider the cameras are not very good.
nVidia Shield is the only really new tablet but it's rather special purpose. Samsung continues to update their tablets and generate new model names and numbers, but is anyone buying them or do they only get them for free, as part of a data plan?
As an alternative, I thought about waiting for a refurbished unit or buying a refurbished iPad Air or 4th generation full sized iPad.
Last week, I looked a bit and thought about every opportunity to make the wrong decision. This week, I went out to take a look at several tablets, including the following:
- Amazon Fire HDX
- Barnes & Noble Nook HD+
- EVGA Tegra Note 7
- 2013 Google Nexus 7
- Lenovo IdeaTab/IdeaPad
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 7
First, Windows RT was low on my list. I have a good feeling about Android and iOS. There may come a day when I warm to Windows RT but that was not today. Being comfortable is a great thing, and knowing that Google and Apple are willing to update their products within a certain range of time gives me a good feeling. I'm still uncomfortable with all of the WP7 phones that were pushed to extinction by Microsoft.
Second, the display had to be better than average. You can have a high density display that looks terrible, just ask 2013 iPad mini (Retina) owners. That display covers only something like 66% of the sRGB gamut, which is quite low, especially when the cost of the whole product jumped US$70. I need to be able to read Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and legal-ese--that fine print you can't normally see clearly. Western languages are fairly easy to read on most displays. We used to use a 7x9 print matrix to printer western characters in the 1980s. If not for Japanese and Chinese, we may never have pushed past that "spray painting" type of printing.
Amazon has done a great job with their tablets in order to sell media. Each tablet is a winner. I'm even thrilled with their execution of the walled garden to take care of the customer experience. I could live with it, much the way I live with Apple's way. No fuss, no muss.
Barnes & Noble is leaving the hardware business. They have exceptional prices on their equipment. Their largest tablet was US$179, which had an 8 inch display. However, while I was listening to the Barnes & Noble people having trouble with the tablet they were using to show someone, I was concerned that there were issues other than the speed of the internet connection. 1 + 1 = 2, does it not? Being twice as nervous is not good.
EVGA Tegra Note 7 looks like a good tablet at a good price. However, I can't get the notion out of my head that an nVidia Tegra processor is going to be a problem again, as it was with the 2012 Google Nexus 7.
Once bitten, twice shy? Given that I had two of the 2012 Google Nexus 7 models, and wasn't happy with either, I had cause to be concerned. However, a lot of the same concerns were boldly announced in reviews for the 2012 model and were not to be found in the 2013 models. I tried the 2013 model at a couple of stores and found it to be strong and quick with a better than average display. The number one item to Google's favor was that they would provide system updates faithfully where the others might not, especially for the bargain tablets.
Speaking of bargain tablets, I saw a couple of Lenovo IdeaTab (Android, right?) tablets at discount at Best Buy. One was US$119, like one of those cheapo tablets that never gets an update and you wonder where the company went with your money three months later. Lenovo does a great job with premium products, but I rarely hear great things about their bargains.
Samsung, oh, Samsung, how you make me wish you'd stayed just a component supplier. You provided everyone with great components and let them do the user experience work and it was a great combination. Then, you decided that you could make more money by competing with them, and you developed the whole product, except that you always shortchange on the development. You leave bugs in the software, and the user experience is less than ideal. Your checklist formula is great for you but it's not great for the consumer.
After all that, I ended up with a 16 GB 2013 Google Nexus 7 at a US$30 discount. I bought a US$20 travel case and the US$30 protection plan that was reduced in price because of the discount on the tablet. It still came to quite a bit but the difference between everything I bought and the price of an Apple iPad mini was still over US$125.
I hope my experience is good. Android 4.3 is on the device (and supposedly 4.4 is getting to everyone slowly). It's been doing a lot of updates, as you could expect from a new product. It's still amazing to me how many things are not really good on a tablet. It's been 3 years since my Android-based phone and Android 2.2, so what's the problem? Why are they having to code individual fixes for several devices instead of providing one application for tablets and another for phones? Google has recently implemented "Designed for phones" to let tablet owners know that an application won't utilize the extra space so well. Wasn't it CEO Eric Schmidt who said that they didn't need separate layouts for tablets and phones?
