Every Day Carry – Page 3

GoPro Amazement – Part 1

Decided to bite the bullet and purchase a GoPro this past weekend. I keep seeing all of these cool videos with interesting angles and pumping soundtracks. I’m no extreme athlete but I think I can put together some quality material of things I’m involved in and activities around the city. Hell, driving to work some days is like a scene from an action movie. Why not put that action to music!

Always a lover of photography I’ve never really done any videography (except for that one time I had a camcorder and my kids were babies). One of the biggest problems I remember about the camcorder era was all the tapes you had to purchase and keep track of. With everything now being digital it’s not as much of physical space you’re worried about it’s virtual (hard drive) space. Same problem, different decade I guess.

The GoPro series of cameras have evolved pretty steadily since 2005 with the introduction of the “GoPro HERO 35mm, All-Season Sports Camera”. An update was introduced just about every year with the release of the latest “Session” model in 2015.

I picked up the late 2014 model called the Hero4 Silver. It’s not bleeding edge but it’s got some pretty good specs when it comes to shooting video and taking stills. Some features to note are:

2704×1520 at 30 frames a second (2.7k) video*
1920×1080 at 60 frames a second (1080p) video
1280×720 at 120 frames a second (720p) video**
4000 x 3000 12MP photo with a 30/sec frame burst mode***
Time Lapse (0.5-60 second intervals)
Night Lapse (low light capability)

*The Hero 4 will do 4k video but only 15 frames a second so I don’t see it being that useful.
**This is what I’ll be shooting at while I learn. Gives a decent picture, smaller file size and Slow-Mo capabilities.
***Could be useful for close up fast action sports but there is a noticeable shutter lag

So after charging the Hero4 and inserting the MicroSD card I took off to shoot some random videos. Filling about half of the memory card with a lot of miscellaneous shots I headed back to the IndyScan HQ to see what I had and what I could do with it.

Then it (finally) hit me. This is nothing like photography where you’re dealing with a single image capturing a fraction of a second of time. This is a living picture (for lack of a better term) that not only has (many) images but audio!

Time to use technology to solve a technological problem (I bet our parents never said that). I hit up the Google Machine and within a few seconds I had all the tutorials I could ask for. One in particular I want to give props too is Village Park Source who has a great 42-part series that walks you through Go Pro Studio. The videos are short and to the point. Easy to follow along and test yourself on what you learned afterwards too.

So what I thought was going to be something I could just pickup and run with turned out to be anything but that. It’s a great opportunity to learn something new and interesting. It’ll be a while before I get up to a jog from this walk.

Time to get back to the tutorials and see what I can learn over the next few nights. I have some activities this weekend I want to shoot both photos and videos of. Look for Part 2 in a few days. Videos coming soon too I hope!

P.S. I’m trying the “new” (to me) writing style where you don’t put 2 spaces between your sentences. Anyone older than 35 probably does this instinctively but evidently it’s frowned upon in the professional writing community. Thoughts? Post them in the comments section below.

Mac+Win = Awesomeness

I was a PC guy for a long time but I started using a Mac at work in late 2012 because I have customers that use them. I figured it would be a good way to learn something new and add another skill set to my toolbox.

Once you fall into the Apple Matrix you have some amazing tools. My iPad, Macbook, and iPhone are all in sync with each other. I can leave my phone in my pocket or bag and send/receive text messages and even make phone calls from the laptop. Gotta love technology and this stuff just keeps getting better!

I’m on the fence about the Apple Watch. Probably going to wait until version 2 comes out before giving it any serious thought. I love watches but having one that will be obsolete in a few years is weird. Maybe I’m looking at it wrong.

I continue to be really impressed with the MacBook Pro and the Parallels application that allows you to run a virtual install of Windows in the Mac environment. It allows you to run both operating systems at once seamlessly.

Nerd Alert, the following is a little geeky…

You can actually run just about any Operating System, in Parallels (Linux, Server, etc.). It takes a bit of setup but once done you get the best of both worlds. Mac applications run in the Mac environment and Windows applications run in the Windows virtual environment. The only way to tell what is what is a pair of vertical bars on the icon.

