Daring Fireball: from influential tech blog to semi-official Apple representative?

I posted recently about John Gruber's blog, Daring Fireball, in the light of his countless posts about the lost iPhone prototype.

During the last weeks, I have more and more the feeling that Daring Fireball is becoming an almost semi-official blog to transmit official Apple views on different issues. The last note written by Steve Jobs on the Flash conflict with Adobe could perfectly have been written by Gruber, given the almost complete identity of their respective reasonings.

In my humble opinion, it might be time to reconsider the editorial line of Daring Fireball. If the trend continues, I personally will delete its address from my reference sites on technology, because I don't want parrots making Apple propaganda: I want what Daring Fireball has been in the past: an interesting website, obviously with preferences for Apple products, but still credible. And the credibility is clearly under question, at this time. In order to keep credibility of opinions, it has to be clearly stated that your opinions are not depending on the interests of any enterprise, including Apple.

New album & book from Antony & the Johnsons: "Swanlights" to be published in October, 2010

I was very nicely surprised this morning, when thanks to a good friend I knew about the forthcoming project from Antony & the Johnsons: "Swanlights". It is a book with illustrations from Antony, together with a new album. There is little information about the content yet, but it is available as prerelease in Abrams Books.

Apparently it will be actually published on October 1st, 2010. So we have to keep on waiting a bit until actually getting it. But still this was completely new to me, and it's another strong candidate (together with the brand new album from Erykah Badu, "Return to the Ankh") to Album of 2010, in my opinion.

Thom Hogan completely & absolutely misses the point of mirrorless interchangeable lenses cameras

For the record, and no need of long explanations: In my opinion, Thom Hogan, in his recent comment at his website, entitled "Mirrorless will be like Netbook" (posted on April 28th at his site, bythom.com) is completely wrong.

He makes an oversimplistic analogy between EVIL cameras and netbooks. It is flawed and it does completely miss the point.

There is a significant market of advanced amateurs of photography for whom it is disgusting to carry often a dSLR model, in spite of its better capabilities. They would love to have a good EVIL camera with a fine pancake lens that can be carried and used everywhere without any significant space issue.

But anyway, time will tell who is right about this topic.

Revolutionary new device to read

This is only in Spanish (a pity), but if you understand it, it is priceless:

Prince switching from AEG to Live Nation?

This comes from a discussion with some friends interested in Prince music.

It is well known that Prince recent resurgence, from 2004 onwards, and starting with the Musicology tour, is closely linked to the decision of Prince of working with AEG, one of the two big enterprises involved in organizing live tours of big stars. This strategic move of Prince has worked wonders, leading to big hits like the above mentioned Musicology US tour, or the 21 nights in London.

Now, when I was digging about the details of the recently announced live appearances of Prince in European festivals, it happens that all of them are related to AEG's main competitor, Live Nation. I am not sure yet if the organization of all of these festivals is directly managed by Live Nation, but regarding tickets, it is clear that Live Nation is selling those tickets, and two of them (Arras Festival and Werchter Boutique Festival) are Live Nation events.

Besides, I found some days ago that Live Nation has a page, in their website, devoted to Prince tickets:

http://www.livenation.com/artist/prince-tickets

But then again, still today, you can see a certain purple musician prominently displayed in the page of AEG:

http://www.aegworldwide.com/03_music/na ... tours.html

All in all, this is quite confusing and I have no clear picture to offer yet; but in my opinion, this information suggest that Prince might be about to switch (or maybe it's something already done) from AEG to Live Nation, regarding the organization & management of live appearances.

Whether this is good or bad news for fans of Prince music, I don't know, but it's quite interesting, in the light of the many recent news suggesting that Prince is in strong need of cash.

By the way, if you need to contact me in private, please send an email to cateto.catetez@gmail.com

The new Pentax 645D camera will be distributed worldwide

Well, this was widely speculated some months ago, but according to recent news published by DSLR Magazine, the Pentax 645D medium format camera will be distributed worldwide. It seems it will be available in Spain in August 2010, although the prices are not yet defined.

Apple's stock value tops that of Microsoft

This has been rumoured for a longtime, but today I was reading the newspaper El País and found it happened already:

the total stock value of Apple ($ 242,ooo millions) is higher than that of Microsoft ($ 239,ooo millions).