I look forward to finding what works well. As I use a certain filling station chain for diesel fuel, I've accumulated quite a few points and used 10,000 of those points to buy a US$10 Google Play gift card. It's not a lot but it should get me started without emptying my wallet of real money.
I wonder how many others are thinking similarly. Apple have opened a huge hole between them and the less expensive competition. Will people buy the iPad mini? Undoubtedly, there will be many buying it. The iOS ecosystem is wonderful. The Android ecosystem is coming along, but I'm still seeing far too many copyright violations where people use well-known characters in copies of their games. However, they are fewer than in 2011. If Google can abstract the hardware well enough that a developer can develop for two layouts, instead of focusing on hundreds of individual devices, the software problem will vanish. Since Ubuntu and Firefox are new names to mobile devices, it gives Google incentive to fix their problems NOW. Oh well, my tablet is working well, so far. Hopefully, it stays that way.
I hope Apple is as happy with my solution as I am.
Update 2015.04.08: There are rumors about the iPad mini 4. Nothing has really been said about the processor, and that is what has to be the best to generate real excitement and sales.
Now, the tablet market is fairly stagnant. My 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet hasn't been replaced by Google yet. It could probably use a stronger processor, but I suspect that they're trying to make up for losses they took on the front end that made it such a great bargain. Apple seems to be making their money all along.
I really believe that for a tablet to be portable, it needs to be 7-8 inches diagonally across the display. I've seen plenty of people trying to take photos of video with ~10 inch tablets and it's just silly, especially when you consider the cameras are not very good.
nVidia Shield is the only really new tablet but it's rather special purpose. Samsung continues to update their tablets and generate new model names and numbers, but is anyone buying them or do they only get them for free, as part of a data plan?
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Who will buy the Samsung Galaxy NX camera?
I've read recently that the Galaxy NX camera is available in the U.S.A. for about US$1600.
Make no mistake, I'm not a fan of Samsung products. I think the company leaves a lot to be desired in the operation of their products. It's as though they have a checklist of features and as soon as they add a feature, working correctly or not, they check that line as completed.
They've become better since Google takes care of the backend of a lot of their products. Without Android, they'd be as craptacular as they were the last time I owned one of their products. They had indicated a desire to do things on their own with Bada but that failed, although it's probably being fed some money to keep the project alive. From my viewpoint, they're just trying to keep the overall business in line with Sony and Panasonic and of course, to crush LG at home.
I've seen in the past that a few people went with their re-branding of Pentax dSLRs to make their own GX line. They did okay because Pentax gave them some base code and the hardware. There wasn't much to go wrong with doing some tweaks. When I would say something about the GX line, someone would raucously defend their purchase, as if it was a life-or-death situation. I've recently seen the same thing with their NX line.
NX--like Sony's NEX--they couldn't even come up with a series name on their own it seems. However, they went on their own because Pentax wasn't going to mirror-less system cameras yet. They filled out their mighty checklist and added features one-by-one until they had the perfect specification for a camera. It's not that unusual in the electronics industry, and even related more specifically to computers and tablets, it's not unusual. Sony obviously works from a checklist.
Samsung has created NX-series cameras in several generations, but they don't have much in the way of sales compared to Olympus, Panasonic, or Sony. I'm guessing that the majority of their buyers have Samsung phones, tablets, and phablets like the Galaxy Note series.
That makes the Galaxy NX camera all the more appealing to that group. They can use the connectivity in the camera to avoid depleting the battery life on their phones, tablets, and phablets.
However, is US$1600 too dear for the ability to take a photo and massage it using some Android-based app and upload it using another app? Is it so convenient that the extra cost doesn't matter? I've recently seen the NX300 for US$700-$800, which seems consistent with other brands with more lenses and accessories. It's odd to think that Sony's NEX line has more support, given that they have churned out body after body but still have few lenses. The only mirror-less system camera with fewer lenses is the Canon EOS-M with two lenses.
The only thing that would make this situation more strange would be for LG to make an alliance with a camera maker and start producing an Android-based camera of its own.
