Technology

Annual iPhone Photowalk by Adrian Galli

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I have more cameras than I can count but the old adage “the best camera is the one you have with you” is the reason I upgrade my iPhone yearly. And every year, I take a photo walk, a pilgrimage if you will, to put the camera to the test.

With the new ultra wide + macro lens on iPhone 13 Pro, this year was a little more exciting than usual as anyone who knows me knows I love wide angle photography especially the challenging ultra wide macro photography.

I’ve frequently compared iPhone photography to shooting with my Laowa 15mm Macro and this year it is more true than ever.

This entry into Hexagon is a journaling of the past few week withs iPhone 13 Pro.

reMarkable Tablets — Minimalist E-ink Notetaking by Adrian Galli

Image courtesy of reMarkable

Image courtesy of reMarkable

Of those is in know, reMarkable 2 tablets are shipping. For those who don’t know about reMarkable, they are a Norwegian company that make minimalist, e-ink, notetaking tablets.

It is in the second generation—the thinnest tablet in the world at that. There are many criticisms of the device because it doesn’t do much more than let your write, read, and annotate. While that is the point, being distraction free, one could feel limited by such a device. 

I have picked on up recently but I have not yet posted my review. I need time with it—to understand it, fit it into my workflow, and see if it is worth the price tag of an iPad.

But here are a few thoughts:

  1. Is there no room for dedicated devices in our digital world? Or do all digital devices have to be so broadly general computing apparatus like iPad devices?

  2. Can having an iPad with Apple Pencil completely remove one’s need for other notetaking forms?

  3. Are notebooks (paper) completely gone from our lives? Can we replace them with something dedicated to the same task and with more functions like cloud syncing?

I recently picked up and reviewed an Amazon Kindle during the COVID Lockdown. Never did I think I would want to read on it more rather than my iPad Pro but it has found a unique place in my life and heart. It is a ‘Goldilocks’ device for the purpose it was designed. 

And to consider this further, what about other devices that we have used for, in some cases, decades and don’t scoff at the idea that they still exist today even in the age of computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Analog "Goldilocks" Digital
Book Kindle iPad
Abacus Calculator MacBook Pro
Notebook reMarkable iPad Pro

The “Three R’s” in analog through digital forms.

Perhaps we are all so bewildered by dedicated digital notetaking devices because they haven’t really been available to us in the past—that reMarkable tablets (and others like it) are just so new we haven’t accepted them yet.

I recall a friend of mine when I got my first smartphone, a Blackberry 7100t, saying, “I don’t want to be that available all the time.” Yet, today, she and I both have iPhone 11 Pro devices.

About the Microsoft Surface Duo by Adrian Galli

This isn’t a review. I do not own a Duo however I find it to be one of the most interesting devices one the market currently.

More so this is a review of reviewers. I have a gripe with just about ever tech blog, tech blogger, review, etc. because they are pedantic. There are exceptions but for the vast majority of them, tech bloggers have a very myopic view of technology, features, specs, and proceed from a false assumption that technology, good technology, has some definition that they know and no one else does. That technology ‘should’ be a certain way or thing.

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