Simply Living with Tech

well, its been some time. if you have little regard for you time...

The internet is a mirror with some ‘lag’. It’s been some time sense I’ve contributed to Less That’s It, but there’s been a ton of change in focus and thought on my part regarding design, tech, and business…. It was my rookie year in university, 2012 when I was inspired by John Maeda’s book, Law’s of Simplicity; in which he explores his passion project of merging good design, good tech, and good…

dishonesty is every product’s biggest competition

I’ve always been puzzled by an organization ability to blatantly lie about a product release… You see it all of the time. Over boasting on feature sets, claiming something is the best that clearly isn’t, claiming something is beautiful that is absolutely ugly. The list goes on and on. I’m sure it works to some extent, as the quote goes “f you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people…

I think its fair to assume that we live in a digital age. Almost everything analog has a digital derivative if it hasn’t already been completely replaced and forgotten by all together. Something that continues to bug me about all of this preconceived notion that digitalization by default is good no matter the circumstances. Yea, this really bugs me a lot. I can point to a myriad of instances…

AS LITTLE DESIGN AS POSSIBLE

Its natural to want to over design. I think that much of the time the struggle of an artist and a designer is fought against their own creative obsession. You learn a ton of skills, you develop your own form of expression, but then you try your best to hone it and control it. There is a certain beauty to focused creativity, as opposed to oversaturated creativity. And still even that is relative…

So without further ado, I have fallen back in love with photography. I recently bought my fiancé her first DSLR, and as normal, I put some hours in with it before wrapping it up and for Christmas. My passion ignited as I realized that there was so much creative potential inside of that sensor that I never thought about tapping into. So I went out on a whim, relied on my years of camera tech research, and purchased a used Sony Alpha 6000 aka a6000.

It came with a battery and the pancake power zoom lens with Optical Steady Shot. The a6000 has arguably the best APSC sensor in the world, and it has the fastest autofocus system in the world, only surpassed by its newer versions the a6300+65000. The lens is meh, but its produced some great results :)

Processed with VSCO with m5 preset

Processed with VSCO

Samsung keeps surprising me. I’ve criticized them for unashamedly copying other designs in the industry without making any noticeable changes. However, over the years they’ve proven that they can in fact design, and not just design, they can design really well. Below is a video that was created and uploaded to YouTube in 2012. Its a concept for the Galaxy S4, and at the time the design seemed…

Sony a6300, A Star is Born

Mirrorless cameras are quickly replacing traditional DSLRs in the professional camera industry. The power and versatility of today’s smartphone cameras have exposed Nikon and Canon’s lack of innovation. DSLRs just seem like big blocks of rubber and metal that can take slightly better photos than flagship smartphones (as far as the average customer is concerned). Then there are things like low…

The interface is minimal, optimally minimum. It utilizes a very small black text font, and from there the rest is content/photos. But what really makes VSCO stand out is its filters and its Photoshop presets.

VSCO makes “film” presets for digital photography editing. This is different than a filter which is simply an overlay of information on existing Jpeg files. But lets say you are a pro or enthusiast photographer and you shoot in Raw. Well Raw images are uncompressed files that saves all of the digital information that your camera captured during the moment you shot your photo. So instead of overlaying a compressed file with new info, individual pixels in a raw image are adjustable resulting in higher quality edits. Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t give off the filtered or 90’s film look in RAW images without having to take hours perfecting that type of editing style. VSCO’s presets are packages of pre-edits that you can download and use in Photoshop. There are 7 in total and they cost a pretty penny, but they are absolutely beautiful in their variations and accuracy to real film photography.

Millennials are moving to cities. The best way to get around in the city is not a taxi, it’s not Uber, its not  a car, its not even walking, its single speed biking. It’s almost 100% environmentally friendly, its light enough to take up and down long staircases, they are cheap up front, they require very little maintenance, its exercise and rejuvenating, it can avoid traffic, an in most cases it…

For decades desktop computers have dominated when it comes to advanced productivity.

But the world is mobilizing and work is becoming less and less local. Desktops are also huge energy consumption devices, and a lot of people may not even understand that their desktop computer is probably overkill for their specific needs. The desktop computer is slowly dying, but its being replaced by mobile devices. Of course I don’t expect them to completely vanish because software is also getting more advanced and will challenge today’s systems quite a bit down the road.

