MacBook Pro 13″ – 2012 Model

It features:

• 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
• Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
• 8GB 1600MHz memory
• 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive
• Intel HD Graphics 4000
• Built-in battery (7 hours)

It comes installed with OSX 10.7 AKA Lion, with a free upgrade to Mountain Lion due out in the next week or so! I really do love the MacBook Pro line and the functionality, ease of use and design style more than justify the price tag in my mind. Granted I still use my custom built Windows PC for certain things, but my MacBook Pro offers something uniquely different to the personal computer and I love Apple’s innovation in producing such a well crafted piece of kit.

I’m still getting to grips with it and some of the new features but I’m looking to do another blog comparing it to my previous model in more depth and the differences of Snow Leopard vs Lion vs Mountain Lion soon!

Take care,

Harry

I’ve been lucky enough to have another chance reviewing a product for GearZap (if you don’t know who they are, take a look at my previous review to find out more = http://harryfinn.co.uk/blog/?p=450).

This time around they have sent me the Pocket Boom (as seen here = http://www.gearzap.com/pocket-boom-portable-vibration-speaker.html) – a vibration speaker. So what exactly is a vibration speaker? Simply put, it takes the music connected to the Pocket Boom via 3.5mm jack (male) to your phone, mp3 player etc and generates it into vibration sequences. Then, by attaching the vibration ‘pod’ to an object (in the images below see the pod attached to the cup) and it will turn that object into the speaker through vibrations!

It creates a pretty cool, portable speaker that has a surprising amount of volume to generate off of almost any object! The pod cable extends to around 40cm’s worth of cable so there is plenty of room to move the pod about. The pod itself, attaches to object via a small sticky pad. You want to be careful about what you stick the pod to as the pad will pick up dirt etc which will reduce how well it attaches to objects but included are 5 spare sticky pads, which are easy and straight forward to replace with the existing one on the pod.

The sound quality actually surprised me. Due to its size and the nature of the product, I didn’t expect to get the kind of quality that this device produces. Sure, it’s not so great on the bass notes but the top end sounds are great for a vibration speaker device, and for how small it is!

Below is a short video (taken from the GearZap product page) to demonstrate that sound quality:

As shown this device can produce a big sound off of everyday objects. One of the best objects I tested it on was my computer case! It was fun and interesting finding out which objects made a good speaker and those that didn’t too! Considering it is powered off of 2 x AAA batteries (or via USB, cable is included) this is a great little gadget for just £19.99. Whilst it won’t replace your standard computer speakers, for travelling and wanting to play your music out loud, it’s a pretty cool

I definitely recommend this great little vibration speaker from GearZap, so go check it out here =http://www.gearzap.com/pocket-boom-portable-vibration-speaker.html

Also check out all the other great products offered by GearZap, including these:

Kindle Fire case - http://www.gearzap.com/tablet-accessories/amazon/kindle-fire/cases.html

Galaxy Note case - http://www.gearzap.com/mobile-phone-accessories/samsung/galaxy-note/cases.html

Thanks for reading,

Take care,

Harry

Sorry for the lack of posts, been kept busy with both University work and web projects plus about a month ago now I had to reinstall my blog and site due to a php hack on the server this site and a few others are hosted on. It meant that I had to edit a lot of PHP files and seeing as how WordPress runs off of PHP it was easier to start over. Thankfully I was able to export my posts/pages/photos etc but I have lost all the tweets and facebook likes on all my posts

Anyway, I am just typing up a new product review, the kind people over at GearZap sent me through another cool product to review and you should see that uploaded to this blog shortly!

After the review I will try and do an update including what I’ve worked on recently and some more YouTube videos I have found over the last few months and think you should take a look at!

Thanks,

Harry

Although well overdue, below are some of my favourite Ski photo’s that I took with my Lumix G2 whilst on Holiday at the start of 2012 in the French Pyrenees. You can click on each image for a larger view of each.

I will have a new blog post out towards the end of the week along with a new product review for GearZap coming soon!

Take care,

Harry

Sorry for the lack of blog post(s) last week, I have been away skiing in France and the WiFi was just a pain… dropping out every 10-15mins requiring you to reconnect and its average speed was about dial-up speed (on a good day!).

Anyway, I am home now and in the process of uploading all my photo’s I took over the week to my FaceBook account. I will upload a few here in my new post later on today or tomorrow afternoon.

I hope everyone celebrated the New Year in one way or another! I spent the night with good friends in Brighton at a friends house who is studying at Sussex University. Most of my 6th form friends were all there and it was great way to catch up with everyone and have a good laugh or two well into New Year’s Day!

