Z World

Merrell Trail Glove 2 Long Term Review

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 10:51:00 +0000

This isn't really going to be a full review - there wouldn't be a lot of point as the Trail Glove 2 is long out of production, however... I just got back from a run in my oldest pair of shoes, a pair of green Trail Glove 2's. I don't use them much anymore as the tread is all but worn flat on them - and at this point I'm only really wearing them to see when they'll fail catastrophically. (So I don't do particularly long runs in them anymore either, I don't want to have to hobble 10km back to my car with a missing sole). But I thought they deserved a special mention as they've held up incredibly well.

I've logged over 2,500km in them and they're still super comfy for me. You need to keep in mind what they are of course, minimal drop, minimalist shoes - so there's not a lot of padding to break down. I'm sure that's the main reason they've held up so long, but they've truly showed remarkable endurance.

More importantly, they make me smile every time I pull them on.

iBank for iPad 1.0 quick look.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 12:35:00 +0000

iBank for iPad is out, and available now in the app store! Unfortunately, at the minute, that's about all the good news there is.

Firstly a quick rundown on iBank. iBank is one of a number of finance tracking software packages, if you're interested in the finer details you can take a look at http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/. Briefly though, in my opinion, it's an interesting piece of software which tries really hard to have a pleasing aesthetic, and does so with a fair amount of success. It also has some simple, but interesting, touches that I like. For example on a net worth report it'll tell you if you're trending towards saving more or spending more money. But it has some really odd limitations as well - no real landing or home page where you can see everything at a glance. No calendar view. No way to have a report which graphs which categories you've spent your money on in prior months.

iBank for iPad continues along the same vein, but in a far more extreme way. It does things in a very pretty way (for a finance app). It has some neat little features. But many of the basics are horribly overlooked, or indeed absent.
Firstly syncing. The iPad version syncs with the Mac version. Well, kind of. It syncs transactions & accounts. It doesn't sync budgets. It doesn't sync reminders. This means that you kind of need to either use one or the other. Do not buy the iPad version thinking it'll provide a convenient supplemental way to manage your Mac iBank accounts. For example, marking off bills (scheduled transactions) as paid on the iPad while sitting on the couch would seem to me to be the perfect use case for iBank on iPad. Without being able to sync all your existing scheduled transactions though.... It's not going to happen. Same goes for budgets, they don't sync. (I personally find setting up budgets in any finance application very annoying, so I'm certainly not re-doing it for the iPad version of iBank.)
Ok, so if you give up on syncing and think of iBank for iPad as a complete replacement for the Mac version - does it fare any better? Well, there's a wizard for setting up a budget and scheduled transactions all at once. Good idea, saves some work. The basic home/landing page on iPad is fairly basic - but it's still a step up from that available in the Mac version. It's a bit slow when updating transactions. (At least on an iPad 2) Entering some types of data is pretty clumsy - there's no calendar to choose a date from, you can only type in numbers. Reports are... Well, "missing" would be the best description. A finance app that doesn't let you compare your net worth for the previous year? Or the total of all your savings accounts. Or a breakdown of income vs expenses. Or pretty much anything else you might want to track your finances for? Interesting design choice that one.

To be fair, for each individual account you can see a graph of the total amount at the start (or end?) of each month. For a six month period. Or eight months if you use your iPad in landscape mode. You can't change to weeks. You can't change the scale. You can swipe backwards and look through any previous block of six/eight months at a time, but that's it. Also under the budget screen, you can see your total ingoing/outgoings in the same limited manner.
Limited is really what springs to mind whenever I try and use this app. Due to the lack of desktop syncing functionality it doesn't make a very good addition to the desktop client. Due to it's lack of reporting options it doesn't make a very good stand alone option. I think it kind of makes it a bit pointless in its current incarnation.
Hopefully in six months time once Igg Software has done some updates it'll become a useful tool. As it stands currently it's nothing more than an interesting tech demo of what they want their iPad app to be. At $15 I'd say this makes it a very unwise purchase.
I'm actually surprised they released it as is. I know there was a lot of pent up demand for an iPad version of iBank but I can't imagine that charging people $15 for software that's in this state is going to give customers a positive opinion of the company.

Garmin ANT+ for iPhone & Premium Heart Rate Monitor.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 11:38:00 +0000

First of all, let me say that it's Garmin's choice to call it a "Premium" heart rate monitor, not mine. I can kind of see why they went that way, the "Garmin Elastic Heart Rate Monitor" does sound a bit cheap and nasty. However, it is a little bit silly and I wish they had of come up with a better name to differentiate it from their old "Rubbery Plastic Heart Rate Monitor". Now that gripe is out of the road, on with the review.

Garmin ANT+ iPhone Dongle & Premium Heart Rate Monitor

I've only been playing with the heart rate monitor for a few days, but I have to say I'm pretty impressed with it so far. It couldn't have been any simpler to set up and get started using it. Start the Garmin Fit app on the iPhone, go to Settings -> Sensors and then scan for the Heart Rate monitor. After it's found it the first time it seems to pick it up whenever you start the app and put the monitor on.

I've never used a heart rate monitor before, so I'm sure to have very rose coloured glasses when looking at the experience... That said though, I love it. It's comfortable enough that you don't even notice it's there once you start exercising. Well, that's not totally true - if it's still damp when you put it on you'll know it's there until its warmed up! (Garmin recommend rinsing the strap in water after every use, and washing it after every five. Dry sweat leads to salt which leads to rapidly wearing elastic I'm guessing.)

I always have a bit of a tendency to push myself too hard when doing any sort of exercise. Having the heart rate data there with you on a run or a ride really helps me to keep that in check. (Side note, don't trust any calculation for maximum heart rate. All the methods I've seen have quite a bit of scatter, up to +/- 20BPM. That's a lot when you're trying to target an exercise zone that's ~15BPM wide)

I was concerned about the dongle sticking out of the iPhone (as I don't usually use an armband or anything, I just stick the phone in a pocket) but I've been for a few runs now and it's been rock solid, never been knocked loose. It feels solid once it's inserted into the iPhone as well, which inspires confidence.

