Nixeus 27″ S-IPS 2560 x 1440 pixel WQHD Monitor (Same panel as Apple Thunderbolt display for $430)

I’m on day two with one of these cheap ($430) Korean monitors which feature a LG S-IPS panel inside a less-than-Apple package. Expect updates to these initial impressions.

TL;DR: It’s an awesome monitor. A little annoyance makes up for the savings.

This Nixeus (“Nexus” with an extra vowel? who knows) features the same LG S-IPS panel found in the Apple Thunderbolt display. Allegedly. Not sure how to verify without pulling the thing apart, but my eyes tell me it’s a high-quality display.

I won’t go into why you might want a quality display. If you’re serious about color and accuracy and have a relatively unlimited budget you’re already ignoring this on your EIZO monitor.

So a quick comparo to the Apple Thunderbolt Display:

What it does have:

• It’s $570 cheaper
• LG S-IPS panel
• 8-bit color
• DVI / DisplayPort / HDMI 1.4
• Portrait tilting
• Screws that you need to use to assemble the base to the monitor and finally to the stand. It’s a bit flimsy.

What it doesn’t have:

• Thunderbolt
• The ability to charge your MacBook
• Clean, fancy Apple packaging
• Accurate color out of the box. You will struggle a bit with this.

A great example of what Apple would never allow: the bezel and screen were protected by sticky plastic wrap, a good thing as it protects the shiny bits during shipping. However, the plastic was applied before final assembly meaning when you peal it off bits were stuck behind the bezel and required some surgical precision to remove. Not fatal, but annoying and tedious.

These monitors have just entered the US on official channels so there’s a bit of a rush on them. Right now, I can’t find them for much under $500 and delivery dates seem a bit hinky.

Here’s where you can grab them with defined delivery dates.

Maposaurous

Was chatting at work about picking up a portable GPS, and… Just watch the greatest ad ever made:

iPhone Wallpaper

So, I held out two weeks, but then I had to do it. I got an iPhone on Monday. I’ve got a long list of quibbles, but as usual, Apple didn’t fuck up.

Anyway, thought I’d share my fantastic wallpaper 🙂

Not only will you have the must-have phone, you’ll be the only one around sliding your finger across a goat’s tongue.

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone

Reversal of Fortune

How is it that installing Safari 3 on Windows doesn’t require a restart, yet on Mac OS X it does? (And even the point release to 3.0.2) Isn’t that bass-ackwards?

While I could investigate and find out why, I’ll cop to being far too lazy. Anyone know what low-level voodoo requires a restart? Another extension special where it makes all things Apple priority #1 for the kernel?

Granted, the install process on Windows involves 72 different steps, so time-wise it might be a draw, including the Mac OS X reboot, but the last time I rebooted my computer was like 45 days ago.

At least I don’t have to track down anymore weird Safari bugs anymore cuz Techcrunch trashes us… I knew they were fixed in WebKit many months ago, and when Apple delayed Leopard I thought i’d have to track it down and squash it, but then they went and released Safari 3 beta saving me much pain while lacking a debugger. But they stepped up and gave both — a public release of a new Safari and a debugger. Thanks guys, I knew you were listening to me. 🙂

Technorati Tags: apple, safari

Rob Galbraith Saves Me $4500

Apparently the Canon EOS-1D Mark III’s got some autofocus trouble. Crap.

Fast forward three weeks and we’ve now shot multiple games of soccer and rugby plus track, indoor volleyball, moving cars, grip and grins, an executive portrait and personal stuff. It’s added up to over 15,000 frames across two production EOS-1D Mark IIIs, and the most obvious autofocus theme to emerge after poring over all these pictures is that when the lighting is full sunlight and it’s a nice day outside, the autofocus is unusably poor. The camera will still produce in-focus pictures (several are included in this article in fact), but the ratio of crisp to blurry frames is well below an acceptable level. Generally speaking, the camera tends to backfocus when it’s focusing incorrectly.

I really want to get my grubby mitts on this DSLR, and I know Canon reads this blog constantly (ahem), so please Canon, fix it! Quickly! Pretty please?

Technorati Tags: canon, eos-1d mark iii, photography

RIP

So my RCA F38310 died (39″ HDTV CRT), something apparently not uncommon for these TVs, but it was a good run. Judging from the buzz, I’m not going to have much luck getting it fixed.
Anyone have any suggestions? It’s an odd era for TV — Plasma vs. LCD vs. LCD Projection vs. DLP, etc., etc. I’d like something at least 45″. Also, it needs to do standard without looking awful (projection and LCD’s seem to pixelate or distort rather badly.)

