If you’ve read some of my tweets or my previous post on 3D technology you’ll know I’m not a great fan of the technology. If you want a less biased view on the current 3D tech debate then read my 3D technology: an unbiased view post.
My hatred though is not only because I don’t like the tech but because I feel it is currently being used to cover up the shortage of really good films coming out of Hollywood and is trying to encourage people to the cinema by impressing people by things popping out of them. I can do a more impressive version of this by standing at the front of the cinema and lobbing things into the audience, that’s real 3D!
Right time to lay in to 3D TV. How pointless is watching football in 3D? how much of a 3D effect do you actually get when you go to the football, how far away do you sit? I can tell you the actually 3D effect the eyes get in real life when you are viewing at that distance isn’t much, if any. I don’t need a 3D TV, it’s more expensive upfront, the only real content
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Since my first post on 3D cinema the use a 3D technology has begun to creep into daily life in other ways. With electronic companies doing their best to try and get us to embrace 3D Televisions and now Nintendo release their new 3D handheld games console the Nintendo 3DS, there seems to be a major push to try and get us to use and love this new technology. This has prompted some in the optics industry to speak about the new technology and it’s potential effects on their eye, especially as the Nintendo 3DS comes with warning guidelines: players are advised that 3D gameplay causes eye fatigue more quickly than 2D gaming and are told to take a break after 30 minutes of play. Nintendo also says that children under six shouldn’t use the 3D mode at all, since their eyes are still developing, and that parents can use controls built into the 3DS to lock it into 2D mode for children.
The AOP’s (Association of Optometrists) education advisor Karen Sparrow comments about the release of the Nintendo 3DS were published by both the Daily Telegraph (21st Jan 11) and the Guardian online (20th Jan 12)
In the statement
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It’s now been a week since the launch event for the iPad, I’ve now watched the Apple keynote and done a little research on the new Apple device. For those who don’t know about it, where have you been? I thought I would give my thoughts on what Apple have come up with, why some aren’t pleased and what I think the future of the device will be.
When I saw and read about the iPad I was underwhelmed, there’s a lot that’s ‘wrong’ with it, however now I have a chance to mull it over I think I get where Apple are coming from. People were always going to be disappointed with whatever they made, they wanted something revolutionary. I read someone complaint that the text input is by an onscreen keyboard, what else was it going to be? A thought keyboard, where you just think what you want to type? Let’s get real people.
I’ve sat down and tried to imagine the thought process behind the device, first we know things that Jobs doesn’t seem to like:
1. Flash
2. External memory – he likes everything built in to the device
3. Stylus – he doesn’t like having
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After much debating I have at last decided and bought my new camera. I did have two cameras a film SLR and a fairly old digital compact. I decided I wanted a proper digital camera so I can upload to my computer, flickr, this site, facebook, etc. I looked through all the compacts but for what features I wanted the only option was DSLR, I think I looked at every camera out there in my price range, then I looked again until finally deciding.
After reading many reviews and getting my hands on most of my major contenders I came up with the shortlist which was the Nixon D60, Canon EOS 1000d and Panasonic Lumix G1. A couple of quick notes before I continue.
Web reviews
Firstly you will never buy anything if you read all the web reviews out there and don’t use your own knowledge. Someone will always rate a product badly even if it’s the best thing in the world, normally it’s the reviewers problem not the product. You use the reviews on the web to get a general consensus of a opinion or any major product problems. I’ve read peoples reviews who rate a DSLR badly
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I turned on the radio yesterday to hear the presenter having a bit of a rant about the new referral system in Cricket. The new system allows each team two chances to have an on-field decision referred to a TV umpire. The presenter was complaining that it takes the fun out of sport. This got me to thinking, not just about technology in Cricket but the age old discussion about technology in all sports. Is it a good or bad move to allow the referees access to technology?
There are two schools of thought really, the first is as this presenter thought. By allowing the decisions to be referred it can spoil the flow of the game but more importantly you take away the power of the ref and also he argued that unpredictably is what makes sport so watchable and exciting. He argued that this unpredictably included the mistakes that referees makes. The decision the presenter was complaining about had been referred to the video ref and the on field decision was reversed. Even though the correct decision was made he argued this was a bad move because the on field umpire then loses control of the game. I
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Seemingly twitter is the in craze in the web world at the moment, for those of you who have no idea what it’s about I’ll try and explain. You have 140 letters/characters to say what you’re up to, this is then posted on to your twitter feed which you can either keep private for just your friends to see or allow anyone to see in the ‘public timeline’. Your friends are people you agree to let follow your feed, so in twitter speak these are your ‘followers’. That’s all there is to it really…. oh,you can also add pictures to twitpic as well if you so desire.
