The Media Guru

Nexus 7

2013-02-14T22:43:00.001+04:00

My first Android device.

When Google announced the Nexus 7 at that launch party in San Francisco, I had already added it to my want list… & when the prices were slashed, it became a no-brainer to get one. When you consider its specs vs price, the Nexus 7 is the most reasonably priced tablet on the market right now.

But only if you manage to get it at the US prices of $199/$249 (+ sales tax). Local (Mauritius) prices are outrageous – Rs 10.5k ($340) for the 16GB WiFi model. So when I discovered I was going to the US, there was only 1 thing on top of my buying list… :)

Specs

7” 1280x800 (216ppi) IPS screen.
Dimensions: 198.5 x 120 x 10.45 mm
340g (WiFi Only)
1.2MP front-facing camera
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC
16GB/32GB
1 GB RAM DDR3
NVIDIA Tegra 3 (Quad-core 1.3Ghz Cortex-A9 processor, 416 Mhz GeForce ULP)
Android 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean)
4,325 mAh 16Wh battery (9h video, 10h browsing, 300h stand-by)
Accelerometer, GPS, Gyroscope, Microphone, Magnetometer

Unboxing

This is the box.

This is the back of the box.

~~Opening~~ sliding the box.

Inside the box.

There, done.

Hardware

The most important part of any tablet is its screen. It’s what you look at everyday. Everything else is secondary. The Nexus 7 has a 7-inch IPS LCD 1280x800 screen. At 216 ppi, you don’t notice the pixels, but it’s no “Retina” display either.

Those specs look good on paper. That screen looks great on the above photo. In real life though, the screen has a massive flaw - the calibration is wrong.

A flaw which I noticed as soon as I installed Instagram. All the photos looked way too bright, the colours weren’t enough saturated. The problem with the Nexus 7 is that the gamma level is too high.

I have no idea why would they do this. Make the screen appear brighter? I know the logic – this is what you get for buying a $250 device, why complain? But the thing is that there is nothing wrong with the display itself, just that Asus never bothered to calibrate it. This DisplayMate article has all the details about what’s wrong.

& there is no way to fix this because Asus didn’t include any calibration settings in the kernel. No 3rd party ROM can fix this.

Since Android tablets have on-screen buttons, the only distinct feature on the front of the Nexus 7 is its camera. A 1.2MP camera, which is decent enough for Skyping home.

The Nexus 7 has a plastic back, which feels like leather & provides adequate amount of grip. While in the beginning, it felt heavy, I’m slowly getting used to its weight. :)

At the bottom, there’s the speaker, the 3.5mm jack & the micro-USB port, which is weirdly inverted. The location of the speaker is not particularly good, but used with a cover, the sound gets reflected.

On the right side, there’s the power & volume buttons.

On the left side, at the bottom, 4 docking pins.

The NFC antenna is right behind the Nexus logo. The Nexus 7 has no microSD slot, but I have the 32GB version which is more than enough. Also, you can use USB OTG to plug in external USB drives. I actually tried that while in the US to transfer photos, but it appears it doesn’t work with USB female-to-female adapters. I’ve already ordered a USB OTG cable. :)

Android

As surprising as it may seem, I don’t have much experience with Android. Apart from the one time when I was dual-booting Android on my N900 and lately, trying to root a Galaxy S2, I’m pretty much an Android noob.

The Nexus 7 comes with Android 4.2.1, updated to 4.2.2 today. First impression - it’s so fast!

That’s the advantage of having a Nexus device – no custom skins, no crapware included. Pure Android. & my word, the Nexus 7 flies. Well to be fair, I’m comparing it to the only iOS device I have, an iPod Touch 4g, which is by far, the slowest iOS device ever made.

The UI on the Nexus 7 is fast. I can launch & switch between apps immediately & let it run in the background. There is no lag. With 1 GB of RAM, the Nexus 7 usually has half of that free when running no apps.

I love the Quick Settings menu & expandable Notifications. I love that Android brings up a menu to open the same files with different apps. It’s brilliant.

I can drag & drop videos & it just plays.

Gaming has been fine so far with Temple Run 2. Although I prefer the iOS version as there’s less screen area to swipe.

Did I mention it has Google Maps? With offline maps. With the built-in GPS, this is going to be very useful during my trips.

There are however a few problems. The Nexus 7 comes with Chrome. It’s a good browser. But simply not as good as any desktop browser. The text rendering is weird - different font sizes on the same page.

The second problem is that when I zoom in or out, the text appears blurred. It might be a problem with the rendering, but it seems the browser is incapable of sharpening text at intermediate zoom levels. Eg. if I zoom at 50%, it appears sharp, but appears blurry at 54%.

& then there’s the issue of downloading from file hosts. I couldn’t download anything with Chrome. Fortunately, I can install other browsers on Android & Firefox did the trick.

Another problem with the Nexus 7 is that not all apps run in their tablet-optimized mode. That’s BaconReader vs Google Reader. Fortunately there’s a fix, that requires rooting, to change the DPI of apps to get them in tablet mode.

When I saw the color banding on this screen, I thought it was the display. But it was just Android not being able to properly render gradients.

Wrap-up

As tablet worth $250, the Nexus 7 is an excellent device. I’ve ventured into the Android ecosystem at a time when Android has finally matured, so I’ve really no major complaints against the OS or the UI. The battery life has been great so far, with the screen sipping the most power (& it recharges under 3h!). I’ve enjoyed the fast browsing experience of Chome, but it still has huge areas for improvement.

Which brings me to the display. For everyone else, it might be good enough. But as a photographer, it’s simply unacceptable that a device with such a great screen was never calibrated to render photos accurately. If I had known of this problem beforehand, I might have had second thoughts at buying the Nexus 7.

Score – 7/10.

Having just updated to 4.2.2, I’m looking forward to rooting the Nexus 7 to run some of the more “interesting” apps, like AdBlock. Please post some of your favourite apps. ;)

Related:

Yashvinblogs - The Google Nexus 7 – A review? Not really.
The Verge - Google Nexus 7 Review
AnandTech - The Google Nexus 7 Review
Engadget - Nexus 7 review: the best $200 tablet you can buy
iFixIt – Nexus 7 Teardown

Nokia 808 PureView - Hardware

2012-09-24T20:40:00.001+04:00

Well, here it is. 4 months after its release, I finally have my hands on the best cameraphone in the world, thanks to Nokia Connects.

Let’s start with the unboxing.

That’s exactly how I found the 808, which meant it had already been tested or used for a while.

Underneath the phone was the battery.

& the accessories.

