Republishing in full not allowed without permission.. Source: bhatt.id.au/blog/

I’ve always been a cricket fan. Last week I attended a T20 Big Bash league match at the Sydney Cricket Ground and found that the Cricket Australia terms and conditions of spectator entry regarding photography inside the venue were seemingly arbitrarily enforced.

When entering private land you consent to rules that land owners impose on you including re: photography. Unfortunately rights to take photos in public areas are becoming equally restricted and often mistakenly overpoliced by security guards (see http://photorights.4020.net)

This prompted me to write an article about the matter for Technology Specator:

If you take a photo at an Australian cricket match this summer and publish it to Twitter or Facebook you could be slapped with a ban from Cricket Australia thanks to draconian rules in place to protect media broadcast partners.

Amatuer photographers theoretically risk being “prohibited and disqualified from purchasing tickets for or entering into” any Cricket Australia match or event ever again, but cricket venue entry rules regarding photography are honoured more in the breach than in the observance.
- read more at http://technologyspectator.com.au/emerging-tech/social-media/cricket-australias-poor-twitter-form

That evening I got invited to discuss the issue on ABC Radio NSW and ACT Evenings. Click on the link below to listen to the 10 minute discussion about the democratisation of photography and how corporate rules and the law are lagging behind the reality of cheap omni-present digital cameras.

Listen to my 20/01/2012 discussion on ABC Radio NSW and ACT Evenings with Dominic Knight re Cricket Australia photography rules. MP3 recording courtesy of ABC Radio.

Several days later Cricket Australia’s CEO commented on the issue so I wrote a followup story highlighting that:

In the meantime, the official Cricket Australia Twitter account and least two Big Bash T20 teams are openly encouraging fans to take match photos and share them online, muddying the legal waters around Cricket Australia’s terms of venue entry for spectators.
read more at http://technologyspectator.com.au/emerging-tech/social-media/cricket-australias-twitter-reality-check

Hopefully by the time the 2012-2013 Cricket season starts Cricket Australia will officially allow photos to be taken at venues for non-commercial personal uses such as publishing to personal blogs or social media accounts like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Flickr.

Otherwise fans will not be able to capture photo memories of the atmosphere and famous players at matches as I did during the 2005 Super Test series (Flintoff, Mcgrath and Lara pictured below).

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

Republishing in full not allowed without permission.. Source: bhatt.id.au/blog/

What happens to the concept of ownership of books, music, DVD Movie & TV series collections etc in the shift from Analog to Digital?

As a journalist and keen observer of how technology affects society I see many upsides to digital content such as ease of use and the ability to carry around massive collections of books, music etc stored in small, light electronic devices.

However while we rush headlong into a digital content future there are several downsides that are not getting the attention they deserve.

EDITOR: This article was syndicated/re-published at the ABC Online – The Drum Unleashed opinion columns website under the title Digital purchases: nothing to hold, nothing to keep.

When I “buy” an eBook from Amazon.com or you “buy” a song from iTunes we aren’t actually buying anything at all. What we’re doing is paying for the legal licensing right to read/listen to some bits of digital information on a limited number of compatible devices.

CNET reported last week that EMI, one of the 4 largest recording industry companies in the world is suing MP3 reseller ReDigi because:

“Music buyers may be able to sell their used CDs and vinyl albums, but they’re not allowed to sell or distribute used digital tracks and albums in the same way.”

Within the next decade users of sites like Bookcrossing may only be able to swap older books that have been printed in paper versions as new books will likely be eBook only. The same will apply to 2nd hand book charity fundraisers like Lifeline Bookfest and charities like Room to Read which collects books and creates libraries in the 3rd world.

Restrictive Terms of Use

According to consumer rights organisation Choice:

“Under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty of 1996, it is illegal in most countries (including Australia since 2007) to attempt to circumvent the copyright protections built into DRM [digital rights management], even when these measures go beyond the protection of legal rights. If you wish to have true ownership over the products you buy, and use them how and when you want to, ideally you would buy products that have no DRM at all”.

