Initially I suspected it was simply the batteries in my flash. I can’t remember the last time I changed them; but I’m sure it was before Australia in March/April! (for those wanting a battery recommendation for a flash – can’t go wrong with these Energizer Lithiums). Unfortunately I bought some spares which I lost on the camping trip in July, so I was without any to test my theory and I was in need of using a flash. So, I was left with the unfortunate need to use the built-in flash…

… which errored – “Err 05″ to be precise, which thought the flash hadn’t popped up (though it had) and was accompanied by a couple of clicks as it tried to release the already-free flash. It demanded I switch the camera off and on again. Which I did, same problem. I repeated this a few times and the problem went away, only to return again later when I wanted to see if I could replicate the problem.

I re-attached the 580EX II and found the camera wasn’t communicating with it – basically reporting the flash was either off or not compatible. Again, this issue came and went – with it mostly failing.

I did me some Googling and was unable to find anything that matched what I was experiencing, but there were plenty of mentions of issues with just the built-in flash not popping up. They attributed the problem with a microswitch on the hot-shoe which sometimes doesn’t pop up – and is a common issue on a number of different Canon models. I checked mine though, and it was up:

It’s the tiny black thing a finger-nail away from the white cable tie, underneath the metal track the cable tie is holding up. When an external flash is attached that will go down preventing the built-in flash from popping up. As can be seen though, no problem with it. Other Canon models have this switch in the same location, others on the opposite side (I think the 40D and 50D are on the opposite side, while the 350D is supposed to be the same as the 500D and I can confirm from my own 400D it is the same as the 500D).

I gave up looking last night as my attention was on Top Gear, Sherlock then ‘Coast’ in HD – which had a bit on the Isle of Man. Sleep then beckoned.

Today I picked up from where I left off and decided to take a look at the other side of the hot-shoe. There’s no switch there, but there is something – what, I’m not sure – but it looks metallic. Perhaps it’s literally nothing – a place holder for using the same hot-shoe construction on cameras with the switch on the opposite side? Alternatively is it some kind of contact which is used to recognise an external flash?

However, I got my cable tie and brushed it over it (plastic removed, so it’s basically a piece of wire) and since then I’ve not been able to recreate the issue which – previously – occurred after just a couple of attempt of popping the built-in flash, and occurred after just a couple of uses of the external 580EX II. I’ve taken around 50-ish photos, or more, since using built-in flash or external, no problems.

Maybe this is just random chance, or it’s genuinely fixed. All I know is it’s working, and nothing changed until my trusty cable-tie got involved. It’s now found a home in my camera bag, just-in-case. If anybody, who knows these cameras and how they’re built better than me, can explain what could have happened I’d welcome their input so I can figure out if this is going to occur again, or if there’s a more “robust” fix.

Even before the announcement of the iPad I figured on of the ‘killer apps’ for me would be a comic reader app. I’ve tried apps for the iPhone and there are two main problems – one, the size of the screen and two, the lack of any (legally available) content. All that changed a few months ago with Marvel entering the digital arena with their iPad/iPhone app based on the software of Comixology. As of last month DC Comics have followed their lead, and released their own app based on the same software.

The app includes both new releases and titles from the DC Comics back catalogue – with them currently releasing older issues of Batman and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. You can select from featured/new/popular/free or press ‘Browse’ to search the store, buying titles using in app purchasing with your iTunes account (the first time I’ve used it). Basically, my bank account isn’t gonna like me!

Overall it’s a very slick and well thought out app – and I’m happy that there’s now a convenient way to read comics legally, and without cluttering up my house.

I’m looking at somewhere within easy-reach of the centre of Manchester without the effort of taxis for part of the journey. However, I also need to avoid the mistake I made when I lived in the Greenquarter – where the tightly-packed development meant that if somebody was having a late night everybody was having a late night; sounds echoed loudly around the narrow spaces between buildings. I also seemed to have people living above me who enjoyed dragging furniture around from 10pm until 8am every night. I’ll be keeping the car this time too – so I’ll need a parking space. Add to that I’ve got a house-full of furniture and appliances to populate the place with and my list of possibilities is shrinking.

iPad Rightmove App

My efforts are being frustrated by a couple of factors;

1. Letting agents not getting back to me – I’ve asked to view a few places and dropped enquiries through to agents on Wednesday and Thursday. I figure these places are after business, so I’m disappointed that they aren’t getting back to me.

