Gadget Reviews
A pretty good thunderstorm moved through here cooling and wetting things down. Refreshing. Buster is under the table on my feet, the iPod is playing away, dinner was Lasagna and fresh Spinach salad. The Television has not been on in a week. A good night to recap gadget performance after having lived with them for awhile.
The hearing aids are OK- it would be nice to not need one and the lower strata aids have their issues with telephones. Can you say "squeal?" I still have an ear I can use for that, though. I can't really decide whether the in-ear or over the ear is better. I am running on original batteries in both of the "Whispers." The Ampli-Ear is retired. I have an old Bugle that might double for an ear trumpet. I think it would go well with my outback hat and cargo pants.
The Motorola Q is a good device but I think it is marketed dishonestly. The battery life with original issue was about 4-5 hours-abysmal. The high capacity one is pretty good but makes the device fatter and requires a special battery door and $50 more. They sell it as especially thin but in useable configuration it is fatter. There is a tendency toward fusion-devices that do it all. This is good if they do them well. The GPS (global positioning mapping) offered by Verizon requires a subscription and will not work with Google maps though there is a receiver in the phone. I am looking at a Blue Tooth GPS receiver for $45.00 that will make it functional without subscription. I also discovered better cheaper batteries than Verizon-sold ones. I have been enjoying the downloaded books a great deal. Once paid for you can download them forever and read them on computer or telephone. They save your place! That is a good thing.
The Olympus D550UZ (18X zoom) is a flighty camera. In low light it is very unreliable as to picture quality. Some evening Powwow pictures were so noisy they were unuseable. I will get some use out of it but would not really recommend it for a sole camera. Olympus disappoints again. Bright clear days it is pretty good but struggles for focus at the long end of the zoom. A strength is the automatic settings in "Scene Mode"- there are lots of them and they seem to work.
Phone cameras are all pretty weak in my experience. Good for capturing police misdeeds and catastrophes but nothing for the album. To be fair, I need to really try harder to get quality with them.
The hearing aids are OK- it would be nice to not need one and the lower strata aids have their issues with telephones. Can you say "squeal?" I still have an ear I can use for that, though. I can't really decide whether the in-ear or over the ear is better. I am running on original batteries in both of the "Whispers." The Ampli-Ear is retired. I have an old Bugle that might double for an ear trumpet. I think it would go well with my outback hat and cargo pants.
The Motorola Q is a good device but I think it is marketed dishonestly. The battery life with original issue was about 4-5 hours-abysmal. The high capacity one is pretty good but makes the device fatter and requires a special battery door and $50 more. They sell it as especially thin but in useable configuration it is fatter. There is a tendency toward fusion-devices that do it all. This is good if they do them well. The GPS (global positioning mapping) offered by Verizon requires a subscription and will not work with Google maps though there is a receiver in the phone. I am looking at a Blue Tooth GPS receiver for $45.00 that will make it functional without subscription. I also discovered better cheaper batteries than Verizon-sold ones. I have been enjoying the downloaded books a great deal. Once paid for you can download them forever and read them on computer or telephone. They save your place! That is a good thing.
The Olympus D550UZ (18X zoom) is a flighty camera. In low light it is very unreliable as to picture quality. Some evening Powwow pictures were so noisy they were unuseable. I will get some use out of it but would not really recommend it for a sole camera. Olympus disappoints again. Bright clear days it is pretty good but struggles for focus at the long end of the zoom. A strength is the automatic settings in "Scene Mode"- there are lots of them and they seem to work.
Phone cameras are all pretty weak in my experience. Good for capturing police misdeeds and catastrophes but nothing for the album. To be fair, I need to really try harder to get quality with them.
posted by Stephen's Pictures | 9:57 PM
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