OS X Mavericks Time Machine Changes

Some changes to the logo on the top menu bar when your time machine volume is backing up. It now doesn't spin, instead it shows 2 arrows now.

Another possible "bug" that appears is that a connected external hard drive used as a Time Machine volume doesn't appear in their usual blue-green, it appears as a USB drive now.

Apple October Event 2013 (iPad Air, OS X Mavericks, iWork, etc.)

So yesterday's Apple event focused on the launch of the new iPad line, which featured the iPad Air (or rather the 5th generation iPad) and no surprise, it looked like the iPad mini. Other features expected were the new 64-bit A7 chip, which during the presentation for Garage Band there were hints of a 64-bit chip, etc. One of the things that I felt caught out by surprise was the release of retina display in the 2nd generation of iPad mini. It should be quite a feat because the battery life was maintained as before.

Looking at the Apple online store, the iPad Air is available for pre-order on November 1st in Singapore, however it doesn't state which part of November the items will deliver. iPad mini with retina display is not yet available for pre-order, could this suggest a limited quantity supply of retina display screens from their suppliers for this holiday season?

Consumers would be spoilt for choice given that both iPad Air and iPad mini retina have exactly same specifications, and now it boils down to either going for 9.7" or a smaller 7.9". In terms of weight, the iPad mini retina has gained slightly (4 grams for wifi model, 10 grams for cellular model) while the iPad Air has now reduced in thickness by 43% and lost significant weight, weighing in at 469 grams for the wifi model.

More information on the current iPad models can be found here.

The other main highlight was the availability to download OS X Mavericks for free from the Mac App Store. Apple had been working on the latest release of OS X, and the features were already previewed at WWDC earlier in the year. During the first part of the keynote, we knew at some point they would definitely be talking about this, and it was really surprising that they made it FREE and available almost within the next few hours. Also, Mac users as old as those from 2007 could get Mavericks free, unlike some other operating systems that charged US$199 for an upgrade.

I got the downloads about 5 hours after the event when I woke up in the morning. As far as download times were concerned, the iMac 2012 managed to download it in 20 minutes, while the MacBook Pro took about an hour. Not sure why one took longer than the other, perhaps they were in separate builds and more MacBook Pro 2011 users were downloading theirs concurrently.

As for install times, the iMac 2012 (with fusion drive) took only 40 minutes to unpack, install and apply changes, while the MacBook Pro 2011 took me 1 hour and 20 minutes. Both systems were using the latest version of OS X Mountain Lion prior to that.

In terms of boot time from a powered off state, the iMac 2012 w fusion drive took 22 seconds (compared to 19 seconds when on OS X Mountain Lion) to get from the time you pressed the power button to the desktop appearing, and another 11 seconds for base applications like iTunes and Safari to be open. Compare this to the MacBook Pro 2011 15" that took 1 minute 25 seconds for the first phase, followed by 12 seconds for iTunes and Safari to load.

Apparently that key feature that looked impressive on me was the memory management. There is a new graph in the Activity Monitor that now shows the pressure on the memory. As I use mainly Bridge and Photoshop, these really take up lots of memory. However, the memory used throughout editing in Photoshop however around not more than 10GB out my available 16GB. I suppose if I had only 8GB, the compression of inactive memory would make more free memory available for Photoshop, and allow you to do your work seamlessly!

Hence, for users who are considering buying the newly updated MacBook Pro retina display for image editing, I think it's fair to say you can save S$280 on upgrading the memory from 8GB to 16GB as the memory management is pretty good.

To download OS X Mavericks, just launch the Mac App Store from your Mac, go to the updates tab and follow the instructions on screen to install Mavericks and you are good to go.

iWork and iLife was also updated for Mac OS and iOS 7, with many new features which I haven't really explored. One new feature was the ability to share the "current" latest version with your contact and he was able to edit the file and you would see the changes being made to it. A really cool feature, this would be really useful in the office environment and might help push more users towards using iWork in the office.



Well, that's all for now, let's see how Mavericks turn out to be, I am still in the midst of testing and seeing if it's really much improved as they have claimed to be.


Cheers!