2. Search websites are mostly crap – filtering out furnished places, or getting the right area, has been really frustrating. Rightmove are pretty good with location but, more often than not, when you select ‘Unfurnished’ it continues to return properties which are actually furnished. I’ve tried their iPad app too – which simply doesn’t have the option to filter on furnishing, or parking.

I’ve also tried Zoopla which seems accurate in terms of furnishing, but is no good at narrowing down an area and – if you use the map view – it ignores all of the filters you’ve applied and so renders that function useless.

One potential silver-lining is there’s a few places in the ‘Chips’ development which I’m interested in – with canal-side views and a mate’s girlfriend works there so is chasing up my email enquiry to them.

Weathered Watch, originally uploaded by SkyFireXII.

My old watch, beat up and without the glass cover on the face after it finally smashed in Cyprus (having been cracked for a couple of years).

The upgrade problem comes through O2 somewhat setting expectations with the upgrade from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G. Naivety on both sides has played a part here – customers in believing that there was an ‘implied’ promise to allow upgrades on the same terms when Apple refresh the product, and O2 in not thinking early adopters would interpret that offer in such a way. O2 have, quite rightly, pointed out the original iPhone was not subsidised, whereas the 3G has been – hence the drop from £269 to £99 for the 8GB. Some foresight from O2 might have allowed them to ensure the terms were absolutely clear; that the upgrade offer from old to 3G was a one-time deal because of the unique manner in which the original was provided. Perhaps also, knowing Apple’s refresh cycle, O2 might have been better off-setting the subsidy over 12 months instead of 18.

So – we shouldn’t have expected O2 to write off the subsidy, and O2 should have been clearer on terms. Mistakes made, lessons learnt – etc. HOWEVER, where O2 are currently failing is in their inability to provide a ‘fair’ means for the fans, early adopters, whatever you want to call them to commit to another 18 month contract without buying their way out of their current one. I’m currently paying £35 per month and my contract expires in February, 2010. It would cost me £315 to buy my way out of that contract – on top of the cost of the £275 iPhone 3G S (32GB as the space is the main factor in my upgrade decision). So, that’s £590 and I’d also be paying £35 per month for my new O2 contract.

A fair deal would be allowing the upgrade while recovering the subsidy cost. Looking at the pay-as-you go costs, the iPhone 3G 16GB would probably cost roughly £400, unsubsidised (between the 3G 8 and 3G S 8 pay-as-you go prices). Given I paid £169 for my iPhone 3G that’s £231 of subsidy (ignoring that O2 will have a margin built in to the pay-monthly cost – so these figures are at most - and give O2 some of that margin on the hardware too!). That’s £13 a month of my contract paying off the subsidy – with 9 months left I’d pay £117 to pay that off. Still not cheap, but a lot more reasonable than £315 – and O2 retain my business and I get a new shiny thing; win-win, right? There are a number of people saying ‘tough, you signed a contract’ on Twitter in response to #o2fail – but I’d argue that good business here would be to offer a deal as I’ve described that addresses O2s costs while not bleeding their loyal customers dry.

Next up is the price of Tethering – and this applies to all iPhone users, new and old. On our “Unlimited Data” service we would be charged £14.68 to use 3GB of data via tethering, or £29.36 for 10GB in a month. The argument from O2 is tethering uses more data. Maybe so, but data is data and when they launched the iPhone O2 couldn’t have been more clearer on what unlimited meant. This is taken from an artle on the Telegraph.co.uk:

”Customers find ‘unlimited with limits’ confusing, plus most people don’t speak in megabits or understand what they equate to,” said O2 UK chief executive Matthew Key.

”So we’ve taken the decision to remove the fair usage cap so that ‘unlimited’ really does mean ‘unlimited’ – this is a market first.”

Well, O2 – you’ve gone and confused your customers as by charging for tethering you’ve essentially said that you’ve yet another definition of “unlimited” that includes “limits”.

O2 = Fail.

