How About A Tiny Bayonet Mount Lens For Your Phone?

I can’t say I really want one right now and I certainly don’t need one, That said, the the gizmo I’m going to show you today certainly is interesting, well-designed, extremely well built and has great reviews. The device, made by Moment, a Seattle start-up is a mini-lens that attaches to an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy or Nexus phone via a near paper-thin metal mounting plate. I found it interesting more as a sign of things to come for future smartphones.

Moment’s paper-thin lens mounting plate for your smartphone

The thin metal plate shown above uses a rubberized adhesive to securely attach to the phone without harming your device. It’s designed to fit under your protective case as well.

This is how your smartphone will look with the plate and lens attached

Moment lenses have 2 versions – wide at 18mm and a 2x telephoto. Using the iPhone’s built-in zoom lens simply amounts to cropping your photos. Moment’s telephoto increases the optical range from 30mm to 60mm while increasing the crispness of your images compared to digital zoom.

Moments 2x telephoto lens

Once you have the plate attached to your smartphone, attaching a Moment Lens is just a ‘twist and click away’ – literally!  It attaches via a bayonet mount that owners of 35mm and DSLR cameras have long been familiar with. All you have to do is orient the lens with the “M” logo faced downward, insert it into the bayonet, and twist 90 degrees. So, it’s attach, shoot, detach, couldn’t be much simpler.

On the left is the wide angle lens and on the right is the telephoto lens

What do these little gizmos cost. The lens are $99.99 and the mounting plates are $9.99 – there is also a small leather holster available for carrying your lens.

Marc Barros the founder of Moment Lenses

In February of this year, Marc Barros the founder of Moment successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign, blowing past a $50,000 goal and raising $451,868 from more than 4,500 backers.  Following that Barros soon found support from several deep pocketed “angel investors” like Starbuck’s owner Howard Schultz to raise $1.5 million in seed money. “There are three billion phones in pockets, and they are capturing trillions of photos,”” Barros said. “We see this really, really good wave.”

Big day for Mason – his car seat now faces forward instead of back!

Yesterday was a really big day for Mason. Carrie switched his car seat from rear-facing to facing forward so now our little man can see where he’s going instead of where he’s been. Carrie said Mason just loves it as he can now see his Mom from the back seat. I think Mason’s going to be a good little back seat driver!

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A Day Of Odds ‘n Sods And A Few iPhone 5S Pics

One of the things I really don’t like is having morning appointments for anything. Since I retired, I don’t like appointments period but morning ones are always worse than others. I usually have a nice, relaxing routine in the morning getting up around 6:30am, then pouring a cup of coffee before heading off to my computer room to check on the news of the day, blogs and emails. How long I spend doing that depends entirely on what’s going on but I hate being rushed as I was yesterday.

I spent 2 hours in the Campus Honda waiting room Wednesday morning

The reason I was rushed is because I had a 9:30am service appointment for our Honda Civic down in Victoria. This meant I had to leave home around 8:30am which threw my regular routine out the window. I did get down to Campus Honda in Victoria on time and 2 hours later, after a routine service and a recall check on something called a battery-minder, I was out of there and headed back towards home.

C’mon Costco! You’ve got to be kidding…isn’t it just a tad early for Christmas?

Before I could head up over the Malahat to Cowichan Bay I had to make a quick pit-stop at Costco to pick up a few things. While hustling down the aisle towards the back of the store I was stopped in my tracks by a horrible sight – Christmas stuff… all kinds of it from 5’ tall toy soldiers and snowmen to decorated trees for sale. What the heck, Costco?  Can’t you at least wait until after Halloween to start the hype over Christmas? I quickly bought what we needed and I was outta there!

NASA 3D photo of massive storm over Arizona last Monday

While browsing around the web yesterday I came across a spectacular NASA satellite photo of the record rain that pummeled Phoenix and other parts of Arizona on Monday. I think I heard somewhere that Phoenix had 3” of rain in one day. How would you like to parked in an RV under the monster storm shown in the above pic! I was happy to see that Palm Springs looked to be pretty much high and dry as usual.

I’m not really sure what prompted this but I’ve begun to use my iPhone camera more and more lately for the simple reason I always seem to have it with me. Another reason is that for most blog photos I take it seems to do an excellent job. My usual camera, which I love, is my Canon G15 and I seldom leave home without taking it with me especially when we go on our afternoon walks. Even though my G15 is much smaller and lighter than a big, clunky DSLR it’s still a lot bigger than an iPhone.