Package contents:

Nokia 808 PureView
BV-4D battery
Stereo Headset WH-209
Data Cable CA-190CD
Charger AC-50
Wrist Strap
Fold-Out Quick Guide & NFC info card

The USB charger has a trick up its sleeve.. You have to push the black pin to transform it into a 3-pin UK plug.

The WH-209 stereo headset has built-in mic, but no volume control. It’s in-ear so it fits in my ears. Sound quality is decent.

The 808 Pureview has a Gorilla Glass curved 2.5D glass front fitted on a plastic frame. 2.5D is no new technology, just the way it’s machined. One extra thing it has is the anti-smudge coating that works very well. It gives the glass an almost plastic finish.

The front buttons (Call, Home, End/Power) keys are found within the Gorillas glass. The Home button backlight doubles up as a notification light. The soft feedback of these buttons do give a cheap feeling to this otherwise high-end phone. & as I quickly discovered, turning off the phone requires a disconcertingly short ‘long-press’ on the power key.

Near the Nokia logo, you have the VGA front camera & the proximity/ambient light sensor.

The 808 PureView has a 4 inch nHD AMOLED (RGB layout) display. As with most Nokia ClearBlack displays, the contrast is excellent, the colours aren’t too over-saturated and it performs very well under direct sunlight. Unlike some of the recent AMOLED screens I’ve tested, the 808 doesn’t have those black marks visible in complete darkness.

The only problem is its resolution – 640x360. You can almost see those pixels. The anti-aliasing (or lack of) is visible. Not to mention the horrible font.

The 808 has more colours (16M) than the N9 (65k), but the lower resolution jumps to the eyes. The edges are less rounded and the fonts look thinner. Overall, the 808 PureView’s display is so out-dated that it severely cripples such an impressive camera phone. Such a low-resolution display is an insult to that 41MP sensor.

The downside of the 808 is its body. The camera bump protrudes out almost obscenely, making it impossible to rest the 808 flat on its back.

Dimensions: 123.9 x 60.2 x 13.9 mm.

Weight: 169g.

It’s absolutely massive, almost gigantic. & it’s very heavy.

Clearly, to fit that large 41MP sensor, Nokia had to cut some corners.

Fortunately, when it comes to material, Nokia opted for an nearly indestructible plastic body. It’s matte, providing the best grip that you would need to grasp this massive phone.

On the right side, there’s the volume key, the screen lock slider and the camera shutter key. Pressing the camera key when the phone is on stand-by launches the camera. While holding down the screen lock slider turns on the LED flash to be used as a torch.

On the top, you have the 3.5mm jack, the micro-USB port and the micro HDMI port. The dot at the top is a microphone.

Another dot at the bottom for another microphone. These 2 microphones allow ambient stereo recording – Nokia’s Rich Recording. It allows capture of sounds up to 140dBSPL without distortion and within a frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In layman terms, you are looking at studio-level recording.

Inside the 808 PureView, there’s a 1400mAH BV-4D battery, which is rated at 6.5h 3G talk time and 525h standby.

I haven’t had time to use the 808 as normal phone, just as a camera. In that respect, from 100% battery charge, the 808 PureView can last 1025 8MP shots.

Just above the battery are two pins that connect to the NFC antenna found on the cover.

Underneath the battery, you have the microSD and microSIM slots.

& finally, here’s what we are most interested in - the thin slot that is the rear speaker. & trust me, as large as it is, the sound is even louder. Will beat anyone you can match in the bus. Oh, by the way, there’s also a 41MP sensor just above it.

1/1.2” sensor
38MP/34MP
f/2.4
Focal length: 26mm (16:9 mode) & 28 mm (4:3 mode)
ISO range: 50 - 1600
Focus range: 15cm – ∞
Exposure compensation: +/- 4EV in steps of 0.3EV

The 808 has a Xenon flash and a LED light as focus-assist.

So where are the 41MP images?

The sensor size is 41MP. The effective resolution is 34/38MP because you can’t have round images. :)

I won’t comment about the performance of that sensor until I’ve fully tested it, but take a look at this chart from dpreview.com. My S100 has a 1/1.7” sensor. The 808 has a sensor that’s nearly twice bigger.

Another tip - the 808 PureView completely destroys my previous camera.

Wrap-up

In terms of internal specs, the 808 PureView has a 1.3Ghz ARM11 CPU, 512MB RAM, 16GB flash storage and a Broadcom BCM2763 GPU. Clearly with such hardware it’s in the low-end smartphone territory, an area where Symbian used to excel at. Add to that a nearly dead Symbian OS, a low-res display and a massive body, no one would want to buy it. If it wasn’t for one thing - the camera.

But let’s be honest, this is not a smartphone, but a camera with the bonus features likes phone, media player, internet connectivity and apps. If you look at it this way, it’s a very good buy for a backup shooter. Of course, you’ll have to wait for my further reviews to know if it’s really that good.

What I can conclude is that this is the first step in the future of all P&S cameras. The first camera with apps. & I’m not the only one who’s thinking like that. Nikon and Samsung are also jumping in…

Related:

Engadget - Nokia 808 PureView Review
The Verge - Nokia 808 PureView Review

iPod Touch (4th gen) Review

2012-09-21T21:15:00.001+04:00

It sucks. Because of reasons.

My first Apple product. Oh god why.

Now, let us proceed with the unboxing. The iPod Touch 4th generation (2010) comes in a clear plastic box.

The back of the box. It’s the 8GB version which has now been discontinued. It was being sold for $199 or Rs 9000 locally.

A view from the side.

Like with all Apple packaging, this box had step-by-step instructions on how to open it. Starting by removing the sticker tape at the top.

& here’s the device with a glossy screenshot stuck on the front.

& made in China.

Underneath the device, you have the guides and accessories.

A Finger Tips guide to get you started with the iPod Touch and two stickers…

The standard Apple headphones & the USB to 30-pin dock connector cable.

Back to the iPod Touch, the front looks sleek with the steel frame barely visible. The front glass layer is fused with the LCD and with the glass edges protruding, I suspect the chances of it surviving falls are very slim.

The iPod Touch 4th gen is a huge fingerprint magnet as it lacks the oleophobic coating found in the iPhones. The dot at the top is a front VGA camera for FaceTime.

The back of the device is a flat slab of shiny stainless steel with tapered edges. There’s no antenna window as the WiFi antenna is now located at the front.

The disadvantage of the mirror finish is that it’s extremely prone to scratches. Didn’t last 2 hours before superficial scratches started appearing on it. Since I don’t put cases on my devices, I’ll have to start looking at some pouches for it.

