Posts

Posted on

Traveling with Tech: Yeah, it’s stupid but don’t argue!

Traveling with the amount of gadgets that I do (cameras, video gear, computers, tablets, etc.), it's always a challenge going through airport security. Now keep in mind that I'm pretty security minded, but I also consider myself to be a somewhat logical person too. So what really cranks me is the inconsistency that is the TSA Airport Security Lane. For the TSA and Airport workers reading this, nothing personal. I know you're just doing your job. I also can't imagine the tremendous amount of pressure you're under to not let a security breach happen on your watch. With that said, I don't really have an issue with the rules as much as I do the inconsistency in which they are enforced. 

 

Take your laptop out of your bag

This one is pretty easy to understand. Your laptop has a lot of electronic components in it that need to be x-rayed. The reason they have you take it out is to make sure that nothing else is in the way of seeing through it. No problem. Luckily TSA approves bags like my new favorite laptop bag that allows you to keep your laptop in your bag (most of the time). I've had great success zipping through security with my laptop in this bag! I would say that I only have had to physically take it out once or twice in the US. Don't ask me why?

 

You can "probably" leave your iPad in your bag

I'll never forget reading an article like this one that stated that TSA says you can "probably" leave your iPad in your carryon luggage. I just laughed a little because I knew "probably" is how this whole thing works. The minute you leave it in, you'll be subject to a "bag check" (additional screening). So unless you have plenty of time to burn, don't gamble, don't argue, don't try to show them the article, just take it out and put it in a bin. 

 

What's a video camera these days?

Continue reading “Traveling with Tech: Yeah, it’s stupid but don’t argue!”

Posted on

The Photoshop CS5 Summit and a New Video on Video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-smVLREnY

 

My buddies over at NAPP are headed to the Big Apple (NYC) next Friday, June 25th for The Photoshop CS5 Summit. Sadly I will not be there because I'll be in Nice, France presenting at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Somehow I'll suffer though it 😉 Nonetheless, you should check out the Photoshop Guys at this FREE event! Find out all the details here.

 

My Top 5 Favorite Features of the NEW Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium

Although I'm the Adobe Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist and my main passion is for Photography, that doesn't mean that I don't have other interests. Actually my second passion is for digital video. I'm thrilled with all the new capabilities in the New Production Premium Suite and I thought I'd share with you my Top 5 Favorites. Check them out here:

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-DXBmxgstU

 

Do you want MORE Videos on CS5? Of course you do. Check out the NEW Adobe Evangelist TV channel on YouTube. There's lot's of CS5 goodness there including more videos on Digital Video and some HTML 5 goodness. Also if you want to download any of my CS videos and take them with you, head over to my Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast.

Posted on

What Do We Want From TV?

Google made a lot of noise recently with their announcement about Google TV. See their short concept video here:

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc

 

This got me thinking about how I watch TV now and how much of it is on the computer vs. on my HDTVs. I probably have more vested in TV than the average person. I have multiple HDTVs, multiple TiVo HDs, multiple Apple TVs and a couple of Slingboxes. Yep, I like to get my TV on! The conclusion that I came to after watching Google's video is that while I definitely watch my share of "internet" videos, I don't think that my viewing habits will change all that much with Google TV. Here's my reasoning: when I watch a clip on YouTube, it's primarily because I'm already on my computer and it's an in the moment kind of thing. Someone sent me a link or it was embedded in a website that I was already headed towards. It's also like to be a SHORT clip (YouTube limits the clips to 10 minutes max). Each of my TVs already has either an Apple TV or TiVo HD connected to them (if not both) and both of those devices can view YouTube clips. However, I almost NEVER watch YouTube via those devices. I don't sit down to look for stuff to watch on YouTube or the internet. This might also be due to the fact that unless I specifically hook up a keyboard or run some type of App on my iPhone/iPad that searching with these devices via the onscreen keyboard is a royal pain. So If I sit in front of a HDTV it's usually to watch a longer show and probably one that I've already TiVo'd ahead of time. 

Continue reading “What Do We Want From TV?”

Posted on

What Do You Want In An iPad Photo Management App?

With Lightroom 3 out the door and now that I'm back from HOW Design Conference, I can start to look forward at upcoming technology, gadgets and projects. While I was at HOW I had the ear of Adobe's Tablet Application Project Manager, John Nack. On Friday, John asked via his blog what people might want in an Lightroom type app for the iPad? Since I reach a ton of iPad users here, I thought I would solicit your feedback and pass it on to John and team.

 

Two Camps

When I talk to iPad users about this, I get lots of different ideas on what they want and I've summarized them here with two options.

