Best picture

Check out the story behind one of the best pictures I've ever seen: .

Playstation 4 Teardown video

I never owned a Playstation. uhm... I'm a PC gamer since 1991, the year Wing Commander II was released.
But hey, this particular Playstation 4 teardown video caught my attention today!
It is well done, and produced by the creators themselves - quite an intelligent marketing move if you ask me.

A cappella Daft Punk

perfect piece of Art...

and one more I like:

Parkour POV

You don't know Mirror's Edge,  you don't know what POV stands for? Don't care about it.

just enjoy,
just wow...


(did some building climbing at the age 9 through 14, the pov vid brought back good memories)

Here's the Xperia Z1

finally officially announced ... the premium Xperia Z1. Everything sounds perferct - and judging by our Xperia Z experience, everything IS perfect.

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Fake Canon Flash

Hey Photo Enthusiast. Follow the link to an unbelievable read about a Canon Fake Flash. Not just any model but an EX 580 II  >>  Story of a fake Canon Flash @ PetaPixel
Ten years ago I flew to Hong Kong just to pick up my photo gear, man this news is just off!

image source is the article linked above

Good Mouse for Photoshop

Which mouse is a good Photoshop Mouse? Simple answer:
Your best gaming mouse is also your best Photoshop mouse.

That is because gaming mice come with many fully configurable buttons and feature an ergonomic form for long sessions, they are precise and have durable build quality.

Remember: good mice and good keyboard boost your productivity more than a faster CPU does. So don't be obsessed on saving money when it comes to the mouse!
When working through series of pictures the right commands on the mouse can easily save you many hours of time!


Currently my favorite mouse for work is the Logitech G700. It's fully customizable and all buttons are placed where I like 'em.

The general approach to assign the mouse with actions:

- understand that this topic is highly individual
- observe your own Photoshop usage closely
- take notes of the actions you perform the most in your workflow

- decide which actions you want to access with a mouse click
- look up the corresponding keyboard shortcuts here or just google them
- configure your mouse , sometimes it's possible to form groups of actions (ie always the same 3 actions for picture tweaking form a cluster, place them on button G8 > G9 > G10)
- create a cheat sheet because things might be hard to memorize in the beginning

> get inspiration from the net! to tune up your workflows


Other tools which might make your Photoshop life easier are:
- a Surface Pro as an affordable alternative to the very expensive Wacom Cintiq
- a must: wacom tablet ($100+) for retouching and painting
- keyboard stickers for professionals (not for me, because I use around 15 shortcuts only)
- a gaming keyboard where you can assign more functions to shortcut keys (not for me either because they look childishly ugly most of the time)
- your tablet > see this older video. I don't have any experience with this

Here's my own cheat sheet from 2008 / Photoshop CS3

(uhm shortcut missing is Ctrl+T to show layer handles)

Logitech G602 Mouse announced

Some of you know that I use Logitech mice since 20 years now. To me the G700 and the Performance MX are close to perfect productivity boosters. The buttons are at the right place, the scroll wheel is phenomenal, the G700 driver an absolute charm.
Therefor I was rather excited to read about the new Logitech G602 mouse! Unfortunately the more I learn, the less happy I feel about the new product. First some pictures, then I'll explain.

source of all images above: logitech.com

My thoughts are:

+ many buttons
+ driver will allow full customization of all buttons
+ looks good and seems to feel ergonomic
+ many buttons
+ works with just one battery (to reduce weight)

+/- main feature long battery life - but has no meaning to me.
+/- I learned to be perfectly happy with G700s 1 day battery life

- four side thumb buttons are enough
- the mouse wheel is not tiltable
- no mouse wheel free spin
- for advertised capacity of 10 days high weight because of 2 batteries
- buttons G10 & G11 implementation inferior to G700
- meaningless laser and microswitch specs, because all competitors have it too
- Logitech please do some microswitch sealing instead
- nothing spectacular, nothing outstanding about it



Some of you might like 20 thumb buttons - it's a highly individual thing. I mainly use two or three profiles on my mice, one for work, one for gaming and a special Photoshop profile. It's a challenge  to remember all the button assignments if you don't use them everyday. Only good I see in many thumb buttons are the options for "push to talk"and the like.
If the G700 wouldn't exist then the G602 might be a good option. Well I have to see, what my kids have say about it.

More Xperia Z1 pictures

from the site 365dian

Honami Xperia Z1 pictures c6903

 from sony tweet on 23/08/13

Wife's Xperia Z is a charm - while the missing sharpness in the taken pictures and missing camera button are downers, everything else, including the display, is close to perfect.
My excellent Xperia S slowly comes to an end because I let it drop just a few to many times.

I'm most likely to get the Xperia Z1, aka Honami, once it's out later this year. Today gadgethelpline released pictures of what seems to be the phone's final look.
Very pleasing, just like the Xperia Z Ultra but including a flash.

 
Specs are all fine. Up to date hardware, nothing to worry about.
I just hate the fact, that they didn't include a xenon flash. The reason seems to be, that Sony might be developing a camera module (which won't be bought by anyone).


5" 1080p (full HD) display with Triluminos. Reading good things about it only.
very good: uncommonly huge camera sensor 1/1.6 inch (or 1/2.3 inch) for less graininess

20MP cam, LED flash, (5248 x 3936)
2MP front facing cam (who cares)
Snapdragon 800, MSM8974 chipset (2.2 GHz, quad core, Adreno 330 GPU)
16GB internal memory
microSD card slot
3000mAH battery
144 x 73.9 x 8.3 mm
LTE (FDD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20 - underlinded are the ones active in the USA)
NFC, MHL, fm-radio
no IR!
shipping with Android 4.2.2

(source ePrice.com.tw)

again, image source is gadgethelpline.com - thanks a lot!
More and older pictures can be found here at justamp

for pictures of the Honami user interface please check out this thread at xdadev - page1 and page6
thanks eXistenZ

supported frequencies (not all of them active for US market) - source: FCC

perfect pieces of Art

...while life slowly but steadily goes back to normal I'd like to share two perfect pieces of Art. Don't you dare watching in less than 720p.

life is beautiful

I walk past the kids room.
Daughter is handling a tube of glue.

- "Hey what are you up to Sweety?"
> "I'm making a sandwich!"

She proudly shows me a folded paper triangle.
- "Oh that's cool, what's its flavor?"
> "Gluuuuuuue..."

:-)