Measuring 111 mm x 58.9 mm x 7.2 mm, the iPod Touch is very thin. & at 101g it’s light but it feels heavy due to its higher density. The metal back definitely gives it a sturdy impression. I guess that’s how the iPhone 5 feels like.

At the bottom you have the 3.5mm jack, the 30-pin port and a speaker. A really tiny speaker, not very loud. Yet much louder than my N9, which has one of the quietest speakers in a smartphone.

On the left side, there are the two volume buttons flush with the tapered edge. It’s quite hard to push these buttons - you have to reach out and push it from under. There’s barely any feedback from these buttons. Similar story with the lock button at the top.

At the top you have the camera - a 960x720 camera with 720p video recording.

& next to it, the only microphone on the device - I discovered that while figuring out why Voice Control wasn’t working.

When I turned on the iPod Touch, I was profoundly shocked by how bad the display was. I knew it had a cheap TN panel instead of IPS, but wasn’t expecting something like this. In fact, in the photo the black looks like it’s blue, but in real-life it’s actually purple.

The viewing angle is as narrow as 30º (I measured it). Beyond that, the colours start getting distorted. & it has only 18-bit colour depth (dithered to 24-bit).

Contrast levels are equally poor. While it can’t be compared with AMOLED, it’s only after using the iPod Touch that I really started to appreciate how better the LCD on my N900 actually is. Where black is black, not grey.

It’s really un-Apple-like how Apple have fitted a cheap display on this, but the only thing good about it is the resolution – 960x640 on a 3.5” screen. That’s a Retina Display, which is absolutely fantastic. Once you go Retina, there’s no way you’re going back to low-pixel displays such as those on Symbian phones.

Setting up the iPod Touch…

While setting up my Wi-Fi network, I was surprised to note the support for BootP, an obsolete protocol used for assigning IP addresses.

Creating Apple ID…

It takes a while to setup everything if you’re not in the Apple ecosystem. Roughly an hour. But finally, it was ready.

& here it is… First impression - dat Retina display!

Internet working. Browser renders fine. I fixed the clock from PM to AM.

Which meant I had only one thing left to do – download some apps.

& this is where I made a rookie mistake - I signed with my Apple ID into the… Mauritius App Store. It’s only later when I discovered that there are zero app ratings, no music, no movies and no TV shows in the Mauritius iTunes Store that I switched my account to US store.

Remember that this is the first time I’m using iOS for more than a few minutes, so I really don’t know anything about it. :P

I finally learnt how to take screenshots. :)

The Internals

The iPod Touch 4th gen has an Apple A4 SoC with a Cortex-A8 underclocked at 800Mhz, 256MB RAM & PowerVR SGX535 GPU.

Since there areno cross-platform benchmarks on my N9, I’ll have to settle with Sunspider’s Javascript Benchmark. It should be noted that this test is heavily reliant on the CPU and the JS engine. Both devices use Webkit 2, so most differences should be in CPU. However, the N9 has a Cortex-A8 clocked at 1Ghz, 1GB RAM & PowerVR SGX530 GPU.

As expected, the N9 just edges the iPod Touch.

In everyday usage, although I have no other iOS device to compare against, the iPod Touch doesn’t feel slow. It’s not as speedy either (running iOS 5.1.1). Thankfully, I didn't notice any lag anywhere. With only 256MB RAM, it’s not made for multitasking a lot of apps, browsing multiple heavy pages and is thus incompatible to some games.

The iPod Touch has a 930 mAh battery, which may seem low. However, Apple have perfected the art of low-power usage, so it easily lasts for 24 hours. With games and video decoding in non-supported formats, that might prove to be less. The back does feel hot during heavy processing like browsing heavy pages or downloading via WiFi.

With 8GB user storage (only 6.43GB available), I doubt I’ll be able to do anything other than install apps and add a single album.

One last thing - the iPod Touch doesn’t have GPS & with my N9 not being to act as external GPS, mapping applications are pretty much useless to me.

The Camera

Nothing to see here.

Woeful in any kind of low-light and decent in full sunny conditions. Video recording, I haven’t tested it.

The Accessories

The accessories included with the iPod Touch are minimal as well. You get only a USB charging/sync cable and the standard Apple earphones without remote and mic. I prefer in-ear headphones as I have small ears and as expected the Apple earphones don’t really fit. Still, I tried it and wasn’t impressed - surround effects and the bass were hard to perceive. Not to mention that Apple don’t use the standard TRRS, so all my other headphones don’t work.

The USB cable is another story altogether. For some unknown reason, Apple staunchly refuses to put strain relief covers onto their cables. The consequence is that the cable ends are easily bended and become frayed.

On top of that, those connector covers are glossy, providing very little grip. While trying to pull the connector out of a USB port, you are more likely to pull the cable instead of the cover.

First impressions

- Hate iTunes. That thing is slow, it takes an eternity to load the store. I had to disable sync everywhere because each time I connect the iPod, it tried to delete stuff.

- The first time I used Cydia, I was overjoyed. Packages, sources, .deb. Sounds familiar. I know this. Coming from the N9/N900. :)

- Slider controls. The ability to slide the volume button to 31.4159265359%. “Me Gusta” - my inner control-freak.

- Push notifications. I enjoy the symphony of MetroTwit and Tweetbot chiming simultaneously.

- The keyboard is good. But not Windows Phone-good. AutoCorrect is so-so, I’d rather ignore it.

- Google Maps is very good. :P

- I love the apps. Whatever you think of, there’s an app for it. & if there isn’t, there’s a Cydia hack for it.

Installous - It even supports torrents!
Tweetbot - best Twitter app… in the world. If you disagree, let me know the time/place where I can meet you to settle our differences. But it’s not perfect – the only thing it lacks is support for Retweets/Favourites in Mentions (like Interactions on Twitter).
f.lux - lowers the temperature of the display at night.
Posted - tracks your parcels with notifications (not real-time, but close enough).
Free My Apps - not an app, but a service. Who doesn’t want free apps?
AVPlayer - plays all the video formats you need, not the ones you deserve.
Zephyr - I love the button-less Swipe UI on my N9. Zephyr tries to replicate it by enabling swipe gestures such as swiping up to reveal the app switcher and swipe left/right to move between apps. It’s not as good as Swipe UI, but good enough to make me avoid using the Home button. :)

- Facebook app sucks. Even the mobile version is better than that.

- UI annoyances. I know much of these have been fixed in iOS 6.

Why do I have to tap twice to clear notifications!?!? (Btw, there’s a JB fix for that.)
No full-screen in Safari. Seriously?
Natural scrolling is weird in Safari - the scrolling stops almost as I lift up my finger. Stark contrast from all the other apps.
Why do I have to enter my credentials every time I download a free app?

