tech ronin

Pix from Konica Minolta Dimage X50

I just posted a few pix on request from Petr who sez he is thinking of buying an X50.

c|net Reviews Konica Minolta X50

My little camera that could got a 7.6 rating from c|net. Not too shabby. I love the color and have been shooting exclusively in low light conditions given the rain and bad weather we've had lately. And, I'm not thrilled with my results in low light. But then, it's low light - the nemesis of the pocket-camera photographer...

Here's a comment in the review that caught me up short, though:

Though the Konica Minolta Dimage X50's 5-megapixel sensor unsurprisingly produces noisier photos than its lower-resolution siblings, the camera matches its predecessors' quality in all other ways. It's a capable little snapshot camera.

It seems that better isn't always better. I'm researching by reading the beautiful The Complete Guide to Digital Photography by Michael Freeman. Very well done, but I hadn't heard this concept that more megapixels can lead to more noise. Hmmm... Apparently, I have more to learn about all this.

Two New Tiger Treats

MacWorld Expo SF kicks into high gear at 9am on Jan 11th when Steve Jobs gives his keynote. I'm excited to go, mingle, see, touch and feel the latest and greatest in the Mac world. From the looks of things, OS X Tiger is coming right along. I'm expecting a big Tiger show at MacWorld Expo. I'm guessing we'll have Tiger available by March June (see today's MOSR). Here are my favorite new features from Tiger build 8A323:

TextEdit is going to support tables. I only rarely ever use Word anymore. I use TextEdit as often as I can and that means daily. Over at AppleInsider, here's the quote on what's in the current developer release of Tiger: "TextEdit now supports tables and organized lists in addition to page breaks, line breaks, improved text selection, and a beefier 'Find' function."

The Address Book will import tab and comma-delimited text files. This is great. That means I can export a text file from my FileMaker database and import it directly into Address Book. Or from Excel. No more hoops to jump through.

This is the time of year when rumors start flying. One rumor is of an Apple/Motorola cell phone collaboration. Although I don't have the quote, I recently read a Steve Jobs quote noting the vast and growing size of the cell phone market. Something is brewing there with iPod and iTunes. I would like to see an Apple cell phone, but I'm still hoping for something like a 3 lb tablet from Apple.

Can Mac Increase Market Share?

If Apple ever had a chance to increase it's marketshare in the notebook and desktop computer space, it's now. With iPod sales skyrocketing worldwide, the halo effect from the iPod's stratospheric popularity could drive iPod owners to consider switching to Mac.

Other favorable factors in this mix are:

1. Microsoft has fallen on relatively hard times. There's some vulnerability there. MSFT is no longer in the enviable position of being able to attract top tech talent by offering stock options.
2. Windows hasn't been upgraded much in a long time and the next gen version is still quite a ways off and has been scaled back.
3. The Windows computing experience is riddled with worms, viruses, spyware and security problems.
4. OS X has established a technical lead over Windows in the desktop OS space. Industry analysts and even many Windows users would acknowledge that the best OS right now is OS X, not Windows XP.
5. Apple has more credibility in the Consumer electronics space than Microsoft and that credibility could give them an advantage in the increasingly attractive and growing home entertainment PC space.

This is Apple's chance to score a few share points. Hopefully, they'll jump all over this opportunity before it's gone. The future of the iPod is a question-mark. The iPod is white hot now, but many question whether Apple can sustain it's dominance for long. I would say they've got another year at least but that's not a long time.

Pocket Camera Update: Konica Minolta X50 $199

UPDATE: ***A friend of mine tried to get the $199 price deal as advertised. They weren't honoring it saying it was a mistake and the price was actually $329.***

Good news, bad news. I just saw the Konica Minolta X50 5 mega-pixel camera extraordinaire that I bought on Friday selling for $199 at Dell in my SF Chronicle this morning. Good news for anyone who hasn't already bought this camera. This is incredible for everyone but me, who just paid $34o for it on Friday from Amazon. That hurts bad.

But for you, it's awesome. Unless it is a typo they won't back up. The paper lists the deal as available for 3-5 days. Here's the URL and the phone number to call is 888-617-9683. I clicked on this link and didn't see the X50 listed.