Make no mistake, I'm not a fan of Samsung products. I think the company leaves a lot to be desired in the operation of their products. It's as though they have a checklist of features and as soon as they add a feature, working correctly or not, they check that line as completed.
They've become better since Google takes care of the backend of a lot of their products. Without Android, they'd be as craptacular as they were the last time I owned one of their products. They had indicated a desire to do things on their own with Bada but that failed, although it's probably being fed some money to keep the project alive. From my viewpoint, they're just trying to keep the overall business in line with Sony and Panasonic and of course, to crush LG at home.
I've seen in the past that a few people went with their re-branding of Pentax dSLRs to make their own GX line. They did okay because Pentax gave them some base code and the hardware. There wasn't much to go wrong with doing some tweaks. When I would say something about the GX line, someone would raucously defend their purchase, as if it was a life-or-death situation. I've recently seen the same thing with their NX line.
NX--like Sony's NEX--they couldn't even come up with a series name on their own it seems. However, they went on their own because Pentax wasn't going to mirror-less system cameras yet. They filled out their mighty checklist and added features one-by-one until they had the perfect specification for a camera. It's not that unusual in the electronics industry, and even related more specifically to computers and tablets, it's not unusual. Sony obviously works from a checklist.
Samsung has created NX-series cameras in several generations, but they don't have much in the way of sales compared to Olympus, Panasonic, or Sony. I'm guessing that the majority of their buyers have Samsung phones, tablets, and phablets like the Galaxy Note series.
That makes the Galaxy NX camera all the more appealing to that group. They can use the connectivity in the camera to avoid depleting the battery life on their phones, tablets, and phablets.
However, is US$1600 too dear for the ability to take a photo and massage it using some Android-based app and upload it using another app? Is it so convenient that the extra cost doesn't matter? I've recently seen the NX300 for US$700-$800, which seems consistent with other brands with more lenses and accessories. It's odd to think that Sony's NEX line has more support, given that they have churned out body after body but still have few lenses. The only mirror-less system camera with fewer lenses is the Canon EOS-M with two lenses.
The only thing that would make this situation more strange would be for LG to make an alliance with a camera maker and start producing an Android-based camera of its own.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Is Live View a waste on a dSLR?
Ever since the Olympus E-330, Panasonic DMC-L1, and Leica Digilux 3 introduced Live View to the world of photography, I've wondered about using it.
In November 2011, I got an Olympus E-5, which has Live View and video recording. I played with each, but never did much with them. In February 2013 when I got a Panasonic DMC-GH3, I had a camera body similarly equipped with Live View and (much enhanced) video recording. Still, I'd yet to do more than test Live View.
In some cases, like the Nikon D7100, D300s, and Canon 70D, the rear display is rather firmly attached, so you can't slide, tilt, or turn it away from the body. In cases like this, I've heard Live View called "Tripod Mode". To me, the words "live" and "tripod" don't really seem to work with each other in photography. Those still life portraits are so...still.
It was only when I was at an Olympus photo walk event with the E-M1 that I really considered Live View valuable.
At one intersection in downtown Indianapolis, there is a flying saucer-like underside covering the intersection, making it a bit claustrophobic. I could just take a snapshot, but it made more sense to me to get closer to the ground. I released the rear display and folded it down until it was facing upward. As I held the camera a few inches from the pavement/sidewalk, between the obstacles, I was able to get a clear shot of the whatever-it-is. It enabled me to do things I could not normally do.
Since mirror-less system cameras all use Live View and nothing else, the technology has become much better. Lenses are designed for it, and speeding up the interaction between the image sensor helps to speed auto focus. As the sensor is always going, the various companies are learning about heat dissipation to reduce the effects of photographic noise.
When I was at a Panasonic-sponsored event recently, an older gentleman showed me his Panasonic DMC-L1 and it was interesting but part of a different time. Those ideas certainly changed everything, and we wouldn't likely have mirror-less system cameras today without them.
I still haven't a great use for Live View on the Olympus E-5, but now, that I've actually used Live View, I certainly have an appreciation for it, and will realize that I don't have to walk away from certain photos to get them comfortably.
