Twitter launched its new social network app, Vine a few days ago. Probably you don't know what it is judging by its name and that’s what this post is for: give you a general idea on how this new social app works.It’s very much like Instagram, if you have ever used it. Instead of still pictures, users upload videos and they are of fixed duration, 6 seconds. That would be boring if it’s just a 6-second video without any fun part. It actually can be composed of many parts, like a mini film.
Camera now usually comes as a standard feature of smartphones. However, it is more for entertainment rather than serious photography, especially for a photo enthusiast like me. I like taking photos when I go out with friends, even just casual outings. I also like sharing the moments, just as timely as it could be. So it sometimes annoys me because my phone camera fails to do so. For example, when I was in a dim Karaoke room with friends and wanted to take a group shot. Phone camera only gives me some crappy result, either blurry or very high noise. If I bring a camera, the problem is solved, but another issue would be, how can I upload it to the Internet?
I have been looking for a solution to this problem. There are new models of cameras integrated with WiFi. But it could take some investment and it would be just for the sake of a small feature. The other I have tried is to use Apple's camera connection kit, which you can use to import photos from SD card to iPad (not iPhone, unfortunately). I used this for quite a while and it works well. The only complaint is that it's too tedious. I have to take out the memory card from the camera, connect it to the iPad through the camera connection kit, then use my iPhone's hotspot to tether the Internet so that I can upload it to Facebook, or somewhere else.
Then I found Eye-Fi card.
I have shared my thoughts and opinions in the previous post about why Apple shouldn't release a lower-price iPhone to the market just for the sake of keeping the growth. Clearly, this is a controversial topic and I am glad that one of the readers shared his own opinion through this guest blog. Though it is more of 'economist' or editorial style. It certainly brings some fresh perspective on this matter.
The End of the Beginning
By HMP
Photo: Apple's flagship store on 5th Avenue, New York City
The week began with a two-term US president taking the oath of inauguration, and ended with US tech giant Apple ceding the title as the most valuable company in the world to ExxonMobil. Nearly US$ 50 billion, almost equivalent to the entire capitalisation of Boeing (another US giant facing unprecedented challenge) was wiped off Apple’s book as Wall Street reacted with alarming nervousness to its zero net income growth last quarter.
(Image Source: Cult of Mac)
In my previous post, I've shared my opinions on why Apple's share price has dropped dramatically from its peak. Just on this Thursday, Apple released its second quarterly result in its fiscal year 2013. Within the after-hour, the share price slashed a massive 10% to below 500, though Apple stated that it is a record in revenue and sales of its iPhones. Such a contrast is due to the fear that Apple is slowing in the growth and the numbers didn’t hit the market expectation.
Analysts are commenting that Apple should tap the lower end market by introducing a cheaper iPhone. As high-end smart phone market is saturated, eurozone is still suffering from the financial crisis, and emerging markets’ potential is huge, this argument seems valid if Apple wants to sustain the hyper-growing trend.
In my opinion, this simply does not work.
(Image Source: Braid Creative & Consulting)
Instagram and Pinterest are two representatives of the fast growing social media. Instagram was bought by Facebook for a premium of $1 billion and Pinterest is backed up by many investors and entrepreneurs for its business potentials. Both are seeing sharp user increase over the past few years and millions of users are active on the social networks daily. They are also both deemed valuable as retailer brands can take good opportunities to connect to its customers and promotion of their products and services could be much more effective than traditional channels of advertising and marketing.
So, two comparable brands in the social media space, who is going to outshine the other in the long run?
This is an era that has a massive explosion of gadgets, ranging from smartphones, cameras to gaming consoles and home entertainment system. No matter what kind of gadgets that is, a screen is usually attached to it and the screen size has always been an important factor when people make a purchase decision, especially in the case of buying a phone, a tablet, or a computer.
I personally own two phones, three tablets and one laptop, with an external monitor plugged in. They have all kinds of screen sizes but I do find they are all useful on different occasions .
If you are an iOS user for some time, you may at least know the name, Temple Run. It's a very popular game and has been on the top charts for many times. The game is rather simple but addictive. Once you learn how to play, you don't need your brain when you are playing. And now, the developer of this game, Imangi Studios, launches their latest product, Temple Run 2 (and it just hits 1st in the top chart of free app when this blog is posted!).
Mark Zuckberg has just announced Facebook's latest feature earlier today, the Graph Search. It is though still in a beta version and I have yet to actually try out the new search function. Facebook only gives an introductory page about this new hype for now.
Graph search leverages on Facebook's existing capital of social network, by 'exploiting' users' connections and their information and online activities. It also aims to provide better search result of recommendations such as restaurants, music, and sports by analysing users' preferences and regional statistics.
Soon after I got my RX1, I went on a short trip to Thailand. Along the way I have taken some photos with the new toy. I have to say that the outcome is very impressive. The camera comes with good control design and the photo quality is definitely outstanding. Before I post the photos, here are some tips I find that may be useful for other fellow users.
1. As many review sites already stated, the lens distortion correction is not set as on by default, so make sure you turn on that in the menu when you got the camera.
2. JPEG image quality is set default as FINE, but you can set it as EXTRA FINE if you want. The image size is about 15-20 mb per photo. But I haven't done any comparison to see how much more details are retained in the extra fine option.
