Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Toshiba Thrive and me.

I should really be doing this post from my thrive to test out it's blogging capabilities however there is something to be said about a real keyboard.  So the story.  Well it all starts when Jenn needed eye surgery.  We had to be in Denver the day before the surgery.  She had a brief consult with the doctor that was doing the operation.  After that we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves.  We had a beautiful fall day in front of us.  We decided on Beau Jo's for lunch.  Ate our fill at the buffet of awesome pizza and while we were there found us a hotel.  So we checked in to the hotel and then drove around a bit to explore.  We didn't get far before we found a Best Buy and Ross.  One for Jenn and one for me. 

Here's the thing.  I've liked the idea of a tablet since they were introduced.  Liked there idea, but hated there price.  I couldn't understand paying $600 plus for a tablet when you could buy a really nice laptop for that.  Plus the laptop would do so much more.  My price point was around $300-400.  That's where laptops end and the price gap in technology existed.  A friend loaned me his almost new Ipad2 for a weekend.  I wanted to know what it was like browsing the web from bed.  Playing with apps on the couch.  If you have ever owned a ipod touch, you know what a ipad is like.  It's the same thing except bigger.  Your inside a very pretty white fence, with a beautiful groomed lawn to play on.  Problem is you can just sit back and watch the party going on outside the fence.  I didn't like the ipad.  Apps felt limited, couldn't see the file structure, couldn't manipulate the look of the front pages, it just wasn't what I was use to.  I wanted a bigger version of my phone.  A Android tablet.

So Jenn went to Ross and I headed into BestBuy.  I already had a pretty good idea of the specs on all the tablets.  I knew there memory capacity, physical size, OS version and current price.  After spending time with the Ipad I thought I wanted something smaller.  However after flicking thru and playing a bit with the small Asus, I rethought that.  I spent a hour holding, touching, and playing with all the different tablets.  Even if they were out of my price range.  Just to see what a higher price might add.  Jenn found me after she was done and we went back to the hotel.  She knew I wanted a tablet.  So for the rest of the night and even then next morning in the waiting and recovery room it was a joke with us, about me getting back to Bestbuy.  After Jenn's surgery the doc asked us to stay one more day.  We were prepared for it.  Everything except for the green peas which we needed for Jen's face masks.

We had a Natural Foods grocery store next to the hotel but I ran to Target and grabbed some.  Then hit Ross for some more spatulas that Jen wanted to give as Christmas gifts.  Temptation got the best of me and I went back in too Bestbuy.  I did a little more playing and then decided.  I called Jenn to make sure she was doing fine and told her I'd only be a few more minutes.  I found someone to get me a tablet and ring me up.  Jakob called while I was checking out so I didn't get the hard sell on the optional insurance, memory card, cables, etc..  Got back to the hotel, took care of Jenn and put the peas on ice.  I didn't get to actually open it till later that night.  I needed the hotel's wifi and a little time.  So when Jenn took some pain med's and nodded off for a bit I unwrapped it and fired it up.  Didn't take long for it to register and get signed into my google account.  Most apps from my phone ported over.  I browsed thru some forum's getting suggestions on "must have" apps for tablets.  Used some and uninstalled others.  Battery time was excellent.  I also loved that fact that in the future I could replace the battery myself if I needed.

Fast forward to the end of Febuary.  I've had my Thrive for a few months now and can say that I am totally happy with it's performance and ability to replace a laptop.  I love the ability to draw on it.  I've mocked up several watercolors I've done.  Adobe has a ever expanding suite of apps for it.  Some are good, some better and some need a lot of work.    However for the most part it's great.  If your looking at any tablet be it Android or Apple, weigh what your going to use it for and then make a decision on what to get.

Monday, February 6, 2012

2012 Video's

Trying to get my feet wet and use Premier pro 5.5.  You can watch tutorials till your blue in the face.(and they will turn you blue in the face)  I like to experiment and get a feel for things then have someone instruct me a bit.  I need a reference point to expand on.  Anyhow...here ya go....

A day at the farm.  Some time around mid January 2012...




I wasn't totally happy with the video quality of Youtube so I switched to Vimeo.  So far I'd say much better everything.