Infinite Diaries - Part 56Infinite Diaries | Technology, Photography and Travel

George R. R. Martin Writes Using WordStar 4.0 for DOS →

January 2, 2016 · 09:55

George R. R. Martin in a comment below his post:

Never. And you know why? Because I write my fiction with WordStar 4.0 on a DOS machine. Stable as a rock, with none of the glitches of Windows-based systems.

I’d probably use my favourite Ulysses [iOS | Mac], but I have to admire the geek in him — just setting it up today is not exactly easy. I wonder what kind of hardware he’s running too…

via @antichrista

Giant Squid Captured on Video →

January 2, 2016 · 09:48

Amisha Padnani:

They can be as big as a bus, or even bigger, and yet the elusive giant squid has hardly been spotted swimming alive in the ocean.

‘That’s one big fish!’

Rumoured iPhone 6C With Larger Battery Than 5S and 2 GB of RAM →

December 30, 2015 · 07:26

Joe Rossignol:

Apple’s so-called “iPhone 6c” will have a 1,642 mAh battery, slightly larger than the iPhone 5s battery’s 1,570 mAh capacity, according to Chinese website MyDrivers…

The report, citing “insider Foxconn employees,” also corroborates multiple rumors claiming the 4-inch iPhone will feature an A9 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB base storage, Touch ID and the same 2.5d curved glass used on the iPhone 6 and later.

While the 6C makes sense — it will most probably slot in at the bottom of the pack, while at the same time being more affordable and faster than the current 5S — I still can’t believe there will be a new(ish) 4″ iPhone. I’d love for it to have a camera and SoC on par with the 6S Plus however, even though I know this won’t happen.

Microsoft Uploads Windows 10 Encryption Keys to Their Servers →

December 30, 2015 · 07:23

Micah Lee:

ONE OF THE EXCELLENT FEATURES of new Windows devices is that disk encryption is built-in and turned on by default, protecting your data in case your device is lost or stolen. But what is less well-known is that, if you are like most users and login to Windows 10 using your Microsoft account, your computer automatically uploaded a copy of your recovery key — which can be used to unlock your encrypted disk — to Microsoft’s servers, probably without your knowledge and without an option to opt out.

It’s as if they want you to go and get a Mac.

Leaked Photos of the Fujifilm X-Pro2 →

December 30, 2015 · 07:21

Michael Zhang:

Fujifilm helped kick off the mirrorless camera revolution back in 2012 by announcing the powerful retro-styled X-Pro1 camera. Now it appears that a follow-up will soon be upon us: the first official photos of the new Fujifilm X-Pro2 have leaked.

This might be ‘my next’. Or rather a companion to my Fuji X100T.

Comic Books on the iPad Pro with Chunky Comic Reader

December 29, 2015 · 12:15

About a month ago, I asked Jason Snell about an app for the iPad Pro to read comic books on. And that's how I started my process of rediscovering all the favourites from my childhood.

Continue reading →

Apple Exhibition in Prague →

December 28, 2015 · 16:56

Andrii Degeler:

Although the official Apple Store is yet to come to the capital of the Czech Republic, the city has recently seen the launch of the Apple Museum, which claims to host the largest private exhibition of its kind.

Housed in three buildings in Prague’s old town, the museum has an extensive list of 472 exhibits on display—from nearly every Apple product ever built to Steve Jobs’ business cards from his times at NeXT and Pixar.

Radiohead Was Asked to Write a Song for ‘Spectre’ — This Is It →

December 28, 2015 · 10:34

Radiohead:

Last year we were asked to write a theme tune for the Bond movie Spectre.

Yes we were. It didn’t work out, but became something of our own, which we love very much.

As the year closes we thought you might like to hear it.

Merry Christmas. May the force be with you.

via @karolpaciorek

The iPad Pro Smart Keyboard vs. The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Type Cover

December 25, 2015 · 17:16

I’ve wanted to write about so many things during these past few weeks, but I never could find the time to get into them. One of those on hold have been my thoughts and first impressions of the Surface Pro 4, which I had on loan for a few weeks. It coincided with the time when I bought my iPad Pro. A few of the more interesting aspects of the two are the keyboards, hardware design and ergonomics of Apple’s and Microsoft’s products.

