More thoughts on the Pre

Well it’s been a bit more than a week and my first impression fascination should be out of my system. I still think the Pre is a keeper, but here are things that others will find useful.

Keyboard is small but workable. I have a iPod touch that I keep in a pocket at the same time as I carry my Pre in my belt holster. I have used the Apple touch screen keyboard heavily when I was trying to use the Touch for my mobile e-mail. It just didn’t work for me, because of all the reasons others have complained about already. The Pre’s keyboard is one notch better than the Touch’s keyboard. The little keys are just enough for me to focus my attention on while I type with my thumbs. However, I must concentrate to find the keys with my thumbs. I would not call this touch typing. That said, it is a workable solution and I find myself reaching for my Pre rather than my touch when I want to type a quick message. The keyboard on my old Treo 700p was not any larger but it is easier to find keys because the gap between keys are more pronounced. The Pre’s keys are too level, when you run your thumb across them, you can’t quite tell where the edges of the keys are.

The camera is a bit better than average in both image quality and ease of use. Low light situations are improved by the flash, but the effective range is 2 – 3 feet. Macro photography is out of the question, minimum focus distance is nine inches by my guess. E-mailing the photo to Flickr for uploading is a snap, as is Twitpic.

Lunch at Aloha Tower for Flickr Friday

Aloha Tower - Flickr Friday meetup

Flickr Friday - one more pic

More thoughts about the apps and music player later. It’s after midnight already.

Water drops

Macro water drops on leaf

50 mm w/ an afocal 10x macro lens, ISO 200, f/22, 1/60 sec. using the built-in flash.

Macro water drops on leaf

Same lens, ISO 6400, f/13, 1/80 sec. no flash.

It’s funny how flash and a really small aperture can turn day into night.

Round Top Sunset Time Lapse

Round Top Sunset Time Lapse

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My friend Joe Philipson arranged for a Flickr meetup at Puu Ualakaa Park around sunset yesterday to hang out and practice time lapse photography. I’ve got a Canon A630 which I hacked with the CHDK firmware. I’ve tried stitching together time lapse photos before, but they never quite worked for me. I think I’m starting to ge the hang of it now.

Music for the video is “Restless for the Sun” by Jimmie Bratcher.

Halloween Pumpkin Photosynth

Trying out Microsoft’s Photosynth application with my office’s jack-o-lantern contest. A lot of the close up shots didn’t merge into the synth, so play with the controls in the upper right hand corner of the window to see all of the pics.

Unfortunately Photosynth is Windows only, and you will need to install a program so that the synth will display in your browser. But, it is worth it.

Hoover Dam photos

The Technorama crew and spouses took a back stage tour of the Hoover Dam. The audio and video will be posted on the Technorama blog, but I took a couple of pics worth sharing.

Hoover Dam spillway

This spillway has only been used once (or twice if you count testing). However, that one use spanned several months when flow from the Colorado river had filled Lake Mead and threatened to top the Hoover Dam. The high water mark can still been seen in this picture because the sides of the canyon were covered in calcification while it was under water.

Hoover_Dam-panorama

The photo above doesn’t show the full size of the Hoover Dam. I turned my camera into portrait mode to capture more of the Dam’s face. But when I stitched the photos together, the whole picture doesn’t fit nicely into a rectangular frame. Click the image below to see the full-sized, uncropped version.

Uncropped version of the prior photo