Feeling out of touch

There is a certain disturbing disconnect between the promise of the iPod touch software update 2.0.2 and the actual behavior of the iPod post update.

Let’s see, since the update lacked any info beyond “bug fixes”, I relied on the blogosphere’s reports, which summarized much faster back up, faster application loading and better performance overall. Oh blogosphere how you failed me.

My iPod touch now takes almost a full hour to back up (up from about 20-30 minutes before the update) and that, in my book, is not even close to much faster, quite the contrary. There is also a change in the way the App Store updates the apps on the device, it no longer offers the option to install all updates at once, so yesterday I was faced with 5 updates that I had to install by picking one at a time. And they installed very very very slowly, in which time the iPod was almost unusable.

I was a shore under the waves of frustration as I held the device, staring into the activity void that was its screen. Wishing it had at least something similar to Mac OSX’s spinning beach ball of death (or even that dreaded Windows hourglass) to show that its own private matters were more important that its owner’s.

Does it show that I’m pissed? Good, because I am. This is after the replacement iPod having one of those blue tint screens that makes me feel a taste of metal in my mouth AND annoy my vision with poor grey on white rendering at the same time.

AAAND the alarm clock on the iPod STILL doesn’t wake it up to a music playlist.

There, now that I got it all out of my system, I am feeling somewhat better. Vindicated you might say. Although it’s that kind of “NO, you are stupid, so… so… THERE!” vindication that doesn’t solve anything really.

Now isn’t this a “refreshing” change of style from this.

Another day at the races: Canon 50D vs. Nikon D90 [Updated]

 

Canon 50D

Canon released their successor to the rather anticlimatic 40D, and DPReview got their hands on one. Actually, Canon claims that the 50D is more like a brother to the 40D rather than a successor, which I find to be a strange strategy, as the 50D has been introduced at the same 1300USD price that all the X0D cameras entered the market. So this probably means that the 40D will see a price reduction.

I can’t say I agree with this strategy, the marketplace is already pretty crowded with all kinds of entry level DSLRs, bridge cameras, semipro compacts and all that fuzz, and this will only make a new comer more confused. I would have guessed that having less clutter in the lineup makes for stronger products, Canon however seems to believe in the “more is more” thing. But fortunately this is not the only place where they seem to have shifted to the “more” mentality.

Which brings me to the fact that the 50D is a much more impressive update to the line than the 40D was to the 30D (maybe these two should have stayed “brothers”). Some of the important ones are the new 14MP sensor (promising even better low light performance than the previous 40D), Digic 4 image processor (which gives it the ability to deliver 14bit RAW files at a speed of 6.3fps) and last but not least environmental sealing (which brings it closer to the pro table, even if there’s that “not full frame” thing).

Being a current user of the Canon 30D, I must say that this is a very compelling upgrade, unlike the 40D, which basically left me yawning.

Nikon D90

The race between Nikon and Canon is tighter than ever, now that Nikon announced the D90. Even though people pit the Canon 50D against the Nikon D90, I don’t really see them as such, the Canon having more resolution (OK, just marginally), faster frame rate, higher ISO settings, environmental sealing. The Nikon has that movie shooting thing though, which is quite nice, even though it uses the Live View sensor for it and not the photo sensor,* you can use some real nice lenses to shoot 720p video. And the Nikon is $300 less than the Canon.

*EDIT: Thanks to David Chin for pointing out in the comments a misleading fact (okay, error, whatever) in this post: the D90 hasn’t got a separate Live View sensor, and it’s using the main sensor for all three functions: photo, live view and video. (Nikon isn’t very specific about the way Live View is captured, but video certainly uses the full sensor). That being said, I will only add that the more I think about it, the more I find that this is a sweet feature. And I’m waiting for Canon to add something similar to their cameras. I know they will. Eventually. Hopefully sooner than later.

I’m glad to see that Nikon is pushing the envelope, and I think this is amazingly good for the supporters of both camps. One example of the fact that this race is being taken seriously by Canon is that even though Canon’s laterst flagship cameras, the 1D series, are still stuck in 230k pixel screen territory, they blessed their 50D with a 920k pixel screen, something Nikon had for a while now. And the way the new Nikons handle high ISOs and low light really gave Canon a run for their money.

All things considered, the new Canon is a worthy successor, erm… brother, to Canon’s double digit D series, and I can’t wait to pair my Canon 10-22 EFS lens (which already produces stunning results on my Canon 30D) with the new beast.

Now, on with the show! Can’t wait for the in depth review from DPReview.

The trailer review dump

I’ve been looking through the trailers of the latest movies that are slated to appear soon or have already been released. I might be in a bad mood today, but what a sad bunch of movie going season this seems to be. While I have been wrong about a movie just by judging it from the trailer before, I have a very good track of being right about a movie just by watching the trailer. So here are my humble comments on some of the trailers that are available on the Apple trailers page:

Saw V: Why are people even going to this? While the first one was sort of new and fresh, with every subsequent sequel the “franchise” got staler and staler until, judging by the current trailer, it’s already stinking up the place. Definitely not going to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

Disaster Movie: While I may not be the sharpest knife in the shed, my intelligence was blatantly insulted by this trailer. So my intelligence strongly advises me to stay away. Funny thing is, I actually like parodies, just not when they are so utterly idiotic that it shows from the trailer.