As an example this is a portion of the copyright warning included in The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien eBook which I purchased to read on my Kindle:

“By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable, right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen.”

Similar terms and conditions apply to content purchased from Apple’s iTunes store. Jonathan Handel, a Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney told CNN that:

‘When we buy something from iTunes, we are paying for the license to listen to music or watch a movie on our iPhone or other Apple device. But we are not buying the product itself and so we can’t actually own it’.

Corporate censorship and remote removal of digital content that you’ve purchased are also valid issues to consider such as Amazon remotely deleting purchased copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from Kindle devices in 2009 and Apple censoring an iPad version of a web comic based on James Joyce’s famous book Ulysses.

Losing Digital Content or Access To It

New York technology attorney Mark Grossman told CNN last year that:

‘Anyone who tried to take Apple to court over a lost digital file would lose very quickly. “The argument is, you could have backed it up,” he said. “The contract clearly says ‘we are not responsible,’ and it’s firmly established in the law.”’

There is no guarantee that 50 years in the future, or even 10 years in the future that the companies which we “bought” these books, music etc from will still exist.

Consumer electronics gadgets have a short lifespan due to planned obsolescence. Ebook readers, mobile phones and tablet devices can only be expected to last a few years before the battery or other parts of the hardware fails.

So if Amazon went out of business in 2020 and my Kindle’s storage got corrupted I wouldn’t be able to re-download the Kindle ebooks I’d purchased from their servers onto a new device.

Lending and Gifts

Analog printed books, music CD’s/LP’s are easy to lend, sell second hand or give away as gifts.

I have several books on my shelf that were given to me as presents by friends and teachers in primary and high school 15-20 years ago. If I wanted to I could give these books to future generations of my family with no legal issues at all.

Reading those paper books is easy but trying to open a digital file from that era is hard, especially if it’s stored in an obsolete computer document format on an obsolete storage format like 5.25″/3.5″ floppy disks.

This assumes that the storage hardware would work after such a length of time and the data had been backed up in the first place, which are topics I explored in a previous ABC The Drum Unleashed story “Digital Dark Ages?”.

If I really like an ebook I can’t move it from my computer backups folder to give it to a friend unless it is out of copyright and therefore public domain.

Unfortunately the Howard government’s 2004 Australia/USA Free Trade Agreement came at a price. A lengthy increase in the term of copyright meant that the potential benefit of many free public domain ebooks becoming available to Australians in the early 21st century was blocked.

Very limited lending of Kindle ebooks is available for US buyers but not to Australians. Even that restricted lending ability has been shown to be at the whim of Amazon who briefly blocked functionality for the 3rd party site Lendle last year.

Judging a Bookshelf

Judging a new friend’s bookshelf on your first visit to their place is human nature, don’t pretend you haven’t done it.

I’ve certainly done it because the books people read and keep as their favourites are often a strong predictor of their personality and interests in life, or at least how they want to be perceived.

One glance at a bookshelf that contains a battered Lonely Planet guide to Europe on Shoestring, glossy wilderness themed coffee table photobook and paperbacks of Robinson Crusoe reveals a lot.

The owner of those books is a traveller. They probably started when they were young and had a small budget. The glossy photobook could indicate that they’re a photographer who appreciates natural beauty and the Robinson Crusoe book that they’re more likely to go on a holiday to an isolated location than a bustling metropolis.

However within the next 5-10 years we may not be able to judge new friends by their bookshelves because it’s likely that their book collection won’t have any physical manifestation, instead living inside electronic devices like the Amazon Kindle or Apple iPad.

You may scoff but think about what’s happened to the music industry in the last 10 years. An 18 year old isn’t likely to buy a pile of CD’s and display them in their room. They’ll pirate the songs via Bit torrent or buy the song from iTunes and play it on their Apple device.

Unless you scroll through the contents of their phone when they leave it unlocked near you, the breadth and depth of their music collection will be uncertain.

With Eyes Wide Open

The shift from analog to digital for books, music, movies, DVD Movie & TV series collections etc etc is well underway and unstoppable.