There are 2 groups of people when it comes to twitter. The first group are those that say ‘what’s the point?’, ‘what a waste of time’, etc. The second group are those that totally get it. I don’t need to explain anything for the second group as they understand what the fuss is about. Lets just take a look at the first group, what I would say to this group is twitter is not for everyone, if you don’t get it that’s absolutely fine, but all I ask is don’t moan about those
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When I bought my iPhone I looked for a replacement pair of headphones, I have never used apple headphones with any of my ipods because I don’t like the fit and I don’t like the fact I’m basically advertising to everyone I’ve got an iphone/ipod – I don’t think that’s a particularly safe thing to do!
What I found was the Griffin SmartTalk, a nice little device which is a remote control and microphone that I can plug my existing headphones in, only about £12 so just what I was looking for. Three months on and I’m again looking for a replacement. I’m pretty careful with them but as I walked round town with my headphones in today I lost first the right channel then the left. I can get it to work again if a wiggle it a bit but not consistently and it does look a bit dodgy one hand in the pocket all the time wiggling my hand about. Suffice to say it’s now useless and on the gadget scrapheap!
On quick inspection it is the cable just above the jack plug that has gone, this is because the cable is so flimsy. By the look of
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I’ve now had my iPhone for about 4 months and I just thought I would give an update about life with my iPhone.
Lets get the negatives over with first I only have a couple of minor gripes. I still would like an office app and also better step by step navigation software – so I could use it instead of my trusted (but now old and bulky) Tom Tom, which is a pain to carry around – google maps is not good enough. The other minor issue is battery life, because there is so much you can do with it I end up charging it every 1-2 days. Not too bad but it means you have to take your charger if you go away for a couple of days
As you can see my gripes are actually just things that could make it even better. I still think it’s the best phone I’ve ever had because the thing it’s so much more than that. It’s my main mobile music player, a video player, a mobile browser, it’s my diary…
….Oh and I can even update this website on the move – this post was written on my iPhone. On
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I’ve been thinking about how odd the “I’m a PC” advert is since the first time it emerged. I was so surprised when I saw it, if you’ve not seen it yet, you can find it on youtube, basically as I see it, it’s a direct reply to Apple’s “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” series of adverts. The Apple adverts are attack on some of Windows short comings, I’m not surprised by these adverts, Apple is very much the underdog in terms of number of sales and a good way to ‘steal’ Windows customers is to find out the problems people have with Windows and bang on about them, so people think, “yeh, that does annoy me, is there something else on the market which wouldn’t have that problem?” It has really always been the Apple Strategy, perhaps they have been more vocal about it recently.
These new Windows adverts are the first time I can remember Microsoft having a direct ‘go’ at Apple and to me it almost acknowledges Mac as an alternative, previously Microsoft haven’t even admitted that Apple are a competitor. For me, if they are going to play on Apple’s adverts they have got
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One of the things that makes the iphone great is the number of apps that are available to download for it. Some are free and some you have to pay for and obviously they range in quality, I thought I’d compile a list of apps that I’ve found to be pretty good.
Remote: a free app that enables you to control your itunes library via wifi. Simple but very well done.
Air mouse : I had to pay £3.49 for this one but it’s well worth it, I can use my iphone to control my mac over wifi. It’s got a touchpad or air-mouse (using iphone accelerometer) and a keyboard.
Twitterrific: free mobile version, for all your twittering needs
Facebook: another free app, it’s a really nicely designed app for accessing your facebook
Around Me: A free app that uses finds the nearest cinema, bars, petrol station, etc automatically
Movies: shows where your local cinema is, upcoming films and dvds, show times and more, all for free
Metronome: a great visual metronome for free, obviously only useful for musicians
Zenbe: There’s loads of to do lists, shopping lists apps available, this is the best, most flexible and free app I’ve
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After much debate over which phone to upgrade to I decided on the iphone, I looked at everything on the market and decided it was the best one for me. I’ve had it 3 weeks now and thought I would write my thoughts on it.
First the negatives. There are somethings you can’t do on it, it doesn’t have voice dialing which can sometimes be useful. You can’t customise sms tones or ringtones (I found a work round for the ringtones with a quick bit of googling!) Although it has bluetooth you can’t send and receive files via it which seems a bit odd. I’m sure there are other things as well but there the major ones I’ve found.
What has to be said is those are minor flaws when you start using it. It is just so intuitive to use and it does the basics well, I have found some great little apps as well (most of them free). I’ve actually found adjusting to the keyboard pretty easy and it’s quite fast to type on. Mobile Safari is a joy to use, for the first time I can actually browse the web on the move, rather than just getting
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