Lists are a bit dated. & glossy bars. In fact, anything glossy.

- The first UI glitch I encountered.

- Another bug I have, & it’s a major one, is when I unlock the device Springboard freezes for FIVE SECONDS. It doesn’t happen every time (around 70% of the time), but when it does, I’m left swiping aimlessly. I’ve scoured the Apple support forums and the only conclusion I’ve had is that there is no fix. It’s a problem only faced by the iPod Touch 4th gen & it only occurs if the device is jail-broken. So I guess I’ll have to live with it until it’s fixed in iOS 6 jail-break.

- UOM Wi-Fi works. Enter username/pass. Accept Certificate. Only 2 steps. Nokia, how hard can it be?

Wrap-up

This thing is exactly 2 years old; it was launched in September 2010. It does not have GPS. It has a useless camera. It has only 256MB RAM. It has a very poor screen. It’s not cheap ($199/Rs 9000). & certainly not a poor man’s iPhone.¹ If I were to buy this last week, I would be really pissed off by the waste of money.

But I did not. It was a gift. :)

Score - 6/10

¹ The same things cannot be said for the 5th gen iPod Touch. These do look like a real alternatives to the iPhone. Devices built to be upgradable for the next two years. What I’m trying to say is, it’s hard to justify selling 2-year-old low-end devices in 2012. Really, the only thing good about the iPod Touch 4th gen is iOS.

Your favourite apps, hacks, tips and shortcuts. Please do post them in the comments. :)

Related:

AnandTech - Apple's iPod Touch (2010) Review, Not a Poor Man's iPhone 4
Engadget - iPod touch review (2010)
Wikipedia - iPod Touch

Infotech 2012

2012-09-15T14:59:00.001+04:00

The 19th edition of Infotech, the largest ICT event in Mauritius, was held at SVICC from 13th to 16th September 2012.

As usual, I made the trip so that you don’t have to go there. :)

This time though, I went earlier than usual, so as to avoid the week-end crowds (& being crushed in the bus).

So here I was at the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre.

The downside of going on opening day is that many of the exhibitors aren’t even ready with their stands or with their products. That shows you just how seriously they take Infotech.

Near the entrance you have the biggest stands – from left to right – Courts, DCL, Emtel, Orange, Apex and Cash & Carry. Here’s a link to the floorplan.

Emtel

Emtel pulled all the stops to showcase their new logo and their speedy 4G LTE modems. Price? Rs 7595 (VAT incl). Coverage is still sporadic (North, Centre & West).

In other news, Emtel will be launching their FTTH services as from early next year. BTL, Orange & now Emtel. Let the games begin. :)

Orange

Not to be left behind, Orange came up with an even bigger screen!

Among the various Infotech promotions, there were new data packages, free bonus sms during top-ups, 50% discount for first 3 months for new Internet subscribers, new MyT channels, etc… You can find all of it here.

But the major attraction for Orange was their Rs 3000 tablet. Not the one above as you’re being led to believe by the ads.

This one, the 7” IS703C, made by Indian tablet manufacturer Pantel. It has a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, 1GB RAM, HDMI out, 0.3MP front camera, 8GB storage, USB support & comes with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). Worth Rs 3000?

I’m not sure, because it was practically unusable the first time I turned it on. After closing all the running apps, the lag decreased considerably. Even then the touchscreen wasn’t very responsive. Even with that 1GB, apps lagged to launch. Overall, it felt very cheap. Like Rs 1000-1500 cheap, not Rs 3k.

The other tablet was the 8” WS802C, being sold at Rs 6000. 1GHz Cortex A8, 512MB RAM, 2MP camera, GPS, 3G, HDMI out, 4GB storage, microSD & ICS. I was surprised by how much it didn’t lag. The camera was useless. The physical buttons were terrible. Other than it’s pretty decent. But not worth Rs 6000 when you can get a Nexus 7 at nearly the same price (shipping excluded).

The one thing that bothered me was that these tablets are being targeted at people who have the least knowledge of tech. The stands were a bit crowded, so I got to hear some of the questions that were being asked and how the product representatives were “misleading” them. A lot of people signed up to get on the pre-order list. I can bet they are in for a nasty surprise when they’ll be getting any of these tablets.

Apex

Next to the Orange stand was Apex, the new Apple reseller.

Ah, the new “iPhone 5” – the best iPhone since sliced iPhone.

Cash & Carry

Lo & behold – Cash & Carry!

As I previously mentioned, even past opening day, many exhibitors weren’t ready with their stands. Among them was C&C who hadn’t yet printed their brochures.

That was one very impressive TV – the lack of bezel made it look so much better. Yeah, just ignore the price.

Just a C&C promo I found on Vimeo.

Near Cash & Carry was a Nokia booth. Surprisingly, there was no HM Rawat stand at this year’s Infotech. Instead, they had demo booths (accompanied by absolutely clueless representatives).

Oh yes, the 41MP 808 Pureview was here. So I took two photos, one at 8MP & another at 38MP. Which were promptly transferred to my phone and… then automatically deleted because I didn’t save them. Sorry for being such a noob. What I can tell you was that I wasn’t really impressed with the 808’s low-light photos.

DCL

Moving on, near the Emtel stand was DCL. DCL had setup several PCs to demo the services they’ll be offering with their new Internet service - ALICE.

I tried to run a speedtest, but the page didn’t even load.

The DCL representatives were by far the most helpful at this Infotech. ALICE uses 4G & not WiMax as it was erroneously written in a local newspaper (& which I subsequently tweeted). Prices and offers will be announced on October 1st when it’ll launch. Speed of between 2-20Mbps. Coverage for the time being only in Plaines Wilhems. Port Louis & the North by the end of the year and other regions next year.

The above two devices are the 4G modems. The smaller one is for connecting to PCs and laptops. The big one is the modem/wireless router.

Courts

Courts were mostly promoting Samsung devices.

Like this Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. Clearly, the stickers come as a bonus.

& then I caught sight of this all-in-one PC - the Toshiba Qosmio. Running Windows 8. Even though there was no Microsoft stand this year, Courts were the only exhibitor demoing Windows 8.

& next to it, I found this. The Acer Iconia W700. That was the most recent gadget being on display at Infotech. But it was only a demo unit - it’s not even available for sale anywhere in the world! Kudos to Courts for bringing it.

Specs – Ivy Bridge CPU, 11.6” 1080p IPS screen, THREE USB 3.0, micro-HDMI, 5MP camera, 32/64GB SSD, 8 hours battery. The build quality is impressive. Feels very solid, but quite heavy. The screen is awesome.

