WARNING: Gear talk ahead.

Hard to believe that it’s September already. With most of my weekends gone to playing in clubs, time has really flown. Fall, however, has brought with it a plethora of new camera releases, which in turn represent a conundrum for me.

A while ago I wrote about my photography being divided into three levels of cameras, i.e. my big, heavy DSLR I take with me for dedicated photography trips, the compact camera I keep in my backpack all the time when I don’t feel like carrying the big camera and lenses with me, and the tiny camera on my mobile phone that I use when I don’t have the time or inclination to fetch either of my “real” cameras.

While my DSLR option is pretty much set in stone, as I am happy with the Invincible Rabbit, the compromises represented by the other level cameras make my wallet hand twitch when I see something that could improve the situation hit the market. A few cameras recently announced have had this effect:

The first one, of course, is Olympus’ EP1, a micro four-thirds camera somewhere between a compact point-and-shoot and a DSLR in both size and image quality. The stylin’ retro EP1 has no flash, which doesn’t bother me particularly, but the LCD is not particularly detailed, and since you have to rely on it for focusing, this is an important point to consider. Last week I attended a class on the EP1 just to check it out. It feels great in the hand, and the sound and feel of the shutter are wonderful. The EP1 also has in-body image stabilization, which is good for the low-light shots I love. For some reason, however, it kept focusing about a foot behind where it should have. The speed of the contrast-detect AF was about the same as my LX3, not bad, but not instantaneous.

Many of the percieved deficiencies of the EP1 might be fixable with new firmware, of course, but the focusing issues give me pause. The new Panasonic GF1, however, seems to have much quicker focusing, as well as a properly resolutioned LCD. The Panny, however, lacks in-body image stabilization and relies on lens-based systems. But with higher ISO shooting made possible by the larger sensors, it should still be better than the LX3 (theoretically).

One problem with the micr0-four-thirds format is that, if you want any kind of range, you have to use a bulky zoom lens like Oly’s 14-42 (which collapses) or Panny’s 14-45 (not sure if it collapses). In order for them to be truly compact, you have to use one of the pancake lenses with a single focal length. Is it worth giving up a decent range of focal lengths or portability for the extra image quality? This is the problem of the middle camera: exactly where in the middle should it be?

This brings me to the Canon S90, which would theoretically replace my Panasonic LX3. I have to admit I’ve always had a soft spot for Canon powershots, as one of the early models was my first digital camera, the SD100 back in 2001. Although the Lx3 is a fine camera for its size and does its job with more efficiency than any other compact I’ve had, it just isn’t as pocketable as my old powershots, and I have a hard time loving the output, especially after the brilliant images I got from the Sigma DP1. The DP1′s handling was heartbreakingly slow, however, and I was simply missing too many shots with it. The ones I did get, however, were wonderful. I’m under no illusion that the S90 would be much of an improvement over the LX3 as it has a similarly tiny sensor, adding only some useful telephoto range and a much slimmer, pocketable profile, and hopefully nicer colors.

Obviously, the easiest, cheapest option would to be to not buy anything new and keep the setup I have. Or I could replace the LX3 with either a GF1 or EP1 for better image quality, or with an S90 simply for better portability and range. I am also tempted to upgrade my phone to the iPhone 3GS just for the better camera, but I am tempted by the extra speed and compass functions as well. In that case the phone camera’s portability would make an S90 a little redundant.

I’m not forgetting that Leica is scheduled to unveil some new cameras on the 9th, aka 9/9/09 (full-frame M9 anyone?), but I’m sure that any digital camera they make that I could conceivably afford, I could also get for a third of the price from Panasonic, minus the little red dot.

None of the above cameras will be on shelves here for a matter of months, however, and a lot can happen in that time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about this business, it’s that there is always a better camera just around the corner, and if you keep waiting for the “perfect” model, you’ll just be missing out on the pictures you could be taking in the here and now.