I know I’ve been extremely pissed off when people have caused deliberate, anonymous, damage to cars in the past (broken windows, somebody keying my shitty Brava, breaking in to my crappy Renault 5 – wtf – even somebody pouring curry over my mate’s car at a house we shared), but accidents – honest accidents – nothing to trouble anybody with. I suppose this blog is, part way, to say something I’m not too good at saying in person; shit happens, it doesn’t matter, it’ll get fixed.

In other news, I went up in the hills on Sunday, and got some really nice sunset shots. I’ve got some multiple-exposure shots which I may play with to create some HDR versions but, in the meantime, I’ve got normal versions here:

From the features announced, this is what I’d like to see in terms of apps/add-ons:

• Tethering from O2; I was one of the lucky ones to get NetShare before it was pulled from the App store, but it’d be great if O2 allow use of the tethering which is ’supported’ within 3.0.
• PS3 remote; with Bluetooth peer-to-peer support it’d be nice to get an App in the iPhone to act as a remote for the PS3. That’d mean I could have the AppleTV/Boxee and PS3 all controlled from the one device and none of the lag that comes with IR. In fact a keyboard App for PS3 would be handy too for inputting text.
• CompactFlash reader and download App; something the old iPods had, which I’m not aware of existing for iPhone. It’d be nice to be able to take photos off my DSLR while out-and-about, store them on iPhone and upload to Flickr without having to use the MBP and (currently) NetShare.
• TomTom; with storage of maps on the device, so I won’t have to depend on having a working ‘net connection – especially as the only time I really need a GPS directions programme is when I’m outside the UK.

Hopefully given there’s a few months before the update is available there’s plenty of time for somebody to get cracking on all the above.

Turns out Wired used the image for an article on a new standard in remote controls that should see them move away from IR to RF in the future (which is interesting in and of itself).
See the article here: Remote Controls to Get a Wireless Upgrade

That’s creative commons/attribution copyright licensing for you. I’m famish.

Losing

Yesterday, as mentioned in my last post, it was bowling with work followed by watching Liverpool hammer Real Madrid, followed by the weekly pub quiz. It was one win, sandwiched between a pretty sizable amount of losing. Bowling I did ‘ok’ in the first game – getting 99. The second game I somehow managed to be worse – getting just 55. I’m blaming wanting to get out to watch the football, and the injuries inflicted upon me on Monday night by Carl and Mr Sweet – both of whom were on opposing teams. That said, my bowling is pretty horrific normally so I can’t really set myself up as a ‘key threat’ for anybody to target.

The quiz, well – we were worse than ever; getting just 12 out of 25. The only positive out of yesterday was Liverpool getting four past Real Madrid, to win 5-0 on aggregate. Fingers crossed for a good performance against Man Utd on Saturday.

Learnings

This evening I’ve done very little at all, apart from playing with my camera. I’ve picked up a couple of photography books, and one prompted me to look around the menu options on my camera, where I found a few things burried that I didn’t know about. Some self-explanatory, some not – so I’ll be reading up on what they do so I can learn how they can help me. Of course, had I read the manual, I’d have known about these already. But what’s the fun in that?

I’ve taken some self-portrait shots but I’m shattered today so my heart really wasn’t in it, plus the batteries in the flash are low so time between shots was quite long whilst the flash recharged; lack of patience plus too much waiting = too much effort for me to bother. This post done, I’m going to do some reading and then get an early night.

Tomorrow I’m once more playing footy after work, hopefully ankle and leg won’t be too bad by then.

Apple have updated the AppleTV  to 2.3.1 this week which – unfortunately – broke Boxee and XBMC. It’s frustrating but as this is a minor update it was easy enough to just run the patchstick again and then install the Launcher and XBMC and Boxee again. I’d rather not have to go through that to get them back again – but it could be worse I guess. As I write I’m catching up on Oz and James Drink for Britain on the iPlayer plugin for Boxee. It seems some people found this more annoying than I did. It would of course be nice if I didn’t have to go through this rigmarole every time Apple release an update. If an upgraded Mac Mini appears sometime soon I may be tempted to ditch the AppleTV altogether…

Boxee users will have heard that Hulu has forced Boxee to remove the plug-in, which is a shame for Americans – not a problem for me. It’s old news by now, but unfortunately it has led to a delay in the release of the next Boxee Alpha; moving back as it has from March 3 to March 24. Curses.