However, I was most interested in testing the OS. The tablet experience of Windows 8. Windows 8, not Windows 8 RT.

The Desktop is totally unusable with touch. As for the ~~Metro~~ Ballmer UI part, the only thing I could do was horizontal scroll. Swiping from the sides and pinching did nothing. & then I launched a video which immediately caused the tablet…

… to crash. Now that’s why it was still a demo unit. But here’s the most astonishing thing – it took only 5s to restart!

So I moved to the other Windows 8 tablet – the Acer Iconia W510.

Specs - 10.1” 1366x768 IPS screen, Clovertrail/Atom CPU, USB 2.0, micro-HDMI, microSD, 18h battery.

This one luckily had a fully functional Windows 8. & god was that impressive! The smoothest tablet I’ve ever used. ~~Metro~~ Ballmer UI absolutely shines in a tablet. It’s so intuitive, so fast… & so unfortunate that I noticed these tablets at the end of my visit; I barely spent 5 mins with them. One thing’s for sure – Windows 8 is one hell of a tablet OS. Such a shame, it’s being forced upon desktop users.

eShop

They had a Samsung stand and next to it…

Oh dear…

This is a 15” Macbook Pro.

& this is a 15” Macbook Pro Retina. See the difference?

No, I’m not talking about the new Magsafe 2 connector.

Let’s take a closer look.

On the left, you have a 1440x900 resolution. & the right, a 2880x1800 resolution. Both in a 15.4” display. You simply cannot see the pixels. Is it as ground-breaking as the iPhone’s Retina display? Perhaps, it was my poor eye-sight or the low-light, but the difference didn’t really jump to my eyes. You need to use it for some time to notice it. I couldn’t browse some websites to analyse the webpage rendering because the free wifi provided by Orange/Emtel was utterly useless.

The Macbook Pro Retina isn’t just about the display. It adopts a new Air-like compact body, non-removable parts and is only available with SSDs, thus shedding the weight down to 2kg. Do all these features justify the price?

At these relative prices, of course.

I should probably mention that the same 2.6Ghz MBPR is worth $2800 in the US. Like Rs 26,000 cheaper.

& that the 2.6Ghz MBP is worth $2200. Rs 20,000 less.

The iMac. Only Rs 16k more.

Macbook Air. Rs 10-15k.

The “New iPad 3.” Dat resolution!

At least here, the price difference was only Rs 5-7k.

No Infotech tech trade fair would be complete without the electronics bazaar.

Jacey Computer.

VJ Computer.

Pascal Computers.

Mobilink.

Linxia.

Impress.

Central Business Equipment.

Jetboss.

MTML.

La Sentinelle. Win prizes by registering on classified.lexpress.mu

TechKnow Magazine. Enter the competition here.

The MBC.

NCB.

Career Guidance zone. Half of the companies were call-centres…

While I was roaming around, I came across the stand of LAVIMS - the Land Administration, Valuation and Information Management System, i.e. the Cadastre.

Upon enquiry, I found out that these images weren’t taken by satellite, but by plane. Which explains the very high resolution, perfect colours and extreme details of the map. Quite incredible.

Another company which dealt with high-resolution imagery was Arcora. Among many things, they also create 360º panoramas such as those featured on a competitor website – My Visit 360 Maurice.

& the tools they use? A special 360º camera – the Girocam.

Want.

The FujiFilm X-Pro1. Photography buffs will know what this is. Price around $2000. :)

Galaxy SIII

The Samsung Galaxy SIII. First impression – the screen is awesome. The colours are rich, the contrast is awesome and it’s very responsive to touch.

2nd impression – the 4.8” screen is big. Where big is defined by ‘cannot fit into my hand.’ Anything between 4” to 4.5” would be perfect for me.

One-handed operation wasn’t easy, given that Android menu buttons usually alternate between top and bottom. The physical buttons are ok, except that the lighting was very inconsistent – turned on & off too quickly to my taste.

Trying the video overlay mode. Swag.

Under these perfect light conditions, HD Super AMOLED performs well. Practically no sign of this being a PenTile matrix display. I would have liked to test it in complete darkness to check if it still has those AMOLED faults.

The camera is pretty good. The continuous shooting (zero shutter lag) and the live-stitching panorama mode definitely are the best features.

It is quite big, but its lightness makes up for it. The ‘natural’ sounds are quite annoying, to be honest. & I would have preferred a non-glossy back. In internal specs, there’s no doubt this is the best smartphone out there. Overall, I quite liked it. If the SIII is that fluid on ICS+TouchWiz, I wonder how good it’ll be on Jalebi.

Galaxy Nexus

Now, don’t expect me to wipe those smudges.

Anyway, 4.65”. Now that’s one phone size that fits me perfectly. Reminds me of the N900. Just too bad, they didn’t bother to update it to Jalebi. Would have loved to see the results of Project Butter.

Galaxy Note

Monstrous.

Galaxy Tab 2 10.1”

In the photos I’ve seen on the Internet, it looks ugly. In real life though, the side grilles don’t matter at all. In fact, the Tab feels nice in your hands.

& when you’re playing a movie on that gorgeous screen, those speakers really, well, shine. The only downside is Android. There aren’t many built specifically apps for tablets. Hopefully, that’s set to change with Jelly Bean.

After several tries, I got the Wifi working and managed to load a page. I love the desktop-like browser experience here.

Best product info display ever!

So here ends my visit to Infotech 2012. It wasn’t quite as boring as I expected it to be and in the limited time I had, I discovered enough stuff to make my visit worthwhile. I couldn’t record any product videos as my new camera was too big to multi-task. :(

The only thing which I think was missing at Infotech was a certain ISP working on FTTH. Are they really serious about launching their product? Infotech would have been the perfect place to demo the new tech they’ll be using and gain so many new customers. Although I don’t want this to happen, this smells like failure…

Related:

Noulakaz - Infotech 2012 feels like an empty box
Clever Dodo - InfoTech 2012
Island Crisis - Infotech Mauritius 2012 = Noobtech
Yashvinblogs - What are people saying about Infotech 2012?
Muzzammil15 - Infotech 2012

L’Express - Infotech : Pour rester branchés
Defimedia - Infotech 2012 : les dernières innovations hi-tech sous un seul toit
Defimedia - Infotech 2012 nous met plein la vue…
Defimedia - Télécommunication – Emtel lance la 4G et son nouveau visuel
Defimedia - Internet : Alice, nouvel opérateur 4G
Le Mauricien - NOUVELLES TECHNOLOGIES: ALICE au pays du 4G
TechRadar - Acer Iconia W510 hands-on
TechRadar – Acer Iconia W700 hands-on

Orange Mauritius launches 4G LTE!