A while ago I wrote about how the Internet could eventually be combined with our physical reality in some fashion, overlaid so that our surroundings would basically gain all of the features of the Internet, including searchability and physical context-related information. At that point, a few mobile devices had GPS, but now that the new iPhone 3G is out and apparently selling like hotcakes, there are a slew of applications being made available these days that take advantage of the phone’s GPS to bring the virtual world of the Internet closer to our physical world. Basically, these devices know where you are (yes, I know it’s a scary thought, but I wonder if people might not be as frightened of this as it becomes more common), so information about everything around you is available through the device, a real-world Wikipedia: That interesting building across the street was built in 1903 and was the scene of a political assassination. There’s a tea house up this alley, but people say the Oolong is bit dodgy. Some got a really good picture of this empty house. There’s a squall moving in, we’d better get inside. That kind of thing.

Another aspect of this is that your phone not only knows about the physical world around you and your place in it, it will, through such (still rather sub-par) programs as Fire Eagle, Buddy Beacon, MyLoki, Britekite and the like, know where other people are, where they’ve been, even where they’re headed. This is a cool application, but I’m pretty sure I would lose a few friends when they see how I turn off my location beacon or hop on a bus as soon as they approach. Another strike against this will be not being able to send a text message I often send to people I’ve got appointments saying, “I’m almost there, just a few minutes!” when they can plainly see I’m still at home, in the bathtub, and I haven’t even scrubbed behind my ears.

Those little pixelated badges I’ve seen in the corners of a few websites recently confused me for a while. It turns out that they’re scannable QR codes that point your mobile device to a certain place on the Internet. Apparently they’re often used in Japan, and you can even make a badge to wear with such codes on it. If this kind of technology takes off, and it seems that businesses are designing these things into graphics, it will be another way the physical world is connected to the virtual.

Most of this interaction, so far, has been one-way, of the physical world being described and adjusted to by the virtual, but with the advent of 3D scanners, touch screens, interactive displays and even shape-shifting buildings, I wonder when and if the balance will tilt the other way, making the physical world “programmable” to a certain extent.

Every square foot of this planet has a history, whether people figure into it or not. Choose any street corner in your city and try to imagine all of the things that happened to all of the people standing in that very spot over the years. Now that we’re in a position to actually record these things and make them known, sooner or later a filter will be needed to deal with all of the massive amount of information that piles up. A good example of this is Panoramio on Google Earth: Eventually maps will be so covered in blue dots that you won’t be able to see the actual places unless you turn them off. Who will become the arbiter of such information? Who will decide what gets seen and what doesn’t? Now that’s the scary part, especially given the frightening, ongoing crackdown on personal photography in places like the US and UK, even as more and more CCTV cameras are put in place for the “official” version of the world. Give it 20 years, and the virtual world people have come to rely on overlaid onto and even able to change the physical world will be completely manipulable by those in control of the resources to do it. When that point comes, which reality will you believe?

From a 2005 report: “Despite reaping great profits from iPod sales, Apple is still hesitant to bring its iTunes Music Store to Taiwan, because local consumers are still downloading songs via peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing Web sites instead of using online music stores.”

I’m bringing this up because Apple has lately seen fit to include some very useful applications to the iPod Touch. The only problem is that, while the new apps are free for new purchases and free if you have an iPhone, they are charging a bit of money, US$20, to unlock these abilities for the iPod Touch. They might as well be charging a million dollars, because if you don’t happen to be in an iTunes-approved country, you won’t be able to get that or anything else from iTunes or Apple, even if the country you’re in actually makes the iPods you’re not allowed to upgrade.

But is it me, or is this logic backwards? Apple is “hesitant” to bring iTunes to Taiwan because local consumers are downloading music from P2P sources? Hello, McFly? If there’s no other viable alternative, of course people will download songs that way. Just like by keeping the iPhone out of Taiwan, you’re ensuring that people will have no choice except to Jailbreak phones bought abroad. I’m considering jailbreaking my iPod Touch, though I really, really don’t want to. I’d much rather keep it unjailbroken and use iTunes to update it with the latest apps. I don’t have that big a problem with paying 20 bucks for the extra features. But Apple won’t let me do any of that because I’m in the wrong country.

The only thing that is even more hilarious is the fact that only foreigners from iTunes-approved countries are able to use the new maps application on their iPod Touches. Most Chinese-speaking people won’t be allowed access to this application. The maps it displays, however, are in Chinese.

