Additional iPhone Thoughts

Before I go into the imperfections of the iPhone, I must mention that the iPhone is one of the best (smart)phones I've had so far.....My (smartphone) references are the Nokia Communicator, Nokia E61i, Nokia N95. While the PDA experience comes from Psion (to bad that they are gone), and a boatload of crappy/unstable Windows CE/Mobile platforms over the last 10 years.

Every device had its limitations, but the iPhone clearly has the upperhand (at the moment). But there's always room for improvement :-)

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Panasonic Lumix LX3 Firmware v2.1 Released

Panasonic released the v2.0 firmware for the popular Lumix LX3 compact camera in September 2009, but due to some bugs, they pulled it back. Ths week, they released the v2.1 version of the firmware.

I did the update already, and it went as expected; successful.

The list of v2.1 new features are:

1. Improved auto white balance performance.
2. Auto Focus speed-up.
3. Recording function with an aspect ratio of 1:1 has been added.
4. A white balance (WB) bracket function has been added.
5. [HIGH DYNAMIC] has been added to scene mode.
6. [LENS RESUME] has been added to the [SETUP] menu.
7. [MENU RESUME] has been added to the [SETUP] menu.
8. The exposure compensation and the auto bracket compensation can now be set up to ±3EV.
9. Position of the guide line can now be set.
10. It is now possible to display the highlights in playback mode.
11. It is now possible to record the user’s name in the picture.
12. Digital red-eye removal has been modified.
13. Items saved in the custom set have changed.

Initial Thoughts on the iPhone Friendliness

The next morning; The initial rush of a new iPhone is gone (not that much though). So it's time to look at the thing with a more open mind. After my earlier post I had some time to think about the features I stumbled upon. Especially the tethering and syncing problems I ran into.

At first the tethering; no idea why Apple stripped that one from the 3.1.2 update (when you're not having the correct carrier). Most countries allow (by law) the users to remove the SIMLOCK from the iPhone. This opens the iPhone for other carriers. But it seems that when you switch carriers you end up with a 'crippled' phone, since the tethering gets 'disabled'. Not having the visual voicemail with other carriers is only a nice-to-have gone away. But tethering is something more basic. Something you (I) cannot live without.
Every other phone I've owned in the last 5 years was able to 'tether' through either an USB cable or through Bluetooth. It's like stepping back in time with the iPhone.

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Member of the iPhone Club

As of today, I'm the (proud) owner of an iPhone 3Gs 32GB (Black). Ever since the release a couple of years ago I really wanted an iPhone. The problem is that we can only get an iPhone in combination with a T-Mobile plan here in Holland, and alternatives to the T-Mobile plan are relatively expensive;

• You need to cough up the entire amount for a SIMLOCK free iPhone in once (several hundreds of euros) or
• Get the T-Mobile plan and let them remove the SIMLOCK (for a fee). Initially less expensive, but you're still hooked to their two year plan.

Either way, an iPhone cost around 800 euros, whether you pay it at once or spread the costs over two years. Since I didn't like to finance T-Mobile for a plan, since I already got a pretty good deal, I went out and bought an iPhone.

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Expensive Billingham Camerabag

Expensive is not the correct word....

Source

First Review New Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G ED VRII

It seems that Cliff Mautner is one of the (very, very) few lucky photographers who received his new Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G ED VRII a month early. His findings can be found on his blog, and I must say..... Those images are awesome (from a image quality point of view). Especially the VRII seems to rock.

/me is looking at his savings.... and cries silently

Anyway, the new 70-200 is a long overdue improvement for the 'old' 70-200mm f2.8G VR lens, since the old one performed not as wel on the FX cameras (D700, D3-range) as some would have liked.

Management Through SSH

SSH (Secure Shell) is a secure alternative to the ancient Telnet program/protocol. Telnet (and SSH) allows a user to connect to a remote server, and enables the users to use a command line interface to execute commands (manage the server).

Where Telnet is relatively limited in its functionality, SSH has a bunch of features which enables the user to do much more. The SSH protocol has the possibility to tunnel traffic through an SSH connection (read: tunnel). The big advantage is that everything going through the tunnel is heavily encrypted (which is good).

The tool best known to use SSH is SFTP (FTP over SSH). A secure alternative of the 'old' (in plaintext communicating) File Transfer protocol.

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Buma/Stemra Changes Licensing Fees 2010

The all knowing, and all wise Dutch music copyright organisation BUMA/Stemra (BS, and yes, pun intended) decides to charge €130 (for copyright infringement) euros per embedded copyrighted file (do your own math). You are allowed 6 embedding violations/files for €130,00 (original pdf).
No need to mention that this caused a massive uproar in the (worldwide) blogosphere, news and politics.

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Windows 8 & 9 in 128bit mode

Yes, you're reading it correct. Microsoft intends to deliver a 128bit kernel in the next Windows versions. A bit ambitious if you ask me. The 'current' 32bit operating systems run fine, because the drivers for those operating systems are widely available.
Have you ever tried to get your hands on 64bit drivers for hardware not older than two years? I tried, but failed eventually, since there's still one unknown device in my Vista x64 install.

I'm sure that Microsoft will use some layered model with the 128bit OS. That way you can use 128, 64, 32, and maybe even 16 and 8 bit drivers and applications. This way everythin will run, but don't expect stability.

What's wrong with going full 64bit first? No 32bit (hardware) drivers, the only 32bit that's allowed are 32bit applictions (which run in a special 32bit mode). From there forward you you start with 128bit OS (with 128bit drivers only) and minimum 64 bit applications. You need 32bit? -> VMWare (or MS own HyperVisor thinghy).

 I still run into incompatibility issues with my <2 year old Fujitsu laptop running Vista Business x64. They should fix that first, and move on after that.

New MacBook Memory

After having some trouble [1] with my first replacement RAM, I ordered a new set of SoDIMM's for my unibody MacBook. These seem to do the trick. No crashes, freezes so far.

The new RAM is from Kingston and carries the following partnumber: KTA-MB1066K2/4G