Here is another, more recent photo using Live View and the articulated rear display of my Panasonic GH3 this time. I switched from the EVF to the rear display, held the camera body at a rather extreme angle, twisted the rear display angle for easy viewing, while kneeling comfortably, rather than lying on the ground, photographing it upside down.
In November 2011, I got an Olympus E-5, which has Live View and video recording. I played with each, but never did much with them. In February 2013 when I got a Panasonic DMC-GH3, I had a camera body similarly equipped with Live View and (much enhanced) video recording. Still, I'd yet to do more than test Live View.
In some cases, like the Nikon D7100, D300s, and Canon 70D, the rear display is rather firmly attached, so you can't slide, tilt, or turn it away from the body. In cases like this, I've heard Live View called "Tripod Mode". To me, the words "live" and "tripod" don't really seem to work with each other in photography. Those still life portraits are so...still.
It was only when I was at an Olympus photo walk event with the E-M1 that I really considered Live View valuable.
At one intersection in downtown Indianapolis, there is a flying saucer-like underside covering the intersection, making it a bit claustrophobic. I could just take a snapshot, but it made more sense to me to get closer to the ground. I released the rear display and folded it down until it was facing upward. As I held the camera a few inches from the pavement/sidewalk, between the obstacles, I was able to get a clear shot of the whatever-it-is. It enabled me to do things I could not normally do.
 |
| E-M1 Live View Straight from the Camera JPEG |
 |
| E-5 through the optical viewfinder, converted from raw file |
When I was at a Panasonic-sponsored event recently, an older gentleman showed me his Panasonic DMC-L1 and it was interesting but part of a different time. Those ideas certainly changed everything, and we wouldn't likely have mirror-less system cameras today without them.
I still haven't a great use for Live View on the Olympus E-5, but now, that I've actually used Live View, I certainly have an appreciation for it, and will realize that I don't have to walk away from certain photos to get them comfortably.
 |
| Panasonic GH3, Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 |
Here is another, more recent photo using Live View and the articulated rear display of my Panasonic GH3 this time. I switched from the EVF to the rear display, held the camera body at a rather extreme angle, twisted the rear display angle for easy viewing, while kneeling comfortably, rather than lying on the ground, photographing it upside down.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
OK Google vs. Siri
In the late 1990s, I used my Mac Clone with Mac OS 8.5 and PlainTalk to dial the modem, get my e-mail, start my web browser, and keep me current without touching a keyboard or mouse each morning.
It seems as though we've gone backwards since Mac OS X and while I have a built-in microphone, I don't use it much.
Then came Siri, with all the canned advertising requests. It seemed that Siri worked beautifully, if you asked it the correct questions. As the service became available in Japanese, I tried it both in English and Japanese. At the time, I thought that Mac OS 8.5 did a better job.
A few times, I've used OK Google with the Google app to show me relevant information and it's not always okay, but it usually understands me and finds what I want.
I was concerned about tornadoes tonight, as the sirens were screaming for a couple of minutes. Siri didn't know where I was and wanted me to access privacy settings. I re-stated the request with a zip code. It told me that it didn't look as though there would be tornadoes today. Oops, that wasn't what I wanted to know.
The question wasn't that difficult but I suppose it could have been slightly vague. However, OK Google had given me results for several news articles related to the area a few minutes earlier.
I also asked both for the location of San Jose State University and I got various information from OK Google, and again I got "I don't know where you are." as Siri pointed me to privacy settings again.
I could understand if it had trouble with names, but I saw the text and it had written "San Jose State University" just fine. Then, it cleared the display and told me about privacy settings.
I disabled Siri again. I might try it in Japanese again. There might not be as much confusion, except that I'm not in Japan now. I just tried OK Google in Japanese. You must tap the microphone icon, as the "OK Google" phrase does not seem to work, but the results were as impressive as they are in English.
Update 2013.11.26: I saw an announcement today that Honda/Acura have added Siri Eyes-Free to certain models, as Chevrolet did earlier. I hope those users have more luck than I did. It's certainly an interesting idea. My 2012 VW Golf TDI has phone-related voice commands but I don't have navigation as part of the car, so I would imagine that would enhance the experience quite a lot. Buick's voice control over music seems as childish as their advertising but it might be useful. I sometimes wish Apple would implement voice search but it would have to deal with multiple languages and they're not ready for that.
