The previous generation Glif has been a constant part of my iPhone photo setup with a small tripod and the headphones as an off phone shutter release.  Of course I ordered the new, adjustable Studio Neat — Glif today when it was released.  It’s a nice combination of stand and tripod adaptor, and now it will work with all my phones.

I carry camera gear with me, in my backpack, just about everywhere I go. I’ve almost always had a DSLR, a point and shoot, and some kind of phone camera, and I bring some version of this set of gear with me when I go out of town, or out on the town. Sometimes, it’s a hard decision on which version of this set of gear I should bring. I mainly use my Sony NEX-7, which I absolutely love as my point and shoot now, but it’s too big to fit in my pocket comfortably, meaning that I leave it home when I would sometimes like to bring it.  A lot of the time, I am just carrying my phones, and I take about half the photos I take with my iPhone 5.

I’m intrigued by the new Sony QX10 and QX100 smartphone attachments that are compatible with the iPhone. This attachment approach seems a little fiddly to me at first glance, but also seems like the next step that makes sense in the evolution of pocket camera gear.  I already carry a small pack of extras for iPhone photography including a Glif, a small tripod, and the stock headphones to use as an off phone shutter trigger.  This would be a natural extension of that kit, assuming it fits in my pocket comfortably.  I suspect that they should have designed it with the average pocket size in mind, and doubt that they did.  I’m going to take a flyer on the cheaper one and see if it fits my gear profile somewhere between just the iPhone 5 and the step up to the Sony NEX-7. As always, Digital Photography Review has a pretty thorough overview post with a lot more detail.

I’m pretty excited to be going to XOXO again this year, last year’s conference really gave me a shot of creative energy.  Yesterday, they released the full attendee list, and I made a twitter list of all attendees, like the one that I made last year.  I found that it was a great way to experience more of the thoughts and conversation as the conference went on.  Seems like other people found it handy too.  If you are on the list, and your Twitter name is not right, or you do not want to be included, feel free to hit me up on Twitter.

Alien Baby, a photo by bump on Flickr.

Took the kids to the Georgia Aquarium this morning. Took this shot of Reed in the tunnel, which is full of blue tinted light.

This was followed by an atomic meltdown by his three year old brother in the "exit through the gift shop" gauntlet.

I’ve been meaning to get around to doing this for a while.  Here’s the first of many wallpaper posts.  It’s a rainy window shot that I took of my office window this week.

I’ve created versions of it that should look good on iPad, iPhone 5, Retina MacBooks, and a standard desktop resolution.  If you want all of them, grab the zip.  I’ve also provided direct download links for iPhone and iPad.  Looks really great with iOS7, and its new effects, by the way.

iPhone  |  iPad  |  Zip of All Resolutions

All rights reserved, and please link back to this post rather than reposting these anywhere else, thanks.

“Well, fuck them, and fuck that.” - Marco Arment has some great thoughts on the Google Reader shutdown.

It’s been hard for me to be analytical about this shutdown because it made me pretty mad at Google, even though I don’t really have a right to be mad. I used Reader for years, and harder than most people who used it daily. I read my stories mainly via the various apps I used to read news hooked to the API, and hardly ever logged on to the web interface. I got a ton of value out of the Google Reader ecosystem over the years, and I never paid even a single dime to Google. (I have paid a fair amount of money to RSS Reader developers over the years, but that’s unrelated.)

I’ve found “good enough” replacements for the tools I was already using, and I am purposely using a backend rss service that I can pay for. (Feedbin) The crux of the point that Marco makes, that we should keep moving in spite of Google, is an important takeaway. The threat here is bigger than this single shutdown, and Marco actually does a great job of summing it up when he says, “Google Reader is just the latest casualty of the war that Facebook started, seemingly accidentally: the battle to own everything.” The anger I felt as a result of the shutdown was a reaction to having something I value greatly seemingly snatched away for no reason, and having no control over this result. This feeling of lack of control is actually the right motivation to support, as Marco calls it, “the antithesis of this new world.”

Craig Federighi Over California, a photo by bump on Flickr.

I’m impressed by iOS 7. They’ve done so much in seven months. Having said that, they have a lot of ground to cover for release, and I am holding my breath a little for the release on iPad.

Set Your Desktop the OS X Mavericks Wallpaper and Other Giant Waves.

Tim Cook, a photo by bump on Flickr.

Had a good seat, and brought a good camera. Really enjoyed being there. Excited about iOS7.

The day and week after the WWDC keynote is usually a gold mine of new things to read, and today hasn’t disappointed.  High points for me included:

All The Apple News in Brief (Wirecutter)  If you’re  going to only read one thing, read this.

Tim Cook is a Great CEO (Ben Thompson)

‘This Is Our Signature’: iOS 7 (Daring Fireball)

27 new iOS Features that Apple Didn’t Talk About (MacWorld)

List of Mac’s Compatible with OX X Mavericks  (Gizmodo) All My machines make the cut.

I represented my team to accept the Webby award we won for Best in Sports Mobile Apps. Here’s the video of the five word speech I gave when accepting the award.

I flipped the switch early, but I have been working on moving this site so I can use it properly again for a while. Lots of broken links and unfinished business, but it’s better than the site that hadn’t been updated in two years. Bear with me, I will get there a little at a time.