However it is important that we understand the full implications of this shift, fight against onerous terms and conditions of use and question techno-utopian statements by cyberculture commentators like Kevin Kelly that “the trend is clear: access trumps possession. Access is better than ownership”.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

Republishing in full not allowed without permission.. Source: bhatt.id.au/blog/

Mobile phone coverage spots in remote areas like Western Australia’s Kimberley region are few and far between for Telstra NextG customers, and mostly non-existent for Optus and Vodafone. So the only way you can regularly make contact with family, friends and work colleagues is to use satellite-based communication systems. As luck would have it the relentless technology trend of smaller, cheaper, better devices has worked its magic well in this area of gadgets. The SPOT 2 Satellite GPS Messenger and Inmarsat iSatphone Pro reviewed here work not only in Australia but across large parts of the world at no extra cost.

Location-based services like Foursquare aren’t particularly high on my radar. Anyone who publishes daily Facebook/Twitter status updates like “9am: I’m at work” and “5pm: going home” is swiftly unfollowed and earmarked as the dissemination of boring ‘Captain Obvious’ information. But I spied an opportunity for some real location-based tech testing when I headed to the Kimberley in the north of Western Australia for a photographic expedition.

Could I usefully stay ‘on grid’ in one of the world’s most isolated regions? I turned to satellite technology. But if like me your preconceptions about satellite phones involve large brick-sized communication devices and call costs of several dollars per second, think again. I loaded up with the latest Inmarsat satphone and a more limited but perhaps less intrusive ‘messenger’ device.

I write short articles as well as long feature “explainer” articles on topics including: Google Android Smartphones and Tablets, National Broadband Network (NBN), Space, Civil & Military Aviation, Ebooks and the Publishing Industry, Electric cars, Technology augmenting human capabilities etc for Geare Magazine. The editor of GEARE has kindly permitted me to post articles here after the magazine issue the article was printed in has passed its shelf life. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

SPOT 2 Satellite GPS Messenger ($199 plus satellite and Google Maps subscription fees)

If you’re planning to get away from it all a satellite phone may be the last thing you want – particularly incoming communications so that anyone (such as your boss) can check up on you. I found the Spot 2 to be a near-perfect device in this regard – it provides an excellent balance between keeping friends and family up to date with your location and safety, while keeping you out of their personal loops.

The Spot 2 can be strapped onto your wrist while walking but I found that a rather chunky option for any length of time. Strapping it to cycle/motorbike handlebars or sticking it face up on a vehicle windscreen is much more practical. I tended to just turn it on and place it on a backpack, pointing face-up at the sky, checking in with an OK message and Google Maps location tracking signal. Once turned on, Spot 2 takes five to ten minutes to register with a satellite and send its message based on the button you press. To be certain, it’s best to leave it running for 20 minutes.

So, what can you do with it? The Spot 2 offers five main functions:

1. SOS – This immediately alerts emergency services of your location in case of a life-threatening or other critical emergency. The GEOS International Emergency Response Center alerts the appropriate agencies worldwide. The Spot 2 will send this SOS (with your GPS location) at five minute intervals until the batteries die, the company quoting 1350 transmissions (four and a half days) on a fresh battery.
2. Help message – For less critical emergencies, this sends a message to friends/family, and could be especially useful if you’re travelling in a group, or with a back-up team. Your GPS location is sent with the help message every five minutes for an hour, or until cancelled, and your contacts can receive either an SMS text message including coordinates, or an email with a link to Google Maps showing your precise location.
3. Custom message – Specific alerts, such as “vehicle mechanical problems” can be sent, or even a less urgent “Setting up camp for the night” message.
4. OK message – A ‘check-in’ SMS or email is sent to a predetermined list of up to 10 people, again sending your GPS location as an SMS or email link to Google Maps.
5. Track Progress – This function sends your current location to Spot, which then pinpoints it on a customised Google Map which connects all your ‘track progress’
   check-ins over time to show your path.

I checked in at 26 major points during the trip, generating the map shown above. Battery life is good – the three lithium-ion batteries which power Spot 2 should last for a three-week trip if it is transmitting eight hours a day.

