Tag: camera

Pokemon(ed) out

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

Well it seems in less than a week we have seen and read so much about Pokemon, we are now sick of the app.
All of the Memes of people with their find on the toilet, or in a wineglass. And all of the creepy van pictures with spray painted signs saying “Pokemon inside” blah blah blah.
We’ve all heard the 60 year old news anchor pretend to be turning off his Pokemon-go app, and we know darn well he doesn’t care about that game.
We’ve heard our local radio hosts yammering on endlessly about their kids getting out of the house finally.
We get it, the game requires you to walk to the end of your street. You did it once and have been posting memes about all of the walking you have been doing for the past six days. We get it…
We’ve seen the Pokemon pop up in weird locations that make us wonder “how’d they know the dimensions of this exact location???”. come on. You have your camera on. It asked you for permission. You can’t be that ignorant can you?
Here’s the permissions, Don’t worry it’s short and no big words.

Version 0.29.0 can access:
In-app purchases
Identity
find accounts on the device
Contacts
find accounts on the device
Location
approximate location (network-based)
precise location (GPS and network-based)
Photos/Media/Files
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
read the contents of your USB storage
Storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
read the contents of your USB storage
Camera
take pictures and videos
Other
receive data from Internet
control vibration
access Bluetooth settings
use accounts on the device
prevent device from sleeping
view network connections
pair with Bluetooth devices
full network access

It was a short chuckle the first time we all saw the beat up van with “Pokemon inside” then we saw the cleaner but solid white kidnapper van, then the guy “it puts the lotion on it’s skin” and the plethora of clowns. This game is creepier than what we were scared of with facebook. Did you sign in using your Facebook account? because that would be 1000Xs creepier.
That’s enough.
The game has no high moment just a constant “meh” with no climax.

It seems that Pokemon is pretty much for those who ignore simple reality, or children too young to know what their privacy is worth.
And they don’t even care that you can’t battle people. The whole concept of the cartoon the game is based on is battling with your Pokemon. The whole concewpt of the cards that were played with was to battle with your Pokemon.

Your typical pokemon players

Your typical pokemon players


Pokemon-Go away. Please stop promoting this dead horse.

pokemon-goaway

Are cell phone extended lenses worth buying?

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

cameralens

Are you wondering if cell phone extended lenses are worth buying?
I was. So I bought one from eBay for just under $15.
8x Zoom is how the lens was labeled. Not so sure how they came up with that number.

Took forever for the extended lens (telescope) to arrive but when it did, first thing I did was run out and and take photos of local band in Houston playing at a local club. Since it was the band’s CD release party, I had high hopes of getting good photos for my website (TruXter.Org).
Of course the packaging says “Mobile phone telescope” and has a picture of what looks like a blackberry on the cover.
What came inside the package was an actual telescope about 3 inches long and about 3/4 inch wide. The actual lens is about the size of a dime. A mounting frame that is spring loaded with an adjustable plate that locks by the turn of a screw to make sure the lens mounts directly over the cell phone There was also a small cloth which we can assume is for cleaning the lens of the telescope.

Here’s a sample of the photos in a dark setting (I have saturation issues I need to work out)
Satci Butler
That photo was taken from about 20 feet away with zero zoom. The lady is Staci Butler from the Staci Butler Band

The next day, I took a trip to an place near Houston that has this old time feel to it and had hopes of taking some good pictures to share. Here’s a sample of the day time photos I took.
IMG_20150411_114650_116
That photo was taken from somewhere between 80-100 feet away, without using zoom.
Any photos taken under 20 feet just come out horrible. This is definitely not an extended camera lens and is clearly a telescope for cell phones. The further the object is, the better the picture turns out.
No matter what your iso setting is, the dark settings for your pictures don’t have as good of a chance as you would have just taking the lens off and getting closer.
The focus feature just blows out my cell phones auto-focus. I tried tapping screen first then manually focus. I tried manually focusing then tapping screen and manually focusing again. Nothing made the pictures any better. I got a whole lot of shaky images that looked like I over zoomed the digital zoom and the blew the image up to pretend it was optical zoom. It definitely is not optical zoom. That setting on the side of the telescope is just for focus.

But bang for the buck, there is plenty good use for the telescope lens. I just currently haven’t much purpose in it. Not saying I won’t because I certainly will be looking for a good reason to use it. but fact is, this will not make you a better photographer.

Full review score of the Extended telescope lens for a cell phone.
Function: 7/10
Durability: 8/10
Look: 10/10
Value: 10/10
Useability: 3/10
Total score: 7/10

ZTE Z740G Camera VS Iphone 4S Camera

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

Decided to do a test between the ZTE Z740G Camera and the iPhone 4S Camera.
My test was to set both cameras at their full setting and full resolution and take one long distance photograph of the Houston downtown skyline and one close up photo within downtown Houston. To see how the cameras handle the lighting and what would be in focus and out of focus. and to go head to head between two phones in total different budgets. The iPhone 4s was quite expensive when it was released, while the ZTE Z740G was very cheap. Less than 1/4 the price of the iPhone.
To be as fair as I could, I also picked the exact same point as the focus point, and rested the cameras on the same objects.
The photos came out at very similar angles.