2012-06-21T20:26:00.001+04:00

In a publicity stunt worthy of a ~~Michael Bay~~ James Bond movie, Orange Mauritius officially launched 4G LTE in Mauritius.

But wait, didn’t Emtel launch 4G a month ago? Actually, that was a soft launch, not a commercial launch. Emtel will release their 4G sticks and offers next month.

So what’s 4G?

4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is the successor to the 3G (UMTS) & 3.5G (HSPA) networks, with speeds of up to 300Mbps download and 75Mbps upload.

Your existing 3G/3.5G devices are not compatible with 4G. It will only work with devices equipped with 4G LTE antennas.

Like the iPad 3, Lumia 900 LTE, HTC Evo 4G or Galaxy SIII LTE? Unfortunately, these devices will work only in the US. The reason is that the US uses different 4G LTE frequency spectrum bands than the rest of the world.

In the US, 4G LTE uses 700, 800, 1700 & 1900 MHz. The EU uses 800, 1800 & 2600 MHz. Because Mauritius follows the same bands as the EU, only LTE devices compatible with EU bands will work.

Update: I've been informed by @Sailesh28 that Orange Mauritius supports the 1800MHz band alone.

As it stands, the following devices are compatible with Orange’s network:

Orange 4G

Orange will be providing 4G Internet Everywhere packages with speeds of up to 100Mbps. The dongle used is the Huawei E398, which supports 3G/HSPA/4G & has a microSD slot.

Currently, only Port Louis & Bagatelle have 4G coverage. If you move out of these regions, the connection will fall back to 3G (75% island coverage) & then EDGE.

Price of USB modem – Rs 8000 (VAT included)

The 4G offer is only available with the 5GB package at Rs 1300 (valid for 30 days) & Rs 3/MB excess.

& here are the videos of the Spiderman Alain Robert climbing the 110m Telecom Tower with this “bare hands.”

Related:

Orange.mu - Mise en service commerciale du premier réseau 4G à Maurice
Orange.mu – 4G
Wikipedia – 4G LTE
DéfiMedia - VIDEO : l’homme araignée émerveille les Mauriciens
DéfiMedia - L’internet à très haut débit – Emtel lancera la 4G en juillet
L’Express - Emtel lance la quatrième génération de téléphonie mobile

Featured on Scope Magazine

2012-06-21T08:35:00.001+04:00

Umm, so yeah. Me, Yashvin & some bloggers were interviewed and the article has now been published on this week’s Scope Magazine.

So if you are new visitor here, let me redirect you to my other, more interesting blog – carrotmadman6.blogspot.com

The other (active) Mauritian bloggers:

Yashvin - http://yashvinblogs.com
Avinash Meetoo - http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog
Siganus Sutor - http://mauricianismes.wordpress.com
Kurt Avish - http://www.islandcrisis.net
Alexandra Isaacs - http://stylemauritius.blogspot.com
Nawsheen Hosenally - http://nawsheenh.blogspot.com
Inf - http://www.geekscribes.net/blog
Ashesh Ramjeeawon - http://asheshr.com
Prerrna Mirchi - http://inspiredtobake.wordpress.com
Teenuja - http://www.veganlovlie.com
Aniisah - http://aniisah.wordpress.com
Yadhav - http://yadhav.tumblr.com

The only thing which wasn’t mentioned was that this very active Mauritian bloggers community do meet-up at least once every 2 years! & when they do, it’s something quite epic - http://carrotmadman6.blogspot.com/2010/07/black-river-gorges-national-park-part-1.html :)

So go & grab your Scope Magazine! I’ll link to it once it’s available on LeMauricien.com

Edit: I don't think it'll be posted on the website, so here it is:

Related:

Veganlovlie - Pleasantly Surprised: Veganlovlie Featured on Scope Magazine!
Yashvinblogs - “Le phénomène des blogs”, à lire sur Weekend Scope

Drive

2012-06-18T20:00:00.001+04:00

Fantastic.

It’s not often that I watch a film that is so good that it redefines a genre for me. & Drive made me realise what’s wrong with all the action movies.

Take any typical blockbuster. Say, Clash of the Titans, which I watched recently. CGI fighting scenes, tons of characters, a very loud metal score, unbelievable camera angles and a barely understandable plot.

I didn’t realise I hated all these until I watched Drive. A very toned-down action film, which reminds me of the Westerns I used to idolise. A return to the basics.

I usually judge movies on several things – the plot, the acting, the cinematography and the score. The straight-forward plot & the few characters keeps everything simple.

A silent flawed hero, like Clint Eastwood. Instead of the incessant clichés diatribes, it’s the acting that conveys the emotions.

The cinematography. The intro with that first-person view of the car. That was wonderful.

The score. I didn’t know I loved that kind of retro music (French House) until I watched Drive. Thanks for that. & rarely do you get to hear music that fits in so perfectly with the scenario. I simply can’t get it out of my head.

When the Driver was stabbed, and the camera panned on him, I was genuinely pissed off. & then that perfect song comes in & he drives off over the horizon. Just like in the Westerns.

Clearly my tastes have evolved & I’m now appreciating those non-mainstream movies which I previously disregarded. Between Midnight in Paris & Drive, I can’t figure which is my favourite movie of 2011. Why don’t they make more movies like this?

9/10

Related:

Wikipedia – Drive
IMDB – Drive [8/10]

Mobile Tripod Holder

2012-06-02T19:20:00.001+04:00

Good partner for camera phone. Make your photography better!

The package with the very weird descriptions.

Since some time I’ve wanted a mobile tripod holder because my makeshift polystyrene solution wasn’t very practical. So I went ahead on eBay and bought this.

It’s a mini tripod paired with a mobile phone holder. The same $1 tripods with 360º rotation, extensible legs and which can’t support the weight of your point-&-shoot.

The mobile phone holder consists of a spring-loaded clamp and a bracket for holding the phone. There are rubber pads inside for better grip.

The bracket when retracted is 7.2 cm and when fully extended is 8.8 cm. The clamp has minimum extension of 4.6cm and maximum extension of 6.3 cm. So whatever phone you’ll be using must be less than 6 cm in width. Both the N900 (59.8 mm) and N9 (61.2 mm) fitted in tightly.

Yes, the plastic is cheap. The mini tripod is useless. But with the holder being just a screw-on (with a 1/4-20 UNC thread), you can use your own tripod with it. & at $4 (Rs 120), it’s definitely a steal.