Could you send an SOS by mistake? Nearly impossible I reckon – the buttons are all recessed and they only work when pressed for two or more seconds. And while there’s no display readout on the Spot, its current task is clearly indicated by flashing buttons and indicators.

I was so impressed with this useful and potentially disaster-averting device that I’d suggest any Australian going on a 4WD or caravan trip through areas without mobile coverage should consider taking a Spot 2 with them for personal safety. Even if no emergency arises, it can provide peace of mind for family and friends, while the optional Track Progress feature is very cool, and provides you with an accurate map trail showing exactly where you’ve been. Spot 2 costs AU$199 inc GST to buy, plus an additional US$115 a year for the basic satellite subscription and a further US$49.95 to enable the Track Progress Google-mapping feature.

Note: The Spot 2 unit I tested was borrowed from Australian retailer GPS OZ.

Inmarsat iSatphone Pro ($660 + usage fees)

Those preconceptions about giant satellite phones? Forget them. When I took Inmarsat’s latest iSatphone Pro out of its box, it was comparable in size and weight to a cordless phone from a few years ago (rather than the decade I was expecting). Inmarsat told me that the call costs are 75c+GST/minute, so that with the handset at $660 the cost overall compares pretty well to a mid-to-high level smartphone on a prepaid phone plan.

Yet when you’re heading way out of town, if there’s a strong likelihood of weather, or of vehicle difficulties on your holiday drive, or if you’re cursed with the need to be in contact with work at all times, a conventional phone is likely to be completely useless. A satellite phone is the best option, and Inmarsat’s iSatPhonePro leads the pack with its long battery life, rugged construction and affordability. It has an intuitive GSMstyle interface and a high-visibility colour screen, while its relatively large keypad makes for easy dialling even with gloves on.

The iSatphone Pro is also the only global handheld satellite phone to support Bluetooth. You can place the handset on its side, with full manoeuvrability of the antenna for handsfree use.

Those call rates, by the way, are the same regardless of your country or connection. So you’d actually save money using the Inmarsat’s iSatPhonePro service overseas compared to using mobile phone global roaming!

To make a satellite phone call you have to follow a specific procedure. First you turn the phone on and swing out the large antenna. Then stand in a place with a clear view of the sky, and turn around slowly until you find out which direction the satellite is in, by watching the signal strength meter. Once the signal is strong enough the phone will register with the Inmarsat network and be ready to make a call, send an SMS etc.

That network operates over global geostationary satellites that are assured to be operational into the 2020s, so you might expect the phone’s satellite coverage would be, well, everywhere, at least outside. In fact some patience is required. Finding a signal and registering can take several minutes – longer if you have to walk/drive somewhere to find a clearer line of sight to the satellite overhead. Even being beneath a big leafy tree, let alone sitting at the bottom of a gorge or canyon, was enough to restrict line-of-sight communication with the satellite network.

But once registered and connected operation was simple. There was a slight latency on calls to Sydney in the far corner of Australia, the delays inherent in satellite communication meaning that conversations could be a bit disjointed unless you’re calling someone used to satphone or overseas conversations. But call quality was good, with a random bit of digital noise every now and then – comparable with an OK mobile call. Those on the other end such as friends and family in Sydney reported good reception at the other end.

Specifications
Capabilities: Satellite telephony, voicemail, text and email messaging, GPS location data
Battery life: Longest battery life in its class: up to 8 hours talk time and up to 100 hours standby time.
Robust: Also the most robust handset in its class. It can operate at temperatures from -20°C to +55°C; it’s dust, splash and shock-resistant (IP54), with humidity tolerance from 0-95%.

The iSatPhone I tested was borrowed from Inmarsat.

This article was originally published in GEARE Magazine issue #67. It is “digitally reprinted” here with permission from the editor. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

Republishing in full not allowed without permission.. Source: bhatt.id.au/blog/

Two compact ultrazooms are competing to be king of the ultra zoom digital cameras. I put Canon and Panasonic’s new geotagging marvels to the test. Compact ultrazoom cameras have progressed a lot in the last five years, It’s fair to recognise the great success of Panasonic’s Lumix TZ cameras in leading the pack but Canon’s new PowerShot SX230 HS is an impressive new challenger, so I took the opportunity to test it against the latest Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20.