I love my new camera. I just wish I had bought it for $200... For one thing, I would have $250 left over from my $450 budget to start my fund for a second bigger camera for taking better photos.

My fantasy number 2, bigger and *better* camera will be used (1) when I've planned ahead and brought the big gun, (2) when a bigger camera isn't too heavy to lug around such as a family get-together and (3) when I'm home or in the backyard.

Meanwhile, my new baby's 5 mpx is a profound improvement over my old Minolta Dimage X's 2 mpx in two ways:

1. It allows me to use telephoto less and less often because I know I'm going to get an abundance of pixels that can be cropped down to get closer to the target. The less telephoto I use, the less likely I am to take a bad picture. Telephoto requires proportionally longer exposures that increase the likelihood of shake.
2. Since my photo image is much larger, I have more options in my cropping to find that hidden gem in what starts as a boring photo.

Two small frustrations I had with my otherwise very likable Dimage X have been eliminated on the X50:

1. I can review and delete photos VERY conveniently. It used to require an arduous trip into the small menu to get rid of bad photos. Now it's effortless. The bigger 2" screen makes it easier to evaluate photos right on the camera rather than having to wait until I've uploaded them to my computer.
2. They moved the lens to closer to the center of the camera body rather than near the edge where it was easy to accidentally block the lens with a finger.

There's more to say about my camera. I already am more enthused about photography. I got out my old Digital Photography for Dummies book circa year 2001 and plan on getting a current book soon. I added a digital photography category to this blog. As I learn things, I'll be posting it for your knowledge and pleasure.

msn Space blends blogging and social networking

You got the photos. You got the music. You got the blogging. You got the instant messaging. MSN Spaces is pretty cool stuff. Even though, I'm less excited because I'm Mac-based and things don't work so swell on MSN Spaces for Mac users. Like the music part. It doesn't work in Safari on my PowerBook.

I think blogging is the coolest thing in social networking. In the spirit of Generation C, I love the blogging along with the photos and what not. It's not just personal. I surfed a few pages. I like that you've got tabs for blog, music, photos etc. It feels a little like Live Journal.

Of course, Microsoft is totally leveraging their own products like: Hotmail, IE, MSN Messenger, Passport and Windows Media Player. Some things never change. This proprietary stuff in the name of convenience will sell as usual.

But, lots of people who don't want to play that game will opt out. It doesn't hurt to check it out, though. And, as far as I can tell, it is free at this point. Have at it. You could play the game of getting your favorite member name for a start.

I like that this is a bunch of *new* money and energy going into the blogging space. It's probably one reason that Six Apart recently took $10 mil in funding. They wanted to be able to play with Google and Microsoft. Ups the ante. All that effort and, hopefully, intense competition should be good for blogging and social networking etc. I was thinking, Yahoo might not be far behind...

You know me. I had to try it. Got my space: Tech Ronin (surprise!). Got my user name Tech_Ronin. Put in a few bits of information in my profile. While there, I was shocked at the gigantic ads in columns on the left and right of my profile. At the moment they are selling MSN personals, halter dresses (isn't it a little cold for that?) and balance transfers. That does NOT work for me. They obviously haven't read the Cluetrain Manifesto or anything. Geez!

I loaded up a photo. I made a list which was pretty easy - the list was Favorite Macintosh software. That seems appropriate.

I've got a *dead* Live Journal and Blogger sites too, so I really don't expect much here. It's hard to get too excited on this one. Even if it's not our cup of tea, Microsoft's scale and resources gives them the chance to make a big splash in our pond. It could be interesting...

I'm always a sucker for new. Part of the fun will be tracking how bloggers react. I'll be doing my tracking with NetNewsWire 2. I'm loving the search within your feeds and the special subscriptions tools. The first lets me take a quick read on what everyone is saying about a topic at this moment and the other gives me a way to track the conversation over time.

Doc Searl's Secret to Success

This looks pretty doable:

Do good work and Stay in touch. That's all you really need in a connected market, frankly. - Doc Searls

Half of it comes from Garrison Keillor's close at his Writer's Almanac podcast site [via gapingvoid.com] The great and funny cartoon above is by Hugh MacLeod. Really enjoying his illustrated posts.