Reading this story on one user’s discovery of what she felt was a critical flaw in a new e-book reader -mainly that she felt vaguely troubled by the fact that she didn’t know where she was in the book, how close to the end, etc.- reminded me how bound most of us are to the traditional construction and ensuing emotional needs involved in storytelling. When stories come in standard formats like a 250-page paperback novel, a half-hour TV show or a 90-minute movie, we base our expectations of what’s happening and what’s going to happen on where we are within the story. When I was watching American Gangster last Wednesday, there’s a scene involving a raid on a warehouse. I found myself looking at my watch to ascertain whether it would be successful; if we were at one point in the movie it would work, whereas if it were earlier than I thought, it probably wouldn’t. It turned out I was right. When I was watching Ratatouille, the winning of the restaurant felt like it came too soon, but it turned out that it was not the major obstacle in the plot, which differed from most Hollywood story-telling conventions in interesting ways. If this doesn’t make sense to you, surely you’ve encountered watching a TV show you know for a fact to last only a half-hour, minus commercials, and at some point it becomes plain that the plot cannot be resolved in time. Sure enough, it’s a two-parter. Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!

It seems that a measure of our enjoyment of a story in any form is the reassurance of knowing where we are in the dramatic arc. This knowledge may remain on the subconscious level for the most part, but it’s definitely a part of the experience, perhaps a part we’ve come to take for granted. But as the e-book phenomenon shows, things are changing. With the advent of such technologies as well as more downloadable, variable-construct media being made available, it may seem like we’re in danger of losing our place in the story.

My guess, however, is that although the next generation will see things differently as a result of different constructs, the power of good storytelling will prove more resilient than the medium that conveys it. My hope is that, with the breakdown of set formats for our stories, as well as the inevitable fierce competition resulting from the ability of just about anyone to produce content, will result in even stronger, more dramatically engaging stories that pull us in and give us a sense of where we are without the need to for surreptitious glances at watches or the folded corners of tattered paperbacks.

For all of you Muddy Basin Rambler afficianados not fortunate enough to actually live in the Muddy Basin itself or with family members exiled from our fair island, our self-titled album chock full of foot-stomping jug band goodness is now available online for purchase at CD Baby. Yeah, I know, I should have put this up earlier so you could all send MBR CDs to each other for Christmas. Sorry. Go buy some anyway; you won’t regret it.

In other news, after a growing sense of unease created by the indecisiveness of various media industries and their continuing suicidal inability to decide on a single format for high-definition content, coupled with the fact that there is simply no other way for me to access HD content in Taiwan, I purchased a TViX HD4100 media box and stuck a 500Gb hard drive inside. It’s basically a media player with HDMI and other AV connections that plays just about anything I can throw at it, HD or otherwise, on my TV, all the way up to my Sharp Aquos’s 1080i resolution limit. I plug it into my computer’s USB2 port and shuttle stuff over, then hook it up to the TV, though it has an Ethernet port. With the remote control, it feels just like a DVD player and works just fine with both HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, AVI, XVID, DVIX, MP3, MP4 or whatever format. The video looks gorgeous and the sound is great. So, all of the rest of you, go on clawing at each other over whether Blu-ray or HD-DVD is better as long as you like, but try to keep it down, ok? I’m watching a movie.

Apple’s announcement of its new line of iPods hasn’t made my quest for the perfect device any easier. Instead, it’s become more convoluted, as no single version of the iPod really meets all the criteria I have for a decent all-around device. Many people were looking forward to a multi-touch iPod, but the one Apple came up with has only 16Gb of space on it. My first thought was that 16Gb would hardly do, with the iPod Classic having ten times that amount in space. But then I thought, exactly how much music do I have on my ailing iRiver? I connected it only to find that after years of adding to it, I have a mere 7Gb of music on it’s 20Gb drive. And that’s my entire mp3 collection (how would cover flow work with no cover art? I wonder). But as that gorgeous widescreen demands videos, that only leave 9Gb for videos, which amounts to around 10 hours of video. So much for having entire runs of ones favorite TV shows on hand.

But then again, realistically, how much time would I spend watching videos? I tend to read books when I’m out and need a diversion. This may be because videos have never been available in such a format to me before, of course. But I certainly wouldn’t be watching them when I’m walking around, 0nly when I was trapped someplace like the subway or…well, the subway. Even on a real train I tend to spend my time looking out the window rather than wishing I had that one episode of “Seinfeld” where George does that thing.