To check these credentials in addition to general use and image quality, I took the Canon SX230HS for a roadtrip through New Zealand’s picturesque South Island, and headed to the rugged Kimberley area in the North of Western Australia with the Panasonic TZ20. Because these cameras are made to travel…

Aside from their compact goodness, both cameras also feature GPS tagging of photos, which allows easy access to your images by location, as well as new possibilities such as creating map tracks of the places you’ve travelled through.

I write short articles as well as long feature “explainer” articles on topics including: Google Android Smartphones and Tablets, National Broadband Network (NBN), Space, Civil & Military Aviation, Ebooks and the Publishing Industry, Electric cars, Technology augmenting human capabilities etc for Geare Magazine. The editor of GEARE has kindly permitted me to post articles here after the magazine issue the article was printed in has passed its shelf life. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

Canon PowerShot SX230 HS ($350)

Sensor: 12.1MP High Sensitivity CMOS
Processor: DiG!C 4
Focal length: 5.0-70mm (28-392mm 35mm equivalent)
Aperture: f/3.1- f/8.0
Shutter speed: 15-1/3200 sec.
Zoom: optical approx. 14x;
Image stabiliser: Optical (lens shift type)
Video: Full-HD 1920 x 1080/24 H.264
Features: GPS tagging, face detection
Dimensions: 106 x 62 x 33mm
Weight: 223g (with battery and SD card)

I asked for black but as luck would have it, Canon offered me a choice of pink or pink. I braced myself for the inevitable ridicule from companions on the New Zealand trip.

I encountered ease-of-use niggles early in particular with the flash on the SX230 HS which pops up at top left as soon as the camera is powered on, even when flash is disabled. And it stays popped up. Top left is where many users will naturally hold the camera – your finger and hand block the pop-up and strain the pop-up motor. I also noticed that flash can’t be used for close-up macro photos as the lens casts a shadow in the bottom right of photos.

Once I got accustomed to working around those issues, the Canon delivered superb image quality and colour for outdoor photos. While the fully automatic mode was good, I felt that the camera’s abilities were best exploited by manually setting the ISO, white balance and your ‘colour mode’ preference (I liked ‘Vivid’).

The 14x zoom lens worked surprisingly well across its range of 28-392mm, though I wish it was a bit wider (e.g. 25mm) to fit in a wider field when taking landscape and large group photos.

Make sure to keep the camera set to the default 4:3 aspect ratio as this uses the whole camera sensor. Setting it to 16:9 widescreen mode will result in the top and bottom of captured photo image information being lost.

While just out of the coveted f2.X range, the Canon’s f3.1-8.0 capability at the wide end and f5.9-8.0 at the long end of the lens worked well with Canon’s DiG!C 4 processor and new 12.1MP high-sensitivity CMOS sensor to produce sharp photos. Optical image stabilisation is a further bonus here.

I was pleasantly surprised to be able to take relatively good low-light photos, even up to ISO800. Once my shots were loaded onto Flickr, praise came even from photographer friends who shoot strictly with SLRs.

The camera’s GPS functionality is not bad for Canon’s first effort. GPS Logger works well outdoors (even in a helicopter!), but not from inside a car or building. Canon’s Map Utility application imports the GPS Logger files from your camera or SD card and displays the track on screen. Then you can import photos which will be matched to the track and you can export a KML file to view in Google Earth.

GPS tagging is similar, in that only outside photos will have GPS coordinates tagged. Even for those the camera has to be switched on for a bit of time so it can find the satellites before you can start tagging photos. If you turn the camera on, snap a few fast photos and then turn it off, it’s probable none of the photos will get tagged.

The SX230 HS would make a good compact camera on which to learn photography, thanks to its ability to switch between Easy, Auto, Program, Shutter priority, Aperture priority and full manual modes. Full HD movies can be taken in any mode simply by pressing the red-dot ‘record’ button.