If we consider that Apple was supposedly dying in the late 90s, and that it was actually recovered from bankrupcy thanks to money provided by Microsoft...

... then I think it's fair to say that Apple, and particularly its CEO Steve Jobs, have done a magnificent job in putting the company's business upside down. Today, with the Macs, iPod, iPhone and now iPad, Apple as a stronger portfolio of products than ever, and the future looks bright for them.

Hopefully they will continue along the same pathway of innovation, excellence in design, quality in the manufacturing, and overall top-notch products in technology.

Interview with Antony at Triple J blog

This interview with Antony is available at the Triple J blog in Australia, and also at Antony's website; there he discusses about his live performances with big orchestras, the topics of his last songs, etc.

Enjoy: there are very few musicians of this level, today.

TIPA awards 2010

The meaning of these awards is disputable, and one could wonder whether there is a special award for every camera that had to get an award...

... but let's leave it at that.

For what is worth, the Pentax K-x won the award of best entry level dSLR camera, and I think it is fully deserved. Besides, the Canon 7d won the award of best expert dSLR camera, and the Nikon D3s that of best professional dSLR camera, the Olympus E-PL1 that of best compact system entry level camera, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 that of best compact system advanced camera.

I don't think there is much ground for disagreement on the merit of all those cameras, yet I very much doubt about the value of the model "an award for every key camera on the market". Which in other words, means that I don't believe threre is any point in these awards; they are strictly publicity, ads, nothing to do with real awards given to products after serious, comparative testing with peers in the same category.

The full list is available here.

Gruber's overreaction to the lost/found iPhone HD

I usually find the posts from John Gruber at daringfireball very interesting; I have learned a lot and discovered quite a few useful things by reading his site.

Now sometimes everybody goes wrong, and Gruber's reaction to the recent, overhyped story on the lost prototype of the next generation iPhone is getting almost ridiculous, in his attempts to demonstrate it was a theft, rather than an innocent lost/found story like those happening everyday with countless mobile phones. If I was his friend, I would say "Dude, relax; it's just a lost prototype, not the end of the world".

Just have a look at the list:

Engadget Posts Pictures of Purported Next-Gen iPhone

Gizmodo Has the Purported Next-Gen iPhone in Hand

Gizmodo Paid for iPhone 4G Prototype

Andy Ihnatko on the ‘(Increasingly Plausible) Miraculous Engadget (and Gizmodo) iPhone 4G’

New York Times Story on Gizmodo’s iPhone Prototype

Apple Senior VP and General Counsel Bruce Sewell Sends Letter to Gizmodo Asking for Device to Be Returned

Charles Arthur on the Legal Implications of Gizmodo Buying a Stolen iPhone Prototype

Legal, Eh?

Has Gizmodo Broken the Law With Its iPhone Story?

iPad Thieves Rip Off Part of Man’s Finger

‘The Guy Was Pretty Hectic About It’

Whatever the case, with or without legal implications for Gizmodo, theft or no theft, the end result is the same: Jobs lost his scoop at the future introduction of the new model, and in Apple's ultrasecretive world, this marks an all-time low point. A "catastrophe" for them.

So what? We just saw the iPhone HD with a couple of months in advance.

And let me repeat: "Dude, relax; it's just a lost prototype, not the end of the world".

Silkworms at home

When I was a child, the kids at my village had the tradition of growing silkworms at home, in sometimes huge amounts. We interchanged eggs every season and showed proudly how big our worms were. At the time I was already very interested in animals, and these were some of the many animals that populated our houses, when we were kids.

Now my kids also grow silkworms at home; things are quieter, though, as we limit the number to 10 or so, to avoid getting into excessive leaves harvesting. And although I'm rather convinced that my kids are less interested in this story than I was at their age, still it is a pleasure to look at their faces, when they realize how fast the worms are growing, and later their transformation into butterflies. I think this is a deep biology lesson disguised as a game.

The picture was taken this afternoon, on my Pentax K10D with the Tamron SP 90 mm prime.

Prince to play three gigs in Europe this summer: Arras, Roskilde, Werchter Boutique

This morning had plenty of news in princeland, as three dates at festivals have been confirmed. Prince will play at the Arras festival (France), at the Roskilde festival (Denmark), and at the Werchter Boutique (Belgium). The dates are still uncertain, although it seems some of the tickets can be already purchased online.