Score - 7/10

Related:

eBay – Mobile tripod holder
Amazon - Mini Adjustable Tripod+camera Holder for Iphone and Other Cellphone
AllAboutSymbian - Review: Mobile Phone Tripod Holder

Scosche solBAT II Solar Charger Review

2012-05-13T22:18:00.001+04:00

A review of the Scosche solBAT II solar powered battery charger.

If you are a heavy smartphone user, running out of battery is a situation you’re familiar with. & unless you have a spare battery or an electrical socket nearby, you are essentially cut off from the world. The solution is an external battery pack. How about a greener solution - a solar charger?

According to the package, the solBAT II has an internal 1500mAh battery with recharge times of approximately 18 hours using solar and 2.5 hours using USB.

These are the package contents. & within the manual, this:

Full Charge (USB): 5 hours

Solar Charge: 4-5 days

I hate false advertising.

You get only one very short USB cable. These days, all smartphones come with USB charging and if you have an older device, you’ll need to purchase a USB adapter. Surely, they could have included some of the cables.

The mounting cradle and suction pads, used for mounting the solar charger to a car’s windshield.

The carabiner is used to clamp the solar charger to a backpack so it can be charged while hiking. That might be useful for me.

The solar powered charger’s best feature is its portability. It’s very light and made of a hard plastic designed for rough handling. It has two USB ports – one standard USB port for charging devices and one microUSB for charging itself.

You can check the battery level on the charger by pressing a button and LEDs will light up giving you an approximation of the percentage charge. There is also a red LED which lights up when being charged and a green LED when charging other devices.

How does the solBAT II fare in real life?

The expected scenario is that you would charge it with the sun or from USB and then take it with you to supply some extra juice when needed.

Charging the charger? Just as the manual stated, it took 5 hours from a standard USB 2.0 port. I was tempted to use my 900/1100mAh AC chargers, but I’m not sure it would be able to handle that.

Solar charging? 4-5 days according to the manual (more than a week according to the web reviews). I didn’t test that but given the small area of the solar cells, it was to be expected. I should add that solar charging emits a whining noise from the power electronics circuit in the charger.

Charging?

Well, it won’t charge my N900 and when I connect it to my N9, this message pops up and then it starts charging. According to the manual, the solar charger outputs 500mA at 5V. Given the error message, I reckon it’s much less than that.

Charging time? My N9 comes with a 1450mAh battery and the solar charger should be able to sustain 1 full charge with its 1500mAh battery. Well, it doesn’t.

First, because the output is so low, it cannot bring the phone out of a completely dead battery state. So if the phone is dead, the solar charger is useless.

Second, it takes a massive amount of time to charge devices. 1 hour to charge 7% of battery. I started charging at 6% and some 12 hours later, I found the phone at 75% with the solar charger’s battery depleted. After looking on the web, I found that it does have 1500mAh, but rated at 3.7V. At 5V, that’s 1100mAh.

Conclusion

The solBAT II is useless then? Not really, because I found that when I charged my N9 while leaving the charger in the sun, the charging rate was more acceptable. Situations where this might be handy is when trekking on mountains or sunbathing at the beach or going on road trip on a hot summer day.

Its reliance on the sun for maximum efficiency means it’s not very practical in regions with few hours of sunshine. As a stand-alone charger, it’s extremely slow at charging smartphones. Thus I cannot recommend it when you can get a portable charger with more capacity and faster charging or even an extended mobile phone battery.

Score – 3/10

Related:

AllAboutSymbian - Scosche solBAT II Solar Powered Battery Pack
Scosche - solBAT II - Solar Powered Backup Battery and Charger
YouTube – solBAT II video reviews
Amazon - Scosche SolBAT II Solar Powered Backup Battery and Charger

How to become a Pro Photographer?

2012-04-01T20:16:00.001+04:00

In this post, I will teach you how to become a professional photographer.

Existing pro-photographers will not tell you this, but there are only 3 steps to become one. It’s not easy, but if you are determined you can do it.

At the end of this post, you should be able to shoot photos like these. Trust me. :)

Step 1. Buy a DSLR.

That is pretty obvious. To shoot photos, you need a camera, more specifically a DSLR (Digital Simple-Lens Reflex) camera. That is what all professionals use.

The rule of the thumb is that the bigger the camera, the more professional you look. If you carry a point-and-shoot or compact camera in the streets, most people will think that either you are a tourist or a pervert trying to take girl photos. They will sneer at you & go – “Duh! Don’t you dare take my photo!”

However, if you carry a DSLR (Digital Singular-Lens Reflex) camera, most people would go like – “Wow! That’s a very nice camera! You must be a pro-photographer!”

There’s no point being humble, so let me assure you that I have a massive knowledge of DSLRs. Take a look at this list:

Nikon D90
Nikon D700
Nikon D300S
Nikon D3000
Nikon D5000
Nikon D3100
Nikon D5100
Nikon D7000
Canon 550D
Canon EOS 60D
Canon EOS 1100D
Canon EOS 600D
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Nikon D800 (soon)
Nikon D4 (soon)
Canon EOS 5D Mark III (soon)

These are just a few of the cameras whose reviews I have thoroughly read.

APS-C or Full-Frame?

There exists two types of DSLR (Digital Standard-Lens Reflex) sensors – APS-C and Full-Frame. It doesn’t matter which one you buy as long as the body is huge. It all depends on your budget, but bigger is better. Lenses do not matter as well, because all you need is a big zoom lens. Something like the 18-200mm will be enough, as recommended by camera legend Ken Stonewell.

Megapixels

How many megapixels do you need? Once again, more is better. That's the first thing anyone will ask you - "how many megapixels is your camera?" To be a professional photographer, you need more than 20 megapixels. Because 12 MP and lower are for point-&-shoots. If you ever meet someone who's camera is less than 20 MP, then consider that person as an amateur.
Did you know that the best camera ... in the world ... is in fact a phone! Yes, the 41MP Nokia 808 Pureview!

Canon or Nikon?

Canon is the best. Period.

Between Canon & Nikon, there is absolutely no doubt that Canon is by far the best at making printers. If you need a printer, buy a Canon.

But if you need a proper camera, buy a Nikon. All the professional photographers use Nikon because it’s cooler and you get nicer straps. Nothing to do with being better at low-light, mind you.

Step 2. Take a self-portrait in the mirror.

After buying your DSLR (Digital Single-Line Reflex) camera, you need to show to the world that you are a capable photographer. & the best way to do this is to take a photo of yourself in the mirror using your camera.

The reason why you see so many people on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter having such profile pictures is because shooting yourself is very hard.