I have found though, that since I'm wanting to know what my heart rate is while I'm exercising I've taken to holding it in my hand more as I run. I do have an armband case for the phone as well, but that's not too convenient to see while running either. The armband case works great for strapping the phone onto my bike though, and it makes a pretty neat cycling computer. (You can also get cadence sensors that'll communicate with the Garmin Fit app, but I've not tried one.)

The Garmin Fit app is... Well, it's pretty much the same as any of the other running apps. (Runkeeper, Nike+, etc) You can flick through a couple of screens of data during a run. Look at previous activities after a run. Sync your activities to a website to do further analysis/comparisons. You can't share via FaceBook or Twitter from within the app, but from the Garmin Connect website you can share via nearly any service imaginable. If you're into that sort of thing. (Who on earth would want to see what my heart rate was last time I went for a Jog?) It's not a free app, but at 99c it's hardly going to break the bank.

The one thing I wish that the Garmin Fit app was heart rate alarms. If it could be set to vibrate & make noises when my heart rate got too high or low I'd go back to just sticking the phone in my pocket and forgetting about it while running. (The Garmin 310xt can do this.... It also has a RRP of $379, so I'm not rushing to buy one.)

The other negative is that the dongle and HRM only work with the Garmin Fit app (despite that they apparently use the standard ANT+ communications protocols.) That's only a minor disappointment though, unless you're loving using nike+ for it's "power song" feature or something along those lines. You can sync your run data between at least the Garmin Connect, Runkeeper & Nike+ online services, (I know because I do) which further lessens the importance of the app used to record your activities in my mind.

In short though - I love it, I'd recommend it to even the most casual of exercisers.

Bait Advertising on "Deal of The Day" Websites

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:21:00 +0000

Why is it allowable for "Deal of The Day" type websites to get away with "Bait Advertising" without having any repercussions? Their usual daily sales methods aren't too bad in my experience, with the companies providing reasonable stock levels - why wouldn't they, if they're still managing to sell their products at a profit? But every so often they decide they need to drum up some free publicity and so hold a special "sale" event.
During these special events the companies will generally "sell" a number of different products at a very discounted price (far below the point where I would believe they can make a profit off it) to draw people to their websites. They also seem generally to like to be able promote the sale after the fact, something along the lines of "Look at this, we sold product X for half of it's RRP! You should come and check out our website tomorrow and see what else we're selling!"
The downside for the consumer of these (very good) prices is that there's typically an abysmally small amount of stock. The ACCC calls this "Bait Advertising" and it's illegal. From the ACCC website:

Bait advertising

'Bait advertising' describes the situation when a trader advertises goods at a certain price (usually a 'sale' price) but does not have a reasonable supply. What is a 'reasonable supply' will depend on several things, including the type of product and the way it was promoted or advertised.

If a trader has genuinely underestimated the popularity of a sale product, it may not be considered bait advertising.

For example, an electronics retailer runs a major national campaign advertising 50-inch televisions at a low price of $799 for a week-long sale. The retailer usually sells about 30 televisions of this type every week. The retailer only stocks two televisions at the advertised price and refuses to take customer orders. When customers attempt to buy the television at the advertised price, they are told it is out of stock and offered a more expensive unit for $999. This is likely to be bait advertising as the retailer does not have a reasonable supply of the advertised television.

It's an illegal (and immoral) business practice. If you're advertising a popular product at less than half of the typically available price (let alone RRP) you can expect demand to be huge. If you sell out of a product less than 2 minutes after it goes on sale, then I don't think anybody could successfully argue that you had a "reasonable supply" and "genuinely underestimated the popularity of a sale product".

Don't just accept it people, file a complaint - if you don't it'll only encourage companies to engage in dodgy business practices at your expense.

Fila Skele-Toes 2.0 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:48:00 +0000

I've always been interested in the concept of barefoot running. Of wearing a shoe with minimal support & padding, and altering your stride to work with the natural design of your body. Most running shoes basically try to do the reverse of this, augmenting your body as much as possible. They attempt to provide extra impact absorption, more rebound, reduce (or increase) pronation. That's all well and good, but if you're really after some mechanical advantage why not take a bicycle? Or go one step further and jump on a motorcycle? I like the idea of running because it's just you that's doing all the work.
There's a whole debate about whether "barefoot" running is likely to mean you're less prone to injuries as it's more natural and we've evolved over millions of years to get around without shoes. I'm not sure I really buy into that, as a lot of our environment is no longer natural, but if it's true then I'll just take it as an added bonus. I'm more interested in it because I like the thought of running with as little aid as practical.
Because of this I've always been interested in the Vibram FiveFingers. Here in Australia though, their availability hasn't been that great, and they definitely seem like something you'd want to try on before buying. They're also reasonably expensive for something which I've regarded as a bit of a curiosity and novelty. Then a couple of weeks ago in a catalogue I saw Fila Skele-Toes on sale, for all of $50. I ducked into a store and tried a pair on to make sure they fit reasonably well. (My toes aren't perhaps the most normal shape, and one foot is close to a half-size larger than the other.) They did, and I walked out with a pair within a couple of minutes of trying them on.

Skele-Toes 2.0 (10km done and already holed.)

I've worn them quite a few times now, mostly for some light hiking or trail running if you want to be generous about my athletic prowess. I've got to say, I really really like them. The first time I went out in them I found myself jumping from rock to rock just for the fun of it. They really do provide a novel tactile experience around the feet. You get a much more sure-footed feeling due to the extra feedback that you get over even the lightest of hiking boots.

I definitely move around in them with a different stride as well, I seem to give my calves much more of a workout when I go for a hike in the skele-toes than my regular boots. Part of this is definitely due to a conscious effort on my part to forefoot strike, but it really does become natural fairly quickly.

It's certainly not all roses though. The material of the sole is quite a bit more rigid than I expected it to be. For instance, when I wiggle my toes in the shoes the upper material layer stretches and my toes lift off the sole. I expected the shoes to be much more glove-like.