Setup requires a full install of Windows (I started with Win7 and have moved to Win10) and all the normal licensing of applications. You can pay a little extra to get a special cable to migrate an existing Windows machine but in my experience it didn’t work that well so I started with a clean install.

The entire Windows virtual machine resides in one (large) file which makes it easier to backup (Parallels performs regular snapshots too). You can have several virtual machine instances for testing too. Performance and stability are impressive with just a minor hit to overall battery life. In other words this is a totally usable system that has very little impact on how your Mac functions.

If you’re a Windows user that’s been wanting to try a Mac or if you’re a Mac user who misses some of your favorite Windows applications this setup is worth checking out.

6-hours With an iPhone 6…

…and so far I like it!

Quick review now & I’ll probably do a more in-depth one in a few weeks.

It’s larger than the 5s it’s replacing and about as big as I’m willing to go with a phone. NO WAY was I going to even think about the 6 Plus. The Apple leather case is a great addition that gives enough grip to keep me from dropping the phone every time I pick it up but not so much that you can’t easily slip it into your pocket.

The release of iOS8 has caused just about every application I use to issue an update (or two) & that seems like all I’ve done is update apps this afternoon. I still have a few that are crashing (like DropBox) & I’m hoping the next update will resolve that.

I’m fortunate that my employer pays for me to get the latest and greatest gadgets to help test before we deploy to 300+ engineers who have no patience for things that don’t work (the way they want them to). If you have an iPhone 4/4s/5 it’s worth considering an upgrade. If you’re already using a 5s you’re not going to see that much of a difference (yet). I’m very excited to see how the mobile pay application works once it comes online in October. And I’ll have to admit the watch look pretty damn interesting too.

From a Cell phone!

So I’m doing a little work after hours and away from home (too many distractions). As I continue to test OS X Yosemite and iOS8 I decided to try using my iPhone 5s as a hot spot.

Wow! I though things were cruising right along but I had NO IDEA I was getting this kinds of speeds. I normally use a dedicated Verizon Hot Spot but it kind of seems pointless if I can get this kind of Internet bandwidth from my cell phone.

This is better that I’m getting at home from U-Verse and paying $56 a month for…

Yes, I can hear you now Paul, loud and clear!

iTunes Radio vs. PandoraOne

As a followup to my iOS7 First Look I thought I’d post my impressions of iTunes radio and how it compares against PandoraOne. This review will focus on the pay versions of these two products. Why pay? No ads to interrupt things, simple as that.

My initial thought was iTunes radio would end up putting Pandora out of business but after a week of comparison I’m starting to change my mind.

I’m a subscriber to the iTunes Match service that, in a nutshell, makes most of your music library available in the cloud and accessible from any iOS device or computer running iTunes. I say most of your music because if the track is not available on iTunes it’s not going to be available in iTunes Match. I have several spoken audio tracks that don’t qualify but it’s stuff I would not want to listen to most times anyway.

For $25 a year this is a great way to access your music no matter where you’re at. An added bonus allows iTunesMatch subscribers to get commercial-free access to iTunes Radio. Sounds like a win-win, right?

While iTunes Radio has similar functionality and a yearly subscription is half the cost of PandoraOne there are some differences…

iTunes Radio

Pros:

$25 year (included with iTunes Match)
Easy access to purchase the song
Seems to have more variety in the playlists
Wish list for future purchases
Apple TV Integration
You can share and email stations to friends

Cons:

Multiple clicks to favorite a track
Same skip limit as PanrodaOne (6 per hour)
Audio Quality is a little muddy (this can be subjective)
Clunky interface
Does not always play right away (buffer seems smaller than Pandora too)
Must run iTunes
Stations based on artist very rarely play the artist

Pandora One

Pros:

Easier to Favorite Songs
Audio quality is clearer
Lyrics & artist’s biography
Stand-alone desktop application

Cons:

$48 a year
Seems to repeat “liked” songs more (this could be both a Pro & a Con)

In conclusion at this time I still think PandoraOne is a better product. It does cost more so if that’s an issue iTunes Radio is still a good product (and iTunes Match is worth the cost in my opinion), it’s just not a polished product. If Apple continues to evolve as they have in the past iTunes radio could truly become a Pandora killer in the not-so-distant future.

