Belgian Lie—”pronounced as ‘ee’”, she says—distinguishes her photographic art by a distinctive characteristic: Red. She uses the color to accent and punctuate her images. If you spend time browsing none of the other photographers’ photostreams […]
Author: Joe Wilcox
New MacBook Gasps for Air
Across tech sites and forums there are rumbling complaints about Apple choosing to provide just one port on the 12-inch MacBook and the compromises the design presents. The flawed approach is much bigger, and the laptop line has been this way before—where thinning down means giving up something many users want, which is why I am so surprised that little of the discussion focuses on the original MacBook Air.
Stated simply before the long explanation: If you don’t mind paying $1,299 or $1,599 for the performance equivalent of a souped-up tablet, running OS X but lacking touchscreen, Apple’s tiny laptop is a good choice. Otherwise, stop whining and buy something else. There is no shortage of choices in the slim-and-portable category.
Flickr a Day 70: ‘Reading Light’
Lighting is today’s selection’s winning quality. Illumination behind the subject, enveloped by darkness all around, creates cozy feeling. Don’t you just want to grab a book and join him? Carol Blyberg shot self-titled “Reading Light” […]
Flickr a Day 69: ‘Breaking the Silence’
The intensity exploding from the photographs of Isengardt can’t be ignored, and it draws in and envelopes you. Today’s selection is among his tamest, but I’m not alone fancying it. The image is his Flickr banner. Color and mood make self-titled “Breaking the silence”. Yeah, I can almost hear that car punching through the fog.
Bond is a name. You don’t need to hear the James. I have to say the same of Isengardt, whose name is a mystery to me. But not his equipment. He used the Canon EOS 550D to shoot this photo, on Sept. 30, 2012.
Goodbye Gigaom
Twice a day, my wife or I take meals to her 93 year-old dad, if he doesn’t want to eat out for lunch. I sat with the gent in his apartment early this evening reading to him about the day in history when a Twitter notification from Harry McCracken caught my attention: “Stunned to hear that Gigaom is no more, but also confident that its excellent staff will find good gigs elsewhere”. Say what?
It’s true, and not a prank as I first suspected. A pioneering tech blog—one of the few credibly news reporting—has ceased “all operations”. What looked like a normal day of posting, and with higher output given the Apple Watch event, was anything but. Maybe the backstory will make sense of today’s closure. For surely an operation with news, research, and events doesn’t evaporate suddenly. The greater concern is resurrection as something less, with menial staff, and focus on posting for pageviews.
Apple Returns to Its Roots
Following today’s splashy media event, Apple looks lots more like the company I loved—and loathed—last decade. The smartwatch and new, ultra-thin and light MacBook take Apple back to its core (no pun intended). Both products are all about status. Make no mistake: The devices you use establish status—having the newest, coolest thing. Appealing to the desire for coolness is a longstanding Apple design prerogative.
But that aspirational quality has been missing for a good half decade—and I suspect not coincidentally during the latter stages of cofounder Steve Jobs’ illness, retirement as chief executive, and tragic death. Aspiration remained in the marketing but the quality falls short of products released from around 1998 to 2010. On Twitter today, “Wow” is a common response to the new MacBook, about which many tweeters regard as the bigger announcement. I agree. The 12-inch screen laptop goes on sale April 10, starting at $1,299.
Flickr a Day 68: ‘Elliott Erwitt Revisité’
Yesterday’s featured photographer, Stefano Corso, cites Elliot Erwitt as one of his influences. So I searched Flickr for the street shooter, expecting not to find him—and I didn’t. But self-titled “Elliott Erwitt Revisité”, by Jean François, caught my attention. […]
The Best Phone You Can Buy is the One You can Afford
I can attest firsthand to the rising health-care costs everyone talks about. My mom went to hospital on January 30th for outpatient surgery. Still woozy from anesthesia, she left her Nokia Lumia Icon Windows Phone in the bed’s blankets. The hospital ships the linens to Canada for cleaning, and, well—cue the violins—that handset is gone to cellphone heaven or into someone’s greedy, grubby hands. Wouldn’t you know, Medicare won’t cover the cost of replacing the phone.
Yeah, I’m being facetious. It helps mellow my frustration buying her a replacement mobile. Mom is done with Windows Phone and must satisfy with an older Android. This post explains why, and how during a big week of new smartphone announcements she gets a—cough, cough—2013 model.
Flickr a Day 67: ‘Dresden Symphony’
The silhouette strongly describes the street photography of Stefano Corso, but something more. The “peculiar point of view always has a certain surreal, oniric quality, properly balanced by the irony of the pictures’ titles. Selected […]
Comic-Con Heroes: The Time Lord
San Diego Comic-Con 2013 was a great venue for Dr. Who. The 50th-year celebration was underway, and there was tremendous excitement about the new Doctor. The program is always popular at the Con, but there was special aura—and were attendees in costumes and garb of all kinds everywhere.
The Time Lord is topic of today’s installment from my ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make The Greatest Show On Earth, which goes into the public domain on July 8, 2015, after my current commitment with Amazon KDP Select ends. Previously posted in order of appearance: The Dark Knight, The Fighter, The Collectors, The Academic, The Nerd Culturist, The Writer, The Bicyclists, and The Heroine (Ericka Quesada).
Flickr a Day 66: ‘Noisy Silence’
Today’s selection is the second of a trio of photos where a person sets the scene rather than is the dominant subject. Like the first, the individual is back to the shooter and moving away. […]
Yes, Chromebook Matters
Yesterday, commentary “Do Chromebooks matter anymore?” popped up in my Google+ feed. Preston Gralla rightly wonders, when looking at how the laptops have fallen off Amazon’s top-seller lists, IDC shipment forecasts, and what happened with netbooks. While being a Chromebook fan, I must admit to sharing similar misgivings,
So today, I emailed Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis: “Are Chromebooks just the next netbook wave? Low-cost, lean configurations, and education adoption all look similar to me. Do you see any parallels to suggest Chromebook is little more than the next netbook and it’s headed for the same destination: Short-term appeal that vanishes? Or is there longevity here, based on sales numbers? His answer is reason for this post.