Further information:

Arras Main Square Festival 2010

Roskilde Festival 2010

Werchter Boutique Festival 2010

According to reports, these will be the only three Prince shows this summer in Europe.

If we add the rumours of new album, the Ebony cover story in June, and then these shows, all signs point out to a rather busy summer for fans of Prince music.

The leak of the new iPhone

This is hardly news by now, but just in case you missed it, an Apple employee lost a next generation iPhone in a bar. The guys at Gizmodo payed a bunch of money to get it, made pictures, dissassembled it and showed pictures and a video.

All of it is here.

The guy who lost it must be rather unhappy now. As must be Mr. Steve Jobs, whose annual scoop at the iPhone introduction is fu**ed up for 2010.

Canon 5D Mark II Achieves Only 60% TOP Rating

Please do not miss reading the last, brilliant & funny piece written by Mike Johnston at The Online Photographer:

Canon 5D Mark II Achieves Only 60% TOP Rating

Pentax to join the micro 4/3 standard?

Valentín Sama, well informed and reputed Spanish expert in photography (I mentioned him several times before in this blog), just posted in his blog that Pentax might be seriously considering to join the micro4/3 standard. If this hint becomes true, we might be in front of one of the major news in the world of photography during 2010.

This is the original sentence in Spanish:

De fuentes muy bien informadas, hemos podido saber que en Hoya-Pentax se considera muy seriamente la, más que conveniencia, necesidad, de entrar "en el Micro Cuatro Tercios"...

Translation:

From very well informed sources, we could know that in Hoya-Pentax it is very seriously considered the necessity, rather than convenience, to enter "in the Micro Four Thirds"...

Besides, in fairness, he says, at the end of his comment:

Claro que podría ocurrir que entrasen en otro "Ersatz" más, lo que sería una lástima.

Which means: Is clear that it could also happen that they entered in another "Ersatz" more, which could be a pity.

Tracey Thorn new single: "Oh, The Divorces" (live at home version)

This lady's voice is pure class; ladies & gentlemen, Ms. Thorn singing and playing piano on a live take of her new single:

Semana Santa in Seville

It's no secret that I'm an atheist, but there are events related to religion that interest me a lot. The celebrations of Semana Santa are one of them, since strictly on aesthetic grounds, it is an amazing spectacle; besides, the spirituality and the feeling of people who believe are another amazing spectacle. I have attended and made pictures at many "procesiones" and I think that it is an event well worth to watch, regardless of your religious beliefs (or lack of them). This video (I found it posted by someone who visited Seville during the last Semana Santa) captures nicely the whole vibe in Seville, and you can watch it in HD (720) if you want:

Besides, my favourite photography website, The Online Photographer, posted a teaser picture of a series made by photographer, who also was in Seville during the last Easter (=Semana Santa). Please have a look at the article, and if this interest you, in a few days you can see the whole series:

Days of water (and V): the Guadiana river

Ok, let's conclude this Days of water series of pictures; during the last days of the Easter holidays, I went to my hometown with my family. There we enjoyed the fine weather and a beautiful spring which has put the fields filled with flowers, and the Guadiana river, one of the major rivers in Spain, also filled with water, up to levels I had never seen thus far in my life.

Here you have a few pictures taken on a sunny afternoon:

3D exploration of Picasso's Guernica painting

A good friend posted this video elsewhere, and I found it very curious. It is a video exploring a virtual 3D version of this famous painting from Picasso.

Enjoy:

Days of water IV: Tablas de Daimiel

For centuries, the site of Tablas de Daimiel was one of the most important wet areas in Spain, with a huge surface flooded, and loads of birds of all kinds thriving around. But in the last part of the XX century, the Franco government started a policy to dry out many of those areas; to make matters even worse, already in the democracy (after 1975), there was a great increase in the agriculture in regions surrounding the Tablas de Daimiel, leading to the perforation of countless illegal wells.

The sad result was that the Tablas de Daimiel were pretty much dead only a couple of years ago, with only a ridiculously small part containing some water; birds had pretty much disappeared due to the lack of water, and most people were convinced there was no way out.

Furthermore, last summer there was a subterranean fire, caused precisely by the lack of water in organic grounds. The emergency reached such levels that our government hurried up to build a new transportation structure to bring water from other rivers, in order to stop the fire.