Have you done your own comparison between iTunes Radio & your favorite streaming music app? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

Every Day Carry – P-7 Suspension Clip

The P-7 Suspension Clip by TEC Accessories is one of those EDC accessories that makes a lot of sense once you see how well it works. I try to keep a small key chain but even what I carry can be a little bulky in some situations. The P-7 helps keep your keys and accessories from bunching up in the bottom of your pants pocket.

By clipping the P-7 to the edge of your pocket the keys can hang vertically and all but disappear. It also keeps your keys from falling out of your pocket accidentally.

When I received the P-7 in the mail it was even smaller than I expected and adds very little bulk to your key chain once installed. The clip is very sturdy and all but impossible to bend during normal use.

If you have more items on your key chain than you want, and hate the way it gathers at the bottom of your pocket, give the P-7 a try!

Laptops Fit in Office Envelopes in 1994 Too!

With a whopping 75MHz processor this laptop was state of the art back in 1994. Your smart phone has a lot more power than this thing did. We’ve come a long way in just under 20 years. What will the next 20 years bring us?

Apple Style With Windows Functionality

I’ll admit I’m starting to get a case of Apple Fever. After moving to an iPhone from the long favored Blackberry and actually finding a way to integrate an iPad into my daily routine I’m taking the next step… I’ve purchased a MacBook Pro.

This is not just any MacBook, this is the 13″ model with the *new* retina display, 8GB of memory and a roomy 256GB Solid State Hard Drive. Having used a 12.1″ Lenovo Thinkpad for the past 4 years the 13″ display on the MacBook seems a lot larger and the resolution (and clarity) of the retina display is nothing short of amazing.

The overall design of the Apple MacBook Pro is very nice. Machined from a solid block of aluminum this thing is as solid as it gets. No plastic to flex or creak and no flimsy screen to move around. I’ve never felt a laptop as well-built as this is.

I mention Windows Functionality in the title of this post. That’s possible because of a virtualization application called Parallels which allow you to run Windows applications right alongside the Macintosh apps. It’s pretty much seamless and, so far, it just works.

I’m still in the “getting to know you” stages of the Macbook but I really like what I see so far. Time will tell if this becomes my primary platform or if the limitations push me back to the world of Windows. There are enough differences in how the two systems work that it’s going to take some time for the Apple Operating System to become second nature like Windows has become.

After I take this thing on an extended test drive I’ll go into more detail and post a more thorough review. Stay tuned…

Need a Little Light?

Light is something we all need. Whether naturally or artificially generated light is necessary for humans to discern distance, color and motion. For years I’ve carried some form of light or another, normally in the form of a small flashlight on my key chain.

My key chain light of choice for the past 10 years was a Photon light. Small, inexpensive and very durable the Photon has been useful in countless situations throughout the years. Recently while reading the Every Day Carry blog I stumbled upon a new light that I just had to try.

The Streamlight Nano has some pretty impressive specs:

Up to 8 hrs. run time
Machined aircraft-grade aluminum with anodized finish
Powered by 4 alkaline button cells (included)
100,000 hr. lifetime high-intensity LED
LED available in white (10 lumens)
1.47″ x .51″
.36 oz.

But I think the most impressive spec is the price! This light can be purchased for less than $10 on Amazon and it’s worth every penny.

Now 10 lumens does not seem like a lot of light, especially when compared to other lights like the $40 Quark Mini 123 which can pump out 180 lumens, but it’s perfect for everyday tasks like looking under a desk, or simple task lighting. I’ve used it for lighting up a dark hallway and changing the air filter on my car at night. The tiny size all but guarantees it’s going to be with me at all times.

2012-10-21 10.37.00 — Top – Surefire 6Z
Middle – Quark MiNi 123
Bottom – Streamlight Nano

Operation is simple. Twist on, twist off. That’s all there is to it. No special functions or flashing patterns with this one. Compared to the Surefire 6Z and Quark Mini the Streamlight is practically non-existent.

The unit comes with button cell batteries (4 of them) as well as a split ring and spring-loaded clip. Once installed on a key chain it’s not even noticeable.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive key chain light that really performs I recommend you check out the Streamlight Nano. If you do, leave a comment below and let me know how you like it!