The fit for me isn't ideal either, however it's only due to a poor strapping/closure system. There's one strap which extends over the top of foot, along the outside edge and then over the heel. It's held at both ends with velcro (or hook-and-loop closures, I don't recall seeing a brand anywhere) but the positioning of them only allows for minimal adjustment. When I've got the strap tensioned up to where I like it on my smaller foot (I've got a little less than half a size difference between my left and right feet) the velcro is only attaching along a length of ~2cm at each end of the strap. This isn't really enough to hold it firm and it tends to work loose. Because of the construction, with the upper part of the shoe being all fairly stretchy, the shoes are actually pretty stable even with the strap loose - but they can start to rub a little above my heel if I don't stop to tighten the strap.

I also managed to get a couple of small holes on the little toe pocket during my first hike, which was pretty annoying. It looks like the material from the top surface has pulled away a little from the sole, maybe something to do with the way it's glued together. However I've worn them a fair bit since then, and put them through the washing machine, and the holes haven't gotten any larger so they're not too much of a problem - they've never let any stones or anything in.

The material of the sole is also scuffing up at a fairly high rate. I.e. I don't expect the shoes to necessarily last all that long. That kind of just meets with my expectations though, a flimsy shoe (which if you want to be negative about it, is all these are) is never going to be all that durable.

Overall I'm very happy with them, but because of the few little niggles that they have I'll probably still be considering trying a pair of Vibram FiveFingers instead when it's time to replace my Skele-Toes.

Coffee Joulies Review

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 05:37:00 +0000

Coffee Joulies!

My Coffee Joulies arrived a couple of days ago, and I think my hot beverage consumption has tripled while I've been playing with my new toy. So, what are they?

The promise behind the Joulies is that they'll bring your coffee down to a pleasant temperature for drinking more quickly than sitting around waiting for it to cool, and that they'll then hold it at a "nice to drink" temperature for longer. Sounds good right? Having your coffee (or tea) not too hot to start with, but staying warm for longer.

So do they work? The good news is yes, they do. After making a hot drink, drop in all 5 Joulies and it'll cool down much quicker. (I tend not to have milk in my hot drinks, so I'm used to having to wait a while for them to cool before being drinkable.) They also do, as advertised, extend the time your drink will stay hot for. Giving you a little longer to drink it. Little is the key word here though - don't think that Joulies are going to be a replacement for your thermos. I haven't got a pair of thermometers handy for doing any objective testing, but the effect is obvious enough subjectively. It's just more subtle than I'd like. That's when using them at a Joulie to coffee ratio that's around twice of that mentioned in the brochure, so it's not exactly an overwhelming effect.

How do they work? Well, the brochure and website talk a lot about Phase Change Materials. Or in the simplest of terms, things that melt. When a solid reaches its melting temperature, it absorbs an extra kick of heat energy to push it from solid to liquid. This is the latent heat of the material, or the heat of fusion. When it cools down enough to solidify again it will release that same amount of heat energy. This is the reason why the Joulies are able to both cool down your drink, and then heat it later on. While maybe not the best analogy when we're talking about a food product, liquid sweat evaporating off your skin as steam to cool you down is making use of a similar process.

The Joulies themselves are shaped like large (About 5cm long) stainless steel coffee beans, filled with a "Plant-based Phase Change Material". I'm guessing that the "Plant-based Phase Change Material" might be carnauba wax, used in everything from coating smarties to polishing your car. Although it's got a melting temperature of ~80 Deg C, which is quite a bit higher than the 60 Deg C quoted as the phase change point of the material inside the Joulies. If you want to cool your coffee to 60 Deg C and hold it there though, it makes sense to have a material which absorbs and releases heat above that temperature. It could be beeswax though, that could be considered plant-based I suppose, and it has a melting point of around 60 Deg C. Or it could be another plant based wax with a melting point closer to 60 Deg C. I'm just speculating, and pointing out that the material inside the Joulies isn't especially rare.

So the theory behind them is sound, why is the performance so ho-hum? Well, honestly I'm not totally sure - the physics look fairly sound:

I'm guessing that the phase change part of the Joulies can absorb around 150kJ/kg, and the 5 of mine weigh in at ~150g altogether. That means that due to the phase change component alone they can store around ~22kJ of energy to release back to your coffee. Your coffee cup probably holds ~250g of coffee. It takes a little over 4kJ to heat a kilogram of water one degree, which means that it takes around 1kJ of energy to raise your entire coffee by 1 degree. This is starting to sound pretty good right? The Joulies should be able to raise the temperature of my coffee by 20 degrees? Assuming that the coffee cools by around 10 degrees every five minutes, the Joulies should give me an extra 10 minutes of drinking time. The effect to me seems, subjectively, around half of that at best. You could probably chalk this up to inefficiencies in the heat transfer process - for example the coffee is shedding heat faster than the Joulies can replace it, meaning that the coffee drops to an unpleasant temperature before the Joulies have given up all their heat energy.

Then there's the downsides of using the Joulies. They take up a noticeable amount of room in your cup, meaning less beverage fits. It's something else to wash. There's the worry they'll slide forward and chip your teeth when trying to get the last gulp. You'll look like a bit of a tosser if you use them outside of home.

It's a shame that the upside of the Joulies is so small, because it's a product I really wanted to like. I love the concept, but they need to fill them with something that has around 2-3 times the latent heat before I'd consider them as anything more than a novelty. Mind you, given some of the coffee snobbery that goes around, the small effect they do have is probably going to be enough to sell a lot of them to a very select market.

For me personally, even though I own some, I can't see them being used very often.

