DPReview review of Panasonic micro four-thirds 100-300mm f4-5.6 disingenuous

In dpreview article the new Panasonic 100-300mm f4-5.6, for the micro four-thirds body, they compare the size of a 100-300mm Canon 100-300mm lens and say "Micro Four Thirds is beginning to lose its size advantage over conventional APS-C SLRs".


I find this to be somewhat disingenuous. Based on sensor size, you should be comparing the Panasonic lens to a 133-400mm APS-C lens. The closest lens I could find is the Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6

This lens is well over twice as heavy, and almost twice as big. And, this lens is also up to a half stop slower then the Panasonic. While I agree that the lens size makes it far less portable then other lenses, it is still, comparatively speaking, very portable.

Book burning and Buy a Qur'an day

While I fully support a person's right to burn whatever book they want to burn. They should know that the "political message" that book burning really sends is:
"We cannot reasonably respond to the message, claims, and/or entertainment a book provides, so we want to try to prevent others from consuming what is in the book."

I think we should declare 9/11 "Buy a Qur'an Day" every year this church pulls this stunt. As long as the number of Qur'ans purchased on this day exceed the number burned by the church, we win.

Leaving iPhone and getting an HTC EVO

Moving from the iphone to HTC EVO.

First, why I'm moving away from iphone:

Carrier:

• AT&T Network not so good


• AT&T expensive (I can get on family sprint plan or discount Verizon plan MUCH cheaper)

iPhone's notification system:

• When a notification comes in, it gives you a pop-up with two options: open the application that relates to the pop-up or close it.


• You have to deal with every notification instantly, you can't pull down your notifications later like Palm/Android.


• If you have multiple notifications, they simply layer in an nonuseful way


• Hopefully Rich Dellinger will be able to fix it.


• http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/09/inventor-of-webos-banner-notification-system-returns-to-apple/

Range of utility applications:

• The range of things applications are permitted to do on the iphone are limited greatly by the SDK and the rules developers must follow.


• For example, applications may not utilize third party libraries within their development nor use services like admob.

Apple Censorship:

• To me, it's not a big deal that Apple censors porn apps.


• However, It is a big deal that apple censors apps with a message it disagrees with.


• For example, it blocked an app because it mentioned jailbreaking:


• http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/rejected_by_apple/


• Some of the more popular cases of censorship can be found here:


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store#Censorship

Apple rejections/pulls:

• Apple can decide after it already approved an application to remove it from the store.


• http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/20/found-footage-apple-pulls-islam-muhammad-app/


• Apple rejects things because it competes, or they don't like the UI


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#Rejection_from_iPhone_App_Store

Why I'm getting an HTC EVO:

• Widgets


• Ability to enable/disable services easily(Note: with a jailbroken phone, you can use sbsettings for this)


• Lots of utility apps


• Google Voice integration


• Integrated sync with google stuff


• Free turn-by-turn navigation


• much better notification system


• Huge screen (4.3" vs 3.5")


• A chance to try out another Smartphone OS


• Google explicitly provides an easy way to run "unapproved apps"


• Steve Jobs said that if I want porn, I should get an android :)


• http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/19/steve-jobs-android-porn/

What I'm giving up by going Evo vs iPhone 4:

• Better low light camera (has backlit sensor)


• Better games and some other apps


• Better battery life

About Video Chat:

• One of the heavily touted fathers of the new iphone is Facetime Video chat, so I guess I aught say some words about that.


• Apple's Facetime video chat is currently wifi and only between iphones.


• Most of my wife's family is moving to EVOs and my family uses android phones so Facetime offers me almost benefits whatsoever.


• Finally, they have stated that they will make Facetime an open standard, which means that if it takes off, there will likely be an android app for it.

WWDC 2010 predictions

Steve Jobs will be giving the Keynote on Monday... here are my predictions:

75% or higher certainty

• Demo new iPhone (name possibly iPhone HD) Release ~end of July


• iPhone will have amazing battery life, front/rear cameras, flash on back


• 4.0 for iphone will be released at or near keynote


• 4.0 iPad beta will be released Steve will say that they will try to keep them at the same release going forward


• Joke about iPhone leak

50% or higher certainty

• Some sort of update on XServers and/or MacPros (it has been over a year and a quarter since these things have been updated)


• New LCDs (it's been over three and a quarter years since apple has come out with any LCDs except for the 24" that came out at the end of 2008, and the 24" is also the only display port LCD apple has released thus far)

25% or less certainty (75% apple will announce these in September)

• Revamped MacTV based on iPhoneOS, designed to be controlled by iPad/iPhone/iPodTouch or from basic remote


• iPod Touch will have a wider form factor (possibly like iphone's)


• formfactor will allow for extra battery, which will give it more then iPad's 10hour of video life


• will also have a much larger storage option (next year they may phase out ipod classic)

Note: My predictions have been way off in the past, so I do not recommend gambling on these predictions.

Happy World Homeopathy Awareness Week!

Just found out that this week is World Homeopathy Awareness Week

I'd like to recommend a couple of educational videos:
James Randi explains Homeopathy:
http://www.youtube.com/v/BWE1tH93G9U&hl=en_US&fs=1&

What's the harm?
http://www.youtube.com/v/f975xKbLm4k&hl=en_US&fs=1&

The Shack

Santa got me William P. Young's "The Shack" for Christmas.



Short description: It's about a guy who ends up talking to the personification of God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. I'm about 8 chapters in, and the book is really starting to drag. They talk about a lot of things that I don't really care about. If you are interested in William's view of the trinity or his theology, you may find this interesting. However, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it through this book.  I will try though.

Also, the irony that "Santa" got me this book is not lost on me. :)

Quick review of Opera 10.50 beta for Mac

Found here: http://www.opera.com/browser/next/



Pros:

• The password save bar (seen above) offers an option to save across site or just the specific page.


• Full screen support!!! (I wish firefox and/or chrome would get this.)


• Feels fast (not noticeably faster then chrome though)


• Tab mouse-over thumbnails seem nift

Cons:

• No ability to reopen closed tab (firefox/chrome support this)


• Google Wave doesn't work well - the scrollbar doesn't work (firefox/chrome work fine)


• Opera doesn't support greasemonkey scripts


• Extension support seems to be limited to widgets and basic user.js support

Todo:

• Test widgets


• Test Opera Unite