Well, you see, inside your DSLR (Digital Single-Light Reflex) camera, there exists a mirror. And if you have seen Inception, you know that when two mirrors face each other, a paradoxical situation occurs – the light goes back and forth, back and forth until infinity. It’s like a photon travelling on a Möbius strip. The light cannot reach the sensor.

& that is why you have to use manual mode. 99.9% of the time, there’s no need to use manual mode when shooting photos. Existing pro-photogs tend to perpetuate a myth that to become a pro photographer, you must shoot in manual mode. They are completely wrong. The reason why you bought an expensive DSLR (Digital Single-Lance Reflex) camera is because it has a much better Auto-Focus than everything else. The camera knows best. Why should you complicate your lives? Just point and shoot.

However, in this particular case, you have to use manual mode to avoid this mirror to infinity situation.

& while you are at it, here are some tips you need to take into account:

While you can make someone else take a photo of you holding your camera, that is not recommended. That’s what n00bs do. You should be able to use your own camera.
You should not be looking at the screen, but rather position your eye on the viewfinder.
Only half of your face should be visible.
Do not use flash at night. Use it only during the day.
Learn about the Rule of the Thirds and then position the lens right in the middle of the frame.
The appropriate distance should be between 200-300mm from the mirror.

After having taken a photo of yourself in the mirror, what you need to do next is to make this photo your default profile picture EVERYWHERE – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google+, 500px, DeviantArt, MySpace, Hi5, etc.

Once you do that, everyone will know that you are a professional photographer.

Step 3. Open a Facebook page - <username> Photography.

If you have a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflect) camera, you need to showcase your photos somewhere. You could use a website which will be barely visited. Or upload to Flickr and be forgotten. But none of these provides what you get from Facebook – Likes.

The Like system is an incredibly important tool for gauging a professional photographer. The more Likes you have, the better your photos are. It’s as simple as that. Doesn’t matter if someone criticises your photos, even if it gets 1 Like, it means your photo is great.

Which is why you need a Facebook Photography Page. Now, what about the name before Photography? Well, there are several trends, each to his own:

<username> Photography. The most generic ones.
<exotic name> Photography. Like Mystical Photography, Creative Photography, etc.
<photography-related term> Photography. Like Bokeh Photography, Aperture Photography, etc.

The current trend is the latter, whereby the technical terms employed in photography are used.

Depth of Field
Bokeh
ISO
Exposure
Shutter speed
Aperture
F-stop
Focal length
Backlight
Macro
Panning
Histogram
Metering
White balance

Let me clear this once for all – you do not need to know these things. Old-school photographers will tell you that you need to learn these. That’s largely unnecessary. That’s why you bought an expensive Nikon camera – it already knows all these things. Why bother?

& then you have Photoshop.

Photoshop?

Once again, the professional photographers will tell you that they hardly use Photoshop. & that everything they shoot is due to the magic of their DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Relax) cameras. SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera) they call it. That’s a myth, don’t fall for that. What it actually means is that “I covered my Photoshop tracks very well by preserving the EXIF.”

Everyone uses Photoshop. Photoshop is the only way to get the best results out of your photos. In fact, post-processing makes shooting effortless – it doesn’t matter if you get bad shots, you can always tweak them.

HDR!

In fact, the most popular type of photography on Facebook is HDR (High Dynamic Range). People absolutely love bright colours, excessive saturation and noise grain. & HDR is the one technique you will need to learn if you want to have the best landscape photos. People are bored with normal photos. The more surreal it looks, the better it is.

Bokeh

The second technique you should definitely know is bokeh photography. Bokeh is the stunning blur as seen above. People absolutely love bokeh because it's something that cannot be seen by normal human vision. & the best thing about bokeh photography is that you don't even need a subject! Anything that is blurred = great bokeh!

Watermarks?

If you are uploading on Facebook, chances are that someone will eventually accuse you of stealing photos because they are too good to be your own. What you need to do from Day 1 is add watermarks to your photos. Usually it’s something like <username> Photography © 2012.

But to be more professional, you should add the date and time it was shot, so that no one can contradict you – remember that Facebook doesn’t have EXIF! <username> Photography © 20:21:25 01/04/2012.

So far…

Buy a DSLR.
Take a self-portrait in the mirror.
Open a Facebook page - <username> Photography.

Now that you’ve done all these things, you’ll find out that you still don’t get the recognition you deserve. Only a few hundred people liked your Page. So how to break through the mass of competing photographers?

Now, I’m going to reveal to you the plain secret of the pro-photogs, something they will never ever tell you…

Step 4 (Bonus). Organise a Facebook Photoshoot Competition

It’s as simple as that. Think of it – girls on Facebook love to have their photos taken. & as a photographer, you need models. & this is the easiest way to get free models. A win-win situation.

Organise a photo competition whereby girls upload their photos. The person whose photo gets the most Likes wins a free photoshoot from you. And you can get popular overnight as girls will Like your Page to upload their photos and guys will Like the Page to admire the photos. & through the viral nature of social networking, there is no easier way to get more members.

Once you achieve the critical level of popularity, someone who sees your profile picture with your DSLR (Digital Single-Layer Reflex) camera and your Page will immediately hire you.

The Photoshoot

Existing professional photographers will tell you that shooting people isn’t easy. You need to equip your DSLR (Digital Sealed-Lens Reflex) camera with prime lenses and filters, have a studio with specific kind of lighting, have several kinds of flashes and metering equipment, have a makeup artist, etc.

They couldn’t be more wrong. You don’t need all of these. You don’t need makeup, filters or special lighting. What you need to achieve is the intense gritty feel of natural human skin. The sweat rolling down in the sun while having the model pose with her natural duck-face. The photo has to convey reality, using only natural light. & everything else can be done on Photoshop.
All you need to be a fashion photographer in the budding fashion industry of Mauritius is a camera and a model.

Recap – How to become a professional photographer:

1. Buy a DSLR.

2. Take a self-portrait in the mirror.

3. Open a Facebook page - <username> Photography.

4. Organise a Facebook Photoshoot Competition

Easy isn’t it. With DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Rolex) cameras being more accessible, more people can become pro photographers. & that is why so many existing photographers are feeling the heat and slandering the works of art of emerging photographers. So here’s my advice to budding photographers:

Don’t bother about people criticising your photos – they know nothing.
Trust your camera – it knows best. No need to learn more.
Always promote your work. Upload daily to Facebook.
Always use HDR if possible.
Don’t buy new equipment. It’s useless. The kit lens is all you need.
Buy Nikon.

Dear readers, if you have anything to share to our upcoming pro photographers, feel free to do so! :D

Don’t forget to check out my Flickr and Photoblog! ;)