Joulies with Aussie 20c piece for comparison.

iCloud: iOS vs. Mac, victory iOS.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:14:00 +0000

One of the features that I was really looking forward to in iOS 5 was iCloud. Mainly because I've gotten quite used to using the iWork apps, Pages and Numbers, on my iPhone/iPad. (Well, mostly Numbers really - but that's just because my interests tend towards me needing spreadsheets a lot more than page layout or word processing apps.).
The file management for those programs though was a very weak link. I eventually settled on a semi workable solution where I kept all of my iWork files on iDisk. I'd download individual files of interest onto whatever device happened to be most convenient to use for viewing or editing. Then when done I'd upload it back to iDisk if I'd made any changes. It was a little clunky on the iOS devices but it worked seamlessly on my Mac, where a mirrored copy of my iDisk lived, and OS X did all the syncing transparently in the background.
I was expecting that with the launch of iCloud, I'd simply get that same seamlessness extended to my iOS devices as well. Once iOS 5 and iCloud and OS X 10.7.2 were all available and installed I eagerly migrated my MobileMe account across to iCloud. I updated all available apps, grabbed my iPad and started up Numbers.
Hmm, no mention of iCloud. That's okay, I'll just grab a file from iDisk to start with and..... Yep, it's syncing that file across to iCloud. Cool. Well, I don't want to do all my files one by one, I'll just jump on my Mac and move everything else across. Errrr, there's no iCloud interface on the Mac!? Ok, a quick google and... Oh, I have to upload my files through the iCloud website? Well, that's a bit clunky but I can live with it for now. After all, I only need to do this because I'm moving a bunch of existing files across. Whenever I create an iWork document from now on it'll go straight to iCloud. Right, let's start up Numbers and edit one of these new "iClouded" files. Hmmm, how do I open my iCloud files from Numbers? I guess I need to google that too, I thought it would've been more obvious.... You're kidding me. I can't open them directly? I need to manually download them via a web browser from the iCloud website, edit them, then upload them again? Isn't that the SAME PROBLEM WITH iOS THAT iCLOUD WAS MEANT TO FIX?!??
It was then that I realized that iCloud is a lovely integrated solution for syncing files across iOS devices, but its current Mac implementation is significantly worse than iDisk in MobileMe. Apple have essentially taken a system that worked great on Mac and so-so on iOS, and made it work very well on iOS and terribly on Mac. I'm more than a little underwhelmed. It's such a glaring issue that I'm sure Apple must've aware of it. I'm guessing there'll be an update to the Mac iWork apps very soon that addresses the problem. But I'm going to be very grumpy about it until then. With a workflow involving both iOS devices and a Mac, I think the old system worked better.

On a side note, I saw that theres at least one game which is making use of iCloud to sync progress between devices. Finally. This seemed like a no brainier to me as soon as apple announced that iCloud was going to be open to 3rd party developers. I hadn't seen anything in the press, or from any game companies, about planning to use iCloud in this way though, so I was starting to get nervous that it wasn't gong to be possible for some reason.

iPhone 4S not dual mode GSM/CDMA? [Update]

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:43:00 +0000

Update: Seems as though the hardware is dual mode, with two separate radios inside the phone. The comment on the Apple site is purely due to carrier locking agreements, not a hardware limitation.

Not that it really affects us much here in Australia, but it looks like none of the new iPhone 4S's are dual GSM/CDMA. It's interesting that this is the case, as even after the Apple launch event people were expecting a single hardware version to be both GSM and CDMA capable. There was lots of "world phone!" excitement from the press. (Well, the US press.... I think everyone outside that country considers any GSM phone to be a "world phone".)
How do I know that there's two separate versions? Apple states it about as clearly as they can (without actually stating it) on their website for pre-ordering the 4S in the USA:

The unlocked iPhone works only on supported GSM networks, such as AT&T in the U.S. When you travel internationally, you can also use a micro-SIM card from a local GSM carrier. The unlocked iPhone 4 will not work with CDMA carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.

The positive side of it is that all of us GSM only countries aren't helping to subsidise the cost of the CDMA hardware. From a geeky point of view though, I was really looking forward to seeing how they'd managed to combine the two separate analog/digital transceivers into the one unit. Oh well, it's possible I'm wrong - iFixit will have the definitive answer soon I'm sure.
I'm wondering if volume/mute buttons are in the iPhone 4 GSM spot, or the iPhone 4 CDMA (Verizon) spot. Given the antenna design of the phone seems to match with the "Verizon iPhone 4" then I'm guessing they'll be slightly moved from the existing Australian iPhone 4 location. Which means that existing iPhone 4 cases mightn't quite fit.

Speck ToughSkin for iPhone 4 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:35:00 +0000

A few weeks ago when I received an email letting me know that the Speck ToughSkin for the iPhone 4 was finally available, I was very excited. I loved the ToughSkin for my 3GS, when I initially heard there was going to be an iPhone 4 version... Well, see here for some of my raving about it. Needless to say I ordered one straight away. I've been living with it on my phone for a couple of weeks now, but I'm not nearly as happy with the iPhone 4 version as I was with the 3GS one.

The "case" actually consists of three parts. First up is a hard thin plastic shell case that clips to the iPhone, providing protection by itself, but also having some ridges moulded into it to give the main silicone case some grip. This snaps on very easily, adding minimal bulk to the phone - which is a good thing as it's actually held on so tightly it's very difficult to remove.

Next up is a silicone case. The iPhone pops in and out of it easily, but not too easily as with the OtterBox Defender I had. The silicone fits snugly and looks quite well integrated with the phone as a whole.

   Finally there's a holster/stand into which you can mount the iPhone either screen in or out. (No pictures of this.) It seems to hold the phone relatively securely, but I'm not the kind of person who wears my phone in a holster so I've not actually tried it out.

