After seeing this group on Flickr, this is definitely on my Christmas list.

Here’s a link if anyone wants to buy it for me: Think of the clubcard points!!

Here’s a few test shots that I took using the SEL55210 E-Mount lens with the Sony NEX-5R.

• Canon 450D sold – the whole lot went for £200. That’s a pretty great deal for the guy who bought it. As a result of that…
• Finally got the Sony 55-210mm telephoto lens that I wanted for my NEX-5R. Its a great bit of kit, I’ll get a few sample shots uploaded on Google+ and Flickr when I get the chance. For those interested there’s a nice Flickr group with loads of sample shots here. 
• Haven’t been playing much tennis and there’s a bit going on behind the scenes at the club which I can’t be bothered with. Might be time to move on, we will see.
• Went to see Iron Man 3. Meh. It was alright, if loaded with too many over the top extended scenes. Funny in parts though so that was good.
• Gaming – I picked up ‘Dishonored’ for the PC and I’ve been playing through that. Linear but I’m quite enjoying it. Its also been a good month for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Much to my surprise I’ve been absolutely hooked on ‘Catherine’ – a story-based logic plat former type game that’s impossible to describe and explain in a sentence – check out IGN’s review here. Its unexpectedly fantastic. Aside from that I’ve not played the new Hitman game yet. I did try out ‘Sine Mora’ though which is a nice shooter for the Vita.
• Dropped the Nexus 4. It didn’t explode into a million shards of glass as I thought it might. In fact, there’s barely a scratch on it.
• (Re)discovered that the Nexus 7 is thin and light. Having taken it out of the faux-leather case that I’ve been using I had forgotten how small the profile is on this thing. I’m writing this blog entry from it right now and its not anywhere near as fatiguing as when I use it with the case.
• Been using ‘MightyText’ for Android. It syncs your SMS (and other bits and bobs if you want) between your phone, tablet and web browser for an iMessage-like service for Android that works pretty well. Its free, grab it here.
• Had a play with a Galaxy S4. Quick verdict: amazing screen, not as big as I expected, great camera, same touchwiz nonsense that bakes my noodle, still feels like a toy but will probably hold up to general wear and tear quite well. Enough to pull me away from the Nexus 4? No chance. Not unless someone sends me one for free.
• Paranoid Android have been making a lot of noise with their latest ‘Holo’ notifications feature. It takes Facebook’s new Chat Heads feature and builds on the concept for all notifications and allows for greater multitasking capabilities. Haven’t tried it yet but looks interesting.
• Google IO soon. Great time to own Nexus devices. Shall be watching the livestream as long as I have time.
• Google Music’s instant mixes feature is awesome. Start playing a track and it’ll make a playlist based on similar music. Simple and effective. Its what I’m listening to on the N7 while listening to this.

So that’s about it off the top of my head. Time for a breakfast at mother-dearest’s fine establishment.

Having taken some artsy shots of paths and trees, we came across Sgŵd yr Eira – an awesome waterfall that you can actually walk behind. It was pretty busy down there but I managed to get a few shots with the NEX-5R. Taking long-exposure shots handheld isn’t easy but I managed to get a few decent photos.

I’ve got my display set to sleep after 1 minute and my phone to lock another minute after that, this seems to be the most convenient configuration I’ve found so far. Give it a try.

• Tennis – played for the 2nd time this year and I was hitting the ball pretty well considering I’m out of practice. I think maybe the rest has done me some good. Not playing much means it lowers the expectations I have of myself. So that’s nice.
• Had a shave – which means for about a week I’ll look 5 years younger.
• Completed my first real consultancy piece at work for my ‘new’ role. Geeky shit mostly, a 5000+ word document on why a customer’s system isn’t anywhere near as good as it could be.
• Sent off the Galaxy S3. Yes, its gone and I’m back with a Nexus 4. And its awesome now Google have made some tiny changes to the hardware and release Android 4.2.2. More on that in a future blog post.
• Moved from Catch Notes to Google Keep. Its far simpler but has a bloody fantastic widget which means I’ll actually use notes far more than I used to.
• Updated the PS Vita to version 2.10 which finally has support for folders. About bloody time.
• Guacamelee! finally got released for the PS3 and Vita. Its a game I’ve wanted since I saw a teaser trailer some time ago. More info here.
• Updated the security on my WordPress blog. Considering the attacks that are happening at the moment this was a good idea.
• Been approached to write for a new tech site thats launching soon. Don’t know how I feel about it. Seems to lack direction and has a crap name and logo but we’ll see, its early days yet.
• Ate lots – I’ve been doing pretty well with the whole losing weight and getting fit thing but this week my appetite has just taken over. Chips, McDonalds and Indian takeaway have all been murdered over the last few days.

