My Z10 gone LTE

After a good year using the Z10, I decided to upgrade. Not to a new system as such, but to an upgraded version of the same phone. The Z10, LTE version. Shame that it only came in White. Pricewise, it had certainly took a dive. There was no guarantee if BlackBerry would continue making phones. In fact, they were talking about selling their phone portfolio.

Why did I upgrade? Well, Maxis offered LTE at no extra cost and my workplace was covered. And the price, it was under RM800! I just couldn't say no to that! It was too good an offer.

As it stood, the keyboard was miles better any I had ever used, including the iPhone. I was not ashamed to admit that. The App Store was improving although it still lack plenty in the imaging department, but who in their right mind would be using a BlackBerry for their photography right?

I pray that BlackBerry would continue to soldier on. They had plenty more to offer on the platform I was sure, even if the profit margin was against that ...

The New Workhorse

My current main desktop system was a 4 year-old iMac 23-inch, running Mountain Lion since it was the only OS which can connect to my P1 dongle for internet connection. Not ideal, but that was the best I could do in Gombak.

At the apartment, I have a 30Mb fibre connection and it seemed that all the bandwidth being utilised only on iPad and Mac Book was rather a waste. I decided to get a new desktop permanently stationed at the apartment. I thought about a new iMac, but I decided to go a step further than that. A system which could easily last me for another 4 years.

Walla, I ordered the Mac Pro and I received the delivery last week. I spent the time since then tweaking the peripherals and decided on which monitor to use. The main one was easy, I also ordered an Apple Thunderbolt display which also served as the main speakers, camera and microphone. I got a second similar-sized monitor from Dell. And I also installed a third monitor in the form of a Wacom Cintiq tablet. That provide touch interface for photo editing as well as an input mode for the whole system if needed. The dual graphics card system sorted the resolution out with minimal effort.

I also installed Parallels for running Windows 7 concurrently. No issues. I could run Windows on one screen while keeping Mavericks on the other monitor. And I was able to play games at maximum resolution and setting on the Windows part.

I also bought a Thunderbolt WD external hard drive connected to the Mac Pro. The on board SSD was only 256 Gb, hence I save space by using the external drive for my Aperture and iPhoto library. The 10Gb/sec transfer time meant that there was no lag even when I opened the photo for editing on Photoshop. I decided against wifi storage mainly for speed. When I have time, I might dabble into video editing - in 4K maybe.

A lot to discover still with the new system and it would take a while before I realise the real potential, as only a handful of the current crop of apps were able to utilise more than couple of processor cores, 64 bit operation and dual graphic processor. The system was no slouch ….

So far, I have yet to encounter any hardware issues with the system. I might add on more memories to the system in the future, but that would be about it.

4G FTW!

Not sure what had happened over the weekend, but my Nexus 7 - which was recently updates to Kit Kat - had been registering 4G connection on Celcom. I had to upgrade my SIM on the iPhone for LTE connection, but I didn't bother doing anything for the Nexus tablet.

It had only started doing so from this morning. So, I assumed that there had been an upgrade over the weekend. I wasn't complaining. It was just that I was pleasantly surprised. And yes, the connection was about 20 Mbit - which was slower than Maxis at SJMC - but it was noticeably faster.

No Celcom LTE yet at Taman Setia, so I had to make do with HSDPA and WiFi at home. Fast enough but could be slow at times inside my bedroom.

At work, although there were WiFi available for staff members, speed could be found wanting during peak clinic hours. The LTE was definitely welcomed to do quick browsing in between my clinic patients.

Still no Air

I had been busy in the past week, and didn't have the chance to look around and sample the recently released iPad Air. So, when I had the chance yesterday, I stopped by a shop at Hartamas which stocked Apple products.

They had rows of iPad, but they were all from the previous generation. No idea as yet as to when the new model would be coming in. Looked like I would have to head out to Low Yat to have a feel of that .... Maybe this weekend.

The iPhone 5S Camera

So, the weekend had been spent taking the 5S through its paces and the main focus was on the camera. How much if an impact it was?

The quality of the 4 compared to 3GS was huge. And the jump was maintained when the 4S was released. I had been happy with the 4S until I got my hands on the HTC One and as a camera phone, the One was not short of awesome. But it remained what it was. A mobile phone with a camera. It's nowhere near my X-Pro 1.

So, in came the 5S. Does the camera present a big jump compared to its predecessor? Bear in mind that I jumped from the 4S, the quality increase was expected. I do not have a iPhone 5 to compare it to, so I did the next best thing. Comparing it to the HTC One. But I would leave that to the next entry.

Let's just look at the camera on its entirety. The snaps were good. And coupled that to the Camera+ app, the photos were really good. The focusing speed was faster and they tend to find the right focus points as well.

But I found that the snaps tended to be underexposed and cooler temperature-wise. Nothing that Camera+ couldn't fix.

Is it spontaneous enough? Unfortunately I did not. I found that snapping photos were fiddly for some reason. Compares to the HTC One, the photos tended to be warner and brighter. Maybe it was just the screen, but the same was seen on the computer monitors as well. I tended to like the HTC One snaps better, and tended to get the photos I wanted first time.

Maybe it was an unfair criticism for the new iPhone since I only had it for one weekend. I understood the HTC One's quirks better having used it since May. I might change my mind in a couple of months.

I will post up comparison photos between the HTC One and the iPhone 5S on my next entries.

Ed - the comparisons are here in not one, two, three or four, but five instalments!