I suppose I could wait for the iPhone to reach our golden shores, preferably in 16Gb or even (gasp) 32Gb form, but there’s no word on that, and the thing still lacks GPS and 3G connectivity.

When it comes down to it, there still just isn’t one device that covers all the bases. The iPod Touch has the web, music, some video, a (so I hear) semi-usable keyboard and great screen, but lacks a camera, GPS, HDD and phone capabilities. The iPod Classic has the space and does music and video, albeit on a smaller screen (do you really want to spend all that time peering at a 2.5-inch screen? Can’t be good for your eyes), but lacks everything else. The iPhone, with only 8Gb of memory, would be hard-pressed just to hold my music collection. Similarly the 8Gb Nokia N95, which has GPS and Internet, but no touchscreen or keyboard. I’m not listing devices like the Archos video player, the Creative Zen Vision and the HTC Shift that won’t fit in my pocket, btw.

So maybe my question should instead be: Which two devices offer the most complementary and comprehensive range of features? I’d say either the TyTN II and the iPod Classic, though this would mean sacrificing the widescreen videos, or the TyTN and the iPod Touch, which would mean going without all that HDD space. There’s also the issue of mixing and matching between the Windows OS and the Apple OS systems, which sounds complicated at best. And there’s the issue of the traditionally poor iPod sound quality, as well as having to deal with iTunes, which I’d rather not have to do. I far prefer the drag-and-drop simplicity of the iRiver. And frankly, the iRiver’s sound quality rocks. I’ve heard good things about Creative’s sound quality, but I’d have to hear it for myself to make sure. Creative’s offerings seem more like the last-generation of iPods, though. If I go that route, I might as well go for the 160Gb of iPod Classic goodness.

So phone-wise, the HTC TyTN II still has my vote for the phone side of things. On the media side, iRiver, which isn’t offering any equivalent player at the moment, is fresh out of new batteries for my discontinued H320, but I still might be able to find a resupplier if I want to pay for it and wait for other choices to become available. When the actual new iPods make it here, I’ll mosey on down to the store to cop a feel and see if I can’t come to some kind of conclusion on the matter.

It looks like my trusty iRiver H320, which has served me well and faithfully these past couple of years, is having problems holding its charge over a single day. When I asked the iRiver outlet at K-Mall about it, they mentioned that iRiver is releasing a new 20/40Gb player in December. If I can’t get a reasonably priced battery replacement for the H320, the only choices I will have will be a Creative product or another iPod. The reason I ditched my last iPod was due to lack of FM, recording, usable disk space and inferior audio quality. Aside from the disk space, I don’t think they’ve addressed these issues, and besides, buying an iPod now, with a wide touchscreen version supposedly on the doorstep, would seem pretty foolish.

But I gots to have teh music, as books aren’t always convenient on the subway or when walking around as I keep bumping into things as I read. Though technology has come a long way in recent years, I’m still waiting for the Great Mythical Convergence Device appearing in a pocketable form that has all the photography features of my Canon powershot, the audio features and sound quality of the iRiver H320, video playback quality of the iPod video, GPS, Wifi, 3.5G communications, a keypad, tilting screen and oodles of gigabytes in storage. The closet I’ve found to this so far is HTC’s upcoming P4550 “Kaiser”, though the camera doesn’t come close, memory is limited to a micro SD card’s 4 or eventually 8gb, and who knows what battery life is like with all of those applications running. There’s the HTC Shift, but it’s just too damn big. Perfect for the occasional Wandering of Europe, I guess, but not for daily use between home and work computers.

(By the way, I’ve recently discovered, via Facebook, that my old college friend Victor Cheung is now running a tech website out of Hong Kong called Hong Kong Phooey. Vic was a wild man in college; it’s good to see he’s settled down to quietly preparing to take over the city via technology instead of the usual debauchery.)

So anyway, even the Kaiser isn’t quite the be-all/end-all device I seek, and it’s not even out yet. For now, I’m afraid I’ll have to continue hauling around my Canon, the Nokia phone I bought in Beijing and either the iRiver with a cheap new battery or some questionable replacement until the new iRiver and iPod come out.