jamesclay, Author at Tech Stuff

August 28, 2011

Android Screengrabbing Failure

Reading a tweet recently from an Android user that a recent update to their phone now allowed them to make screengrabs. Alas that is still not the case with the Google Nexus One.

I was pleased to hear that Skitch, the screen grabbing app that I use on my Mac was coming to Android, disappointed to find out that it doesn’t actually take screenshots.

At the moment I am using the Android SDK to take screenshots, which is workable, but not when you are in the field. I recently for example needed to take some screenshots of a photo app, the only way I could do it was by pointing the camera at photos on the screen of my Mac! Not very authentic and didn’t really demonstrate the power of the camera app.

I am hoping that Google will realise the value of screenshots and how easy it is on the iPhone and make it part of Android in the future.

August 26, 2011

Going up in the Air!

For the past few years I have been using a MacBook Pro 13” laptop as my main travelling, event, conference, working from home computer. The reason for the 13” was that it was small and light and had a reasonably good battery life, but also was powerful enough for audio and video editing as well as my usual travel staples of e-mail, browsing and social media.

Over the last year or so I have found that I am more and more leaving the MacBook Pro at home and taking the iPad when travelling or at events and conferences. Despite the limitations of no physical keyboard (sometimes I do carry my Bluetooth keyboard) limited power and capability to do heavy duty video and audio editing; from the perspective of doing e-mail, blogging, web browsing and social media, it is very good at what it does.

When I was given the opportunity to upgrade my MacBook Pro I did think about leaving it as is, or handing it back to be redeployed. In the end after some thought I decided to go with the MacBook Air 11” model. The 13” MacBook Pro will now go back into the staff pool to be redeployed as it is still powerful enough for how others might use it.

I went with the reasonably basic model, but did opt for 4GB of RAM as I have found in the past that OS X does perform much better with lots of RAM. I only got the 64GB SSD and am concious that this may prove problematic if and when I come to do some serious video editing on the machine. Without Firewire it’s not as though I can use an external Firewire drive either (as I have done with the old 13” MacBook Pro model).

Due to end of financial year issues this is not the new 11” model, as Apple announced it after we had placed and received our order. We couldn’t wait due to finance procedures and Apple wouldn’t exchange (as they don’t do that for institutional educational customers). As a result it doesn’t have the backlit keyboard and neither does it have a Thunderbolt port which may have then been an option. I think as a result I will be doing short videos and will have to move content off from the Mac on a regular basis to other storage.

So what of the MacBook Air then?

Well I have been very impressed with the speed of it, the original (original) MacBook Air was very underpowered, whereas this one just zips along. I did my usual test where I select all the applications in the applications folder and press Command O to open them all…. at which point the dock becomes full of bouncing icons. It handled that test really well.

The battery life is good, but is no iPad. As a result unlike with the iPad, if and when I do take the MacBook Air to a conference or event, I know I will be searching for power points. The 13” MacBook Air with its larger size has a much better battery life. I am getting three to four hours which to be honest is really good, but not like the iPad which for me lasts all day.

I do like the screen which though has quite a small resolution compared to some other Macs at 1366×768 looks bright and sharp. Yes it is a glossy screen and I know for some that means they won’t like it. I am less

It’s lovely and light and I am a bit scared it might get bent in my bag when I take it to my first conference, so need to look out for a way of ensuring that doesn’t happen.

I am curious to see if the MacBook Air will supplant my iPad in terms of travel and event usage. Only time will tell.

August 25, 2011

Making silly images with Motion FX

If you like Photobooth on your Mac then you are probably going to like Motion FX.

This free app uses your iSight camera in your Mac to which you can add visual effects based on movement, faces, mouse movements or movement in general.

Autodesk® Motion FX lets you create stunning real-time video effects using your computer’s camera.

