Author: Richard

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iOS comes of age: A True Smart Phone Arrives

Today iOS 5 is released, and with it the iPhone truly becomes a Smart Phone.

As a bit of a geek and working in IT, I have used PDA’s and Smart Phones since the Psion3.

Smart Phone’s and PDA’s have come and gone. The great Sony P series running Symbian OS and various Palm devices over the years.

These phones & PDA’s were punctuated by different Windows devices, these often had the most potential and the most ability, but were always handicapped by reliability and a frustrating OS that hindered rather then helped.

I always seemed to come back to Palm.

Then I saw Steve Job’s present the iPhone in 2007 and I thought this had great potential. A colleague of mine could be described as an Apple fan boy and within a matter of days of the original iPhone launch had one shipped over to the UK. This gave me the chance to try one out.

As a Smart Phone it was a joy to use, the terms delightful and magical, often used to describe the iPad is was came to mind.

As a Smart Phone it was ‘smart’ in a limited fashion. As a phone it was basic. No third party apps, no cut and paste, no multitasking (not quite true), no integration with Microsoft Exchange (essential for me).

But, and it’s a big but. What it did, it did better then any other mobile device.

  • Email – True HTML email
  • Web Browser – real web, not WAP, and do not even try and compare it with that sorry excused for a browser that was on Windows Mobile
  • The Best iPod Experience

    • Plus things like google maps, YouTube, stocks and shares app, notes, contacts etc.

    Still even with its limitations I left my frustrating Windows Mobile Phone in the car to act as my GPS SatNav and bought a iPhone one day one of there release in the UK.

    Gradually each new version of iOS has counted these points, added apps, more multitasking, Exchange Synchronisation and cut and paste.

    Now with iOS5 the iPhone becomes a true Smart Phone. Better alerts, over the syncing and upgrading.

    I have always been a bit slow to upgrade my hardware. I kept my iPhone1 until iPhone4, and now instead of getting the iPhone 4s (Siri May tempt me) I’ll just be upgrading my OS.

    Have to admit really enjoying iOS5. Little things like Landscape calendars, and finally a ToDo App, do not sound like much, but the geo fence features of the ToDo list are very cool. Having a reminder go off when I arrive or leave a destination is genuinely useful. Photo lovers will like the fact they can now create Photo Albums direct on the device.

    I had an issue with the ToDo’s at first, as I had Exchange sync switched on, it had my Exchange ToDo list, which of course does not understand GPS information, once I created a new ToDo list on my phone the GPS option appeared.

    My favourite is the notifications, finally we have caught up with the old Windows Mobile and with Android.

    A nice touch is being able to swipe between apps on the iPad, just like Alt-Tab (Command-Tab on OS X) in Windows.

    Also a four fingered swipe brings up your running apps, together with the five finger close, means you can use the iPad now just with gestures and not have to touch the home button.

    All together loving it. Simple, easy to use, whether your are a geek like me, or a Pensioner like my mother. And now a truly powerful iOS.

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    Post Processing – that extra oomph

    Many people comment on the quality of my landscapes.

    20111011-201648.jpg

    My Post Processing general is limited to either HDR or a bit of Negative Clarity from Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom.

    Recently looking at some of the people shots taken by Frank Doorhof and some of the sports shots by Scott Kelby, I have been very impressed. There a certain dynamic feel to the shoots, that comes from the post processing.

    It’s given me a number of ideas to try.

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    Heading towards Winter Light and Wind

    We are now getting really into the autumnal feel of the season.

    Riding into work today the low sun shining though the red leaves of the trees gave me a number of ideas for some photographs.

    It was also quite a windy day so I hope the leaves will last long enough for me to get the shots that are currently in my head.

    Always tricky riding a bike in high wind, even more for a motorcycling photographer.  There is only so much I can squeeze into the tank bag and top box.  That really limits what you can take, makes you think what is really necessary.

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    Lincoln Cathedral – World Photo Walk

    Last Saturday was the World Photowalk, and today I have been finishing my editing, these are a couple of shots that came close but no cigar.

    Have to admit, I do have a soft spot for the stone column which is illuminated in coloured light from the ancient stain glass windows.

    If you have the chance to visit Lincoln Cathedral and please try as its one of the finest Gothic Cathedral’s in the world.  Some of the more impressing and colourful stain glass is actually Victorian, as during the civil war, those damn Puritans shot out some of the more impressive windows.  Far to ungodly and Catholic for them.  Luckily the Victorians restored a number of them.

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    RIP – Steve Jobs

    A sad day today.

    One of the driving figures of modern computing has left us, but his influence will remain with us for a long time.

    The vision to take ideas and develop them, from Xerox’s initial ideas of a GUI which he developed into the modern Bit Mapped Screen driven by Mouse, to produce the Macintosh.

    Creating Next Computers, a computer that was instrumental in the development of the world wide web and the Next Operating system which became OS X.

    Taking Pixar to the pinnacle of modern animated film making.

    Making MP3 players simple to use and popular throughout the world.

    Creating a Smart Phone that could be used by Grandmothers as well as geeks.

    http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-has-passed-away/

    http://www.bluepoof.com/2011/10/herestothecrazyones/

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    Q – Another Interchangeable Lens Compact

    Pentax Q:

     

    How many of you remember Pentax’s film 110 interchange lens camera system.  Fun, but the quality was never there with 110 film.

     

     

     

    Now we have the Pentax Q, a interchangeable lens compact with a small compact sensor.  With a selection of nice prime lens including a fish eye, and some zooms this looks like one fun camera.

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    World Photo Walk – Lincolnshire Day

    Saturday was the Lincoln World PhotoWalk.

    We were also very lucky in that it was Lincolnshire Day.  That was good news for Photographers.  The Cathedral, Castle and a number of other great sites were all free to enter.

    I’ll post a few pictures later in the week but until then here is a quick snap I took of an event that was going on in the Cathedral.

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    Day 4 of my Photo Week

    Well to make my challenge harder (if it was not hard enough already) I am visiting the same area again each day.

    Yesterday I used a Macro Lens, today I used a wild angle.  Again we were blessed with good weather.  Lots of bracketing, shooting into the sun and generally challenging myself to come with fresh ideas.

    Today things started to gel and I managed to get a number of good shots.  I now feel I have my picture of the month, which I will post tomorrow.

    Until then enjoy these few that I took over the last few days.

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    A Five Day Challenge – Picture of the Day

    Well Monday was a bit of a bust, I will not bore you with the results but lets just say they were bad.

    Today I went for a lunch time walk around the Brayford Pool in Lincoln.  The sun was shining warm and pleasant, no stunning photographs but nothing to awful.

    The wildlife is always an option, and I took a few snaps of the swans.  Shooting from one direction I had to dial in +2/3 of a stop exposure compensation, from the other -2/3 of a stop.  The sun reflecting on the water can be tricky.

    The bicycle was a opportunistic shot that I spotted, and the rest were just details and features in the area.  The wall and the flag being the most interesting.

    I have kept a couple of shots to myself, I am going to try a few HDR and LAB colour techniques on them tonight and feel one of them may be the picture of the month.  With the bright colours and blue sky I bracketed on a number of shots to use later for HDR.

    I’ll try and get out in my lunch breaks for the rest of the week and see what I can come up with.

    I do have some portrait sessions this week, but they are all for corporate clients so not eligible for Photo of the Month.  Maybe I should change my own rules!