Now here’s a photo I don’t recall shooting, on Aug. 12, 2014, at 6:20 p.m. PDT, using Nokia Lumia Icon. I captured San Diego Comic-Con 2014 using the Windows Phone—and with surprising satisfaction. But my then […]
Meet Morla
This isn’t the first time featuring the neighborhood tortoise—but I have more information about her now. Let me start by calling bogus fairytale “Tortoise and the Hare“. The reptile moves with surprising speed and enthusiasm. I’m not so sure the rabbit would win in a contest.
Today I met the two house-sitters responsible for the tortoise, whom they call Morla. Supposedly she is female and about 25 years old—a youngster, which might explain her energy and enthusiasm. One-hundred-fifty years is not an unusual lifespan for this member of the Testudinidae family. The creature is social, too, and who would have guessed that?
The Cats of University Heights: Mates
Sunday night, Oct. 23, 2016, I crossed Monroe at Maryland, where the street makes a horseshoe that comes back to Maryland at Meade. A few houses down, two cats—almost certainly littermates—accosted me for attention. Were these two ever eager, meowing and rubbing on anything close; including me.
The cross-eyed one leaped to the sidewalk, rolling about and demanding pets fervently. The other did likewise, but never leaving the ledge and rubbing the bush repeatedly with her head. I shot more than 20 photos, using the Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujinon XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS lens, but selected just two from among the last of them.
Your Older MacBook Pro Is More Valuable Than You Think
If you’re a recent MacBook Pro buyer, Apple just did you a huge favor—something that may be lost on new MBP buyers, who are in for some sticker shock. The entry-level for the cheapest, newest 13-incher is $200 or $500 more than its predecessor, depending on whether or not opting for the newfangled Touch Bar and Touch ID. That’s $1,499 or $1,799. Yikes. MBP 15 is a $400 price hike, $2,399, for current tech.
But if you already own MacBook Pro, particularly the 13-incher released in March 2015 or the larger model two months later, Apple increased the laptop’s value by not accelerating its depreciation. No kidding. That’s because the new entry-level SKUs are the same as before.
The Cats of University Heights: Farfisa
Spring 2014, I used the HTC One M8, which is an Android smartphone, with—for two years ago—an excellent, low-light camera. There are many newer handsets that are all the more capable, including my iPhone 7 […]
Apple’s New Mac Family is Frightening
The Mac laptop line, following today’s new announcements, looks lots less like Apple and more like Compaq—where Tim Cook worked much earlier in his career, incidentally, long before the original IBM PC clone-maker’s demise. Confusing. Complicated. These are apt descriptions that might just send the ghost of Steve Jobs skyward on either—take your pick—Halloween or Day of the Dead.
Among Apple cofounder’s first tasks when returning to the chief executive’s chair in 1997: Simplifying product families. Jobs cut the deadweight, surprising many people by killing off Newton, for example. Complex product lines define Apple under successor Cook, by contrast.
The Cats of University Heights: Honey Bunny
Five evenings ago, October 22, I searched for felines to feature in this series, knowing how they come out at dusk. Around 6:48 p.m. PDT, one approached meowing fervently as I walked up Meade Ave. from Park Blvd. […]
The Cats of University Heights: Stretch
Seven months have passed since I introduced you to Stretch (my made-up name) and his littermate in March 22, 2016 post “Here, Kitty, Kitty“, documenting several feline sightings on North Ave.—if I rightly recall between […]
Apple Services Sales Surge
Two days before Apple’s next media event, where long-overdue new laptops presumably arrive, the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant released fiscal fourth quarter and closed full-year 2016. You could feel the anticipation after the Bell closed on Wall Street today—and, honestly, it had been palpable for weeks. Shares closed $118.25, up .51 percent. As I post, they’re down about 3 percent, after hours.
The drama is a TV thriller: Release of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus set against a backdrop of saturated global smartphone sales; launch of Apple Watch Series 2 into an already declining market for smart timepieces; analyst data showing calendar third quarter to again be bad for PC shipments—with even Macs losing momentum. So everyone wants to know: What was the quarter’s financial crop?
The Cats of University Heights: Frisky
On the afternoon of June 25, 2016, as I walked by the local elementary school located at Campus Ave. and Meade, a friendly feline popped out of the bushes demanding attention. Frisky is my name […]
Master & Dynamic MW60 Review
For Christmas 2015, I bought myself a new pair of Bluetooth headphones. After trying several sets, I settled on Master & Dynamic MW60, which were a fantastic choice then and are still my top recommendation nearly a year later. The wireless cans replaced my beloved Grado RS1e—no small feat.
Read no further and buy the M&D cans, if wireless listening is priority—and should be if using iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, which lack 3.5 mm jack. Authentic audio, spacious soundstage, and full fidelity (without over-punchy bass) make the MW60 the gold standard for Bluetooth cans.
Our Virtual Reality Future is Bigger Than We Think
A a general rule I never connect to public WiFi networks, which is fine except when attending an event at a hotel ballroom where T-Mobile cellular is like an apparition dancing around a Halloween grave. So as Wendell Brooks, CEO of Intel Capital, begins his speech, I sit typing narrative offline rather than tweeting live. There’s irony, I suppose, reporting old style, about investments in new innovations.
Welcome to the trials and travails of the Intel Capital Global Summit, which kicks off today and goes through October 26 here in San Diego. Looking at the lineup, I expect to hear about newfangled tech that would make news reporting so much easier if available—although 4G cellular data would be good enough right now.