Having heard Steve Jobs ranting and raving about how easy Mac's are to use, and watching the obnoxious Mac guy on the apple adverts going on about how easy it was to make a home movie, or play with music and photos, i initially thought well i'd get a mac but only for serious work. 

I've had the mac a day, and have already made a home movie, with a soundtrack made in garage band. This from someone who has no interest in making home videos.

The Mac is stunning, the user interface is so natural. I kid you not, after a day of using this, going back to my windows PC feels wrong, the start menu feels bulky and unneccecary.

As for Multitouch gestures, why has it taken this long to implement this kind of stuff. Scrolling with two fingers is so easy, when confronted with my mums old windows laptop, i immediatly tried to scroll with two fingers. It's unbelievable.

More on the mac later, once i have finished discovering new and exciting things!

First real post from Mac

Well, i am posting this from the dashboard of my new Mac, initial impressions are fantastic. The screen is fantastic, i went for a matte screen, rather than a glossy on for various reasons. Mainly the reflections on glossy screens drive me mad!

I have just calibrated the screen with a gretamacbeth calibrating device, the colours are spot on. No dead pixels either. Other things i like at the moment...

The backlit keyboard, the slot loadng superdrive, the huge touchpad, multitouch controls, dashboard, the dock, Spaces, and spotlight!

More thoughts soon!
Sam

Laptop has arrived!

Yes indeed, my brand new laptop arrived in a lovely TNT van this morning at 9:45, infact i am writing this post from the laptop.

Okay so who guessed what i brought?

Well maybe this picture might give you a clue!

Yes, i brought a mac! check back here in the next few days or so for my thoughts and experiences with the mac!

Fujifilm Finepix J10 Review

I brought this camera as a replacement for a Samsung S1065, which immediately froze multiple times whenever i tried to use it, plus the batteries ran out in 1/2 hour usage.

Anyway, The Fujifilm Finepix J10 is a very aesthetically pleasing camera with a brushed aluminium front (black or silver) and aluminium back. This camera certainly feels as if it can withstand some serious knocks. The form factor for this camera is certainly compact; this is enabled by the use of a Li-Ion rechargeable battery, rather than your standard AA Alkaline batteries. This charges fully in just over 1.4 hours and provides very reasonable battery life.

The features on this camera are simple and necessary; there is no facial recognition or 9 point automatic focus. But what it does do, it does fantastically well. I have a Canon EOS10D Digital SLR camera for professional work, brought this fuji for the odd point and shoot session. The built in scenes work incredibly well, and do exactly what they are supposed to. The 8 MegaPixel Sensor inside this camera produces large photos that will easily print out up to A4 photographs and the single point Auto focus is very good at making your subject nice and sharp.

Fujifilm are renowned for producing cameras that capture vivid colours and the J10 is no exception, the colours are vivid and stand out (whilst not being overpowering). The flash copes well in both day and night situations.

The menu system for this camera, some say, is too simple and not intuitive. I disagree with this view; I find the minimalistic menu and navigation buttons easy to use, and a refreshing change from a complex DSLR camera. The J10 is an awesome camera for any beginner, or (like me) someone who wants a good quality point and shoot camera for the odd days out.

Connectivity to XP and Vista was simple, no drivers, no software, just plug in the provided USB cable and access the camera as an external disk.

The only negative point about this camera is the animation it shows when deleting images; it deletes the image in blocks, each block revealing a blue background. So the deleted image seems to break up and fade away. There is no option to stop this animation, possibly room for improvement in a future firmware upgrade. However this single negative point can easily be overcome, by purchasing a larger memory card and not deleting photos until you get home and load them onto your computer.

All in all, the Finepix J10 by Fujifilm is a highly recommended camera with no unnecessary bells and whistles but the ability to produce a fantastically sharp, and vivid photo with ease, in a true point and shoot style.

New Camera Returned, Replaced

I took the new camera back, Never buy a samsung camera. My experiences were not good...

So, i put the batteries (provided) in the camera, put my modest 512MB SD card in the camera, turned it on, and all was fine. Took a few photos, the camera froze, stuck on the preview of the image i had just taken. It would not turn off, or retract the lense, i had to take the batteries out and re-insert them, then the camera would reset. This happened 3 times in 1/2 an hour, by which time the batteries were showing that they had run out! I had enough, today i took it back to argos and replaced it with the slightly more expensive Fujifilm Finepix J10.

Initial impressions are good, with a very nice case design, black brushed aluminium. It feels very solid to hold, and the buttons feel very nice (unlike the rather cheap buttons of the samsung). I am just charging the Li-Ion battery (Much better than the AA Alkaline batteries the samsung used), and will give a more in depth review after a few weeks usage. See below for a picture of the new camera.

Oh, and the laptop should be here this week!

A New Camera

Something interesting to blog about...

Today, i brought a camera. No, i did not buy the latest Digital SLR for multiple thousands of pounds (mainly because i don't have that amount of money). What i did buy is a little Samsung S1065 point and shoot camera. 10 Megapixels and 5x Optical zoom. The reason for this is because i wanted a small camera to take to uni with me, and out on trips, so i can take photos without all the faffing about of setting correct F-stop and Iso levels (all very fun, i know, when you've got the time). Right now i'm more concerned about taking the pictures, and putting them online for everyone to see. I will do a review of the camera in a few weeks when i've had time to explore more of its features.

Oh and Laptop still hasn't come!!!!!

Flickr Account

Laptop has still not arrived. Getting rather impatient now.

Other news, i have setup a flickr page. For those of you who don't know flickr is a website which allows you to upload photos and create online albums, so that you can share them with other people. I will be using this site to host my images, some of which you will be able to see directly from this blog. To see all my photos follow the link in the section to the right of this post.

Next update will be when i have anything important to blog about!

Dead Mouse

Not Happy

About a year ago, i decided that the most important part of any computer was the input device, after all what point is there in having a powerful computer if you can't do anything on it. Anyway i went ahead and brought a £25 Razer Diamondback 3G Mouse. Initial impressions were great, good for gaming, and really smooth for casual use...

Less than a year down the line, the scroll wheel has developed an insane squeaking noise. So much so that it's unbearable to use. Common Razer, a £2.50 mouse from amazon managed to last longer than this before breaking. I have contacted both Razer and the people i brought it from, and am waiting for a response.

Also, my laptop still isn't here!

Sam

Uni Accommodation

Awsome, just had my accomodation for bournemouth university confirmed, I'm in purbeck house, a halls of residence that was built about 2 years ago, all rooms are en-suite. I'm on the first floor so that means i can have my window open, which is cool. I'd post some pictures, but i think they restrict the pictures you're allowed to put on the internet, so i'd better not get in trouble before i even get there!

I've been talking to a few people on facebook who are doing my course, everyone seems cool and really up for the course. Just can't wait to get the ball rolling now. My new laptop should arrive sometime this week (I shall reveal what i brought when it arrives), then it's just a case of loading some software onto it, and then i'm ready to go.

Check back later in the week for more updates!

A New Blog!

So, a brand new blog. Designed to cover my time at Uni so anyone can see what i'm up to at any given point in time. I have also decided to move into the modern age, with a new laptop, and a twitter account http://twitter.com/sammio2. Follow that for any instant updates, more important things will be posted on here. Like these A level Grades...

Music Tech - Distinction (A)
ICT - BB
English Language - B

...which enabled me to get into university. For those who don't know i'm going to be studying Music and Audio Technology at Bournemouth University. It should be a good four years, not sure yet if i'm going to stay on to do a masters, we'll see later on in the course.