I’ve posted 4 photos in today’s blog that I took yesterday. Obviously, the one from space about the Phoenix storm isn’t mine. I used my iPhone 5S for all of them. As long time readers of my blog know I’ve always been of the opinion that for most blog photography it doesn’t make a whit of difference whether you use an expensive Canon or Nikon DSLR or a good point and shoot camera. Computer screens and tablets are not the same as photo paper so the results are much the same no matter the camera. Given the convenience, I’ll be using my iPhone for more pics!

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Steve Jobs Would Have Been Proud – Apple Lights It Up

Apple lit up the Internet and media outlets worldwide with one of their biggest, most ambitious product launches in history even my Steve Jobs standards. Apple unveiled two completely re-designed, larger iPhones, the much anticipated smartwatch and fooled everyone by simply calling it the Apple Watch. Not only that Apple also announced a new mobile payments platform called Apple Pay. Quite a day. Steve Jobs would have loved this as it was right up his alley.

My fearless prediction is that the Apple Watch will be huge – like the iPhone

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are bigger, rounder and faster. The Apple Watch does more than any smartwatch on the market today. Now, the big question was “how will the public respond?”  The answer wasn’t long in coming as Twitter just exploded following the big Apple Watch announcement with tech lovers around the world totally freaking out about this new device. Late into the night the Apple Watch was still the #2 trending topic on Twitter. People are willing to sell their prized possessions to get this watch, which starts at $349.

As for me, I liked the new iPhones but their still just iPhones and they’ll continue to evolve from smaller to bigger and then who knows?  Maybe back to small? I can easily wait until my current iPhone 5S contract runs out to get a new iPhone 7.  Now, the Apple Watch? I love it. I’d even start wearing a watch again after 15 years with this baby. Below, are some basic facts about the new iPhones and Apple Watch. It’s not comprehensive by any means but I hope I’ve covered the highlights. 

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

  Size comparison of iPhone 5S to the new iPhone 6

A brand new design: The new design is rounder, smoother and has a continuous form. It is the thinnest iPhone yet. Even though both iPhone 6’s are bigger they are still thinner and lighter than the iPhone 5. The new phones are made with beautiful anodized aluminum, stainless steel, and glass. The iPhone 6 has a Retina HD display, about two times the resolution of the iPhone 5 display.

  These iPhones are becoming real computers – I mean powerful!

64-bit A8 chip and M8 co-processor:  Both new iPhones feature an A8 chip built on second-generation 64-bit desktop-class architecture. Its incredible power is enhanced by an M8 motion coprocessor that efficiently measures your activity from advanced sensors, including a new barometer without draining battery life. The M8 co-processor is designed for fitness and activities.

More and more the iPhone camera is taking over the point-and-shoot market

An improved 8MP camera with 1080p HD Video

Every day, people take more photos with iPhone than with any other camera. The iSight camera doesn’t only take great photos. It lets you shoot stunning 1080p HD video at 60 fps, capture more dramatic slo-mo video, and for the first time, create time-lapse videos. Continuous autofocus provides constant focus as you capture your footage. And cinematic video stabilization keeps your shots steady, even when you’re not. This is a camera that will put a real dent in the point-and-shoot camera market as well as the big, expensive DSLR’s.

Better battery: Apple claims the new devices will be as good as, if not better than, the iPhone 5s. According to their specs we can expect about 11 hours of video watching and Wi-Fi browsing, and about 14 hours of video and browsing on the iPhone 6 Plus.

 

Faster LTE and WiFi:  LTE speeds are now up to 150 Mpbs, compared to 100 Mbps in previous models. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus also come with 802.11ac networking for faster home and office speeds. This means with new support for 802.11ac, you’ll experience up to 3x faster Wi‑Fi than with 802.11n.

Apple Pay – you’re wallet without the wallet

Apple Pay: A new mobile payment system, using the iPhone 6's new NFC chip, will allow users to pay for low-priced products from their device. Integrating with Touch ID and Passbook, users can add a new card from iTunes or by scanning their card with the camera.