Update 2013.12.08: I've been using voice search a bit on the Nexus 7 tablet. Apple said that Siri required the iPhone 4s' special noise reduction chip and that the iPhone 4, with its more primitive technology from the same company couldn't do the job correctly. Why is it then, that all these Android-based devices work so well? I doubt Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro processor has such technology nor did my (now ancient) LG Optimus S. Of course, Apple wants you to ditch the old and buy the new, but it's probably not just about the money, Apple's developers probably can't get things to work correctly. There are occasions where OK Google doesn't work with certain names, even when I'm quite crisp with my enunciation. However, it seems to work better some days with UK English selected instead of US English--my accent drifts quite a lot. Using UK English tends to get results from the other side of the ocean, which isn't always helpful.
Update 2013.12.17: I've tried to use the new Chrome plug-in for searching by voice. I couldn't stop laughing at the horrid results. It rarely got any of the words correct, and I was using it on a rather powerful MacBook Pro with a 2.6 GHz i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD. Imagine the results for a lower end machine with a 5400 rpm hard drive.
It seems as though we've gone backwards since Mac OS X and while I have a built-in microphone, I don't use it much.
Then came Siri, with all the canned advertising requests. It seemed that Siri worked beautifully, if you asked it the correct questions. As the service became available in Japanese, I tried it both in English and Japanese. At the time, I thought that Mac OS 8.5 did a better job.
A few times, I've used OK Google with the Google app to show me relevant information and it's not always okay, but it usually understands me and finds what I want.
I was concerned about tornadoes tonight, as the sirens were screaming for a couple of minutes. Siri didn't know where I was and wanted me to access privacy settings. I re-stated the request with a zip code. It told me that it didn't look as though there would be tornadoes today. Oops, that wasn't what I wanted to know.
The question wasn't that difficult but I suppose it could have been slightly vague. However, OK Google had given me results for several news articles related to the area a few minutes earlier.
I also asked both for the location of San Jose State University and I got various information from OK Google, and again I got "I don't know where you are." as Siri pointed me to privacy settings again.
I could understand if it had trouble with names, but I saw the text and it had written "San Jose State University" just fine. Then, it cleared the display and told me about privacy settings.
I disabled Siri again. I might try it in Japanese again. There might not be as much confusion, except that I'm not in Japan now. I just tried OK Google in Japanese. You must tap the microphone icon, as the "OK Google" phrase does not seem to work, but the results were as impressive as they are in English.
Update 2013.11.26: I saw an announcement today that Honda/Acura have added Siri Eyes-Free to certain models, as Chevrolet did earlier. I hope those users have more luck than I did. It's certainly an interesting idea. My 2012 VW Golf TDI has phone-related voice commands but I don't have navigation as part of the car, so I would imagine that would enhance the experience quite a lot. Buick's voice control over music seems as childish as their advertising but it might be useful. I sometimes wish Apple would implement voice search but it would have to deal with multiple languages and they're not ready for that.
Update 2013.12.08: I've been using voice search a bit on the Nexus 7 tablet. Apple said that Siri required the iPhone 4s' special noise reduction chip and that the iPhone 4, with its more primitive technology from the same company couldn't do the job correctly. Why is it then, that all these Android-based devices work so well? I doubt Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro processor has such technology nor did my (now ancient) LG Optimus S. Of course, Apple wants you to ditch the old and buy the new, but it's probably not just about the money, Apple's developers probably can't get things to work correctly. There are occasions where OK Google doesn't work with certain names, even when I'm quite crisp with my enunciation. However, it seems to work better some days with UK English selected instead of US English--my accent drifts quite a lot. Using UK English tends to get results from the other side of the ocean, which isn't always helpful.
Update 2013.12.17: I've tried to use the new Chrome plug-in for searching by voice. I couldn't stop laughing at the horrid results. It rarely got any of the words correct, and I was using it on a rather powerful MacBook Pro with a 2.6 GHz i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD. Imagine the results for a lower end machine with a 5400 rpm hard drive.
Yelp is doing better
As negative/realistic as I have been in the past, Yelp has been making some positive improvements to their site and their mobile app.
