TeknoJunkie – reversing the technology statement

Prime Day 2018 – Echo Palooza

Prime Day 2018, It came and it left so swiftly, it was longer than 24 hours though.. started around 3pm EST.. there were traffic jams, the amazon servers were crashing.. not too many ECS’s were going online 😉

I bought a few Amazon Echos for a steal! 40-50% off on the Echo and the Echo Dots, the 2-device bundle for the Echo was 40% off and 2-device bundle for Echo Dots came to 50% off.

Amazon Echo that I got came the next day. It’s the model that includes a decent speaker so you can listen to music, news and other voice based responses.

Amazon Echo Dot is the smaller version without the big speaker music focused but has all the other goodness of an Alexa system.

I got a total of 8 alexa enabled device 4 Echos and 4 Echo Dots (2 for gifting purposes) and the rest would go in around all of my house, here’s a list of where these alexa enabled devices would go:

Master bedroom 1x Echo
Family room 1x Echo
Kids room 1x Echo Dot connected to Sound Blaster Airwave speaker via bluetooth
Basement workshop 1x Echo
Basement office: 1x Echo Dot connected to speakers via Aux
Living Room 1x Echo
Library Bose Soundtouch 20 speaker via Wifi to Alexa

The above setup leaves some speakers that work with AirPlay and Also cover areas where I have no speakers yet.

Now since I already worked pretty hard to get AirPlay enabled speakers around the house to use with iTunes on the desktop (in the basement or library). I’m able to play music through out the house using AirPlay enabled speakers with Apple Music subscription in most of the rooms I’ve mentioned above so lets list those out.

Master bedroom: Sound Blaster Roar Pro bluetooth speaker connected to AirPlay receiver via 3.5mm aux cable
Family room iHome iW1 Airplay speaker (8 hour battery)
Basement workshop: iHome iW1 Airplay speaker (8 hour battery)
Kids room: Sound Blaster Air Wave bluetooth speaker connected to AirPlay receiver via 3.5mm aux cable
Kitchen: iHome iW2 Airplay speaker
Library: Bose SoundTouch 20 Series II (wifi enabled + airplay via receiver)
Basement Office: Logitech Z2300 connect to a desktop with iTunes.

When setting up Alexa it was fun adding skills (not really) since the “app” is simply pulling up a mobile web page to walk through and add skills. Then I realized that I’m not able to connect Alexa to the Apple Music service, nor will it detect Wifi speakers unless they had software update to work with Alexa protocol, for example the Bose SoundTouch speaker was easily added to Alexa via the Bose skill. So does that mean that Apple needs to create an Airplay or Apple Music skill?

Anyhow due to this reason, I’m going to test the Alexa speakers for a few days and see how effective it is in controlling my smart home.

Reading up around the internet there’s a few services available that’ll let me connect my iTunes library to Alexa via a skill, but again they all require that I have a service running on my desktop that enables it as a living library for Alexa to read and play from.

Thanks for reading! feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to me via Twitter @superjunaid.

Light.co’s L16 Camera

Last year Light introduced us a camera that can fit in your back pocket and competes with the likes of DSLR quality cameras, offering high-resolution images up to 52 mp, compare that to Sonys’ Full-frame cameras which can go up to 42mp, and Canons 5DS which can shoot at about 50 mp.

So whats so great about this camera?

Well, one you don’t have to carry many lenses with you, with DSLRs or Mirrorless cameras the body might be light, but you still need a lens to capture beautiful photos, the glass can get quite heavy and you end up carrying about 10lbs of lenses just so you’re fully prepared for any situation, the other issue is that you have to switch between the different lens if you’re truly taking a variety of photos, but that’s amateur talk.

The L16 (as the name has it) comes pre-equipped with 16 lenses and sensors, that’s right. They took the dual-lens philosophy from Apple’s iPhone 6, 7, 8 and X and added 14 more lenses. Each lens also has its own sensor, the magic happens in onboard software as it combines photos from the different lenses into a single photo, ending up with a 52-megapixel photo.

What’s the software like?

The OS on the Camera is actually a flavor of Android which has a few settings that’ll let you control some of the features as a camera. There are very limited options on to how many types of photos you can take. It’s got Manual controls and Auto with Dynamic AutoFocus. The one thing that’s missing from the camera is an Aperture priority mode and it’s because the 16 lenses all have different apertures, once you’ve taken a photo, you can edit the aperture in their Lumen desktop application, after your edit you can export it as a DNG or JPG file and further edit the photo in your favorite photo application.

Does it take videos, continuous photos or time-lapse?

According to their site, with a firmware update, the L16 will be able to capture 4K video, my problem with that statement is this. Already the camera is slow in taking photos in fast succession, with no upgrades to the CPU on the device, I’m reluctant to count this camera’s ability to shoot 4K video, and if it will shoot 4K, will it be 15fps, 30 fps or 60 fps? It’s possible that it’ll offer 4K video at 24 or 30fps using HEVC or H.265 codec. But again I just don’t find myself waiting for these things to come to me. It just breaks my workflow, where it totally can support third-party applications to let you edit photos on the fly.

So is it a keeper?