   So there's some good and some bad with the new iPhone 4 ToughSkin. (I can't help comparing it against the 3GS ToughSkin.) The first case layer is really quite nice. It's just a thin shell with good clearance cut outs around all the switches and cameras - it doesn't cover any of the buttons. The ridges and bumps that are incorporated to give the outer silicone case some purchase also give your hand some. I was always vaguely worried about the naked iPhone 4 slipping out of my hand. At the same time, because it's a simple hard plastic case, it's still very easy to slip in and out of your pocket. I leave my phone in this layer all the time now. Though I must admit, this is partly because even though it's a bit of a struggle to get the iPhone into its "jogging" case with that layer on, it's easier than getting that first layer of ToughSkin off.
   Overall the system used on the 4 version is much better than the 3GS version, where the inner "case" was really just a flimsy frame with some lugs on it to hold the silicon. This new first layer is all good. Unfortunately, its not why I bought the case. Even more unfortunately it's about all the "good" that there is left in the product.
   The outer silicone case is really what the ToughSkin is all about, the rest is just there to support the silicone. Either physically, or just to round out the overall "do anything" package that the ToughSkin is meant to represent. My biggest gripe with the case is that's it's significantly less grippy than the 3GS one was. You could throw the 3GS ToughSkin down on almost anything, at any angle, and it would grip and cling there like a spider. It was fantastic. (It also made it a pig of a thing to put in your pocket, but I was happy to make that tradeoff.)
   The ToughSkin for iPhone 4? Well, you can put it in your pocket much easier. If you throw it down on something it's more likely to bounce off than stick and grip. If you leave it on the dash of your car it'll slide roll and tumble.
   I'm not that clumsy Speck. I don't really need all that extra rubber around the phone because I drop it every three steps. I want it there so my phone is super grippy and will stay where I put it, regardless of how precarious a location I decide to leave it. It doesn't do this, so the case fails at the primary purpose I bought it for.
   Adding further salt to the wound, the case isn't flat on the back. Another positive of the 3GS ToughSkin was that it took a phone with a rounded back and made it flat. This meant that you could type on it while the phone was sitting on a desk without it rocking around crazily. The iPhone 4 lies flat without a case, but speck have made the back of the ToughSkin 4 with 3 flat panels. It's not quite a curve, but it still has enough shape that the phone rocks and moves side to side if you're trying to type on it while on a desk. Very annoying and anti-utilitarian. Worse still the "Speck" branding is right in the middle of the case, and slightly raised, adding more to the rocking abilities of the case. Letting your branding interfere with your product is a massive fail as far as I'm concerned - it just associates a negative experience with your brand. I look at the way the way the silicone portion of the iPhone 4 ToughSkin case is designed and shake my head sometimes.
   So overall: Fit and finish is great. The inner hard case is really quite nice (something I wasn't counting on). The multiple inner plastic to outer silicone attachment points really help the silicone case to fit well. To my mind the styling isn't as aggressive as the 3GS version - it's more stealth fighter than rock crawler tyre. Functionally it seems as though it'd be very protective in a drop situation, but far far more prone to sliding off something and falling than the 3GS version.

   I'm keeping it on my phone for now, but I'm still casting my eye around for an iPhone 4 case that captures all the good qualities of the iPhone 3GS ToughSkin. It's just a shame that the iPhone 4 version isn't that product.

Phone Bottom - Plenty of room around dock connector. 3 sided back clearly evident.

Nice amount of room around headphone jack. Noise cancelling mike may be a little obscured.

Tartini in Tune

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:32:00 +0000

I've been using various tuning apps on my iPhones for a couple of years now. I think I've had around six or seven, and most of those I've paid for. They've pretty much all worked, after a fashion, but I've never been all that happy with any of them. They're usually finicky about the sound level. They fall over if the tone they pick up is a long way from what you're trying to tune to. They're just not that visually appealing.
When you start to play a note, the usual process goes something like this: No, can't hear anything. No, still nothing. Nope. (Play louder) Maybe.... Yes, you're very sharp. Err no wait, I meant flat. Play louder, can't hear you again. Oh, that's perfect! (When even with my tin ear I can tell the horrible sound I'm making is still clearly a million semitones from being in tune.)
In steps Tartini. It's iPad (or computer) only at the minute, but what a revelation! It's easily the best quality tuner that I've used - both in terms of picking up a sound, and giving a stable predictable indication of what you're playing. For that alone it'd be the pick of the crop. But that's only skimming the surface of what this app will do. Where it really blows everything else away is that it doesn't just attempt to replicate a hardware guitar or chromatic tuner. It's like the people behind this have really thought about what you want from a tuner, without any preconceived ideas about what your typical hardware tuners are.
The app opens up, showing you a music staff. (Well, by default it shows a compressed view with around 10 octaves, but it's easy enough to change it back to a standard music staff.) You play a note, it shows up as a line on the staff. If it's a little flat or sharp, then the line isn't perfectly centered on the staff. If you're nowhere near the note that you're trying to tune to, it's very obvious. Simple, and obvious once you see it, but brilliant to make that jump from the traditional hardware tuners that you've probably used before to something which takes full advantage of the hardware available.
It doesn't just stop there either, as you play notes it will tag them on the staff - including sharps and flats. Also included is a vibrato monitor, which gives you a visual indicator of whether your vibrato is centred around the note as well as smooth and consistent.
The icing on the cake is that it records all the visuals so you can scroll back through and analyze your performance if you're so inclined.
There's also PC/OSX/Linux versions of the software - see the University of Otago site. (I've not used these much at all, they're not as pretty and it's just far more convenient to use the highly portable iPad for this kind of stuff.) If you're interested in delving into the details of the software there's source code and papers about it on the site as well.

And it's all free.

I can't complement it enough. Go and get it, even if you're just a hack of a muso like me. You'll love it.

Henge Dock Review

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:07:00 +0000

   When I use my laptop at home, I typically have it plugged into an exeternal keyboard, mouse, soundcard (yeah, thanks for that line in jack rather a microphone one Apple), monitor, webcam, speakers, mouse, iPhone sync cable, camera connection cable, printer/scanner. You get the idea. I'm really happy with the setup. I can take my laptop with me when I go away, or use it on the couch when I want to. But most of the time, it's just like having a desktop machine (which I think is more productive than a laptop).
   However, even with having most of the accessories running off a single usb hub, I still have a few things to connect/disconnect each time I "dock" my machine. Power, monitor, usb hub, speakers. This isn't that much hassle, but it was often enough to deter me from taking my laptop out of the study and using it on the couch. Also, a tangle of cables coming off the side of your computer is never pretty.
   So, since Apple doesn't make a docking station, (I do like something about the Dell my employer supplies!) I wound up getting myself a Henge Dock.
   Firstly let me say, after having had it for a few weeks now, it works great! I love being able to yank the machine out of its dock and take it to the lounge room at the drop of a hat. When it comes time to return it to the study I just drop it into the dock and everything is connected, quick and simple. It just works, and I like it. The dock seems very well made, nice tight tolerances on all the mouldings, no visible mould lines, a rubberised strip on the base to keep it steady and stop any vibrations. However, there's a few small things about the product that could be improved.
   Firstly, lets talk aesthetics. To my eyes it just doesn't look quite right. This is probably exacerbated in my case because I have a white macbook. The white of the henge dock is a different white to the macbook. I'm no colour expert, but I'd say the dock is a little more grey than the macbook. As in, it's a smudge darker and also a different colour tone. It also doesn't seem to have the same level of gloss, or that tiny hint of translucency that the macbook does. It's only a small thing, but enough that it doesn't look like part of the same product.