Simply select your favorite preset effect, and create an incredible visual experience by moving in front of your computer’s camera. A preset cycling mode lets you automatically cycle through effects without lifting a finger. You can also use the Face Tracking technology of OS X Lion to emit effects from any faces visible to your camera.

If you want more personalization, there are more options you can play with in Motion FX. Color Detection lets you select a color from the live camera feed from which to emit effects, and with Effect Paint you can play with fluids using your trackpad or mouse. Video Warp mode lets you distort live video using your mouse or trackpad.

There is a live video effect, but unlike Photobooth you can only capture snapshots.

Not sure if there are any actual useful uses for this app, but you (or your kids) may have some fun using it.

Get Motion FX in the App Store.

August 24, 2011

Roaring and Trackpadding

Having now used Lion OS X much more I am still getting use to the gesture interface through the Trackpad.

I did try “natural” scrolling for a while, but in the end, and I am sure partly because I still use Snow Leopard on a regular basis, I had to turn it off.

If you are wondering what “natural” scrolling is, well Apple decided that in OS X we had to use the same scrolling technique that was used on the iPad. On the iPad you generally “pull” the page up and “push” it down, so if you move your finger up the page the document scrolls down, and if you move your finger down the page the document scrolls up. This is completely the opposite to how the trackpage on existing Snow Leopard Macs work, likewise if you have a scroll wheel on your Mac. Then if you push up, you expect the page to go up and if you pull down you expect the page to go down.

So though “natural” scrolling feels somewhat natural on the iPad, I don’t like it that much on a trackpad on a Mac. I am sure if all my Macs (home and work) were Lion then I probably would go with “natural” scrolling however as my main Mac at home and the one at work are still Snow Leopard I am sticking with “unnatural” scrolling!

The use of three finger gestures to move around the desktop and applications is something that I feel should be smooth and effortless, however as not all the applications are use are full screen capable I have found it to be less than satisfactory when moving from a full screen application such as Safari to Chrome, or from Pages to Twitter. I am finding it confusing for example when I have two instances of Safari running in full screen mode. This can happen if I open a link in a new window rather than a new tab. Still haven’t also got the hang of Mission Control in finding what I have open, I think I actually prefer the chaos of the older Expose when every window was displayed… Though I do quite like how the three finger gesture upwards brings up Mission Control. Must remember to use that more often!

The four finger gestures for opening Launchpad take a little getting use to and if you have a small trackpad (and big fingers) you have to carefully do the gesture otherwise I have found it doesn’t work for me.

So far I am not that impressed or that contented with the gesture interface and the trackpad. Likewise the Lion additions of Launchpad and Mission Control are still taking some getting use to.

August 23, 2011

It’s alive!

A few days ago I published a blog post on the death of WebOS.

HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones.

One of the consequences of the HP announcement was that initially in the US many resellers immediately dropped the price of the HP TouchPad 16GB model to $99

I noted on the Twitter that if this happened in the UK then I would probably get one. Well as it happens that is what happened, well it happened to the price. The Dixon’s Store Group cut the prices of the TouchPad to £89 for the 16GB model and £115 for the 32GB one.

Within what felt like minutes had sold out on the PCWorld, Currys’ and Dixons’ websites. According to the various websites the stores locally to me had no stock either. Other resellers still were charging £300+ though.

The TouchPad itself, running WebOS has its problems and is probably the reason why HP have dropped it. There are various reports that WebOS could run twice as fast on the iPad as it could on the TouchPad. The conclusion from that was it wasn’t WebOS that was the problem, it was the hardware. The reviews of the TouchPad indicated that the main problem was one of sluggishness, lack of responsiveness and a lack of apps. If all you are going to use a tablet for is web, e-mail and social networking then the lack of apps is less of an issue. The recent Kindle web app also shows that a lack of proprietary apps may not be so problematic either. So what about the speed? Well if I was paying £400 for the TouchPad then yes I would be disappointed, but paying £89 then I would be a lot less fussy and I am sure that this is the reason why it is selling out here in the UK and in the US.

