Nikon releases the D90!

by: Erik Bernskiold

Nikon has today released the D90 which is set to replace the older D80 model. The specifications of the D90 is pretty remarkable in times. It’s the first dSLR that can shoot in HD video quality. It’s got a 12.3 Megapixel sensor and all the goodies we’ve again come to expect by now. 3" LCD (with a 170° viewing angle), Live View and ISO ranges from 100-6400. The live view mode has a special face priority mode you can choose as well and the viewfinder coverage is at 96%. The battery life is said to be good for a whole 850 shots.

The Nikon D90 is said to be available in September, body only for £699.99 or for £849.99 with the new 18-105 ƒ/3.5-5.6G VR lens.

Monday Stuff

by: Erik Bernskiold

It’s another Monday, it’s another start of the week. I have a lot of things to share with you this week and It’s gonna be a really cool week. One of them is of course the artist interview as every week (and I’m not yet going to give away who it is). I’ve also got an article or two planned as well as some new tutorials! But let’s get started with some Monday Stuff!

• I do a lot of work with the WordPress publishing system and I really do like it. Obviously there are things I like to see in it, but overall it’s really really good and powerful. I do recommend it as a good and light cms + blog system. However it can be a daunting task to learn to customize any new script which is why I’m going to send you over to a series called Designing for WordPress by Chris Coyier at CSS-Tricks!
   
• Since I’m going to be working with moving computers around a lot today I’m going to give you a tip or two there to make it easier. They may seem obvious, but so many don’t practise it. Tidy the cables up. Especially good in small areas where it’s much nicer to have some cable foldings to put them in to minimise mess and possible outage. Also, if you’re opening the computer to do any replacement, make sure to both pull out the plug and set the switch to 0. Also use a special bracelet to ground yourself. 
   
• Finally, I’m going to leave you with a podcast or two today. First off, go and check out my Creative Suite Tips and Tricks podcast for tutorials, weekly, on the entire creative suite. Then if you are a photographer, go and check out the Image Doctors from the Nikonians Talk Radio. 

Calling and the iPhone

by: Erik Bernskiold

After ten gruesome days with my number in transition I can finally use the iPhone as a phone and it really does make it complete. Being able to surf whereever is really cool and of course being able to call and send SMSs the iPhone way is also really cool and something I’ve been waiting on for quite some time.

I’m realy pleased with how it behaves though and being able to call and do other things at the same time is cool, at least I think so. It’s a shame though that I can’t get visual voicemail here in Sweden yet because I bet that would be cooler than cool.

SMS

For me, sending text messages has never been simpler. Partly because I’ve never been fast on T9 writing and love a full keyboard – also partly because the way it is displayed which I quite like. It makes it much easier to follow up on the conversation you’ve had with someone without any hassle. It just works!

The Phone

The iPhone is a phone afterall and it does really do very good in the phone application as well. At a quick glance you get the favourite contacts and just a tap away are your recent calls, contacts the keypad and of course the voicemail (that for me is just a shortcut for calling the voicemail number). All of these lists are easy to navigate and they also look great (as does everything on the iPhone).

Final Verdict

The iPhone works as it should as a phone and I’ve had no problems with it after using it for a full day yet, it just works as I expect it to. I just wish the carrier here (TeliaSonera) would hurry up and develop Visual Voicemail with Apple.

 

My first thoughts on the iPhone 3G

by: Erik Bernskiold

Finally I did get to get the iPhone 3G after a long wait. We didn’t have it here in Sweden before and now it finally is. This first look is really at everything except the phone part. That’s because my number is in transition from my old service provider (Telenor) to the new (Telia). It’s going to take a week more and until then I can’t test the 3G speed nor how the phone works.

This review will obviously so far be based on everything else but the phone part with another second review coming of the phone features when I get to try it out next week, and then a mixed after that!

My Personal Buying Experience

I can really say that my buying experience was good. Being before both the UK and US in time the Apple activation servers were working properly and the queue time wasn’t that bad. I got in the queue at 9a.m (with the stores opening at 10a.m) and I got out with my phone at 11a.m. It took about 20 minutes to get it activated and all, mainly because of Telia’s servers being slow. Store staff were great, friendly and it all worked out super for me. Activation time through iTunes worked perfectly as well, meaning I don’t have any complaints here.

My First Impressions

Cool! It’s a really cool device that compared to the old phone I was using, blows everything away. There are a few things I really like and a few things I wish were there, but really none that I don’t like. My first impressions of the phone is that it is really cool however.

My Pet-peeves

My main pet peeve is that you can’t copy and paste information in the phone. From webpages to notes etc. This is something which is really neeed and should be able to be fixed with a software update. Wake up and do it Apple! It has been a top request since the release of the original iPhone.

I would also like to see the ability to turn the iPhone around in any application that uses the keyboard. I find the wider keyboard so much easier to type on and I would like to be able to use it, especially for notes.

The App Store

It’s great that Apple has opened up for third-party developers and it is something which should have been available all along. It works pretty good and there are already some applications which I really like (listing them below). I have one big pet-peeve here as well. I don’t like that they are limiting some applications per country. For example in Terry White’s review of the iPhone 3G, he listed some of his favourite applications and I found some I’d love to have, which I cannot get because I’m in the Swedish app store. It sucks and shouldn’t matter!

Some of my favourite applications that I love already are: Twitterific, NetNewsWire, VoiceNotes, SpeechCloud Voice Dialling, AIM and Enigmo (a very addictive game).

The GPS

It works moderately well it works good when it can get contact. Forget it getting contact inside a building or house but outside it does work really good actually. Although no turn by turn instructions (which should be possible) I like it so far. I had it on when going form home to family who lives a further bit down south from us in Sweden and it worked really well and showed everything that it should, including where I was very accurately.

My current opinion

Without having tried the actual phone (which I believe to be great) I don’t think in any way that the iPhone is perfect but it is the best phone out there that I know of. I will sum up the entire phone after I’ve used the phone features as well for a while so expect my full review up next week! Meanwhile, enjoy your iPhone if you have it and if you don’t, check out the features in action on the Apple Guided Tour.

Oh and by the way, a hidden tip. To take screenshots on the iPhone, hold down the home screen and click the sleep/wake button up top

For the best and and best covered review of the iPhone 3G, check out Terry White’s! 

 

I got my iPhone 3G!

by: Erik Bernskiold

Okay, I’m all happy, I got my iPhone today after a long time waiting for it. Queue time here wasn’t to bad, I got in the relatively short line at 9a.m and got out with my iPhone and all at 11a.m. It took perhaps 15-20 minutes to set up the contract and all with my number transitioning. Unfortunately it is going to take a full ten days for my number to transition so I cannot use the phone for calling or anything other than WIFI use. So my review is going to be once I’ve gotten to use it more. So it’s going to be split, in a little while I’ll talk about all other than the phone part, and then once I’ve gotten to use it, I’ll cover that as well to finally write a full one.

Hope all of you who were after one got it! More tomorrow.