Continue reading →

The P-51 Automatic Watch →

December 25, 2015 · 12:04

REC Watches:

Watches made from recycled Mustangs, powered by an automatic mechanical engine, and a tribute to an American icon. This is the P-51!

Love these kinds of projects!

Don’t Forget to Dream →

December 25, 2015 · 10:41

Peter Clemens:

There is something wonderfully simple about the way young children see life. It is a way of seeing in which anything is possible, and this means that they see no reason why they can’t grow up to be an astronaut or a cowboy or a princess.

I personally remember a time when I truly believed that I would grow up to be a famous tennis player competing on the world stage. As I grew older, this dream changed to being a critically-acclaimed movie director. Somewhere along the line, though, this dream faded and for a long time I never properly replaced it.

For some reason, I stopped dreaming. Actually that is not quite accurate – I never stopped dreaming, it is just I stopped believing my dreams were possible.

I still dream, and recently learned some people do not anymore. You should try it… Again.

How Did NORAD Start Tracking Santa →

December 25, 2015 · 10:25

Dan Joling:

A 1955 newspaper advertisement for Sears Roebuck and Co. listed a phone number for “kiddies” to call Santa Claus but got it wrong.

The number was for a crisis phone at Air Operations Center at Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD’s predecessor, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Air Force Col. Harry Shoup took a call from a child and thought he was being pranked. When he figured out he was talking to a little boy, he pretended he was Santa.

More children called. Shoop eventually instructed airmen answering the phone to offer Santa’s radar location as he crossed the globe.

That sparked the tradition that is heading into its 60th year.

How to Open a BMW X3 (E83) After Getting
Locked Out with the Keys Inside

December 24, 2015 · 13:06

It’s Christmas Eve today, the day on which Murphy’s law is at its strongest. We were in a rush today to get to our family, and while loading up the car with grocery bags, I left the keys in the boot. Like an idiot.

Continue reading →

Did Tim Cook, Phil Schiller or Someone at Apple Accelerate My Order?

December 23, 2015 · 13:15

I just picked up my iPad Pro Smart Keyboard from TNT and since I need to write something to test it out, I chose to speculate a little. You see, while the Smart Keyboard was available in the EU, the Polish Apple Online Store said it would be ‘coming soon’. I already had my iPad Pro at the time, miraculously managed to snag an Apple Pencil, but couldn’t get my hands on the most important accessory, especially since I was wondering if the Pro would replace most or all of my MacBook needs. I wrote a post directed at Tim Cook and Phil Schiller at the time, keeping my fingers crossed…

Continue reading →

Fuji X100T Named Best Compact Travel Camera of 2015 →

December 23, 2015 · 09:51

Allison Johnson:

Few cameras in recent history have attracted as much of a cult following as Fujifilm’s X100 series. They’re the photographer’s darling – not just a good-looking camera, but a beautifully effective machine. The X100T is small and light, and won’t burden a weary traveler, and its low-profile lends itself to street shooting. If you don’t mind zooming with your feet, its 35mm F2 equivalent lens and 16MP X-Trans APS-C sensor will serve you well.

Since getting my Fuji X100T, I sold my Nikon D700. While I absolutely love the former, especially for travel, I am still looking to get something similar with a full frame sensor. Only Sony caters to my needs at the moment, but I’ll hold out for a little bit longer.

Fraser Speirs Sells Mac, Goes All-in on iPad Pro →

December 23, 2015 · 09:50

Fraser Speirs:

I’ve been wanting to do this for five years now and it’s finally happened. I sold my MacBook Pro to go all-in on iPad as my main personal computer. Yesterday, I packed my 2015 13″ Retina MacBook Pro back into its box and sent it off to a new owner.

My Smart Keyboard is arriving today, so I’ll give it a shot too, while testing it out. I don’t have the balls to sell my Mac yet though…

Lauren Juliff — the Disaster Traveller →

December 23, 2015 · 09:48

Lauren Juliff:

I receive a lot of emails telling me I’m living the perfect life, but at times, it feels like I stumble from one near-death experience to the next. This life of travel isn’t always amazing, and I have far more unfortunate experiences on the road than any other backpacker I’ve met. I think it’s important to talk about them in order to give a more realistic view of travel than the beach and sunset photos. 2015, in particular, has been a tough one.