The best thing I've seen is that they've been giving business updates more of a priority, and they're also sending e-mail concerning the results. Several times, I've received positive notice that the changes were made, such as hours or phone numbers, within a day. On the other hand, I'm still seeing a duplicate for Jungle Jim's in Fairfield, OH but I won't notify them a third time.
When searching in the app, I'm more likely to get the results I need, close to where I am. I still think it's odd how I'll search for Target and I'll receive a list of them, most further away that I've already reviewed or regularly visit, but the one where I am is fairly far down the line. It's better but still odd that it doesn't appear at the top.
Obviously, the app was changed to allow full reviews without making a computer necessary. We've come a long way with mobile devices, so it's less difficult to churn out a full review now. However, I see a lot that were obviously written in the dark with salsa all over the display.
The "Something's a bit funky with Yelp" message is cute when my connection isn't good, but it's usually not Yelp's fault. The "Yelp is down for maintenance" message is annoying though. You'd think it would be down for maintenance in the middle of the local (it's not night at the same time everywhere) night, not in the middle of the local day. Everyone takes care of business when they can, though. They might not have anyone working at night. At least, it's not like Twitter where my primary account was hacked 3 times in 4 days and I ended up deleting it, just to stop the problem.
I'm still weirded out by the "Hold on, Tiger" messages when I'm out shopping and the app thinks I'm going too quickly, when there is someone in the Cincinnati area who apparently doesn't actually visit most of her check-ins--she drives past a place to stay on top. Many times, I'll be leaving a place and I may still not be able to do the check-in. Yes, it's not a competition, but it's easier to remember where I forgot something, if I have a path in Yelp.
I've seen a huge, weird issue. One of my Yelp friends suddenly had all of his reviews hidden by the filter. They all seem to be legitimate reviews, and he enjoys writing the reviews, but it's frustrating that every one of them is hidden now. I've randomly checked my own, and haven't found any hidden but I currently have 677 reviews, so it's difficult to know which could be hidden.
The last thing is a bug concerning the Useful, Funny, Cool votes. Certain reviews are sorted so that they're in the middle of a group of reviews with "Useful 3", but that isn't attached to that certain review. By the positioning, it's apparently counted as "Useful 3" but just doesn't display it.
I like using Yelp. No service is perfect, and I don't expect perfection. Four Square allows check-in offers,. Trip Advisor allows you to review, but nothing really has that combination that Yelp has. If things become less weird, I suspect that more people would trust it. Right now, you need a grain of salt from time to time.
It looks as though I won't be Elite for 2014. Whether the Cincinnati Elite page is messed up or they're excluding me for some reason, I don't know, but when I use the "Nominate someone" form, as I believe I did last year (and there is nothing else to use), it says that I'm already Elite. Oh, well.
Never mind that. It looks as though the web page had not been updated for several days after the e-mail was sent.
Update 2014.03.17: Happy St. Patrick's (Padraig's?) Day!
I'm continually amused by the data changes at Yelp. I went to a home-style restaurant and looked at the address which still had the wrong U.S. highway--7 instead of the correct 27. When I made a correction--again--the "moved" the restaurant to a new listing with the correct address. It's mind-boggling.
They still have a duplicate for Jungle Jim's in Fairfield, Ohio (and I'm not mentioning it for fear of another snarky e-mail), but the new listing for Dick's Sporting Goods in the Dayton Mall was removed, while the old one still exists. You'd think that they'd want to clear out the duplicates so they'd have room for the legitimate locations.
I'm Elite again, though the Cincinnati Community Manager has ignored my existence for whatever reason. I have yet to go to an event, but it's cheaper for them if I don't, correct?
The best thing I've seen is that they've been giving business updates more of a priority, and they're also sending e-mail concerning the results. Several times, I've received positive notice that the changes were made, such as hours or phone numbers, within a day. On the other hand, I'm still seeing a duplicate for Jungle Jim's in Fairfield, OH but I won't notify them a third time.
When searching in the app, I'm more likely to get the results I need, close to where I am. I still think it's odd how I'll search for Target and I'll receive a list of them, most further away that I've already reviewed or regularly visit, but the one where I am is fairly far down the line. It's better but still odd that it doesn't appear at the top.