I am really excited about this change. The days of needing a ten thousand dollar rig to do something ground breaking are coming to an abrupt halt. We’ve seen a lot of companies try to build upon a this concept. 2in1 Ultrabooks and laptop workstations are two categories that are pushing towards this mobile future from to opposite sides of the spectrum. Workstation laptops pack the punch of a relatively powerful desktop machine. From Xeon processors to 32+ GB of DDR5 Ram and in some cases packing advanced rendering and graphics cards, Workstations while powerful come at a price….

Weight and battery

Power requires energy. All power has to be generated from a source of energy, and in this case that energy is delivered electrically. Lithium ion batteries are today’s standard for battery use. They are rechargeable, getting cheaper and cheaper, and they can operate in many different extreme usage cases. But the power needed to drive a workstation calls for a hefty battery setup, which of course is the main addition to weight and battery in any machine. The battery industry is not progressing as fast as the CPU industry. And so we expect improvements in energy efficiency to come from the chip manufactures. And it has. Every year intel, Nvidia, AMD, and QUALCOMM unveil their newest chipset architectures which always manage to pack more power while saving more energy. At this point it’s expected and the community largely points to Moore’s Law as a justification for this consistency in innovation. Some people theorize that Moore’s Law is slowing down, but there is still a lot of room left in the suitcase before we pack up and head to Quantum computing. We are reaching the point where Intel’s atom core M processors will be capable of running most heavy load programs. And dual core i5 and i7 can now blaze through 90% of professional tasks from Adobe’s creative apps to Visual Studio to Autodesk. Combine this with the trend of offloading intensive processes onto the cloud, and you already have a good chance of building a slim and light workstation that has tablet level battery life.

This is not only possible, it is happening.

Take the New Razer Bade for example. Its as thin as a dime, literally, and manages to run a most games at 1080p with ultra settings using its GTX 970m processor. The battery life is decent, somewhere around six to 8 hours of regular use. But its quad core i5-i7 processor, up to 16gb of ram, and Tri-HD multi-touch display are top of the line specs for a serious workstation. Nvidia is a key player in this movement as well. They’ve recently blown the competition of the water with their new GTX 1080 and 1070 GPU’s. The (m) variants of these two that will come will inevitably offer significant jumps in performance while operating at significantly cooler temperatures than the 980m and 970m. The gaming and design communities are dependent on powerful GPUs, and for the first time in history they wont need to sacrifice portability and battery life for an elite experience.  All of this in a thin and light package is pretty revolutionary and it speaks volumes about what can be achieved with a future form factor.

What is a future form factor?

Microsoft did not invent the 2in one form factor. I will credit joint efforts from Asus and Intel during the Ultrabook shift that Intel pushed for. Asus’s transformer books were famous for housing part of the computer in the display, and the other half in the keyboard…. and then you could detach the display and use it as a tablet. This concept has been refined by Asus and the rest of the industry, but perhaps Microsoft is the first to really hit the nail on the coffin with the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. The form factor is the perfect fit for the paradigm shift that we outlined above. Both GPU and CPU size and operating temps are so low that you can modulate the two processes by putting the CPU in the display and the GPU in the keyboard along with some more battery. For those who don’t need a super GPU, you can attach a super slim keyboard cover to the tablet and benefit from a super light configuration without sacrificing any of the power you’d expect from your desktop workstation, in theory. The Surface Book does this expertly, but it has its short comings.

Microsoft teamed up with Nvidia to customize a graphics chip the Surface Book. My thinking is that Microsoft was concerned about smashing a 970m in the SB’s super slim keyboard and overheating the machine. Regardless, their custom architecture gives the SB a huge boost in graphical performance, but it still has trouble doing more arduous tasks like editing 4k video or playing a Battlefield 4 at max settings. They are perhaps closer than anyone else to finding that sweet spot between power, portability, and versatility.

Stylus support is a necessity for a perfect computer. Writing and drawing is so integral to human productivity. For me, it completes the circle of usability: Keyboard, mouse, writing, viewing, speech input, and touch.

So I think I’ve justified the specs I’m about to drop for what would make a perfect all around computer.