K750i

I got a Sony Ericsson K750i today, another unlocked phone, this one being only 6 months older than the K700 I had before.
They’ve done gobs: it takes Memory Stick DUO cards for more memory and the camera is absolutely kickass: 2MP, auto-focus, nightmode, macro focus, and even a light for taking pictures of your idiot friends in the bar. It’s majorly media friendly: Equalizer for the media player which does MP3 as well as AAC/WAV, video MMS, etc.
I got mine from myworldphone.com, but you can find them on eBay and other places.
I had to patch iSync to play nice. Link.
I hate flip-style phones, and this is one damn sexy candybar phone.
More later…

Sony Ericsson K700i

So, I finally gave up Sprint PCS after, what, 8 years?
I will say this about Sprint: their service is probably less shitty than most others, and they were first in the game to really provide decent nationwide coverage without invented ass-ramming charges such as “home regions.”
Anyway, that was then. It’s highly competitive right now, so it’s a wash as to what’s better, and coverage is pretty good no matter where you are. (Of course, all this will change as all the providers merge into one… ugh.) I won’t go into the CDMA vs. GSM/GPRS argument right now, but in short, CDMA is the superior technology. Slightly.
But Sprint’s phones blow. Big time. Crap Korean phones, few Nokias, and only one Sony Ericsson — ever — which you had to call a special number to acquire. No Bluetooth unless you bought the $600 Treo (and then another $100 card) or got that secret SE phone mentioned above.
Sick of drooling over all the cool gee-whiz-bang shit other people had, I bought an unlocked SE K700i. (No carriers in the states sell this yet, anyway.) This is the way normal sane people (read: Europeans) buy phones. Buy phone, then buy service. The two aren’t connected as they are here. So I had my pick for service: T-Mobile, Cingular, some smaller ones. And when I travel, I can just pick up a local SIM card and pop it in. Bitchin’.
So I took my ass over to Cingular, just because it was there, not because I heavily researched the various providers, and because I have a friend who works there who I must work on myself to receive some sort of discount on my $108 monthly bill. Anyway, the process was surprisingly painless.
So, setting up the various data inside the phone is somewhat of a pain in the ass and involved much Googling: GPRS settings and Bluetooth dialing from my Powerbook. I still haven’t figured out how to set up sending pictures via email yet, but I don’t have my MEdia Net (or whatever the fuck it’s called) stuff set up completely yet, I don’t believe. Word on the net is I may have to call Cingular and use a bit of subterfuge to get some needed services enabled. We shall see.
So, anyway, I’ve been playing with the phone for just a few hours, and the following things are totally rocking my pussy:

• Bluetooth! I had this before, but it’s much smoother/faster on than my old T608. iSync works. Remote Desktop! Will have to play with Sailing Clicker too.
• FM Radio.
• I can finally use normal SMS. Up yours Sprint.
• Camera and video. I had a camera with a Samsung A600, and ended up missing it with my T608.
• Speakerphone
• 41MB onboard. Huge for a phone.

Anyway, so far, quite pleased. Kicked your locked phone to the curb…
UPDATE: Use Sony Ericsson’s configuration service here to simplify things. It sends configs directly to the phone, and you just select “Yes” to import. Worked beautifully for setting up GPRS, WAP, MMS for my phone and Cingular.

schmeeveTV

I found out the Comcast HDTV box will output S-Vid/Composite even on an HDTV channel, letterboxed and lower-quality, while still pushing high-def through component. Nice. So I present a quick and dirty diagram of how all my TV crap is hooked up, partly to prove my own insanity, and partly in response to Michael’s comment in the last item about not knowing how it’d all hook up. Maybe this’ll help…

(Click for larger image)

UPDATE: I’ve read several complaints that these HDTV cable boxes do not include DVI out. This one does. It’s also got a variety of other as-of-yet-undetermined-use ports: Ethernet, USB, smartmedia. I assume some of this may bake-in with an upcoming PVR, unless that’s an all-in-one box. The Comcast guy encouraged me to go that route, but I told him I ain’t giving up my TiVo for their sanitized/ad-filled experience. Can’t tell you much about the box except it’s Comcast- and Motorola-badged.