For folks that are just getting into the photography and do not own a smartphone, or want to be on the cutting edge, this camera might be for you. I tried out the camera for a week, sure I didn’t take extensive photos as I should’ve for a full-review-worthiness. But here’s what stopped me from using it more. I’m very used to taking photos on my iPhone 8 Plus (portrait mode, videos, timelapse, you name it), and then I’d edit the photo on my phone on several different photo editing apps creating the look that stands out for me. Even DSLRs and mirrorless cameras these days have the ability to transfer photos to your smartphone or tablet, the L16 did not have that ability, I’m sure it’ll be a software update… but I just can’t find myself taking photos with a camera this advanced.

The other thing they talk about is competing with DSLR and full-frame sensors, are 16 sensors as good as one full-frame or crop sensor? They like to think so, but they aren’t. Being a photographer with an eye for detail the camera falls short in this department. There’s noise in low-light conditions and no matter what I was not able to get the results they boasted about on their site.

I’m very much set in my workflow of how I take photos and process them and L16 just falls short in that department.

For me, it’s not a keeper.

Check out more about the L16 camera at Light.co

Need to write the first post

This is the first post, first post of many posts (I hope); in this post I would like to write about things that would normally go on a tech blog. So many tech blogs already exist so how is this different? it’s not. It’s a tech blog but I’m doing the writing and that’s difference. I’m not featured on the other blogs although I’ve sent them emails.

So what do I like about tech. Everything. It has changed how we live our lives on a daily basis. We hold it in our hands in the form of a smartphone, we use it when watching a tv show or movie. We experience it in how we get around town and keep in touch with our family and friends.

Just in our time we’ve seen quite a few advancements in a much shorter period than the last 100 years to a couple of decades ago.

Not only do I plan on talking about hardware tech, but also software and mechanical tech, as well as the art of woodworking.

Square’s door opens for public trial for the iPhone

If interested park your way over to Square’s website, and be the first to experience on the go iPhone payments. I can hear your wallet begging you not to click the link… but hit that link to sign up, don’t forget to check out the detailed video after the break… Beware its full of hipsters.

Square Trial Sign Up

Continue reading “Square’s door opens for public trial for the iPhone”

Google: a love/hate relationship

But then on the other side; Google knows everything about me, anytime something is mentioned online about me it indexes it and saves a little copy of it on their servers. It knows what I search, when I searched it, where I’m searching from and that’s just search. Google couples that with my email – Gmail, my web browser – Chrome, my phone – Google Voice, and now Google Buzz, that pretty much sums of my life and possibly yours. If you use any of Google’s products: Maps, Froogle, Earth, Chat, Voice, You Tube, News, Chrome and more; then they know where you’re going, what you’re trying to buy, who you’re talking to online, what videos you’re interested in, which news you like, and which websites you visit. Google most likely knows more about us than the United States Government. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Government sits on Google’s board.

What makes Google more deceiving is that they create these services, do a much better job of it, and offer it for free. My question to Google is “what’s the catch?” The catch is that you use our products we index it and soon we’ll control the entire world with your information. Google if they wanted too could sway information that could help Sarah Palin get elected in 2012, or convert Democrats to Republicans. If Google wanted too it could probably solve the worlds hunger problem. Why don’t they? Because then they would give up their cover. There are countless stories where Google altered or limited they’re search results to users for various reasons. Whatever those reasons maybe they still altered search results.

In the end, I hope that Google uses their powers for the greater humanity and I’m partially confident they will. But it’s still a little scary to know what Google knows.

google.com/profiles/syedanishahmed

Its official, Apple will be holding an event on Jan 27th, “latest creation”

Its true, from all the rumors, speculations, it’s coming Apple will be holding a live event on the 27th of this month. Apple says to be showing their “latest creation” hmm?.. Will Apple be showing off their mysterious new tablet, Maybe, iLife ’10, its been about almost a year since the announcement of iLife ’09?, What about, a preview of the iPhone 4.0 os update? Multi-tasking. They were also rumors, the new iPhone OS 4.0 wasn’t suppose to be announced because, it had to much information about the new “tablet”. Indeed! Get Ready!

Tekno Junkie @ CES 2010

That’s right the folks over at Tekno Junkie will be getting the scoop on the latest tablets, 3d tv’s, and soo much more. Taking pictures, videos, interviews. So get ready. and refresh!

Airstash a pocket sized wireless media server say whaa

That’s right, the folks at Airstash have come up with a clever way to share and hold your files… on a fat wireless thumb drive. Letting users wirelessly transfer and view data from there iPhone. I think an iPhone app will come with this. Does it use bluetooth or WLAN?I am not to sure, but I hope its bluetooth. The drive has an SD expansion slot, giving you the ability to expand your storage. On the other side of the device is a USB port, giving you the ability to charge your device. I am pretty sure this device will be used on more than just the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The company says your able to put this device in your pocket and view the files on your smartphone. Wonder what security risk are involved. Details of this device will be officially unveiled at CES 2010. This device seems like an awesome idea. But I am not too fond of the size. Hopefully in the future other companies will release devices similar to the Airstash.

[AirStash via Engadget]

January 26th Apple Convention confirmed by Fox News

Apple’s January 26th convention has officially been confirmed by news giant Fox News. Sources state that the convention will focus mainly on the “mobility space”, which may suggest an announcement of the fabled Apple Tablet. Other possible announcements include the new MacBook Pro, updated with Intel’s i7 processors. It is yet to be known if Steve Jobs will be making an appearance. (Gizmodo Via Macrumors)