Specs

tablet display

16.5″ 3×4 5k OLED edge-to-edge display

Perfect for designers, artists, and people that do a lot of multitasking

Gorilla Glass 4/5 (curved edges)

Anti-reflection and anti-glare coating

10 point multi-touch

100% sRGB and 100% Adobe RGB color space

great for content creators and visual artists

75Hz Refresh rate, overclock to 120Hz for gaming

Gamers would love this

Pressure Sensitivity

think force touch

this adds pressure sensitivity range to the stylus

Active Digitizer

Haptic Feedback (under display)

130degree Kickstand on the back

tablet rear camera

20mp

great for unexpected photos

MS Preview digital image processing

RAW

5-axis OIS

essential for a tablet of this size

Digital Image stabilization

more is better

LED RGB flash

Focus light

4k 60fps-1080p 240fps recording

great for recording content during a lecture or a class

also great for recording for motion experiments or for scientific labs

tablet front camera

12mp

selfies or self portraits :)

Digital image stabilization

RGB flash

4k 30fps- 1080p 60fps video

4k 30fps-1080p 60fps streaming

Window Hello login sensors

tablet audio

3.5mm audio input

Dolby 7.1 audio

DJ’s and musicians would appreciate this

4 front facing speakers under display

Mini-subwoofer under back logo

why not

Dual HD microphones

tablet I/O

Magnetic power connector

Pen magnet holder

2xThunderBolt 3

you could connect the tablet to an eGPU and run games up to 4k in ultra settings.

Data transfer at 40GB/S !!

Connect a beast I/O port

Charge other devices super quickly

Connect to external storage or external battery

Power button

Volume rocker

tablet internals

Intel Kabylake QaudCore i5-i7 with integrated graphics

Optional Core M for a fanless design with 12+ hours of battery life

great option for artists and students

256GB-2TB PCIE storage

8-32GB DDR5 RAM

35Wh Battery (or 7 hours of web browsing)

Micro liquid cooling (like what is found in Lumia 950xl)

Circular fan holes for more intensive processes

802.11ac WiFi – a/b/g/n/ac dual band

Bluetooth 4.2

Water Resistance and Dust Resistance

Sensors

GPS

NFC

Accelerometer

Gyroscope

Proximity

Compass

Barometer

Micro S + Nano sim combo slot

tablet accessories

Folding magnetic cover and stand

think iPad air cover

this would be great for people that just want to use the tablet as a note taking machine, media consumption device, and a sketchpad on the go.

Comes in different colors and material, including leather.

Keyboard cover

Think surface cover

keyboard externals

5.5inch Gorilla Glass 4 touchpad

pressure sensitivity

haptic feedback for clicking (new MacBook, awesome feature)

NFC charging and data transfer on wrist wrest

100% RGB individual backlighting for keyboard (i.e. Razor Blade 14, awesome feature)

OLED display above keyboard (upcoming MacBooks)

this will be customizable to show notification, house the taskbar, or show advanced live computer performance stats

keyboard I/O

6xThunderbolt 3

40GB/s speeds

eGPU support for ASUS and Razer external rigs

Thunderbolt 3 I/O adapter included in box

3xUSB 3.0

3 HDMI out

2 Ethernet

Magnetic Power connector with fast charging

Can be charged without tablet

Can customize charging priorities

3.5mm audio out (great for DJ’s and musicians)

2 Full SD card slots (great for pro photographers and videographers)

keyboard internals

95Wh battery (or 10 hours of extra web browsing)

this totals 17 hours when connected to a the tablet and up to 22 hours if using Core M processor!!!

NVidia GTX 1080m-1080m SLI

Holy smokes, lets just say 5k ultra settings city…. and if you have them in SLI, you should get over 80fps on average with the full res of the tablet display.

Optional 2 or 4 TB HDD

Great option for gamers and photographers/videographers.

GPS (track location if you loose keyboard)

Subwoofer under keyboard

Vibration motors

could add to gaming experience

Dust Proof

pen

3 month rechargeable battery

Induction charging when connected to the side of the tablet

3,000 levels of pressure sensitivity

tilt sensor to 20 degrees

Pixel Sense (found in surface pro 4)

RGB LED light

Shows battery life when tapped

transitions from bright green (100%) to orange (50%) to red (0%)

Shows current color being used by the pen….

for example, if you switch the color to bright blue, the light will transition to the exact shade of blue that you are using

this would be great for people that want to use multiple pens at the same time so that they can switch between different colors like you do with real pencils.