There are quite a few other improvements to the iPhone 6 that I could mention but I think the ones above are the most relevant for most of us.  Oops…what about the cost?  The basic iPhone 6 will sell for $199 on a 2 yr. contract while the iPhone 6+ will cost $299 for 2 years. The phones come in gold, silver, and space gray. One more thing – iOS 8 will be released for free on September 17 and will be available on the iPhone 4S and later, iPad 2 and iPad mini and later, and the fifth-generation iPod touch.

Finally, is this enough to make me want to upgrade from my iPhone 5S?  But, if I had an iPhone 4S or earlier this would be a no-brainer for me. I’d go for the new iPhone 6 Plus in a flash. But, since I have about 18 months to go on my phone I’ll just wait for the iPhone 7 or 8 to come along. Or, will it be called simply the Apple Phone 7 or 8?

Apple's new watch may not have been the most-hyped gadget of all the time, but it's pretty close as Apple has teased Apple fans for a few years now about this new device. Now it's here and Apple's simply calling it Apple Watch. It will be available in early 2015, starting at $349. Everyone expected it to be called the iWatch but Apple appears to be moving towards name-branding much like Google so it’s Apple Watch.

There are 3 different styles and prices with the basic watch at $349

The Apple Watch still relies on the iPhone to operate, which means it can't be used on its own, much like smartwatches from competitors like Samsung and LG. The watch requires an iPhone 5 or higher as a companion device. Like the iPhones, Apple Watch comes with voice-activated assistant Siri, which can be accessed by holding down the digital crown to activate. It will also work with Apple Pay, which allows users to pay for items from a fast growing list of retailers.

The Apple Watch features:

• A wireless charger that clips to the back of the Watch magnetically.
• A sapphire crystal display, the same extremely hard material used for the iPhone's camera.
• A "digital crown" on the side of the watch to scroll through items, zoom, and return to the home screen.
• A wide range of bands and finishes, including an 18-karat gold edition.
• A heart-rate sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope and the ability to send vibrations to your friends by touching your Apple Watch.
• Turn-by-turn directions that lets users know which direction to go by vibrating in a certain way.
• The accuracy of the watch is no more than 50 milliseconds off at any time.
• It also comes with a “TAPTIC engine” that provides tactile feedback with the apps and functions of the watch
• the watch senses when you’re wearing it, and turns on the display
• There are IR lights and sapphire lenses on the back of the watch for heart rate
• The Watch is compatible not only with the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but the iPhone 5, 5C and 5S.

From Apple: High-quality watches have long been defined by their ability to keep unfailingly accurate time, and Apple Watch is no exception. It uses multiple technologies in conjunction with your iPhone to keep time within 50 milliseconds of the definitive global time standard. And it can automatically adjust to the local time when you travel. Apple Watch also presents time in a more meaningful, personal context by sending you notifications and alerts relevant to your life and schedule.

A more immediate way to connect

Over the next few weeks, I’m sure we’ll be hearing much, much more about these new Apple devices. This will be especially true with the new iPhones hitting the market this September 19th. I’ll keep you posted on developments good and bad.

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iWatched The Unveiling Of The ‘Apple Watch’ – $349

A QUICK FIRST LOOK AT ‘APPLE WATCH’

At precisely 10am this morning I tuned my Apple TV device to Cupertino, CA to watch (no pun intended) what surely was the biggest announcements Apple has made in several years. The highlight was the introduction of Apple’s very first wearable device – the Apple Watch – not the iWatch as most people thought. No matter, this watch I believe is going to be just as big as the iPod and iPhone. At $349 this is the watch that just might redefine watches – I’d love one!!

The new Apple Watch will be available early next year starting at $349

Apple's first wearable gadget beams messages, Facebook updates, simplified apps and Siri to our wrists, eliminating the all-too-common need to take out our devices to constantly check notifications. Promising that the Apple Watch will "redefine what people expect from a watch," Apple showcased a wide variety of functions for its upcoming wearable device on Tuesday, including built-in fitness tracking, support for secure Apple Pay wireless transactions, and even a unique MagSafe-style inductive charging cable.

