Category: Tech

Money by Joe WilcoxDec 9, 20149:21 am

What Next? Price Negotiations at Walmart Checkout?

One Geico Insurance commercial claims that “auctioneers make bad grocery clerks“. Strange if bidding is soon the norm in big-brand retail, but one-on-one. Today, Amazon announced something surprising: “Make Me an Offer“, where buyers can negotiate prices with sellers. I do not jest. Seriously. As if Amazon prices aren’t insanely low enough.

The web retailing giant claims 150,000 items in the program, which isn’t about auctions, since all negotiations are solely between buyer and seller. From my quick review, Amazon chooses wisely. The majority of items I see are those where pricing could be, perhaps should be, considered more arbitrary, like artwork, memorabilia, and other collectibles.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 30, 201412:28 pm

The Flickr That Lights a Firestorm

My good high school buddy Winchell Chung shares Dazed story “Flickr is about to sell off your Creative Commons photos (And no, you won’t see a single penny from it)” today on Google+. Now there’s a clickable headline, eh? Zing Tsjeng’s article is an aggregated synopsis of good reporting done by the Wall Street Journal (naughty, naughty, do you’re own work, Zing). Herein, I reference the November 24th piece, “Fight Over Yahoo’s Use of Flickr Photos” with dek “Yahoo Starts Selling Canvas Prints From Free Pictures Uploaded to the Internet Sharing Site”.

Gist of the news is this: Flickr plans to sell photos with Creative Commons Commercial license—50,000,000 from a staggering 300,000,000 CC pics on the site . Yikes. My photos are licensed CC non-commercial, so I shouldn’t give a frak about the plans of Yahoo (Flickr’s owner). But I don’t trust the license will be observed, and there is no easy way for me to confirm this.

Money by Joe WilcoxNov 27, 20147:40 pm

Google, Give Thanks!

It wouldn’t be U.S. Thanksgiving without my writing about gratitude, and why some tech company’s executives, employees, and partners should prostrate and pray “Thanks”.

This year I to Google, which continues a great run that started with Larry Page’s return as CEO in April 2011. If he’s not all smiles this Turkey Day, someone should slap that man aside the head. I could tick off a hundred things for which he should give thanks. For brevity’s sake, so you can get back to the big game and bigger bird, I select some things that might not come to mind.

Gear by Joe WilcoxNov 25, 20149:28 am

Ho, Ho, Ho, It’s Reviews Not News This Christmas

For much of Holiday 2014, I will shift from tech news and analysis to product reviews, which will be a relaxing change. I also am prepping new ebook How I Beat Diabetes, preparing to start an investigative storytelling project, and strongly considering a Kickstarter to gauge interest in a site that calls out irresponsible news reporting (of which there is too much) and praises the best journalism, too.

On the reviews front, now would be a good time to knock on my virtual door, if you’ve got something worth my attention, whether cloud service, gear, mobile app, or software. No promises what I can get to during the holidays, when everyone wants to sell something, but, hey, we can try. Reviews will run on BetaNews, and I will cross-post some here, despite any search penalty Google might impose for the practice. I care about readers, not pageviews. With the holidays in mind, I may shift to a shorter reviews format, focusing almost completely on benefits. Frak features.

Google by Joe WilcoxNov 21, 20149:30 am

Be Together, Not the Same

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRmgMe2STL0] Sitting in the theater waiting for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 to start, this Android commercial just played. Superb marketing. Love it! The tagline—”be together, not the same”—is pointed dig at Apple.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 20, 20148:22 am

Cali Poses

In the daylight, I got a couple good snaps of Cali, in another off-the-cuff X100T test. One shot is from the perch and the other from the fridge. The first is Macro, by accident, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 2500. The other (right) is f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 1250. Full-size shots are available from my X100T Flickr set, or, separately, here and here.

I am a bit grumbly about choosing the X100T over the X-T1 this morning. Fuji will release on December 18 a firmware update that adds most of the features that swayed me to choose the X100T, which arrived about 21 hours ago. This is good customer service, though, for existing owners, and I won’t forget the benefit. I complain today, but long term it’s way to go, Fuji.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 19, 201410:32 pm

Fujifilm X100T First Samples

Battery finally charged, I started shooting with the Fujifilm X100T, JPEG + RAW and Chrome film simulation. In the low light, I had a helluva time shooting kitty Cali. She’s just too dark for the autofocus. So I switched to my wife jewelry workspace.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 19, 20143:12 pm

Fujifilm X100T

For those who delight in digital camera porn, feast your grubby eyes on the Fujifilm X100T, which I received today. These are the first shots out of the box, taken with iPhone 6, of the […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 18, 201410:56 am

Fujifilm X100T or X-T1?

My Fujifilm X100T arrives tomorrow (ordered from Adorama). Fabulous photos like this make me regret not choosing the manufacturer’s X-T1, which in all the samples viewed during my buying research produces sharper images. Then there is the benefit of all-weather use, as you can see.

Juan Gonzalez posted the photo last night on Google+ and gave permission this morning to use it here. The view is Times Square, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO 800. There’s a 3-D quality and sharpness that really appeals to my photographic senses. The X100T samples produced by professional photographic reviewers all look a little soft to me, by comparison.

Living by Joe WilcoxNov 16, 201411:02 am

Someone Wake Me From This Nightmare of Black Friday Sales Gluttony

Cough. Choke. Collapse. That’s me nearly needing the Heimlich maneuver during breakfast while looking over Samsung Black Friday deals. You can preorder them. Seriously. What the frak is that?

The routine started all so innocently. Samsung sent a promo email, and I curiously clicked the picture of a Chromebook and “Reserve Computing Deals”. You can, today—as in right this very minute—preorder either Samsung Chromebook 2 for assured savings ($20 or $50) between November 27 and December 1 for one and until the 27th for the other. I understand that Black Friday is late-month this year, but, c`mon, beat me with a sack of cash, sales preorders?

News Media by Joe WilcoxNov 12, 201412:18 pm

What is Clickbait?

My definition is the authoritative answer. Period. Journalists and their readers debate about what is clickbait, and also linkbait, and whether or not they are the same. They most certainly are not, and neither has a place in responsible journalism.

Both are constructs of the Google free economy—that is giving away valuable content subsidized by online advertising to get high search ranking. Problem: There is too much content, and too much of it alike, for ads to financially support. Excessive ad space means lower page rates and greater competition for advertisers. The shortage encourages even more clickbaiting and linkbaiting, which generate more pointless posts that suck limited advertising from high-value news content.

Apple by Joe WilcoxNov 12, 201411:41 am

What I sacrifice for iPhone 6

Over the weekend I started to seriously review my photos from Comic-Con 2014. Goddamn, there are some good ones—each and every taken with Nokia Lumia Icon, which is essentially identical to the 930 model reviewed by BetaNews colleague Mark Wilson. He panned the device because of Windows Phone 8.1; I’m in love because of the camera. But sometimes love is lost, and regretted. My sister has the Icon now.

I lug around iPhone 6, which camera by every measure that matters to me is inferior but one—startup shooting speed. Apple’s shooter can’t compete with the Icon. Fanboys will disagree, but, hey, they always will. The difference isn’t fewer megapixels—eight compared to 20—but the intelligence and usability baked into camera and editing app, lens, sensor, and choices the device makes when auto-shooting.