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The David Boles Blogs Verizon Wireless Apple iPhone 6 Plus Review

Our Verizon Wireless iPhone 6 Plus phones arrived early this morning via FedEx, and here’s the quick David Boles Blogs review of our experience with the new iPhones.  After our initial ship date of 9/19 changed to 10/14 and then 10/7 and then back to 9/19, all in the span of three hours yesterday, seeing our FedEx guy show up with both iPhones in hand — one had shipped from Pennsylvania, the other From Tennessee — was a delight.

My FedEx guy told us he had thousands of iPhones to deliver today and that he was called in early this morning at 5:00am to start loading his truck; and then they held him an extra 90 minutes after his usual departure time to keep loading him up.  He also said the FedEx hub in Moonachie, New Jersey had the most iPhone deliveries today of any FedEx hub in the USA.  I reasoned the answer was likely because so many people who work in New York City live 50% cheaper right across the river in New Jersey — and they can better afford to buy a new iPhone every year!

The iPhone 6 Plus camera is improved from the 5S as you can see in this image.  The shot was taken in a darkened room with the light from the iPhone as the main source of seeing.  I used the bundled Camera App to claim the shot and did a “finger focus” on the screen to tap direct the source of important light.

Continue reading → The David Boles Blogs Verizon Wireless Apple iPhone 6 Plus Review

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On the Jersey City Heights Streets with the iPhone 5S Camera and Red Squares on Abandoned Buildings

With the arrival of our new iPhone 5S smartphones, Janna and I have been delighting in the new technology.  I can’t believe how lightweight the 5S is compared to my old clunker of a 4s.  Weight makes a mighty difference in the tote along tone and temperature of your day.

Here’s a caveat about the iPhone 5S camera:  When you shoot in bright sunlight — as I did on September 26, 2013 — you cannot see the screen, and you are basically taking blind photographs.  You rely on your iPhone to focus and try to frame what you’re hoping the camera is seeing.

There is also a new “slider set” of features on the  iOS 7 iPhone camera — “square” and “pano” and “video” and such — that, if you are not careful in your screen blindness, can change the way your iPhone shoots and frames the images.  Yesterday, my fingers tended to slide and select things on the new camera that I had no idea were being activated.

I like tall photographs for blog images, but some of the shots you’ll see here are the new “square” feature that I had no idea was a feature until I got home and saw the infuriating results.  I did not crop any of these images. With the iPhone 5S camera, it’s “live to live again!”

Here’s the first image taken with my iPhone 5S.  It’s a view of the Empire State Building in New York City and I am standing in Riverview Park.

Continue reading → On the Jersey City Heights Streets with the iPhone 5S Camera and Red Squares on Abandoned Buildings

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Curtains Make Good Neighbors and Bad Art

The quickest way to lose any social argument is to hide behind claiming the wellbeing of your children is at risk while not standing in front of them and offering them direct protection.  If you’re truly concerned about the welfare of your offspring, instantly act on their behalf, and don’t slog into the courts to beg a remedy to a simple matter of privacy that could be solved simply by drawing the curtains.

There’s an old saying in the Deaf Community when it comes to watching other people’s Sign Language conversations from across the room — “eyes for for?” — meaning “my eyes are for watching, and if you don’t want to be watched, then move out of my line of sight. Make your own privacy.”

Today, we could say the same thing about a camera in situ — “photos for for?”

There’s a big hoo-hah here in New York City over the right of a family to demand privacy in their floor-to-ceiling windowed apartment — even though they leave the curtains open — so anyone, and everyone, can see directly into their living space.

One neighbor, Arne Svenson, found the patterns of the family’s windows intriguing and took a series of images of them as part of his “The Neighbors” photography series.  Here’s an example from his fascinating collection:

Continue reading → Curtains Make Good Neighbors and Bad Art

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Oh, Robbie! Reviewing the Robbie Williams “Take the Crown Tour” in Krieau Stadium Vienna

Time to go what we had come to Vienna for — one of music’s “superstars” and a once in a lifetime chance to see Robbie Williams perform live on his Take the Crown Tour. It was time to be entertained by the best in the business.

Time to go and see one of the stars my romantic heart had grown up with and with whom I had developed a connection.  Robbie had owned a little piece of my heart from the Take That days and at times he sung the words I needed to hear with the voice of an Angel.

Our tickets cost 118 Euros  for seats in the stadium –rather than the pit — cheap in comparison to the UK concerts which were our other main option.

Continue reading → Oh, Robbie! Reviewing the Robbie Williams “Take the Crown Tour” in Krieau Stadium Vienna

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The Personal Parent Drone

When I was in grade school, I took a bus in the morning and had a morning routine — one of my grandmothers would walk me to the bus stop and make sure I safely got on before going home. I sometimes see parents in my building doing the same for their children, along with the occasional grandparent. One father decided he wanted to take what could be a loving task and make it ever so slightly Panopticonic and built a drone plane to follow him to the bus stop — all four hundred meters, that is.

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3100 MTA Eyes and 2000 NYPD Requests to Watch

We know we are being watched.  We accept we are being recorded.  We’ve even learned to recognize the multiplicity of cameras that bludgeon our every move now and forevermore.  There are cameras in the lampposts.  There are recording devices in the coffee cups.  The eyes of a peacock’s tail — as it struts along fallow land in the wilds of the Bronx and the niches of Central Park — have become a thousand, Panopticonic, eyes perceiving our every move.

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The Panopticonic Panasonic BL-C230A Watches More than Babies

Keep an eye out for the BL-C230A from Panasonic. If you see one, smile! You’ve just been captured for posterity and somewhere else, perhaps somewhere hundreds of miles away, someone has footage of you. It could be that your image has been instantly e-mailed to the owner of the BL-C230A. It could even be that the owner is watching you as you stare at it, dumbfounded.

Continue reading → The Panopticonic Panasonic BL-C230A Watches More than Babies