Obviously, the app was changed to allow full reviews without making a computer necessary. We've come a long way with mobile devices, so it's less difficult to churn out a full review now. However, I see a lot that were obviously written in the dark with salsa all over the display.
The "Something's a bit funky with Yelp" message is cute when my connection isn't good, but it's usually not Yelp's fault. The "Yelp is down for maintenance" message is annoying though. You'd think it would be down for maintenance in the middle of the local (it's not night at the same time everywhere) night, not in the middle of the local day. Everyone takes care of business when they can, though. They might not have anyone working at night. At least, it's not like Twitter where my primary account was hacked 3 times in 4 days and I ended up deleting it, just to stop the problem.
I'm still weirded out by the "Hold on, Tiger" messages when I'm out shopping and the app thinks I'm going too quickly, when there is someone in the Cincinnati area who apparently doesn't actually visit most of her check-ins--she drives past a place to stay on top. Many times, I'll be leaving a place and I may still not be able to do the check-in. Yes, it's not a competition, but it's easier to remember where I forgot something, if I have a path in Yelp.
I've seen a huge, weird issue. One of my Yelp friends suddenly had all of his reviews hidden by the filter. They all seem to be legitimate reviews, and he enjoys writing the reviews, but it's frustrating that every one of them is hidden now. I've randomly checked my own, and haven't found any hidden but I currently have 677 reviews, so it's difficult to know which could be hidden.
The last thing is a bug concerning the Useful, Funny, Cool votes. Certain reviews are sorted so that they're in the middle of a group of reviews with "Useful 3", but that isn't attached to that certain review. By the positioning, it's apparently counted as "Useful 3" but just doesn't display it.
I like using Yelp. No service is perfect, and I don't expect perfection. Four Square allows check-in offers,. Trip Advisor allows you to review, but nothing really has that combination that Yelp has. If things become less weird, I suspect that more people would trust it. Right now, you need a grain of salt from time to time.
It looks as though I won't be Elite for 2014. Whether the Cincinnati Elite page is messed up or they're excluding me for some reason, I don't know, but when I use the "Nominate someone" form, as I believe I did last year (and there is nothing else to use), it says that I'm already Elite. Oh, well.
Never mind that. It looks as though the web page had not been updated for several days after the e-mail was sent.
Update 2014.03.17: Happy St. Patrick's (Padraig's?) Day!
I'm continually amused by the data changes at Yelp. I went to a home-style restaurant and looked at the address which still had the wrong U.S. highway--7 instead of the correct 27. When I made a correction--again--the "moved" the restaurant to a new listing with the correct address. It's mind-boggling.
They still have a duplicate for Jungle Jim's in Fairfield, Ohio (and I'm not mentioning it for fear of another snarky e-mail), but the new listing for Dick's Sporting Goods in the Dayton Mall was removed, while the old one still exists. You'd think that they'd want to clear out the duplicates so they'd have room for the legitimate locations.
I'm Elite again, though the Cincinnati Community Manager has ignored my existence for whatever reason. I have yet to go to an event, but it's cheaper for them if I don't, correct?
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Anyone excited about Tegra Note 7?
This tablet is interesting but I'm not sure what to make of it.
It's just under $200, has a resolution of 1280x800, like the 2012 Google Nexus 7 but has the nVidia Tegra 4 processor, and uses a stylus.
It only has 16 GB of storage, which is not surprising at this price, but has a microSD slot for an additional 32 GB of removable storage that can certainly be used for music, photos, and video.
All-in-all, it looks like an enhanced version of last year's Nexus 7 tablet that had the rather problematic Tegra 3 processor.
Mind you, I liked the Nexus 7 when it worked well but that wasn't all that often, unfortunately. Android 4.x has come a long way compared to version 2.x. The performance was like a car speeding out of control with the brakes applied, released, applied, released.
There is no question about linking it to an HDMI-driven device such as a TV. The output is there.
My only question is whether operating system updates will be continually available for a couple of years. Since it's an EVGA product, not a Google product, will it have good backing, or will this be a one-off product that might be considered a mistake for the company? Will nVidia provide support?
