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My birthday falls into this month and I got my birthday gift last week. It is a
purple Sony Xperia Z smartphone.
I decided to buy Sony over Samsung this time mainly is because the Xperia Z has more powerful camera and video capability, i.e., 13 megapixel camera and HD video. Now, I no longer need to carry my camera along with my phone in my handbag.
Of course, Xperia Z is really lovely. I like the rectangle sleek look. The screen size is just nice. It is not so big and heavy as Samsung Note II.
The most convenience thing it brings to me is that when I go for my daughter's piano lesson, I use the phone to record the class video and play back at home using the phone as well. While in before, I use my camera to record the videos and download them to my computer to play them. I need to carry my heavy laptop to view them. Now, I can put the phone on top of the piano to study the videos when helping my daughter in practicing. I also use the metronome app in the phone to set the rhythm for playing. It is so easy to do all these now.
I am very satisfied with the phone except one big surprise. When I start the phone, it asks me about my Google account. After I logon, I am overwhelmed that it populates automatically so much information about me such as my contacts, my photos, videos. It automatically connects to my home Wi-Fi without asking about WEP password. Basically, Google somehow stores everything that I have entered in my other Samsung phone and automatically share it with all other Android phones that I may have.
It is a bit scary to see that a new phone knows so much of you.
I used to make videos of my work using some free video making site such as "One Media". I know that Microsoft has a movie maker comes with windows operating system. Finally I got some time to try the Windows Live Movie Maker.
It is a breeze to make the movie from my pictures using the software. Here is the Bird, Nature and Love paintings collection. With the Windows Live Movie Maker, my video will have no advertisement from third party now.
The only difficulty is to find a suitable nice music to go with the movie. In this case, I download Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. If you use some modern music, it may have complications of copyright problem.
This is the new laptop that I just bought yesterday. It is Toshiba L735.
Actually I was planning to buy Acer Aspire 5820TG and bought it at the local mall Clementi Mall. But the moment I saw it I felt there is something wrong with the display. The text is very blurry and flicking. I thought it maybe due to the system setup. I brought it home and try to fix it, but failed. My eyes felt so dizzy after reading Internet for a while. It is also very slow when I try to open big photoshop files. I expected something much faster than my current travel laptop which is very old with only 512MB memory. But it is not.
I try to return it or exchange for something else, but the salesman told me that there is no returning in the shop and I need to pay 10% to 20% packaging fee to exchange because they need to repack the laptop. Wow, it's too much I think and I better stick with the laptop. But after a day of using it, I felt very dizzy. I don't think I am able to use it everyday. I just have to change to something else.
I examine every sample notebooks displayed and check for the text sharpness. The Toshiba is one of the notebooks that I found much more comfortable with when reading at it. The configuration is also good enough to me except the screen is not big enough.
I like the look and feel of the Toshiba. The cover is shinny and clean. The display is very sharp. I wouldn't say it is very fast to use Photoshop, it is quite slow to save large files with image. But it doesn't have the problem that Photoshop is freezed when working on large files. Acer Aspire 5820TG sometime causes Photoshop not responding. After opening a large file, I cannot save it to another file because the file dialog doesn't show. During editing, I cannot open some of the image editing dialog such as brightness and contrast after opening a large file.
I found that that in the shop, no matter how large or small the screen is, the screen resolution can only be adjusted to 1378 x 768 pixels. I wonder if this the reason that the large screen laptop has very blurry text.
I also wonder if the 64bit vs 32bit Window 7 is also the reason for Acer to be slow for Photoshop. I choose to install 32bit Window 7 in Toshiba, while Acer is 64bit. I read somewhere that some 32bit software is slower to be run in 64bit Window 7. My photoshop is a quite old 32bit version. Thus I think I better stick with 32bit Window 7 in Toshiba for the moment.
I never consider text sharpness is one of the important criteria to choose a notebook. All along, my PC and notebooks have no problem with displaying. The extra 15% I spent on exchanging Acer to Toshiba is the tuition fee I paid for it.
While processing orders in the middle, my laptop broke down. I called technician and he told me it is due to motherboard problem. It will cost about SGD$400 to repair it.
I think it is better off to buy a new one since my current laptop is more than 3 years old. But it takes a long time for me find out which laptop to buy. I haven't pay any attention to the new development of laptop technology and don't even know what are the current processors in the market.
After much readings, I settled with Acer Aspire Timelinex 5820TG. I need to buy a laptop that can allow me to work on large graphic and image files. I use the following criterion to choose the laptop:
Must be dual-core processors for better multi-tasking work
Large system memory at least 4GB with 64-bit OS
Quadro Nvidia or Radeon graphics
Big screen
Better function and Price ration
Screen should be sharp under day light
Basically I am buying a laptop that more towards Destop PC because I am not concerning too much on battery life and weight because I use it mostly at home.
Acer 5820TG uses i5 processor. The i7 processor is the more advanced one currently. I was thinking of buying Lenovo Thinkpad w510 that uses i7. But comparing the cost and function, I choose Acer. The Lenovo is double the cost of Acer. However, I read from some articles and they claim that i7 may not necessary much better than i5 considering the price you have to pay. Looking back at all the laptops that I have used, they all broke down after 2 to 3 years. I think it is better to choose one that is cheaper and with good functions.
I got a new printer over the weekend. It is an Epson T40W printer. My old printer gives me a lot of problem lately. You need to print a half page image before the colors are getting right. It makes me wast a lot of time and papers. I thought I might just change it.
I am very happy with the new printer. It is with the range of printers from Epson with pigment ink. It is superb when printing on matte or semi-glossy papers. The colors are fantastic. The best thing is that it uses pigment ink thus all my glass pendant images are safe when they are attached to the glass tiles, i.e. the image will not smudge.
The printer doesn't vibrate very hard as comparing to the other printers that I have used from Epson. This is good because I put the printer on my desk and it would make you feel very unconformable if it vibrates too much.
It can be used wirelessly, meaning that you can print image without linking a cord from my laptop to the printer. But it needs some effort to set it up. I am still working on this. It would be good that I don't have to plug the cord every-time I try to print.
The image shown on my laptop screen is the Owl Green Print. I was working on a layout for a print.
My experience of selecting a printer is summarized as the follows.
For an artist, the quality of image is the most important factor when selecting a printer. The quality depends on the types of image you have. If you print mostly large photos, you need to look at those dye based ink printers with many ink cartridges. If you print small photos or art work, you can select other type of printer.
The another features affecting the quality of image are "Max Print Resolution" and "Min Ink Droplet Size". I found that "Max Print Resolution" is almost the same for all the printers, but Min Ink Droplet Size varies from printer to printer. The T40W is 2pl. The number is the smaller the better. I tried something of 4pl printer. The image is obviously coarse. You cannot tell much difference if the image is printed on big size papers. But when it is printed on small one such as the size of a glass tile, when I put it under the glass tile, I feel a bit dizzy when I look at it.
If you are not printing super large size image, I believe that most of the printers can meet your requirement. But do select the Min Ink Droplet Size with at least 3 or smaller if you need to print small image that can fit into a glass tile.
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