OPTION ONE: There are currently two lines of thought on what photographers really want in an iPad app. If we start with Lightroom's current five modules, we have Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print and Web. One school of thought (the one that I'm in) is that you bring in your photos via the iPad Camera Connection Kit (I reviewed it here) and then you're able to do Library Module type things to them. ie. add keywords, titles, descriptions, picks, flags, stars and possibly even put them in collections. You could also do Develop module type things like Exposure, Noise Reduction, Cropping, etc. Once you get back to your computer, you would connect your iPad via the USB cable (don't scream WiFi because again we can only do what we're allowed to do) and sync everything to your computer right into the desktop version. 

OPTION TWO: The other school of thought is to go the other way. Start in Lightroom on the desktop, and sync your catalogs/collections to the iPad for client review and showing your mobile portfolio. Perhaps you'd still have access to Library like functions while your client reviews with you, that sync back to the desktop version.

Personally I think that no matter what, we should have a slideshow feature with music too. However, we also have to keep in mind that Apple doesn't take to kindly to "duplicating" built-in functionality. So again, our hands may be tied in many things we want to do.

 

So what do you want?

Sound off in the comments below.  Also what's the right price for such an App? Um, duh, yeah free is great, but what if it's not? How much is the right price?

 

By the way, there are no promises here. There are lots of technical limitations to overcome and even then if such an App were to be built, it would still have to be approved by Apple. So keep that in mind. For those of you thinking, "how hard can it be?" You might want to take a look at this post.

Posted on

The Well Connected Hotel Room

Since I spend a good deal of my time traveling for business, I get to stay in a lot of different hotels all over the globe. Many times I have a choice in hotel properties and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I have to stay at a particular location for logistical reasons based on the event or meeting that I'm attending. However, when I have a choice in hotels I'll always remember the ones that met my "tech" needs first. It's a given that we want a clean, safe and quiet room when we're away from home. So that's where I would start the scale at zero. After that, for me it's all about the availability of connections in the room itself. Here's what I demand:

 

Nothing ticks me off more than not having enough power outlets

I'm still amazed that some of the most modern hotels in the world only have one or two available outlets in their guest rooms. At a minimum I want to be able to plug in my notebook and charge my phone SEPARATELY from my computer. So yes, that means an outlet with TWO available plugs. It's fine if you don't want to rewire your rooms, but for God's sake at least put in a power strip. Marriott Hotels typically do a good job of providing lamps in the room with power outlets built right into the base. More and more hotels are doing this as a way of making it so that you don't have to crawl around on the floor or worse, move furniture to plug something in. You should definitely be installing these outlets as soon as they are available. I'm also finding lots of hotel rooms these days that have iPhone/iPod dock compatible alarm clocks. It could care less about playing music through these (although it is nice at times), it's more important to me that they give me an easy base for charging. Of course this sucks if you don't have an iPhone. My travel power solutions are here.

Continue reading “The Well Connected Hotel Room”

Posted on

My thoughts on iPhone 4 and iOS 4

I've been busy with my day job and really couldn't spend a lot of time ogling the iPhone announcements the other day. However, I did catch up on my reading of all the new things and watched a few of the videos and of course people expect me to weigh in on what I like or don't like about new tech gadgets So here goes:

 

iPhone 4 – What I'm excited about

From a new hardware perspective, I'm excited about the new smaller, thinner form factor and since I have yet to see the actual (retina) display I can't weigh in on it one way or the other. I'm sure it's great. I also welcome the faster speeds of the A4, longer battery life of the bigger battery and potential better call quality based on the new antenna layout/case design. I definitely welcome the new 5MP camera and LED flash as well as having both a front facing and rear facing camera. This was long over due! FaceTime looks cool, but I wonder how useful it will be since both people have to have iPhone 4s and be on WiFi. Still, it will be fun to try. The 720p video is definitely welcome! It may mean that I can actually give up my Kodak Zi8, which I love. What I love even more is carrying less devices.

 

iPhone 4 – What I'm a little disappointed about

Although I get the space constraint issues, I'm still disappointed that there's not a 64GB version. Maybe I won't care as much now that I have an iPad, but my 32GB iPhone 3GS is always within 1-5GBs of space remaining. So I was looking forward to not only a faster iPhone, but bigger storage too. Also I kinda wish that they didn't go to a MicroSIM as it means switching the SIM card between phones is going to be a little more challenging. I'll be testing an Android phone in the not too distant future and it would have been nice to be able to "easily" go between the two with the same SIM Card. This solution looks promising though.

