Category Archives: technology

Power post

23 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Apple, technology

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Another follow-up message relating to a favourite topic of mine: The battery life of my Apple iPhone 4S.
Lately, I’ve been able to go three to four work days between charges.
• Minimal phone calls, light web browsing using Opera with data compression, moderate texting and manual e-mail fetching.
• Not too much photography, some use of social media apps, no web-streaming audio.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth only when necessary.
• Mobile Internet operating on EDGE/2G.
• Screen brightness on manual, set to about 20%.
• Most app notifications deactivated.
I know that’s not the ideal setup for everyone … but I thought it would be interesting to share this information anyway, in case this happens to fit your own mobile phone usage habits.
(Heck, this isn’t always my usage pattern … just what’s been “normal” of late.)

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Flickr makeover followup — bug report

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Flickr, iPad, iPhone, photography, technology

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You may recall my review of Flickr’s latest app for iPhone.
After using the app for a couple of weeks, I’m still relatively satisfied with it save for one major, annoying flaw.
It appears the app doesn’t handle IPTC keywords very well. The old Flickr app used to read the field and convert its values to tags. But now, those values fill a field called “machine tags” and don’t generate any normal tags at all.
For example, this result …

Flickr Screen Shot 2013-01-01

… came from uploading this photo.
Ourson comestible

I’ve left a message in the Flickr for iPhone group but have yet to hear back from anyone about a fix. Here’s to hoping this gets solved soon!

Mobile photography mashup

13 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Apple, iPhone, montreal, photography, photowalking, random, technology, Travel, urban

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It's a mashup!

So do you call this Flickrmatic or HipstaFlickr? This is some conduit at Place-Des-Arts métro in Montreal, first shot with Hipstamatic on iPhone 4S (John S lens; Ina’s 1969 film) then seen through the new Flickr iPhone app’s Iguana filter by Aviary.

Flickr makeover

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Flickr, Internet, iPhone, photography, technology

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Metro: Aardvark style

This image of the Montreal metro comes to you in part thanks to the newest Flickr app for iPhone.
The latest renewal to Flickr’s iPhone app is truly stunning. Not only is there a new interface for your enjoyment but the app gives you more access to your Flickr account than the old (now comparatively anemic) version. There are also new integrated tools to make minor edits to your images. Here are a few screenshots for your enjoyment:

See your contacts:

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Browse your groups:

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Check out photo details:

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Edit details for your own photos:

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Edit your photos:

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Detailed settings for sets and groups before upload:

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Change your profile details:

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One thing I haven’t tried yet, is batch uploading. I’ll let you know in a future post how well that works compared to the old app.
Now, as for using this app on iPad … it should look just fine on an iPad 2 or an iPad Mini; it’s obviously a bit pixelated but acceptable (to me, anyway) on any iPad with a Retina display. That said, if Yahoo! can successfully transfer this piece of art into an iPad specific app with high-def graphics, that would be grand.
Also … what’s up with this portrait-only business? A landscape-compatible mode would be nice at times.

P.S.: Sorry for polluting your feeds this morning, as I inadvertently uploaded the images in this post as individual posts instead of just adding them my library. Oops!

P.P.S: I seem to be having trouble with the screenshots I tried posting earlier. I’ll restore them later once I’ve figured out what went wrong. It appears we’re back in business. Thanks for your patience!

Mobile life on the EDGE

22 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in Apple, iPhone, technology

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So here’s an update on my post last week about trying to extend my iPhone 4S battery life by switching mostly to 2G (EDGE) instead of using 3G.
On heavy usage, the difference is somewhat noticeable — nothing that blows my mind.
On light usage though, it’s a lot more interesting. As of 2 p.m. today, I’ve had my phone off the mains for a little over two full days and the battery shows 54% capacity remaining.

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That’s with very light photography,a few phone calls, a little bit of texting, some Internet radio streaming on my drive to work*, light web browsing using Opera Mobile as my browser.
My screen brightness is set to auto with the slider sitting above the letters gh of the word Brightness in the menu.
No video, a bit of Wi-Fi.
Not too shabby.
(*) On mobile Internet radio streaming, that’s where it shows the most noticeable change in battery usage. On my 15-minute commute to work, it typically drains 5% or 6% using 3G. On 2G, it only drains about 3%. That’s something resembling half the previous usage. Nice.

Hailing the return of slow Internet

15 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in Apple, Internet, iPhone, technology

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If you recall several months ago, when the iPhone 4S was new to my tech family, I lamented the loss of the ability to manually switch off 3G Internet and use EDGE (2G) instead.
Well in a case of severe catch-up, I’ve finally realized Apple corrected this omission in one of its firmware updates. Behold:

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Hooray!
I only discovered this within the last day, so I’ll report back later on whether this change will extend the battery life of my device, as is typically the case when mobiles are connected to EDGE versus 3G.
Another benefit of manually forcing your phone to use the slow lane is that in very congested environments, like Manhattan for example, there is heavy congestion on the popular 3G networks and on local WiFi, to the point where a slow but reliable EDGE connection is more useful and enjoyable than a fast but flaky mobile Internet connection.
(As proof, I can attest I was able to send texts and have crisp, clear phone conversations using Skype over T-Mobile’s 2G network in lower Manhattan last August, whereas AT&T’s 3G network was almost useless at times due to congestion.)
By the way, this post was written on my smartphone and uploaded using EDGE … Seems just dandy, thank you very much.

Out of memory

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Canada, fun, technology, Toronto, Travel

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Out of memory

This is why Windows continues to be the butt of jokes. Found this as I was travelling last week, with a layover at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

Epic geek-out

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Calgary, Canada, fun, random, technology, urban

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Batmobile

Spending the weekend attending the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.
There are a huge amount of recognizable names in attendance, including the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation; Adam West; Robert Englund; and numerous others.
I’ve been tweeting pictures and running commentary from the exhibition floor … expect to do a little more over the rest of the weekend.
So if you can’t join me in person, then follow along virtually on Twitter.

Portable gaming Outatime NCC-1701

To-do over tethering

06 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Apple, Internet, iPhone, technology

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If you’re having trouble with tethering and Personal Hotspot with your iPhone, don’t forget to check with your carrier.

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I noticed recently that my iPhone was no longer passing data to my devices with the Personal Hotspot function turned on.
I am subscribed to a data plan that allows for such activity and this function performed normally until the last few weeks.
After doing some online research, I tried some of the suggested tricks, including a network setting reset, to no avail.
At this point, I figured it was worth a call to Fido customer service.
The first agent confirmed to me I had a data plan that supports tethering and Personal Hotspot. He suggested there was some kind of firmware/software problem with my phone. He told me to check my OS version and to do a hard reboot of my phone before hanging up.
I was skeptical but I tried anyway. It turns out my apprehension was correct, as this did nothing to fix my problem.
I made another call to customer service. This time, I asked for the agent to make sure tethering was actually activated on my account. Lo and behold … it was not, although it should have been. The agent cheerfully rearranged my account details and voila! Tethering and Personal Hotspot were back in business.

Quick LTE test

23 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in Apple, Internet, iPad, technology

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Took Apple’s new iPad out for a spin Thursday, to a location where Bell’s LTE mobile coverage was more reliable than at my home.
As you can from the above screen shot, it’s doing very well, thank you very much. And that’s only with signal level fluctuating between two and three bars.
Signal maps below are courtesy of Bell’s website. Blue is current LTE coverage; brown is coverage coming soon.

Central Calgary:
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Calgary metro area:
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