The Apple Watch also features:

• A wireless charger that clips to the back of the Watch magnetically.
• A sapphire crystal display, the same extremely hard material used for the iPhone's camera.
• A "digital crown" on the side of the watch to scroll through items, zoom, and return to the home screen.
• A wide range of bands and finishes, including an 18-karat gold edition.
• A heart-rate sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope and the ability to send vibrations to your friends by touching your Apple Watch.
• Turn-by-turn directions that lets users know which direction to go by vibrating in a certain way.
• The accuracy of the watch is no more than 50 milliseconds off at any time.
• It also comes with a “TAPTIC engine” that provides tactile feedback with the apps and functions of the watch
• the watch senses when you’re wearing it, and turns on the display
• There are IR lights and sapphire lenses on the back of the watch for heart rate

The Apple Watch still relies on the iPhone to operate, which means it can't be used on its own, much like smartwatches from competitors like Samsung and LG. The watch, which will go on sale "early next year" for $349, requires an iPhone 5 or higher. Like the iPhones, Apple Watch comes with voice-activated assistant Siri, which can be accessed by holding down the digital crown to activate. It will also work with Apple Pay, which allows users to pay for items from a fast growing list of retailers.

The face is customizable to your own tastes and has a variety of wrist straps

Apple said it will sell three versions of the Apple Watch, including a sports model and an 18 carat gold model called the "Apple Watch Edition." The Apple Watch also comes in two sizes, one slightly smaller than the other. Apple's new watch requires an iPhone, but it will work with the iPhone 5, 5C and 5S in addition to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. It will start at $349 and will be available in early 2015.

I’ll be looking more closely at the new Apple Watch as reports come in and talk more about it in Wednesday’s post. Oh yeah – Apple also introduced 2 new iPhones today the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ that both look pretty good with their much larger screens, better cameras and a whole host of other features. More on the iPhones tomorrow as well.

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Fox & Friends To “Discuss” Their Jokes Made About NFL Player Ray Rice Punching His Fiancé Unconscious

Fox and Friends is the toxic waste dump of television. The barely coherent panel proved it again on Monday morning when they decided to turn the gruesome video of NFL player Ray Rice punching his then-girlfriend unconscious in an elevator into a joke, saying that in the future she should “take the stairs.”  It’s on the video clip::

Fox & Friends co-hosts make jokes about disturbing domestic violence video

Following a firestorm of outrage directed at Fox & Friends from virtually all directions, the network announced late Tuesday that the comments made by co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocey would be “discussed” on Tuesday morning’s show. This sounds like the two goofballs will actually still be employed at Fox. What a surprise, right? These clowns should be fired permanently, along with the directors, producers and any other idiots who gave these comments a pass.

Fox host Andrea Tantaros promptly blamed President Obama – naturally!

It wasn’t the only outrageous comment made on Fox News yesterday concerning the video of the Ray Rice assault on his fiancé. Fearing she might lose favor with the nutbar crazies, Andrea Tantaros, host of Fox’s Outnumbered, promptly tried to divert the blame to guess who?  President Obama of course! Fox News will turn any story into an attack on President Obama within 5 minutes! In full throat faux outrage she demanded "I wanna know, where is the President on this one?"

Watching Fox News gives you “crazy eyes”

The President was in meetings with lawmakers about ISIS. But, at almost the same time Tantaros was shouting as usual on Fox News, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was addressing reporters saying that President Obama was “aware of the [Rice] situation,” then added that “you have seen the president make very forceful comments about how important it is for men, in particular, to step up and step forward,” and that violence against women “is not and cannot be tolerated.”

Only on Fox News can it be made into a joke! 

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Idiots Of The Day – Fox & Friends Joke About Raven’s Ray Rice Punching His Fiancé Unconscious

Deadspin’s Tom Ley said it best just this morning while describing Fox & Friends incredibly stupid statement that the message from the video of the Raven’s Ray Rice knocking out his fiancé in an elevator is to “take the stairs” .

Here’s what Tom Ley had to sayt: 

“The permafaced dipshits who comprise the cast of Fox & Friends decided to carve out a minute of this morning's show to talk about Ray Rice knocking out Janay Palmer in an elevator. They decided to end the segment with some jokes.”

“What we have learned today is that these morons cannot be in front of a camera for longer than 50 seconds without doing or saying something monumentally stupid.”

The short 30 second video of Ray Rice knocking out his fiancé in the elevator

In case you do not want to play the 30 sec. clip above from TMZ, it clearly shows Ray Rice of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens knocking out his fiancé Janay Palmer with a vicious left-hook to the face. Palmer goes down immediately and never moves.

Fox & Friends co-hosts crack jokes about it

It’s no surprise that the 'Fox & Friends' co-hosts responded exactly how you'd expect them to on Monday after video was released.  Here’s how Fox & Friends decided to turn a terrible domestic abuse incident into what they thought would be a good time for a moment of hilarity:

"She still married him!" Steve Doocy said of Rice's wife, Janay Palmer.