Haptic feedback

Magnet for mounting

Eraser

Programmable eraser clicks

1 click, 2 clicks, 3 clicks, press and holder

Pocket clip

Programmable capacitive touch + click button

1 click, 2 clicks, 3 clicks, hold, swipe left/right/up/down

pen accessories

Pen tips (6 options)

Paint brush tips (5 options)

Eraser tips (3)

Art box

Includes pen tips, paint tips, eraser tips, and pen case

Ok so that was a lot. This is an ideal device. I’m sure there are a ton of engineering dilemmas with this configuration, but its not impossible, and I honestly believe that such a machine is pretty close in view…. I mean like a year or two away. So many manufactures have made major leaps in performance over the past few months. We haven’t seen anyone converge all of the latest technologies into one package quite yet, so there is a lot of room for innovation over the next year. I would guess that Microsoft’s Surface team would be the first to try something like this out, but who knows, right?

  Thanks for bearing with my extreme geeking session.

Its been a while. Stay organized my friends!

knolling knolling

Blue is my favorite color and is one of the most popular colors in the world. But what is blue? Well, not to dwell two much on the science, blue is segment of the visible light spectrum that reflects off of material that absorbs all of the remaining colors. The molecules that make up the earth’s atmosphere reflect blue, and so do the molecules that make up most bodies of salt water. Blue represents daytime and clear skies for humanity, which is where our bias most likely comes from. During the day we are the most refreshed, and when the sky is clear the air pressure is high which gives us more energy than if the air pressure were low. Blue is energetic, its positive, its refreshing, its renewing. Now, of course, the darker the blue becomes he darker the mood becomes. Its the night that can sooth us, but its also during the night that we associate crime and conspiracy and mystery. But during a clear sky night, when the stars are shining, we tend to feel soothed and at peace. Blue is a fantastic color with very few opportunities to go wrong. It offers some of the most beautiful shades and its perhaps the most versatile color, meaning that it can blend in nicely with so many contrasting shades without seeming too obtrusive. A great example of this is denim. Almost everyone owns a pair or an assortment of jeans. We throw them on with almost anything in our closet. Our blue denim are usually a go-to for quick rushes to the grocery store or stroll around town because of their “versatility” with almost everything in our wardrobe, and the blue of the denim gives off the relaxation vibe that sometimes is desperately needed. Its human and down to earth. More recently people have been mixing blue denim with semi-formal tops, which is a nice blend of prestige and casual.

Blue is my favorite color and is one of the most popular colors in the world. But what is blue? Well, not to dwell two much on the science, blue is segment of the visible light spectrum that reflects off of material that absorbs all of the remaining colors. The molecules that make up the earth’s atmosphere reflect blue, and so do the molecules that make up most bodies of salt water. Blue represents daytime and clear skies for humanity, which is where our bias most likely comes from. During the day we are the most refreshed, and when the sky is clear the air pressure is high which gives us more energy than if the air pressure were low. Blue is energetic, its positive, its refreshing, its renewing. Now, of course, the darker the blue becomes he darker the mood becomes. Its the night that can sooth us, but its also during the night that we associate crime and conspiracy and mystery. But during a clear sky night, when the stars are shining, we tend to feel soothed and at peace. Blue is a fantastic color with very few opportunities to go wrong. It offers some of the most beautiful shades and its perhaps the most versatile color, meaning that it can blend in nicely with so many contrasting shades without seeming too obtrusive. A great example of this is denim. Almost everyone owns a pair or an assortment of jeans. We throw them on with almost anything in our closet. Our blue denim are usually a go-to for quick rushes to the grocery store or stroll around town because of their “versatility” with almost everything in our wardrobe, and the blue of the denim gives off the relaxation vibe that sometimes is desperately needed. Its human and down to earth. More recently people have been mixing blue denim with semi-formal tops, which is a nice blend of prestige and casual.

Don’t Explore, Just Do

Hey everyone! I’m back from my unannounced hiatus. I apologize for the wait, but on the bright side, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately lol I know its cliché, I did that on purpose. Recently news broke that Microsoft has just finished up laying off the last batch of Lumina engineers and designers from the Nokia acquisition, and they sold off the last bits of their acquisition. This is proof…