Her bad luck and ability to get into trouble are amazing. And someone, preferably her boyfriend Dave, should make use of that photo for a meme of some sort — it’s insanely great. Kudos for posting it online too.

The Beatles Will Be on Apple Music on Christmas Eve →

December 23, 2015 · 09:45

Peter Kafka:

You can spend Christmas streaming the Beatles.

The world’s most famous band will finally be available on streaming music services, starting this Thursday, Christmas Eve. And they’ll be available very, very widely: Industry sources say that the Fab Four’s music will be on all of the obvious music services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and Tidal, as well as some you might not expect, including Amazon’s Prime Music.

I have the albums, and I’m still excited.

Pete Souza — Official White House Photographer — on Instagram in 2015 →

December 23, 2015 · 09:00

Pete Souza:

Throughout the year, I post photographs of my White House work on a regular basis to my Instagram, @PeteSouza.

Many followers have inquired about whether a certain photograph is taken with an iPhone or DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera). In choosing the photographs for my year on Instagram, I decided to select only iPhone photographs that were captured in the square format on an iPhone. For many purists, the square format was the original inspiration for Instagram. And I certainly admire those that continue to post only square photos taken with a smart phone.

My approach to my Instagram feed continues to be all square photos are taken with an iPhone, and full-frame horizontals and verticals are taken with a DSLR (usually a Canon 5DMark3, but I’ve also posted some from Sony, Nikon and Leica cameras).

I love the camera on my iPhone — it’s the main reason I upgrade every year. Apple still has room for improvement however, and I can’t wait for the day when I will finally ditch my DSLR/mirrorless setup and go iPhone only. In theory I could do so now, but I’d miss a few things, including the ability to take true long exposure photos.

In the meantime, make sure to check out Pete’s shots.

App Store Deals — Christmas / Holiday Edition 2015

December 22, 2015 · 11:23

The holidays are upon us and in the App Store world that usually means a slew of price drops. The list below has many, many truly amazing apps and games, a few of which are true gems.

If you’re looking for some good software, I can heartily recommend both Tweetbots for Twitter, 1Password to stay safe, Affinity’s apps for graphics design, Astropad if you’d like to use your iPad as a tablet, Clear for tasks, Day One to keep a journal… You know what — just take a peek below, since most of them are really excellent. And don’t forget to pick up PCalc.

Added – 19:46

★ iStudiez Pro – Mac – Productivity – €9.99 > €4.99 →
★ TextExpander 3 + custom keyboard – iOS – Utilities – €4.99 > €2.99 →

★ Power Hover – iOS – Games – €3.99 > €1.99 →
★ Xenowerk – iOS – Games – €1.99 > €0.99 →

Apps

Games

How to Create Safari Pinned Tab Icons →

December 22, 2015 · 08:00

Craig Hockenberry:

The recent release of Safari 9.0 brought a great new feature: pinned tabs. These tabs are locked to the lefthand side of your tab bar and stay in place, even when you open a new window or relaunch the browser.

The default behavior is to display the first letter of the site’s name on a color from the site’s theme. If you work on a site with a strong branding element, you’ll want to customize the icon on the pinned tab. Anthony Piraino and I have been working on one for the Iconfactory and would like to share some of the things we learned.

Personally, I went with John Siracusa’s approach and it worked fine. I had to use Affinity Designer though, Illustrator did not output a compatible file for some reason. I really should get around to making one for this site…

‘Consumers… Well… We’re Fucking Stupid’ →

December 21, 2015 · 23:21

Don Melton:

Anyway, Netflix is talking about the bitrates for their 1080p videos soon being as low 2000 Kbps for the simple stuff. That’s down from the 4300-5800 Kbps range they’re using now. And I’m sure they can do that on the low end without any perceivable loss of quality while streaming.

But can Apple and Amazon sell 1080p videos — averaging about 5000 Kbps now — at bitrates as low as 2000 Kbps — less than half that average size — without a perceived loss of value?

I don’t know. It’s hard to predict because consumers… well… we’re fucking stupid.

A very insightful and technical post about video and audio encoders, bitrates, and the future for Netflix, Apple and others.