 

From what I see, the iPhone pictures came out darker and more grainy looking, while the Android pictures came out brighter but slightly blurrier.

The distance Skyline photos I have to give to the Android ZTE Z740G. Though they aren’t much better, they aren’t dark and weirdly gloomy. yet the iPhone image allows a tad more zoom and a clearer focus.

The close up photos I have to give to the iPhone 4. Especially when you look at the windows of the building to the left. You see the details in the curtains and the depth of the window area between the glass and the curtains.

After some time, I realize there are a few more types of photographs i could have taken to better test the two phones. Issue with that is the review would get long and bloated with pictures. So i decided to take just two photos of some coins up close with each phone. and not use flash
Android ZTE Z740G

iPhone 4S

again one image comes out blurrier and brighter while the other comes in dark and slightly more focus yet grainy.

Truth is, neither has a good camera. and this whole test is only good if you are trying to pick between the ZTE or the iPhone 4. Other than that, it would be in your best interest to find something else to compare these two phones by.

360 Degree Camera For Iphone 4S

Posted onAuthorTruXter

With your Mouse and pointer, hit play, for the video to start. Once the video loads and begins to stream and you hear Chris start talking, click down with in the video and move your mouse left or right in the viewable area of the video and watch what happens.

Chris Pirillo from Chris.Pirillo.com has helped fund a great ap and a gadget add on for your Iphone 4s, to record full 360 degree panoramic view. Allows you to record in 360 degrees of the position the Iphone is in. The app is called “GoPano”
What can you don with a camera like this? unsuspected surveillance of the old couple behind you while you look like you are recording two birds in a meadow. Security of your house while you take off to some other state.
Or just a zillion and one hacks that can be done to this to bring the GoPano into more uses.

Security Camera Amazement

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Sitting at a Houston Fire Alarm company who also does security systems, I was participating in a webinar from VideoIQ I was surprised at the bag of gadgets they had to show. Due to the agreement of watching the video I can’t tell you much about the innovative ground breaking networking device about to come. Just be certain it will cut short all of the issues you face in many large facilities. So keep watching their site for an update.
I can however tell you about the cameras they have on their site with between 160 gb of storage up to 500 gb storage. They call it “Zero-bandwidth recording” Some cameras are capable of up to 1080p 30fps true HD recording.

This will be a great future for HiTech Fire using VideoIQ products. This is the type of thing that customer want, but do not want to pay for. It is the stuff they wish they had when their  $10 camera takes a fuzzy video and the suspects can not be  identified.

Spy stuff Online

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man

Since we were kids we all had fascinations about spy stuff. We all wanted to find the clues and catch the crook with special secrete hidden devices that observe the criminals. We all wanted to perform surveillance and undercover detective work. Okay maybe that was just my batch of friends. We also wanted to be ninjas so .. lol.

Well I found a site that has some of the coolest equipment for doing such things. They have cameras hidden in Lighters and pens listening devices and all sorts of stuff. This place is actually quite cool. If anything you can look at the site and browse their goodies. It’s cool stuff I tell  you

http://www.spyultimatum.com/

One Month Review of G1 HTC Android.

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Well I have had my G1 for one month.

On day one, it crashed about 3 times.

On day two it got an update to something, no clue it happened so fast and I had no idea how to work anything on it, that I may never know. After the update I had crashes the whole day . Finally found the applications and what ones I could install.

I have to have all background processes turned off, otherwise it is super dead slow. Barcode scanners all seem to be just advertisement for national companies. Mostly target and  some drug store. Read More about the Android Barcode scanner here.

While searching the apps online, every single app has some clown saying ” app froze would not run had to uninstall found better one” then they say the name of  the supposed better one. I have come to the conclusion they are smearing  and trying to promote their own app..  If it freezes, turn background processes back on.. you will move slow, but yeah, it will work.

Storage,
I hate the limitations of this cell phone. I have an 8 gig memory card in the machine, but it seems to only install new apps to the phone, not the memory card. That bugs the hell out of me, because default storage for the phone is like one song. There is no way to change that.

The phone has been out for just over a year, yet they already have the G2 on it’s way to the shelves? if not already released???? why? they knew it sucked?

Screen area is huge and the resolution is remarkable. The camera takes an amazing picture, audio is pretty good through good head set, if you have the right adapter. Internet is super fast if you use the wifi settings and have a fast connection at your house (lol). I have actually seen over 2 megs a second, considering I have a 20meg a second connection, it is possible. Pandora Radio and ars radio are the best features. Other than running around in your skivvies playing with the light-saber app.

yesterday I pulled out one of my old Motorola phones, slapped my sim card in it, and bam, I get a bunch of text messages.. Has that freaking phone been missing my texts? Is that why she dumped me ? is that why i lost that bid for the job? what in the heck ???

Not happy, selling pretty soon.

I will be going back to my Blackberry 8100, just hope I can get used to the double tap simi qwerty keyboard.