 

 

 

 

Beverly Hills Chihuahua: The trailer starts promisingly (as promisingly as Disney movie trailers can go), but then they start singing the Chihuahua song with added rap to make it “funny”. Now that really took the cake and ate it and then crapped it and then ate it again. I hate the song even without the added rap, I hate films that make it look like animals are actually moving their lips to speak. I can’t even imagine dog lovers liking this. A definite NO NO.

 

 

 

Watchmen: I like the song they used (Smashing Pumpkins’ The beginning is the end), but the trailer is just made of slow motion sequences that give me the impression of watching a 3D Studio Max showreel rather than a movie trailer. Still, I could be wrong about this one, and the script might be longer than one page full of special effects details and a few lines of dialogue.

 

 

 

The Spirit: While actually having voices within it, this trailer suffers from the same “slow motionitis” like the Watchmen trailer. However, I find the visual imagery more compelling that the Watchmen trailer, and while I’m being a little put off by the “brought to you by the creator of 300″ bit in the description, I’m actually looking forward to seeing it. I just hope it’s not Sin City 3 with added color scenes.

 

 

 

The Longshots: Citing from the description: “From Ice Cube, the star of such hits as Are We There Yet?, Are We Done Yet? and First Sunday, comes a feel-good family comedy, THE LONGSHOTS”. Such hits? They must be using the ’such’ word as a replacement for mildly boring, or somewhat uninteresting. Such hits. Please. How about such hits as Is it over yet?, Can I have my money back now? and Never ever in my life.

Do I really need to explain why I haven’t even bothered to see the trailer for this “feel-good family comedy”? I can already imagine the jokes… and they are *such* not funny.

 

It seems like the problem is that, even if people are not happy with this kind of crappy productions, somehow they still find their way into the movie theaters, watching this very same crap each time, over and over. So people should stop going to this kind of redux of redux of utter shit and vote with their wallets. That is the only vote that will stop the studios from financing the next Saw and Something Movie.

And the shifts keep on coming

This time it’s about a new electronic gear shifting system from Shimano, called the Di2: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2008/07/shimano?currentPage=1

It’s rather expensive now, but that’s what people thought about the first pocket calculators as well. And look where we are now. Looking forward to 2014 when bikes will come standard with servo gear shift, anti-lock breaks and traction control.

The problem is the battery, which just is not lasting enough, and after a few hours will leave you unable to shift gears. I wonder why they won’t go the route of a dynamo, not the classic one that rubs against the tire of the front wheel, that would be simply unacceptable in a racing bike, but something using the force of the wheels spinning or something. They should figure this out, they are the scientists.

Backshift

Well that serves me well… The iPod touch is now in the shop because the backlight stopped working. Which means that I have to rely on cellulose based books to provide my pre-sleep entertainment.

It’s a kind of karma, isn’t it? I was just praising it in the previous post and now it’s lying somewhere on a technical bench waiting to be probed and tested and then hopefully fixed.

The shift

Ever since I updated my iPod touch to the new 2.0 firmware and installed a bunch of apps on it, the battery life got a real beating. Am I really using it more? If I were to make a mental statistic of my usage pattern, it should be roughly the same. With one major difference. Before this new update, I used the iPod mostly for listening to music and the occasional web browsing.

However, things dramatically changed when the update arrived. I can’t even remember the last time I plugged in the headphones. So while I may not be using it more, I am using it with its screen constantly on.

For me, the device mutated from a music player with some additional abilities to an Internet device with the ability to play music. I am still amazed when I remember getting it, and thinking what a wonderful music player it is. And just when that shine was beginning to fade, this new firmware gave it a new meaning and purpose.

It’s no longer an iPod to me. It changed the way I use the Internet. I don’t know if this is the future of computing. I don’t think this type of device is going to replace a “full fledged computer” very soon. I work with lots of desktop applications that I just can’t see on an iPod right now (think Photoshop, Lightroom, Flash et al.) But I do think it is the future of lifestyle computing.

It may sound like I am a bit infatuated with Apple and their stuff. Maybe I am. But I remember two distinct events in my life when I was so amazed by a piece of technology: when I got my first ever personal computer (a blazing 486DX2 running at a mind boggling 66MHz). And the transition to the Mac many many years later, which was like discovering a whole new world.

These were moments when I felt like I was 12 years old again and I’m unpacking the much desired PC, inhaling new smells and trembling hands. After the 486 I got a bunch of other computers, yet I never experienced that emotion and sheer desire to discover what that new thing can do.

I guess this is what people call Apple’s ability to give people a sense of “childlike wonder” and “capture their imagination” about their products. Because we all remember our first contact with an object that we wanted and that changed the way we experience things in our life, whether it was a computer, a car, or a washing machine.

When Dell or Sony or Microsoft or whichever company will be able to put out a product that can do that, I’ll be more than happy to give them money for it.