 

iOS 4 – What I'm excited about

If you asked me to name the top 3 features I can't wait for they would be (in order): Folders! – I have TONS of Apps and believe it or not, I can't wait to get them under control from an organization standpoint with folders. I have all 11 screens full right now on my 3GS and I have to pick and choose which apps to delete when I want to add more because I refuse to let them slide into that black hole that is page 12. The second thing I have been dying for is the integrated inbox in Mail. I've been complaining about that since 2007. So 3 years later, I'm glad that someone at Apple realized that people have more than one email account and don't want to have to constantly go back back back to view a different inbox. The third thing that I'm excited about is mult-tiasking. Although it remains to be seen what really happens when an app is in the background, I still welcome the fact that it will at least return me to the app where I left off now with 3rd party apps.

 

iOS 4- What I'm disappointed about

Continue reading “My thoughts on iPhone 4 and iOS 4”

Posted on

AT&T Pulls a Switcheroony – New Data Plans, no longer unlimited!

It seemed like only last week when I shared my 1st month of iPad data use with you all. I started out with the 250MB/month iPad plan knowing that I could always upgrade to the unlimited data plan if I needed to. Now it looks as if the unlimited plan is going away unless you act TODAY! Starting today, AT&T will start NEW data plans for ALL Smart phone devices (including iPad/iPhone). So if you already bought an iPad 3G and thought that you might some day want to go "UNLIMITED" for $29.99/month, then you better do it now, because starting today that plan goes away for NEW subscribers. Here's the break down:

 

The OLD Plans (prior to 6/7/2010) iPad – 250 MB/month $14.99/month Unlimited Data Plan $29.99/month
The OLD iPhone Plans iPhone 2G UNLIMITED+200 SMS  Data  $20/month iPhone 3G/3GS Unlimited Data $30/month (+$5/month for 200 SMS)
The NEW Data Plans starting TODAY for NEW accounts (iPhones too) DataPlus 200MB/month $15/month DataPro 2GB/month $25/month
Tethering your SmartPhone (iPhone with 4.0 software)   DataPro plan $25 + Tethering $20 = $45/month

 

 

While the prices are technically cheaper, Unlimited goes away! 2GB's sounds like a lot and it probably is for MOST people, but if you plan to stream video on your device 2GB in a month can be eaten up pretty quickly. These new plans now make it so that you have to monitor your usage closely. Luckily if you do go over, you're not charged a per kilobyte fee. Instead you'll be able to add on another block of usage for a set price (another 200MB for $15 or if you're on the DataPro plan you get another 1GB for $10). So again if you do a lot of streaming, your bill could be quite high. I should also mention that all of these NEW plans do come with FREE access to any AT&T WiFi hotspots.

No iPad to iPhone tethering, yet – According to AT&T, they have no problem with you tethering your iPad to your iPhone to share the iPhone's data connection. However, currently the iPad doesn't support it in it's OS and Apple says that the 4.0 OS update isn't coming to the iPad until the fall. So we may have to wait til then to see if the iPad will tether to the iPhone.

See the AT&T Plan details here on their site.

 

How much Data have I used on my iPhone or other smartphone?

Although you can look this info up on your device, I find the most accurate way is to dial *3282# from your phone and you'll get a text message with the break down of your current usage.

 

Don't think you're going to use that much data?

Maybe you won't, but here's some food for thought. If you're just doing normal surfing, email, etc. then you're probably fine. However, let's not forget that iTunes sells and rents MOVIES! The average movie size is 1.5GB. So if you rent a movie over 3G, you could quickly hit the limit of the DataPro plan and then start having to pay for additional 1GB blocks at $10 a pop before your next billing cycle. I know it's easy to say, "well don't do that. Download your movies while you're on WiFi." However, this wasn't an issue yesterday and now somehow makes the mobile platforms seem a little less fun.

 

What do you think of these New Plans?

Posted on

One Day Sale: Magellan Premium iPhone/iPod touch Car Kit

While I still think that these car kits cost more than they should, I must admit that the Magellan Car Kit (and Navigon App for iPhone AND iPod touch) is now my preferred Travel GPS! Amazon has the Magellan Premium Car Kit ON SALE for $99.99 (List Price $129.99). You can get it here for that price.

Speaking of Navigon Apps, Navigon still has their "MyRegion" Apps on sale for $15!!! Regular price is $29.99 so grab them here while you can. The Navigon GPS navigation Apps work great with the Magellan Car Kit and since they have the maps BUILT-IN, they don't require a data connection to use.

You can also check out my original video review of the Magellan Kit here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTP34pSA6LU