There are a few answers out there, but until it arrives and we see what happens, I'm a bit cautious. It's slightly less expensive (US$30) than the 2013 Google Nexus 7 16 GB tablet, although that doesn't come with a stylus or a microSD slot. However, support could prove invaluable.
I hope that nVidia has worked out the problems with their previous processor, which is another reason to be cautious. When I tried the 2013 Nexus 7 the other day, it worked smoothly, unlike last year's version.
Still, a tablet that is made to use a stylus but doesn't force you to use it would be great, especially with the prices of the Samsung Note series. Even more, if the tablet really is oriented toward gaming, it could be less problematic than an Ouya or nVidia Shield gaming system.
I'm not holding my breath.
Update 2013.11.21: I didn't hold my breath and I bought a 2013 Google Nexus 7 at a US$30 discount, which brought it to the same price as the Tegra Note 7, without the uncomfortable worries about whether another Tegra processor combination would be a flop.
Update 2014.01.17: At CES, nVidia described their Tegra K1 as something totally different from the previous Tegra SoC parts, basically implying that it was a winner, which means that the Tegra 4 and earlier SoC parts were losers. Of course, the latest and greatest is always supposed to be the best, but while there are still products on the market, should you imply anything about problems that might be in the Tegra Note 7 or nVidia Shield products because of their SoC?
Update 2014.12.25: I wonder if they've sold more than a few thousand. I don't hear anything about it now. I half expected that Google would have introduced a replacement for the 2013 Nexus 7 tablet that I bought last year. The Tegra Note 7 seemed a huge deal, and nothing seemed to happen.
It's just under $200, has a resolution of 1280x800, like the 2012 Google Nexus 7 but has the nVidia Tegra 4 processor, and uses a stylus.
It only has 16 GB of storage, which is not surprising at this price, but has a microSD slot for an additional 32 GB of removable storage that can certainly be used for music, photos, and video.
All-in-all, it looks like an enhanced version of last year's Nexus 7 tablet that had the rather problematic Tegra 3 processor.
Mind you, I liked the Nexus 7 when it worked well but that wasn't all that often, unfortunately. Android 4.x has come a long way compared to version 2.x. The performance was like a car speeding out of control with the brakes applied, released, applied, released.
There is no question about linking it to an HDMI-driven device such as a TV. The output is there.
My only question is whether operating system updates will be continually available for a couple of years. Since it's an EVGA product, not a Google product, will it have good backing, or will this be a one-off product that might be considered a mistake for the company? Will nVidia provide support?
There are a few answers out there, but until it arrives and we see what happens, I'm a bit cautious. It's slightly less expensive (US$30) than the 2013 Google Nexus 7 16 GB tablet, although that doesn't come with a stylus or a microSD slot. However, support could prove invaluable.
I hope that nVidia has worked out the problems with their previous processor, which is another reason to be cautious. When I tried the 2013 Nexus 7 the other day, it worked smoothly, unlike last year's version.
Still, a tablet that is made to use a stylus but doesn't force you to use it would be great, especially with the prices of the Samsung Note series. Even more, if the tablet really is oriented toward gaming, it could be less problematic than an Ouya or nVidia Shield gaming system.
I'm not holding my breath.
Update 2013.11.21: I didn't hold my breath and I bought a 2013 Google Nexus 7 at a US$30 discount, which brought it to the same price as the Tegra Note 7, without the uncomfortable worries about whether another Tegra processor combination would be a flop.
Update 2014.01.17: At CES, nVidia described their Tegra K1 as something totally different from the previous Tegra SoC parts, basically implying that it was a winner, which means that the Tegra 4 and earlier SoC parts were losers. Of course, the latest and greatest is always supposed to be the best, but while there are still products on the market, should you imply anything about problems that might be in the Tegra Note 7 or nVidia Shield products because of their SoC?
Update 2014.12.25: I wonder if they've sold more than a few thousand. I don't hear anything about it now. I half expected that Google would have introduced a replacement for the 2013 Nexus 7 tablet that I bought last year. The Tegra Note 7 seemed a huge deal, and nothing seemed to happen.
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