I can see why TIPA gave its award for Best Superzoom Camera to the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS at its 2011 awards ceremony. In my view it is an excellent compact super zoom digital camera, highly competitive camera for this sector, and if the company were to fix the flash design, make the lens a bit wider and avoid getting sucked into the megapixel marketing race, the next generation could take the company to leadership in the compact ultrazoom camera market.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20 ($400)

Sensor: 14.1MP 1/2.33-inch MOS
Lens: Leica DC Vario-Elmar
Focal length: f=4.3-68.8mm (24-384mmn 35mm equivalent)
Aperture: F/3.3-F/5.9
Shutter speed: 60 – 1/4000 sec
Zoom: optical 16x; digital 4x
Image stabiliser: Optical (lens shift type)
Video: Full-HD 1920 x 1080/50 AVCHD
Features: GPS tagging, face detection
Dimensions: 100 x 55 x 21mm
Weight: 142g (with battery and SD card)

This is an example of the increasingly valid argument against having more pixels for their own sake. The Panasonic sensor has an effective 14.1MP over the Canon’s 12.1MP, but comparing its photos with those from the SX230 HS at 100% size, it’s clear that the TZ20 photos have more digital noise and loss of detail, especially in shadow and highlight areas.

Don’t get me wrong – many people will be quite happy with the TZ20’s image quality. I set the TZ20 to my preferred setting of ‘Vivid’ and the resulting photos were indeed vibrant and full of life. They brought out the rich earthy tones of the iron-oxide-rich Western Australian land and its wildlife without being too punchy or saturated.

Photos taken at the long-end of the zoom were reasonably sharp, which is a difficult thing to achieve with a compact camera. Macro mode on the TZ20 was also better than the corresponding mode on the Canon, thanks to the wide-angle 24mm lens, which allowed me to get really close to the details of tiny hermit crabs (smaller than your thumbnail) scampering about on the sandy beach at Broome Bird Observatory.

The wide angle also allows more landscape to fit into a photo as well, while the plethora of manual settings lets the TZ20 user choose between tweaking through experience, or going ‘novice’ with the camera’s Intelligent Auto setting.

High-definition 1920×1080/50i video shot in good light was excellent, and the one press movie start/stop recording button can be used in any scene mode, which is handy.

GPS tagging was again useful for pinpointing locations on Picasa, Flickr etc. It’s worth remembering, however, that turning off GPS except when needed can save a lot of battery power – also that by leaving such information on sites like Flickr you are potentially telling strangers where you and your family live, what’s in your home, etc.

A few niggles emerged. The TZ20 doesn’t rotate vertical photos to fill the screen if you turn the camera on its side in playback mode, so it’s harder to tell if they’ve been taken sharply. And the TZ20 lens took a long time to fully extend when powered on, compared with that of the SX230 HS. That can be the difference between grabbing a photo and missing it.

Button controls and the four-way rocker on the TZ20 are generally user friendly, with the exception of the tiny ‘exposure’ button. This actually controls shutter speeds in Shutter Priority mode. Either it should be removed (and the shutter speed changed via the four-way rocker) or it should be renamed to shutter speed.

I found the three-inch LCD touchscreen relatively unresponsive… it will certainly frustrate people used to the high sensitivity and speed of a modern Apple or Android smartphone. I expected this as soon as I saw there was a stylus supplied with the camera! Thankfully use of touch is optional, as everything is duplicated by hard buttons.

Final Verdict

Both cameras took photos with good colour and sharpness, and this is a rare occasion where I have to declare a tie. There are merits and flaws in each so your choice will depend on how their relative strengths/weaknesses fit your expected usage.

The SX230 HS needs two things – better design of the pop-up flash, and a wider lens to enable better macros and landscape photos when at its widest un-zoomed setting.

For Panasonic to regain the crown of outright best superzoom it should return its focus to image quality. While the TZ20 has a clear advantage in the areas of zoom and wide angle, the SX230 HS has taken the lead on overall image quality, with impressively low digital noise and good capture of details.

This article was originally published in GEARE Magazine issue #67. It is “digitally reprinted” here with permission from the editor. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more