Category: Toys & Tech

Free SMS Messaging in Gmail

This could be a killer new feature for some people. Apparently Google at least partially pays for it by the return messages from the mobile device (that you’ve first sent a message from Gmail).

The way it works is that you start with 50 credits (displayed in the Gmail chat window where you send the initial SMS message). Every SMS message you send from Gmail uses one credit. Every message replied to from a mobile device restores 5 credits (for a maximum of 50). If you use all the credits, 1 credit will be restored automatically in 24 hours. So I guess you could game the system (because you’re a rebel screwing the system, man) by never replying from a mobile device.

So I’ve been trying it with both supported carriers (DTAC and True) in Thailand this morning, and there’s one big problem: The messages are arriving to the phones 8 to 10 minutes after I send them from Gmail. Too slow. The return messages are much faster, taking 2 or 3 minutes, but this is also very slow compared to sending between mobile devices in-country. I hope Google can use their magic influence to make their free SMS messaging a bit more usable in Thailand, but maybe it’s a case of you get what you pay for.

Cheap Nikon Body

We picked up a Nikon D40 body, the successor to my trusty D50, with a charger and two batteries for 3,000 baht (exactly $100 US today). On the D50, I’ve mounted the old Nikkor AF 70-210mm f/4-5.6 lens I bought in Japan, and the D40 will sport the lens from the D50 kit, the Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED.

I’m very happy with these cameras because they’re still much better than a pocket camera in most cases, but they’re cheap and worn enough now that I don’t feel like I have to baby them all the time. Also, sadly, I have very little time for hobbies at this particular stage in life. That’s OK though, because cameras and lenses tend to get cooler with age… Maybe I’ll have time for camera stuff again later on, or maybe I’ll just give them to Max and he’ll keep it on a shelf like I do my old Asahi Pentax.

Ore w Maikeru – rapmushi

First of all, people who called Google+ a “killer app” the week it was launched are either Brinlickers, or just completely misusing the word.

Second, rapmushi is truly a killer app for the iPhone.

I fucking detest Apple and have refused to buy anything they made since Steve Jobs sent me an email demanding money for a previously free macdotcom email address ~12 years ago and declared that “the era of free is over.”* However, if I could overlook the kind of mindlessness and snobbery that that Apple culture perpetuates, I might buy an iPad just to play this app; it’s that good. The last time I was moved to purchase a new system by a software title was by Parappa the Rapper on the original PlayStation.

*Actually, this statement was and still is true for Apple users, but he was talking about free services like webmail. The really ironic thing is that this truly outstanding rap mushi app is free.

iPad 2 Camera vs. Kodak DC120 (2011 Apple tech vs. 1997 SOA tech)

The Kodak DC120 was the first megapixel camera I owned. I got it back in 1998 or so and maybe sprung for an enormous 4Mb compact flash card as well, to add to the industry-leading 2Mb internal memory in the camera (enough to store 2 whole photos in RAW mode, but they didn’t call it RAW yet, it was simply described as uncompressed).

After I posted about the iPad 2 yesterday and decided against pitting its hapless camera against the one on my phone, I realized that I might have photos in my archives with which the iPad2’s test photo could be compared. My digicam archives go back to 1998, spanning those years with shots from different models of Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony, Ricoh, Sanyo, Kyocera, Panasonic, Fuji, Casio, Toshiba, Leica (!!), and numerous spotty models of indeterminate Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean manufacture (I even have shots from a camera that apparently embedded a paid porn site URL in the EXIF data — can’t figure out who’s camera it was, though). All of these cameras proved to be more capable than the iPad 2’s camera(s). Finally, browsing through some shots with the Kodak DC120 that Nam took in Yasothon Province, Thailand, during the annual banfai rocket festival, back in 1999, I found some comparable shots taken on an overcast day. Here’s one:

Cropped image at 1:1

 

The iPad 2 photos from yesterday’s post:

Cropped image at 1:1

Aside from the lighting, I think the state of the art digital camera from 1997 actually stands up fairly well with the best-selling tablet computer* of today.

*Apple says it isn’t a tablet computer (“It’s not a tablet, it’s iPad 2″), so maybe we can classify it as a “touchscreen-operated computing device with highly-intuitive software and two shitty cameras pointing both front and rear for all your shitty photography needs (although it’s not made for taking photos).”

Apple iPad 2 Camera Review

In a thousand words:

The small size of this thumbnail hides the poor quality of the image at its true resolution. You can click the image above to see that, too, but just in case you’re too lazy:

Cropped image at 1:1

I was actually going to post a comparison photo from my HTC Desire HD, but I didn’t realize that the whole world already knows about this issue. The sad thing is, this is the higher spec camera of the two on the iPad2. And the best response I saw from a fanboy on an Apple forum said something about this device not being made for taking photos. It has two cameras that takes stills, yo — it is made for taking photos.

On the other hand, the camera on the iPhone seems very good — I’ll see a friend who has one tomorrow, so maybe I’ll test it out against my Desire HD.