Thursday, September 09, 2010

Reuniting with an old friend: A photo-geek story.

If you're a gadget addict like me it's easy to have older, yet perfectly good tech become a digital castoff when a new product comes home. Sadly this became the case with my Nikon D70 (affiliate link) when we purchased a point and shoot to take with us on a family vacation a few years ago. Through some recent trips down a memory lane of photography, I'm starting to right that wrong and spend more time with my old friend.

When my wife and I adopted out cat Stan more than six years ago, he was treated as our first child. We took countless photos of him and it was during those shoots, trying to capture every intricate movement, that I realized I needed to upgrade from my Olympus C1400 and get something that allowed for finer tuning (and a faster shutter).

After much research and contemplation, I decided to get the Nikon D70. We were inseparable. It traveled with us to Vegas and Arizona, helped us capture family events, holidays, and the ever-elusive Stan. It was a great partnership...until the new guy showed up.

How a trip to Disney World altered a friendship.
In 2008 my family and I took a trip to Disney World in Orlando, FL. Based on our past trips, my wife didn't want to lug around the Nikon so we bought a little point-and-shoot that could handle both still photos as well as video. We settled on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 (affiliate link). As soon as I got my hands on it, the D70 became an afterthought. Months went by before I picked it back up and started shooting with it and I scoffed at it's bulk and it's awkwardness. We didn't hang out as much, I started favoring my new, more portable, HD-shooting pal.

Time heals all wounds
As years went by, I realized I couldn't completely ignore my rapid-fire friend. As our family grew, he'd show up to help capture the beginnings of life, anniversaries, holidays, and more.

It wasn't until meeting some great people on Twitter that I've taken a renewed interest in shooting with the D70. Seeing stunning shots like this, this, and this have made me reach for my trusty Nikon more often than the point-and-shoot. In fact, we took it camping this past weekend. The Panasonic stayed home.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

26 iPhone Wallpaper Images

Not much needed in the way of an explanation here. These are based off of my earlier-released iPad wallpapers and work great with the iPhone 3G and 3GS (not to mention the iPod Touch). iPhone 4 wallpapers are coming soon! Just right-click and save or tap, hold, and save.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Into the great unknown

My oldest son started 4K today, marking the beginning of his school career. While I can't fully describe how proud I am of him, sending him off into the world does come with a few unknowns.

As he got onto the bus today, I had a feeling come over me that's similar to when I launch a new site or project (only this was on a much larger scale). Those thoughts and feelings were "I hope this works!". As that yellow vessel drove away, there was nothing I could do to help him, if he needed it. He was on his own...and he'd be fine. The more I thought about it today, he's in a great position to be learning new things and encountering new experiences.

Oh, to be young again.
The past few months have been filled with many new experiences for me including some great public speaking engagements, many opportunities to meet some thought leaders, and a few projects that have pushed and challenged my skill-set. Going into all of these, there's been a bit of trepidation, hesitation, and a bit of self-doubt thrown in, just to make things interesting. Today it struck me, my kids have the right mindset going into any new experience they'll encounter. They have no fear.

They don't know the risks, they aren't afraid to fail, in fact they don't even know what failure is. Failure, truly isn't an option. Isn't that great? I'm keeping that in mind when taking on new challenges. After all, it couldn't hurt.

Creating an ePub eBook with Pages ‘09

A recent update to Pages '09 (iWork '09) (affiliate link) has added a nice feature to this robust Word competitor; the ability to export as an ePub file. This means quick and easy ebook publishing for the masses. Let's take a quick look at what you can do.

Stay inline.
In my initial test to create an eBook I found rather quickly that floating elements don't jive with the ePub format. When inserting photos or video you need to make sure they're inserted as inline elements rather than floating. This will lock the item in place and won't let text flow around it so you'll need to plan ahead when adding media to your eBook.

A Rich media experience
One of the great benefits of creating an epub book is the fact you can insert photos and video within the publication. When read in iBooks an ebook that contains these rich media elements can help the storytelling experience or aid the instruction of a topic. If you're looking for some ideas to get started, here are a few I think are great launching points:

• Cookbooks
• Home repair guides
• Automotive repair guides
• Craft guides
• Portfolios and demo reels for digital content creators

No headers and footers
In another test, I tried exporting an eBook that a client of mine had written (a raw Word doc.) into the ePub format. The document contained header and footer information that were stripped out of the final publication.

ePub exporting is "desktop only"
I was showing a colleague one of my test eBooks and she asked if that type of export was possible from Pages on the iPad. At this time the ePub export is only available on the desktop version of iWork '09. A future mobile counterpart would be a welcome addition.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

A new look for iTunes

If you've downloaded the latest version of iTunes (10), you'll notice a small (but ever-so large) difference. The app's logo/icon has changed. Gone is the ever-familiar CD and musical note combination, replaced by a musical note with a candy-like button background. Here are some other details I've noticed.

• The app itself has changed and has received some updating, most-noticeably the icons that line the left side navigation are now monochromatic.
• The volume slider now sports a nice, round metallic knob as the contact-point. A small detail, but I like it.
• The "disk space" meter for iPods, iPhones and iPads has been subtly changed as well, removing the gloss highlighting and replacing it with a satin finish.
• The maximize, minimize, and close buttons are now arranged horizontally rather than vertically, which begs the question, will this change be rolled out within all Apple-made apps?
• A new social network named Ping is available which allows you to follow artists and other iTunes customers and share your musical interests.