Lionel Ng
www.lioneldudephotography.com

Food & Instagram & Snapseed

I like taking pictures of the food I eat and when I do remember to document the food I eat, I use the social media app Instagram. Personally, there are tons of apps out there that can apply color filters today, however the color filters in Instagram are unique in its own way. Here is some of the pictures of food I have shot using Instagram:

Cha Shu Ramen at Bario shop at Ramen Champion

Devil's Chocolate at TCC

Golden melons from Korea at NTUC, S$5.80 for 2 melons

Prawn noodles - Tanglin Halt Food Centre

Chocolate hearts - A wedding door gift at Four Seasons Hotel Singapore (Victor & Bai Su's wedding)

Lastly, I was experimenting with a Lensbaby last night when there was some thunder and lightning activity going on, and I thought I would share this image which I took with my DSLR camera with a lensbaby sweet 35mm optic. It has been slightly enhanced using Snapseed, a photo editing app for mobile devices.

Lightning illuminates the night sky past midnight on October 22nd, 2013. Shot with a Lensbaby Sweet 35mm optic glass. Visit www.lensbaby.com for more information on how Lensbaby lenses work.

So that's all for now! Remember to head down to my photography page (www.lioneldudephotography.com) for frequent updates!

The webpage has been updated

My photography portfolio webpage has been updated. Be sure to check out the optimized images on the site. I've also added some recent portraits, including the latest from TS Sim's workshop featuring Na Ri from Korea.

http://www.lioneldudephotography.com

Maybank Photo Awards 2013

Some entries accepted into the gallery for Maybank Photo Awards 2013.

Search "Ng Hanxiang Lionel" and press vote.

Recently accepted submissions of Ariela and Jana, please Vote for my image!

Canon 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye on a Canon 1D Mark IV (APS-H 1.3x)

Recently I have been playing with the Canon 8-15mm f/4L fisheye, it's a great lens and the image quality at f/4 wide open produces pictures that are useable and of sufficient sharpness. Essentially, this lens is more catered towards full frame users, and you tend to use only either 8mm to produce the circular fisheye image (all black and just one circle) or at 15mm where you get a full diagonal and traditional fisheye.

So what does this look like on a APS-H camera?

 At 8mm on 1D Mark IV, you get a cropped-off circlular fisheye, which doesn't really look pleasing.

  At 12mm on 1D Mark IV, this is the perfect fisheye for a APS-H camera where you maximise the full diagonals.

At 15mm on 1D Mark IV, its more zoomed-in and totally not very pleasing.

Nevertheless, it still makes pretty decent pictures if you know where to point this lens at. Most APS-H users would find that they only end up using 12mm, which produces fisheye images like these:

Canon 1D Mark IV, 1/8th, f/4, ISO 3200, pure unedited JPG image.

Canon 1D Mark IV, 1/40th, f/4, ISO 1600, pure unedited JPG image.

On the overall, this is a fun lens to have, but if you are on a cropped camera, you might not be able to utilise the full potentials of this lens. A good-to-have but not necessary as there are other ways to create fisheye images, e.g. using post-processing methods or other third party fisheye lenses.

One downside is the lens cap (LENS CAP 8-15) is plastic, and I doubt you might be able to get a replacement if this is damaged. When I go around shooting with this lens, I usually keep the lens cap with EW-77 hood on until I am ready to shoot something as I do not want to end up knocking or leaving fingerprints on the front element.


Cheers hope this was useful for you!

Regards,
www.lioneldudephotography.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lioneldude/sets/72157635387995707/

The Food Post (with Instagram)

Well they always said that the best camera you have is the one that's always with you. Like in your pocket.

The iPhone today has become the perfect pocket camera. With different kinds of photo apps in the Apple App Store, your creativity is largely boosted.

People love taking pictures of their food, and showing off on Instagram. Simple 1-click filters are easily slapped on to enhance the look of the images.

I present to you - The Food Post.

That's the Kampung Nasi Goreng from Shangri-La Putrajaya, a regular annual hangout every March.

The cappuccino from Shangri-La

Putu Apam from Ghim Moh market & hawker centre - A thin paper like snack with orange colored sugar. My colleague asked why is the sugar orange? I replied "Cos it's orange sugar!"

Red bean durian from Ghim Moh market & hawker centre

Curry chicken and bread from Ghim Moh market & hawker centre

Little balls biscuits - Can't remember where I bought this from!

Finally opened! Resisted for 1 day!

View my Instagram pictures by following me at @lioneldude here

Cheers,

www.lioneldudephotography.com