It's branded, and I dislike obvious branding. Written across the front of the dock in some godawful font is "HENGE DOCKS". It's very jarring, so much so that I'm considering masking and painting over it. On the side they've also put the henge dock symbol. I can understand that they want to get their branding out there, but I think the way this product is labelled would be hurting them more than helping.

   As for usage, I've only got one minor gripe - you need two hands to undock it. One to hold the dock down, and the other to remove the laptop. I'm sure I could tape/screw/glue/clamp the dock down to alleviate this, but it's not ideal. How about having some sort of internal lever system which pops the laptop up off its connecting plugs, allowing you to then just pick the laptop up? This would allow you to do the undocking operation one handed. It sounds like a small thing, but if you've got a coffee/iPhone/child in one hand, then a one-handed undock would be brilliant.
   Initial setup of the dock was a massive hassle. In theory it shouldn't be too bad, thread all the supplied extension cables that you want to use through the dock and plug them into your laptop. Put the laptop in the dock. Screw in the locking nuts to stop the cables from moving. However getting all of the plugs aligned correctly was harder than it should've been. This was in part complicated by the magsafe connector. Having the magnet snap the power connector into the laptop while I was trying to line up all the cables gave me a great deal of grief. Still, it only took about half an hour to set it up, which isn't so bad. Until you want to take the power supply away with you. Then its a hassle to set it all up again.
   This is partly due to the "universal" nature of the henge dock - it comes with three little plastic sleeves for the magsafe connector, one for each type that Apple has made. So you wind up wrestling with the magnetised connector which wants to snap to the laptop whenever the two are close together, the little plastic shim which needs to stay in between the dock and the connector, all of the other cables that are in the dock, the dock itself, and the laptop. I would've needed about 6 hands to set things up easily. However, once it's been set up it works well. I think I'd rather buy a second power supply than have to go through that again though.
   Apple probably has patents preventing this, but I'd love it if the dock came with a power extension cable (it comes with ones for the audio/usb/firewire/network ports, cudo Henge Docks) so you only need to do that cable setup once. Then if you're going away and want to take the power supply, you'd just pop the connector off the henge dock, the same way you'd pop it off your laptop.
   For all that I've just spent a few paragraphs griping about the thing, I do like it. There's nothing else like it on the market for Apple laptops, and it does its job very well. I'd recommend it to anyone who's looking for a docking station for their MacBook. I just think that with a few tweaks it could be a brilliant product, and it's a shame not to see it live up to its full potential.

Purple Carrots

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 05:36:00 +0000

In follow up to an earlier post, my purple carrots are maturing nicely. Here's a few I plucked out yesterday. They taste... Carroty! So even if they don't have any miraculous health benefits I'll be happy to eat them.

Woogie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:33:00 +0000

The Griffin Woogie is an iPod touch or iPhone case with a built in amplified speaker, all packaged in a soft toy:

Griffin Woogie

I've had a Woogie for a few months now, and have some fairly mixed feelings towards it. I think the case is very cute, and my 2.x year old loves it - as a soft toy. As a case and powered speaker designed for toddler though, it's got some shortcomings.

There's a speaker in there. Somewhere.

My first issue with the case is the volume of the speaker. It's pretty quiet. I didn't expect it to be loud (don't want to hurt the kiddies ears) but it's not even as loud as the built in speaker on my iPhone 4. It's really too soft for in-car use, which was one of the main reasons I bought it. Maybe the low volume is meant to lull kids to sleep?

Non removable battery box.

The battery box and other hardware are non removable, which means that there's no chance of dropping the Woogie into the washing machine. You can wipe the outside with a damp cloth and that's about it. To be fair, the case has been remarkably good at shrugging off small spills, but I still think it's a big oversight on a plush product designed for children.
The switch to turn the Woogie on and off is also at the wrong end of the battery box. Meaning that you need to fully remove the box from its pouch whenever you wish to turn the Woogie on or off. You need to do that a lot as well, otherwise the batteries go flat, it's got some serious phantom power drain issues. I expected that you could leave the Woogie turned on and it would only use batteries when playing music, or plugged into an iPod, but that's not the case at all. If you don't turn it off at the switch the batteries will be flat in a day or two.

Tidy little slot for inserting battery box.

Battery box halfway into its pouch.

   On the positive side, the battery box does tuck tidily away into a neat little pouch. And while I think the audio plug should have been located inside the iPod/iPhone pouch the cord isn't really long enough to be a problem. Before I got the Woogie I was concerned that it might be a choking/strangling hazard, or that the cord would just get caught on things and yank out of the iPod all the time. That's really not the case though, it's never been accidentally removed in use.

   I can live with most of the products shortcomings, but the lack of volume from the speaker is really disappointing. Speaker volume should be part of the basic functionality of this thing, but it's really its achilles heel. I think it's a great idea but it just wasn't thought through that thoroughly. I still use it a fair bit - but mainly with a first gen iPod touch which wouldn't have any sound otherwise.
   Cute and well manufactured, but not that well designed.