Yet, miracles happen sometimes, and in the middle of the catastrophe, in December 2009, it started raining like if there was no tomorrow; the Tablas de Daimiel became flooded again, and it was not necessary to bring water from other places.

The following pictures were taken two weeks ago, and they show a paradise recovering from being dead; most of the plants are not green yet, but the Tablas hold the promise to return to its previous, green and water status, in a short time. Hopefully this time the authorities will implement the adequate measures to ensure that death does not come back to this wonderful place.

For comparison, look at this very same place, on November 2008 (the picture is not mine, I found it on the net):

Playing with flowers & depth of field

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of finding a huge, beautiful plant of white hawthorn, next to the road. I immediately left the car on the side and took plenty of pictures with my Pentax K10D and the Tamron 90 mm f/2.5 prime. Among them, I did three of the same branch, by focusing at its tip, middle, and bottom, respectively. Here you have them, showing the wonders of a sharp prime lens with very shallow depth of field:

Pixels, a must-see short movie

A friend posted this elsewhere, and I am really impressed: this is a truly excellent short movie, both the story and the technical performance.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
Loveliness extreme.
Extra gaiters,
Loveliness extreme.
Sweetest ice-cream.
Pages ages page ages page ages.

Gertrude Stain, from the poem "Sacred Emily", 1913

The picture was taken this morning, from a brand new rose in our patio, which besides being beautiful gave us the surprise of having a fantastic fragrance.

Carpe diem.

My photography equipment

I have spoken quite a few times in this blog on the gear I use for photography, and I thought it would be nice to show you a picture of the stuff I currently use.

From left to right, my beloved Pentax K10D with a manual Pentax 70-200 zoom f 1/4, an autofocus Pentax DA 18-55 zoom, a Tamron 90 mm f 1/2.5 manual prime and a Fujifilm FinePix F30. This picture was taken with my daughter's Pentax Optio E40 compact camera.

(Side comment: the 70-200 zoom had to be put on top of a yellow perforator to keep the camera balanced).

Days of water III: Arroyofrío

More on water: these pictures were taken while we were walking upstream Arroyofrío, near the birth of river Mundo. Our kids finished way too tired, as we made close to 10 kms by walking, half of it going up. Yet it was well worth the effort and we enjoyed the walk a lot.

And this is where the water was starting, coming seemingly out of nowhere:

GREAT NEW ALBUM from Erykah Badu

During the last weeks Erykah Badu is promoting her brand new album, "New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh", with different tv appearances and also a controversial new video for the first single, "Window seat".

It's too early for me to write a proper review, but already, from the first listen, I can say this is a MUST HAVE album for anybody interested in good black music. Her voice is as inspiring as ever, and the music is truly moving forward: I am very, very impressed by this album. So if my opinion has any weight, I strongly advice you to give careful consideration to Erykah's new album.

Days of water II: The birth of river Mundo

More pictures in this series of "Days of Water". The following shots were taken at the birth of river Mundo, an amazing place in the province of Albacete, where this river comes suddenly out of the mountain. We had a great time over there, and our kids loved to become all wet due to the water from the cascade.

Besides I discovered how picky can be, regarding the right focus, the Tamron 90 mm prime; in particular, we tried a couple of group pictures, under difficult lighting conditions, and it turned out that only one person was correctly focused...

Jannelle Monae is all hyped about new purple music

This is not new, and I don't know how reliable are Monae's opinions on purple music; but for what is worth, she recently twitted that

Prince's new materiel... No comment... Just know we all fell on the floor after hearing... Can't wait it's release...

I so hope she is right.

Anyway, the forthcoming Prince cover story on the June issue of Ebony, and the multiple hints suggesting new stuff is just around the corner, are enough to keep us purple fans in deep expectation mode. Let's hope this time the quality is quantum leaps away from Purple & gold.

Collateral murder

No further comment needed:

Days of water: Lagoons of Ruidera

As promised, here you have some water shots; these were taken on a sunny Sunday at the lagoons of Ruidera, last week. I think they were close to maximum levels of water, and as expected, we found loads of people visiting this wonderful site. All pictures taken with a Pentax K10D with standard 18-55 lenses and in some cases the manual Tamron 90 mm prime I discussed before in this blog.