An example would be TIDAL and their HQ uncompressed format, or whatever they’re calling it. I’m sure it’s great if you have the right equipment, young enough ears, and the ability to tell the difference. I still can, but just barely, and quite frankly the added overhead in terms of size (amongst other hurdles) is just too much of a hassle for me. The current iTunes/Spotify/pick-your-vice formats are more than enough, and if they flipped the switch overnight without telling anyone, I doubt many would notice. I know I wouldn’t.

App Store Deals – 21/12/2015

December 21, 2015 · 09:28

The discounts are really starting to roll in before Christmas. A few Apple Design Award winners can be found below too… I’ve included a few notes on the various apps that I use personally next to them.

Probably one of my favourite games ever. ↩
Purchased, but haven’t yet had time to play it. ↩
Some people I know swear by this app. ↩
This is probably the best personal journalling app out there. Syncs with the Mac version and supports publishing to the internet. ↩
As above. ↩
Another fan favourite. ↩
As above. ↩
Waiting to find time to play this title. ↩
This one too… ↩
Great app, especially useful on the iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil. ↩
This is my go-to app for all my scan-to-PDF needs. ↩

Star Wars The Force Awakens: Special On Lightsaber Duels [video] →

December 21, 2015 · 09:09

Haven’t seen this before, and it seems very interesting. Putting it on my ‘to watch’ list.

Oh, and Mark Hamill is the narrator. Spoilers? Of course!

Apple on ’60 Minutes’ — Full Transcript →

December 21, 2015 · 08:50

Charlie Rose:

Tim Cook: Because it would cost me 40 percent to bring it home. And I don’t think that’s a reasonable thing to do. This is a tax code, Charlie, that was made for the industrial age, not the digital age. It’s backwards. It’s awful for America. It should have been fixed many years ago. It’s past time to get it done.

Charlie Rose: But here’s what they concluded. Apple is engaged in a sophisticated scheme to pay little or no corporate taxes on $74 billion in revenues held overseas.

Tim Cook: That is total political crap. There is no truth behind it. Apple pays every tax dollar we owe.

A few interesting tidbits inside for those of you who are interested in what goes on behind the scenes, including Tim Cook seemingly slightly frustrated over the constant accusations.

As a user, I’m glad he’s fighting our battle for privacy.

App Store Deals — 19/12/2015

December 19, 2015 · 22:08

A few good apps are discounted today. If you’re looking for a great minimalistic writing app with Markdown support, then you should take a look at Ulysses. It’s currently my go-to software for writing, on both iOS and Mac. Please note that the app is now iPad only and that the next update will add iPhone support for free. The Mac version [App Store] will not go on sale this year, so don’t wait if you need it now.

Update (22:18): Added both Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale to the list.

BB8 Ringtones, Ready for iTunes →

December 19, 2015 · 11:15

David Sparks:

In my post-Star Wars bliss, I spent some time in Logic today creating a set of BB8 Ringtones from various BB8 audio snippets I found on the web. These are formatted for iTunes and ready to go. Enjoy.

This is awesome! You can find the zip file on David’s site.

Tom Warren Blasts Microsoft Lumia 950 XL in Review →

December 19, 2015 · 10:59

Tom Warren:

There’s no easy way to say this, but like the smaller Lumia 950, the Lumia 950 XL design is simply boring. It’s uninspired, plasticky, and looks like any other low-end Lumia that Microsoft has been churning out over the past year. If you’re someone that believes Windows Phone is dead, this is the casket you’d bury it in. It looks like a developer device, and feels like whatever talent was left at Microsoft from Nokia just gave up on designing anything pretty.

Ouch.

’60 Minutes’ to Highlight Apple’s Secret Design Studio →

December 19, 2015 · 10:58

Harish Jonnalagadda:

Jony Ive will give Charlie Rose a look inside “Apple’s secret design studio” in an upcoming episode of 60 Minutes that will be aired on Sunday, December 20 at 7:30PM ET & 7PM PT on CBS. Rose’s tour of Apple’s “store of the future” with retail chief Angela Ahrendts will also be highlighted on the show.

Ulysses – iPad – Productivity – €19.99 > €9.99 →

This is my current go-to writing app on both Mac [App Store] and iOS. The latter will soon be universal, supporting both the iPhone and iPad (with iPad Pro support!). Amazing work from The Soulmen.