Posts by Billz
10 posts • joined Wednesday 1st July 2009 17:42 GMT
Venus Transit From Carlsbad, California USA
Hello!
I no longer live in Worcester Park - where I used to send you photos from :) Hopefully you would like to use this somewhere
The online / hires version is on Flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billius/7343376464/
I just shot this in my backyard in Carlsbad, California, USA
Please feel free to use it for anything!
Was shot with Imaging Source DMK51 - short AVI video, stacked in AutoStakkert and processed in Photoshop/Lightroom
Cheers
Bill Pinnell
I'm returning my iPhone 4
Things I love about the iPhone4 (compared to my old 3GS): Good video. Good camera. Fantastic screen. However, I don't like the fact that I have to use a bumper to avoid signal degradation.
I watched the press conference on Friday. I really wanted Apple to 'fess up to making a design mistake - I wanted to hear how they would improve things in the future (e.g. putting lacquer on the antenna - would help a little) etc. What I heard instead was this is a common smartphone problem - its not - you don't need to death grip iPhone - just try browsing the web holding it in your left hand...
I also wanted to hear about whether this is a problem for ALL iPhone 4's or it is only affecting certain units - I believe its the former.
So.. even though I really love that screen, and can avoid signal problems using the bumper I have I've just phoned AppleCare in UK and arranged for them to pick up my iPhone and refund my £599.
No mention of Live Traffic
I get live traffic information free on google maps - why not on TomTom?
Chrome vs Android
Back in July, Google made the distinction that Chrome OS would also be for desktops & net-books - whereas Android was for handheld, phones and net-books.
But today we hear its basically just for net-books - and only ones with SSD/Flash...!
It seems even stranger to continue to have both OS offerings.
Isn't this just the new Motorola/Verizon "Droid" phone?
I may be barking up the wrong tree but could he have got confused ? My guess is the mystery device is the new Android 2.0 Droid device coming from Motorola/Verizon
Droid doesn't have MotoBlur UI and is more of a Google designed device by all accounts than a Motorola one. This maybe why people are getting confused this is a "Google phone"
timeline looks ok
when I look at metadata page - has both as the 12th.
The only thing I was worried about was the timestamp that had it as 3.33 when in reality it was 4.31am - but I imagine I haven't set the camera to BST properly.
Re: Iridium Flare
@dxmnkd316 Blimey I haven't ever looked into Iridium Flares so went to the Wikipedia images for a look and thought they look a lot like my photo. eek
Just visited Heavens Above though and put in my location - it looks like there was a satellite around 3:40am but it was ESE and lower elevation - so i <think> my shot is a meteor trail. But feel free to expose me as a fraud !
Some more info
For those that are interested, the photo is a crop of a full frame shot taken with Nikon D3 with 85mm f1.4 lens (at f1.4). 8 seconds exposure.
I purposefully took shots around Polaris to reduce the amount of star trails - I wasn't using a tracking mount - just normal photographic tripod.
I used the Nikon MC-36 wired remote to automatically take multiple shots.
There were some larger (and slower) trails which I have captured sections of trails in 5 consecutive shots but these don't show such good colours as they don't burn so hot as they are not going through atmosphere so quickly.
Slim pickings
Managed to capture one fast, coloured trail at about 4.33am.
The green is from Magnesium components, the Yellow/Orange from Sodium
http://twitpic.com/dl4a9
Duh! How else do you report the beginning of a problem!
@magnetik - I've got a yellow tinted iPhone 3GS and emailed Bill Ray last night to draw his attention to this issue - as I said to him if it wasn't about the iPhone it wouldn't be <at all> newsworthy.
You may be right that this is a minority problem - however if it turns out to be more it would have been embarassing for The Register not to decide to cover it before others.
Looking at the the discussion forums it certainly seems that an appreciable amount of early stock in shops suffers from the problem (people having to swap 3 times before 'finding' a better one). I hope any manufacturing or quality control problems got/get sorted soon so I can get one with a better looking LCD!