ToughSkin is Coming!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 11:31:00 +0000

   Yay! Speck have finally released a version of their fantastic ToughSkin case for the iPhone 4. See the Speck site for details.
   The ToughSkin cases are pretty unique, they offer a great deal of impact protection along with super chunky styling. These cases look like you could, in a pinch, use them to retread your car tyres.
   On the 3GS version the silicone was support by a plastic skeleton frame that you clipped onto your phone first. This skeleton was designed with little protrusions which in turn held the silicon case on nice and snuggly. It was a neat system and worked really well - none of the saggy bulgy squishy loose problems that I have with the Otter Box Defender which is currently on my phone. The Defender is also not very grippy - which is a major reason I like to have chunky silicone cases. I thought Otter Box were meant to make premium products? Though having said that, it seems the current Defender case now incorporates a substrate, similar to the ToughSkin. My "first generation" one was purely silicone.
   It seems like the ToughSkin for iPhone 4 has taken this skeleton/substrate design one step further - the ToughSkin "skeleton" is actually a complete hard case for the phone now, which could be handy. The downside of a chunky super sticky case is seriously reduced pocketability. The case also comes with a belt clip/holder which doubles as a stand - it works well but sorry, I'm not a phone belt clip kind of person.
   Very happy that they've finally brought this market - can't wait to get my hands on one. It's taken a lot longer than I expected - I've got an email from Speck customer service from June 2010 saying it'd be on the market in "about 5 weeks". 5 weeks, 7 months - whatever. ;)

Bioluminescent Snails!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 10:26:00 +0000

   How cool is this? A glowing green snail! Hinea Brasiliana. Ok, so it's only a sea snail, not something you'll find in your backyard. And this snippet of info disputes the green bit - but hey, a blue-white light is pretty cool as well.
   It's theorised that they use their bioluminescence as a defence mechanism, lighting up when disturbed to either try and scare away predators or simply light them up so something bigger and badder again can eat what's attacking them.
   The mechanism they use to light their shells up is pretty neat as well. The shell actually acts like a light transmitter/splitter, picking up the light from a small bioluminescent organ and spreading it throughout the entire shell. Sort of like one of those plastic light tubes, where a light shone on one end illuminates the whole thing. See Fibre Flare for an example of what I mean.
   Even more intriguing, the mechanism by which the shell transmits light is wavelength sensitive - it only lights up when hit with a greeny-bluey light, it won't transmit red for example.
   Neat little thing, but not quite enough to take the coveted "favourite snail" position away from the Otways Carnivorous Black Snail, Victophanta Compacta:

Sure, this one doesn't glow - but you have to admire the persistence of something that slow deciding it's going to live by hunting other critters. (Unfortunately they're endangered, so it's not working out so well for them.)

Original Article: BBC

3 mobile phones no longer roaming to Telstra?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:50:00 +0000

   Over the past few weeks (possibly months, time gets away on you....) I've noticed some real issues with my mobile phone which is on the 3 network. I used to love the service. I got cheap calls and very cheap data rates while around the city, and when I went to the country it just roamed onto Telstra's network - which undoubtedly has the best coverage in the country. It was a great deal as far I was concerned.
   Recently though, I've noticed that my phone not getting any coverage whilst in the country any more. The first couple of times this happened I just put it down to something glitchy going on with the network. But three trips to the country without any reception made me start digging a little deeper.
   I took a look at 3's mobile coverage map and noticed that it's looking much sparser than previous versions. Especially Telstra's, which they used to roam to when I signed my contract with 3. Ugh, seems like I'm starting to personally see the first effect of the 3/Vodafone "merger". Abysmal support for anywhere outside of major cities, a massive degradation on their prior service. Yay 3.
   Needless to say I've taken it up with 3. I'm sure there's nothing they can do to improve their service, but I do expect them to unlock my phone and release me from any early exit contract fees as they're no longer providing the service I signed up for. Thankfully Telstra pricing has become far more competitive in the year or so since I signed my 3 contract.
   I personally find it highly immoral that they've made this change without even notifying me. People rely upon their phones for emergency contact - what they've done is not just an annoyance, it's a safety issue.
   Hopefully I hear back from 3 quickly and don't need to take it up with the telecommunications industry ombudsman.

Apple TV 2 4.1 Firmware Update Failure

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 05:58:00 +0000

   So I just went to update the firmware on my Apple TV 2. The process was very straight forward, looking very similar to doing an iPhone firmware update. Unfortunately it failed and my sleek little media streamer is now a sleek little white led flashing device. It's rather disturbing to see that big "plug this thing into itunes!" symbol on your TV screen.
   Ok, so the firmware update failed, no big deal. Maybe that's why apple makes you connect iPhones for an iOS update rather than doing over the air (even over wifi) updates. I thought I'd just plug it into iTunes, the new firmware would download and away I'd go. Not too much of a problem. (Though I guess I'll need to drag the power cable out from behind my TV as well, sigh...)
   Now here's the really unfortunate bit, which Apple should be held accountable for. They've chosen to put a micro usb socket on the Apple TV. I've got no problem with them choosing the latest and greatest connector version - by all accounts the micro usb design is more durable than the much more common mini usb. (Though I'd hope I don't need to plug my Apple TV into a usb connection enough for durability to be an issue!) But micro usb is still in it's very early stages. I don't have any other devices that require a micro usb cable. I'd expect that many people don't. There's certainly nothing else in the Apple ecosystem that needs one. Yet Apple didn't see fit to include one in the box.
   That's incredibly galling. It means I've got a (temporarily) bricked device with no way of recovering it until I can get to the store and buy a cheap usb cable. Way to fail, Apple.

   For those interested, my Apple TV connects to the internet via 802.11n from an Airport Extreme, running with WPA encryption. I've seen some anecdotal evidence which states that the firmware update is more likely to fail over WiFi. I'd recommend you don't attempt the update until you've got a cable on hand, just in case.

UPDATE: Once I got a micro usb cable and plugged the Apple TV into iTunes the update went fine. All updates since this one (up to 4.3.1 at the minute) have, thankfully, worked via wireless.

