Slick Operator

My Mac Pro would turn 5 years-old in April. I bought it during the MSH Meeting in 2013. It was still doing a great job but I had issues with space at my new study table. An iMac Pro would definitely clear some of the clutters. That was what got me interested.

Last weekend, I had my first encounter with the machine at on of the Mac dealer in town. Same size as the iMac 27 inch, great screen and all that. But the main muscles were on the inside. The workstation grade processor, full SSD storage with 32 Gb RAM, etc.

And that was only the basic model. And it was going at RM 21000!

That was some serious money. That cost more than my Mac Pro. Looked like I could never afford that ...

The iPhone X Camera

I take my phone everywhere and being an avid photographer, the most accessible phone I had most often were my mobile phone. Over the years I had been carrying many phones and the decision on which phone I chose to buy had how good the camera was being one of the top point of consideration.

The original iPhone did not have a good camera. Back then, the best camera phone I had used was the Nokia N73. Despite only having a 3.2MP camera, the Zeiss optics it carried made for some really great photographs. That sort of crystallised on me the idea that a camera phone may be enough for everyday snapping.

Then came the iPhone 4. For the iOS platform, it showed that Apple was taking photography seriously. A few Android phones then entered the picture with the HTC One being one of my early favourites. In early 2015, I discovered the Nokia 930. It had on it the best camera I had ever seen. And till this day, I could argue that it was still a capable shooter despite being almost 4 years old.

Now, my second phone was the Huawei P10 Plus. With its Leica optics, the photos especially the monochrome were just amazing. I still took it around during weekends as I shot around town. But now, I have a new contender for the best camera phone. The iPhone X.

Right off the bat, there was something natural about the photos. There were some element of over processing from the camera but they weren't as obvious as the Samsung. The photos did not over saturated and at low ISO, they appeared realistic. The focusing was
snappy and there were plenty of third-party apps for post-production of our snaps.

Last weekend, I took the phone out for a spin around Bukit Bintang to capture the Xmas decorations. I was practically blown away. The photos were much better than I expected. Coupled with its capability to capture 4K videos at 60fps, the camera feature is a winner.

In terms of monochrome snaps, it still lacked behind the Huawei. But for sheer overall joy, Apple clearly had the right formula here. Just for the camera alone, it was definitely an upgrade from my iPhone 7 Plus, although I do understand that the iPhone 8 use the same camera module as the X although with a narrower telephoto second sensor.

I'm definitely looking forward to more snaps from the phone...

Gone Horny

Yes, it was a long time coming. I had been planning to get the new phone since it was announced, skipping the iPhone 8. To my surprise, Anita wasn't keen to upgrade, sticking to her 7 Plus for the time being.

The couple of departures from the iPhone of the past were obvious right of the bat. The first being the disappearance of the home button. This created space for bazel-less display. Rather than having a fingerprint reader at the back of the unit similar to the Nexus 6P, Apple went with Face ID, using the front-facing camera to deal with unlocking of the phone. And it worked perfectly even on the first few hours if using the phone.

Next was wireless charging - and for this I used the charger from Samsung. It worked a treat.

The bonus would be the camera. I had a different entry specifically on the camera. Excellent snapper and it could handle 4K at 60 fps. I had to use iMovie on my Mac for post-processing since Final Cut Pro can't handle the new file system yet to process the movies.

The main downside was using the Face ID while mounted to dashboard. You had to look at the phone when you unlock ...

So far, I had no major complains. The battery life was also excellent. 256 Gb is an awfully large storage to fill. The phone was blazingly fast.

The AirPods

I have been eyeing the Airpods for quite some time. Every time I was driving, with the iPhone 7 not carrying a separate headphone jack, I was not able to charge my phone. ANd I do decide to do so, I was not able to hear my podcasts.

I tried using third party wireless earpiece but none of them came near this units both in terms of audio quality as well as convenience. Apple again got it just right.

It looked flimsy at the beginning but the earpieces were surprisingly snug and comfortable. There were no risk of them falling off my ears despite my movement and the sound were surprisingly good. Good enough to appreciate some bass lines and the spoken words came out loud and clear. The unit also excelled while making phone calls.

Charging was easy as putting the units in the cases both switches the units off automatically as well as topping up the charges. Once a week charging should suffice despite my daily use. All in one small, pocketable package. It needed to be seen to be appreciated ....

Their availability in Malaysia were still sketchy as apparently Apple had been having problem producing them in bulk amount. I managed to get a unit at Pavilion when I was walking around there last weekend ... and they were not exactly cheap. Another drawback was they only worked with Apple products - although not necessarily just the iPhone.

Morning Update to #iOS11

The much touted iOS 11 finally came out. I wasted no time this morning in getting the update up. All my iPads and my phone had been updated. Maybe I will do the same for Anita later tonight.

The update process had been super smooth. Clearly Apple had sorted out the links before the final version were released and I was able to get my phone updated within 20 minutes.

So far there had not been any glitches and a full day of use might just reveal any issues, but I was sure it would just be a small app update after that to get everything running again ...

Let's see how the thing fare for the rest of the day!