Well that's gone and done it

Apple have just released the iPad mini. I have an iPhone 4 and a 2012 iMac already. When I bought the iMac I wanted a big screen for working at a desk. The cost of the larger Macbook was prohibitive. However I access the internet largely on my iPhone, even when at home because the iMac is in the spare room. I write my notes on the phone, I carry my phone everywhere, I record rehearsals on the phone. The only thing I don’t really do on my phone is make calls.

What my iPhone needs is a bigger screen.

A couple of years ago I noticed an interesting trend amongst film and visual artists. They had Macbook pro laptops and old Nokia dual band phones.

I have no pretence to needing pro equipment. What I need is something to use garageband, the internet, and write on that can go in a small bag or jacket pocket. I don;t make films like I thought I might but I do make music and write. I rarely use my phone for calls... would an old bulletproof phone work? Can I justify the iPad mini instead of an iPhone.

Random stuff

London to Hengelo

Dave and I recently went on a brief cycle tour, the long way round the Netherlands, to visit our old friend Adam. Highlights included a 20 mile dyke/road across the north sea, the sheer volume of public art, naked saunas, very flat riding and trappist beer...

iPhone 4 photography

I thought I’d share some thoughts on the iPhone4. I have downloaded several apps for photography and had a play around with many of them yesterday whilst pootling around Hackneyville. I am not pretending that the camera on the phone can replace a dedicated camera, but you can play with the limitations in much the same way that you can adapt to a lomo style camera. 

 Ignore the zoom, only capture things you can frame close-up. In fact if you can photograph something from above you can use tiltshift generator  to emulate the focus problems in miature photography.

Hipstamatic works well as there are enough pixels for square poloroid or lomo style photos.

I’ll post some examples of oldcamera and cloursplash at some point too.  One massive disappointment so far was Adobe’s Photoshop express. It doesn’t do much that I can see so far, but I’ll keep trying.