Kinect the dots.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 06:38:00 +0000

   There's some neat IR video of the Microsoft Kinect peripheral for Xbox floating around on the web. Basically the device shoots out thousands of points of IR light for the camera to pick up on. I wonder how the algorithm which deciphers the dot pattern works? They grid they form seems to be more random than structured from what I can tell. I wouldn't have thought that the IR camera in the Kinect would have the resolution necessary to pick up on different sized dots for different distances. (The light beams that Kinect shoots out aren't parallel, things closer to the Kinect have smaller dots.) Does it pick up elongated dots and interpret them as angled surfaces? Interesting stuff.
   This video seems to indicate that it just uses the IR grid for depth perception. That's probably a lot simpler - it doesn't need to measure the individual size or elongation of the dots, only how far apart they are. You can do this with a much lower resolution (i.e. cheaper) camera.
   Still, it's nice to see MS doing something interesting for once.

Iron Man 2 DVD Copy Protection

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:10:00 +0000

   So today, on a whim, I bought the "Iron Man 2" DVD - I hadn't seen the film but thought I'd like it & it was on sale *shrug*. As I do with any DVD I purchase, I popped it into my computer to convert it to a format I can easily watch on my iPhone, or stream from a computer to my TV. The computer buzzed a bit, and spat out a heap of garbage but no video files. Ughhh. I flipped the case over and saw the tiny but dreaded "This DVD is copy protected!" symbol.
   It's completely immoral that they're allowed to sell crippled non-standard discs like this as DVD's. If they want to try and force their waste-my-time copy protection crud down consumers throats then it needs to be clearly labelled. I don't mean subtle either - I'm talking an industry agreed on standard strip at least 1cm high running across the front cover of the DVD. Something which states clearly that it's a non-standard DVD and may not provide the functionality expected of a DVD.
   I'm _very_ against pirating. I think people deserve to paid for their creative efforts. However it's insane that I need to jump through a bunch of hoops to watch a movie that I've bought, when I could pirate it and have a copy of the movie that just works. Copy protection (DRM) doesn't stop movies being pirated, it just annoys those that have legitimate copies. Idiots.
   Paramount (the studio for this particular DVD) seriously needs to rethink their consumer strategy as their current one is "irritating" people that would otherwise support them. Yeah, they suck.

World's Longest Tunnel Nearly Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:35:00 +0000

So after 15 years the swiss are nearing completion of a 57km railway tunnel, burrowing up to 2km deep underneath the alps. The cost for the tunnel is close to $10 billion AUD. What's it for? High speed rail.
Australia is comparatively pretty flat, and certainly wouldn't require any tunnels of this magnitude but apparently it's still not viable to run a high speed rail up the east coast. I know our population is a lot more dispersed, but it's still disappointing that we can't get programs like this off the ground.

Original Article: The Age

Sintel Released

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:58:00 +0000

The Sintel movie has been released! Go and watch it! It's an impressive piece of work, and a fairly good showcase for the capabilities of Blender, but I get the feeling it was rushed out to meet a deadline. There's quite a few little animation/texturing/rendering glitches that really don't help show Blender off to its best advantage. That's a real shame, because it's an amazing tool.
Still, what's been produced is far beyond anything I've ever done (worlds beyond) and it's an enjoyable little short. I'm wondering what the next project will be.

Shapeways Sampler Arrived!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:02:00 +0000

So my Shapeways sampler turned up in the mail today, only took a few days of transit time. I've never ordered anything from them before so I was very excited to get a look at the finish on some of the materials. The level of detail on the parts is really impressive and, aside from the "grey robust" material, the level of striation from manufacturing is really quite minimal. The stainless steel had much more heft and solidity to it than I expected, it really does come across like a cast piece. Overall I'm very impressed with the quality and finish of the parts - I'm currently dreaming up things to have made.

Stainless steel doesn't look that "bronzey" in real life, not a great photo.

Weirdly, my coloured sandstone piece is actually formed completely backwards!

Griffin Woogie - Toddler iPhone Case

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:45:00 +0000

   So Griffin have released a new iPhone/iPod Touch "case" aimed at toddlers. The Griffin Woogie. Not only is it a funky looking bright green 6 legged plush case (they pretty much had me sold right there!), it also includes a powered speaker.
   I've actually got a first generation ipod touch which isn't much good for my son, due to the lack of speaker. Coupling that with this case looks like a perfect solution. iPod gets sound without having to worry about earphones, along with some pretty sturdy looking drop protection and a whole bunch of cute. My orders in.
   The only obvious design flaw I'm spotting at the minute is that external jack for the iPod. Why they didn't position the cord in the end of the pocket away from little fingers is an interesting question. I'm also giving them the benefit of the doubt that the speaker will be removable and the Woogie washable - hopefully that's a flaw too obvious to miss!

UPDATE: See my review. (By the way, they missed that flaw!)

iPhone 4 Bumper

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:41:00 +0000

My free bumper arrived today, not bad timing given the original estimate was the end of September. The case though.... Well, it leaves a lot to be desired.

The fit is reasonable, but a little loose on the sides. The rubber component isn't very grippy at all, which some people might like but it's not what I was after. It makes it easy to slip into your pocket, but also off tables etc.

The biggest issue though is the opening around the dock connector. I'm not sure how many of you noticed that the connection cable which ships with the iPhone 4 is a little more svelte than every previous connector cable they've made? Including the AV connection cable? Yeah, none of those old cables connect properly when the iPhone is in its bumper case. Sheesh, what a PITA.

C'mon Speck, hurry up and make an iPhone 4 version of the ToughSkin.

Sugar doesn't relieve newborn's pain?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris O'Shannassy) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:55:00 +0000

   It's a sad day for tiny babies everywhere. My son was given sucrose just after he was born, it was amazing to see. He looked like he was in heaven, and it was an immediate reaction.
   Now there's a study which indicates that the babies may still be feeling pain after they get the sucrose, and the facial reaction is just an expression. I'm not sure I buy that - I'm not surprised that the pain signal doesn't go away, but the distraction of a first mouthful of sweet has to be a good thing.
   If you've seen the expression on a babies face when they get the sugar, you'd let them have it even if just a nice distraction rather than a true analgesic.

Source: The Age