So there’s a few things. Next week I’ll be back on the healthy(ish) food again and hopefully will get out into the courts as long as the weather improves.

Now where’s my cheeseburger…

I wasn’t too impressed at first glance, the beach wasn’t ideal as the tide was all the way out and it turned to quicksand so couldn’t go and further towards the sea – had to work with what I had.

Can’t wait to get out there and take more photos.

My Linux knowledge is a bit limited in that I can get around it and tinker under the hood but as far as terminal illness is concerned I’m no saviour.

I was entertaining the idea of putting Windows 8 on it as the underlying OS but surely there had to be another way. After all, I didn’t need a fully-featured OS as the machine is essentially used as an appliance.

Luckily there is a solution, and a bloody good one at that: OpenELEC.

In a nutshell, this product has been designed from the ground up to provide you with an ultra-slick XBMC experience on modest hardware. My ION-based machine with a regular mechanical HDD actually boots as quickly as my PS3. Its incredible. There are plugins available that allow you to use the usual download managers if you like that sort of thing (who doesn’t). The OS is built to allow auto-updating so there’s no need to get your hands dirty. Updates include xbmc and OS updates so it really does function like a well put together appliance.

Now everything has been configured just how I like it in double quick time, I’ve got just a few to-dos:
• Auto backup XBMC library and download manager configs
• Configure Pseudo TV (I’m told that its awesome)
• Look to replace the Hitachi Deathstar HDD that my Acer Revo came with

If you’re looking to turn a machine into an XBMC box with minimum fuss then OpenELEC should be high up on your list. Trust me, I’ve tried them all.

Flipboard came along and stirred up the news consumption market on iOS and then Android, I used it for a bit but there’s no web-based version to use. I want something that I can use across all my devices, be that PC, Mac, Linux, Android phone and tablet. Pulse is a half-decent candidate but it’s a bit too slow to use as a start page and the lack of customisation is a bit limiting. The Windows 8 app is much the same so it’s a no-go.

I came across Feedly thanks to an article I was reading concerning the soon-to-be-nuked Google Reader. Turns out it’s exactly what I was looking for. It’s a news aggregation ‘tool’ that works via the browser (dedicated plugins for each) and has native Android and iOS clients. Everything syncs via your Google account and has all the customisation options you might need.

If there’s one complaint I have is that some of the news feeds don’t display a thumbnail so it can occasionally make things look untidy but that’s no fault of the Feedly app itself as that’s down to the content creator.

I highly recommend taking a look at the site and app – I only hope that it keeps working long after Google Reader is axed as it was using the service as it’s backbone. I’m sure they’ve already thought of that one…

If you compare that to looking through the viewfinder on my Canon 450D then it simply shows what I usually see with the naked eye, some framing guides and the camera setting data. When I hit the shutter it composes the photo depending on how I’ve got my aperture, shutter, ISO and other settings and I can only then see (on playback) how the photo actually came out.

When I use the NEX-5R and change the aperture, shutter, ISO and other settings I can see on the screen exactly what those changes are doing to the photo. For an amateur photographer this is absolutely fantastic – I’m learning quickly as I’m using the device.

This makes using the manual mode so much more approachable than a full-sized DSLR while having the added benefit of taking photos to a quality that actually exceeds my Canon 450D in most cases (to my eyes at least). The photo above was taken using the NEX-5R in manual mode, transferred to Lightroom to complete the lens corrections and chromatic aberration fixes and then saved as a JPEG (has to be done when shooting in RAW mode with a pancake lens). I’m quite pleased with the result and I’d have got nothing like this if I’d just set the camera to automatic mode.

I’d definitely recommend switching your camera to manual mode and experimenting with the settings, its the only way you’ll get the best out of the camera and start to take great photos.