Forstall leaving Apple

I was about to leave the apartment for the morning rounds, but couldn't resist the urge to get this entry across, having woken up to this news.

No, it wasn't about Sandy pounding the Big Apple. But Apple itself, having an internal shake down.

The blogs had been abuzz about the friction at the top between Scott Forstall and the other Senior VP at Apple. Scott was in charge of the development of the iOS, and it became clear that the iOS 6 did not innovate as much as it was expected. Not to the extend that Jelly Bean did compared to the previous iteration of Android.

Add to this the debacle that was the Apple Maps, and the writing was on the wall. It was rumoured that Scott was more keen to move Apple towards a more skeuomorphic - real-life imitation - design elements, while the other gurus, Sir Jonny Ives included opposed this. Clearly somebody had to go.

Announcing the news while the US was looking forward to Sandy and the Presidential election was a touch or PR genius. The announcement also included that the SVP for retail, John Browett was also leaving. He had just joined Apple less than a year ago, taking over from Ron Johnson, the real architect behind the Apple retail store experience. Mr Johnson is currently the CEO of JC Penney, and was recruited as a highly prized asset across.

Will this signal a further change at the top of Apple? Bob Mansfield was due to leave, but was invited back to be the special advisor to Tim Cook. Maybe Bob was giving the company an ultimatum as far Scott's tenure was concerned.

Either way, Scott Forstall is leaving and Apple had to move on with things. He will officially leave some time next year, and for the interim, Craig Federighi would overlook both the OS X and iOS.

Chilling In

After a rather busy afternoon, the admission rather slowed down after I returned to apartment for a shower. So, I was caught in two minds. Should I go back to the hospital and hang around the lounge or just chill out at the apartment. With the breeze outside - it was raining heavily earlier in the evening - I felt just like killing time at the apartment rather.

The only problem was, I was rather starving. They were a few microwave dinner which Anita had stocked up in the fridge, but I felt like having so,etching different. How I would murder a bigger or two. McDonald's was just a five minute drive away, but I really couldn't be bothered.

Xmas Came Early at Old Trafford

I must confess that I felt asleep right free Ramires scored the equaliser last night. I got a feeling that United would start to close shop, get the off-form Cleverley off and tidy up at the back. I fully expect to wake up this morning to a draw.

And did I miss all the drama? After watching the game - recorded on DVR - I agree that Ivanovic should be off, but to get Torres given the marching order, and Chicarito coming off the bench to score an offside goal, Christmas definitely came early for us United fans.

The Chelsky supporter were understandably upset, and later came the claim that the ref said something out of term to the Chelsky later just added more spice. I didn't think that we had ears the last of this. I fully expect more news to come out of both camps. Which make for an otherwise uninspired start to United season click into gear.

This weekend - Saturday evening - would see United playing Arsenal at Old Trafford. This should be another interesting spectacle. Will we be lucky again?

3 Months with the X-pro1

After 3 months with the X-pro1, the camera had definitely grew on me. At the beginning, it was a stunner of a camera in the hand. And as a user of the X100, I was surprised as to how bulky it felt in the hand compared to the svelte-like little sister. The shutter movement was also a surprised, as I was used to the silent X100, which employed a leaf shutter.

Let's talk about three strong points for the X-pro1.

First, the quality of the jpeg. What came out from the sensor was something I was not expecting. Yes, I knew it would be good, but not as good as I thought it was going to be. The lack of low-pass filter, made possible by the X-trans sensor configuration appeared to sharpen the results. The jpeg coming out from the card only needed minor tweaking. I have yet to use the RAW data as I use Aperture for my post work. Apple has yet to release a RAW converter for the camera. I found that using the RAW files with the X100 only added to a headache as the jpeg engine on the cameras were already top notch. Coupled with the amazing prime lens that Fuji released, we had a clear winner as far as sharp images were concerned.

Second, the white balance. As mentioned, one of the reason of using RAW was to get the white balance right. Shooting RAW allowed for more latitude as far as exposure and white balance were concerned. But still, too many choices in post just led to longer time spent processing, which in the end might not add to the quality of the results. With the X-pro1, the white balance, especially the skin tone were very much film-like. This was not surprising since Fuji made their mark as innovators in print films. My old favorites were Reala and Velvia. Natural reasons for me to be drawn to the palette of the jpegs. And the results from the X-pro1 seemed better compared to the X100 as far as white balance were concerned.

Restricting the discussion to three points could never do justice to this beautiful camera. So, for the final section, I would like to discuss about the gamble Fuji took in leasing a new camera system with a propriety mount. Fuji called this the X-mount. And the primes - three of them, the 18mm f2.0, 35mm f1.4 and 60mm f2.4 - available on the day of the launch were of a high quality.

I own both the 18mm and 35mm. Every time I go out, I was torn between the two as to which one I should have attached to the body. Over the years, I have always been drawn to the 50mm focal length. And the 35mm provided that. Add that to the wide aperture, you really get shallow depth-of-field when you snap using this lens. Some time a bit too shallow. Using primes also made you think before you shoot, and often let you feet do the work when composing.

The X-pro1 was not exactly a small investment on my part. But it had been a joy to use, and certainly fulfilled my needs. I wished that it could be smaller, with a slightly smarter focussing mechanism, but you can't have everything. I was sure that some software tweak may improve the focussing. If you were looking for a premium quality compact system camera, the X-pro1 is a good bet.

The Photowalk Slides

Apparently according to Ripi, the heaven opened the moment I left. But it looked like he had fun shooting still. Plenty of subjects around Bukit Bintang after we split.

Anyhow, below were the sideshow from the walk earlier .....