"Rihanna went back to Chris Brown right after [he assaulted her]," Brian Kilmeade said. "A lot of people thought that was a terrible message."

Doocy compared the video to the elevator incident between Jay Z and Solange. To which Kilmeade then-- you guessed it-- defended Jay Z for not hitting back.

"I think the message is, take the stairs," Kilmeade concluded.

No. That's really not the message. You are complete idiots and that’s why you are on Faux News!!

Fox and Friends is easily TV’s most idiotic program but this morning they outdid even themselves. Brian Kilmeade, in particular, seems to lack the acumen or sensibility of the average kindergarten student. But, Faux is the network that also employs Sean Hannity.

As for Ray Rice, his employer the Baltimore Ravens didn’t think the video was as funny as Fox and Friends as they fired him from the team shortly after the video became public. They claim, like the NFL, that they never saw this second video until this morning. Apparently, the first video of Rice dragging the unconscious Jany Palmer out of the elevator was only enough for a ridiculous 2 game suspension.

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Will Apple Go All Dick Tracy On Tuesday With An iWatch?

I hope no one’s asking who’s Dick Tracy? If you are then your either way younger than me or lying about your age!  I’d suspect the latter!

Dick Tracy is a comic book character from the 1930’s thru the 1970’s and was famous for his 2-way radio wrist watch radio that was upgraded to be TV capable in 1964.

Back then it was all pretty fanciful stuff that folks would argue about for hours. Some believed that it might be possible while others said it couldn’t be done. This Tuesday, in Cupertino, CA many analysts expect Apple to introduce another of their world-changing technological revolutions (1984 Macintosh, the 2001 iPod, the 2007 iPhone and the 2010 iPad) the iWatch. If they do introduce the iWatch then that will be the big news – forget the iPhone 6!

This is just an idea of what the iWatch might look like – no one really knows!

Ever since Tim Cook took over as CEO of Apple following the death of Steve Jobs many have questioned whether or not he could come up with another of the killer products introduced to the world by Jobs. To date, Cook has only offered better iPhones and iPads but nothing truly original. This time, however, Cook is saying that the world's most-watched consumer electronics maker would soon deliver "amazing" products that cross into new categories beyond its wildly successful products!

Another guess at what it will look like

There’s all kinds of speculation out there about the new iPhone 6’s and their bigger screens, sapphire glass and faster processors. Several tech sites have posted photos of what they believe are iPhone 6 prototypes. But, Apple has kept the lid nailed down tight on the iWatch and there have been no leaks as to the design of Apple’s iWatch. That hasn’t stopped the speculation so I thought I’d just wrap up a few of the best rumors floating around.

Or could this be the new Apple iWatch – everyone has a style guess

The iWatch will tell time – that’s a given. The iWatch will also track your health with some of the potential things it might track being heart-rate, blood sugar, blood pressure, air pressure, altitude, temperature, weather, ultraviolet light exposure, calories, steps and sleep. While other devices are now available to do some of these functions, including wearable smartwatches, none of them have really caught on with the public and gone mainstream. Apple has a habit of changing people’s habits.

While the iWatch will probably run iOS it won’t be as capable as your trusty iPhone. Most likely it will have to pair with an iPhone to send text messages or, like Dick Tracy, to place a phone call. If this is true that’s a good thing because it will mean you won’t need a separate service plan for the watch. It’s also assumed there will be apps for the new iWatch but no one knows for sure as Apple isn’t saying a thing.

One of the really big features of the iWatch is, and again this is just a rumor, Near Field Communication (NFC). This is a type of short-range, wireless communication that because of close range can let a device do a whole lot of things fairly securely. Just by tapping the watch on a compatible receiver when you're checking out at a store, you'll be able to pay a bill using your credit card — all without taking out your wallet.

As for how big this iWatch will be most analysts think there will be 2 sizes. A smaller one at around 1.5” with a larger 2.5” model. As for the glass, it’s going to be curved and covered in scratch resistant sapphire crystal. It’s supposed to have a slight flex to it as well for safety purposes. But again, this is all conjecture. One bit of news that is probably surprising is that the Apple is rumored to be pricing the iWatch at around $400. If true, that’s going to attractive to a lot of folks.

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