There is also a lot of stuff on the web about converting the TouchPad to run Android. If this can be done and works well then investing £89 in a discontinued piece of technology might in the end be a worthwhile investment.

Though the TouchPad is not perfect, it certainly is now the best sub £100 tablet you can buy and if you can find one, and don’t have an iPad, then you might want to get your wallet out and buy one.

August 20, 2011

Paper Camera

Sometimes I am find an app for the iPhone and I go yay, excellent. Paper Camera is one of those apps, the other one that I found recently that had a similar impact was ToonPAINT.

What Paper Camera does, through a clever interface, is convert the live camera footage into a sketch or pencil drawing image in real time. You can then press the shutter to capture the image through the live filter.

Now though this is very clever and useful, when I saw this app a few months back, I realised that what I wanted to do, was apply the filter to images in my photo library too. Well a recent update has added that function, so I can now apply the excellent filters to images I have taken before. This means I can do stuff at home or on the road, rather than always having to take the images live.

Some images work better than others, so you may not always get the image that you hope for.

I do like the range of filters and the three slider bars for adjustment do make it possible to create some really nice sketch effects.

Paper Camera costs just 69 pence and is well worth the money for the clever images you can create using it.

Get Paper Camera in the App Store.

August 19, 2011

WebOS is Dead!

After all the bad press that the HP TouchPad can I say I am not surprised when HP announces the following:

HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones.

They do say…

HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

I think that this is basically the death of WebOS. It doesn’t surprise me one little bit.

WebOS was initially developed by Palm before it was acquired by HP. Though the Palm Pre received very positive reviews, the HP TouchPad did not. There was complaints about how slow it was as well as the lack of apps for the device. Probably the big story that killed the TouchPad was the report that Best Buy who had 270,000 TouchPads had in fact only sold 25,000 and wanted HP to take the remainder back…

So though it was cheaper than the iPad, people were still buying the iPad, you couldn’t blame the economy for the poor TouchPad sales.

When I managed a very limited try of the TouchPad in my local Staples though I did find it slightly sluggish, I did quite like the interface and user experience. Certainly better than some of the Android 2.x tablets that were alongside the TouchPad. Probably didn’t help that it wasn’t connected to the internet and had no example apps on it.

However talking to others who used it there thoughts were that it was nice, but it was no iPad. I have heard similar things about Android tablets too, including those that run Honeycomb.

Personally I have had similar experiences with touchscreen phones. The LG Viewty for example was a horrible phone compared to the first iPhone from a user experience perspective, even if it did have a much better camera and other features.

It would appear that HP was losing a lot of money with WebOS and decided that killing, sorry discontinuing the devices they were making was the only option open to them.

It is a pity in one respect, good competitive devices keep Apple on their toes and gets Apple to innovate and improve their devices. Or maybe that’s what Apple does anyway, regardless of what the competition does…

I haven’t yet seen a serious competitor to the iPad at this time, have you?

August 18, 2011

Skitch is Free

I have been using Skitch for a while now and more so more recently for making screengrabs, annotating screengrabs and for sharing them.

I have had the free version since it came out and due to my increased usage was considering buying the $20 plus version that has a few more features.

Well as of today, Skitch has been bought by Evernote and as a result the plus version is now free.

So if you have been sharing screengrabs and want more than just the built in version in OS X then get Skitch.

Get Skitch now in the Mac App Store.

August 17, 2011

Annoying Sonix SN9C201 Webcam iTunes Error

I’ve been having the following iTunes error for a while now.

Generally I ignore it and reopen iTunes. It’s not as though I even have a Sonix SN9C201 Webcam anyway….

After a little bit of internet research it would appear that the problem is when installing Skype that app throws a Sonix SN9C201 Webcam file into ~/Library/Quicktime and if you delete that file, that fixes the problem.

August 16, 2011