So, 2012… Lots to do and think about this year. By May this year I will have (hopefully) finished my second year of University and be starting an internship for my 3rd studies. This will mean I won’t be going in to Uni for lectures for about 16-18 months until I start back on my 4th year in September 2013 to complete my course. I am looking forward to the experience the year out will give me and opportunities it could well bring about, both in a professional job based capacity and also for my own personal learning and understanding of the business world.

I have received my provisional results back from all my modules that I took in my first semester (2nd year) and they have all been better than I expected which I am really pleased about especially for my Project Management module, which was a lot of work and did challenge me but I have an overall grade of 85% (at the moment, as all are provisional currently). I received 73% for my Internship preparation module which focused on reflective writing and assessment etc so that is a big improvement over my previous reflective based module from my first year. I scored 85% for my group work project for my Web Design Analysis module and  I also attained a 92% for my Dynamic Databases module for which I designed and created a simple blog system with admin controls, user accounts and archive functionality, and I am of course especially please with that result!

I start back at University tomorrow morning, with my first lecture running from 9am to 12 midday. It is thankfully my only 9am start this semester which will be nice!

I will post again soon with some of my favourite Skiing photo’s!

Take care,

Harry

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas yesterday! Hopefully you gave and received some great gifts!

Just thought I’d mention some of the things I’ve received this Christmas

My main gift this year, which I had asked my parents to put some money towards and i’d pay the rest, was a new lens for my Panasonic Lumix G2 m4/3 camera. The stock lens that came with it is a m4/3 14-42mm lens which is perfect for landscapes and portrait shots but I wanted something with a little more zoom capability to add to my camera and allow me to try some new types of photography. I went for the Lumix G Vario 45-200mm (I think its approx. 90-400mm in standard format) which gives me about 12x optical zoom i.e. that you’d get from a fixed lens zoom camera for example. I has already proven very useful as at the 45mm end it is still wide enough to get decent landscape based shots and portrait/head shot type photos. I also have it on good authority (Lumix Life Style members ) that with my Raynox 150 macro adapter, it will enable me to get even better macro shots. This is mainly down to the fact that even at the 200mm end of the lens zoom, it’s minimum focal distance is only 1m! I will try and take some macro shots with it tomorrow morning (I would have done so this morning but due to the rather vast mountain of food consumed Christmas Day, I was still in bed at 11am today! Ha)

Below are some shots i’ve take with my new lens over today and yesterday. I will add some more as I get to grips with them and then add my best to my photography section on my site which I have been building over the last week or so!

Again, I hope you’ve had a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying the holidays!

Take care,

Harry

Appropreiate no? Well I realise the lengthly period that has gone by since my last post… many reasons but I won’t bore you with them all. Primarily down to my University course assignments but thats still not a great excuse. My New Year’s resolution will be to find the time to post at least once a week over the coming year!!

Right so a quick little update on things, I’ve finished my 2nd year 1st semester and been enjoying the time off, catching up with friends and some web design work. Currently working on a project for Art For All, an art gallery run in Chichester, to update their current site and possibly work towards some form of bespoke e-commerce solution with them.

I’ve had 2 out of my 4 module results back so far too and both have been good strong 1st’s so hoping my final 2 do just as well as it would be a great help in my 2nd semester this academic year.

My presence on YouTube has been almost none existant I’m afraid, againt done to University demands and this will again be a focus for my New Year’s resolution to get a new video out each week!

I have decided to provided a dedicated email address to help viewers etc out with questions/problems they may come across with any of my tutorials or web design in general, so if you are reading this and have a question or need to contact me RE: Web Design help! – then please use help@harryfinn.co.uk – Simples?!

Not a lot else to say really in this post, will either post again tomorrow during the day or Monday, perhaps referring to things i’ve recieved this year as Christmas presents.

I know that everyone celebrates in different ways, from large family gatherings down to just those few people of true importance to us, the ones we love. During this holiday period, I hope you all find seasons’ cheer and happiness with whom ever you spend it with, whether you be home with loved ones, travelling aboard or even working or protecting overseas…… Merry Christmas

All the best, take care!

Harry

I know there has been a bit a break since the last blog post but there have been one or two things I wanted to wait for in order to blog about them in the first September blog if that makes sense?

Anyway first off, last week I reached 1,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel - It is currently (at the time of posting this) at 1,013 subs so really pleased! It has taken a long time to get this many considering that I started that channel up on the 27th of April, 2009. So over 2 years on haha… but I can fully understand that due to a lack of videos and time to produce them and unlike so other channels on YouTube, I never expected to have lots and lots of subs, nor did I ever thing it would turn into a way to make a little money! But it has been a great experience so far and I am looking forward to some new content, going up on it soon!

YouTube

I have been browsing through lots of different videos over the past few days, finding new people, acts, talents and more plus rediscovering some favourites on YouTube and I thought I would share a few here with you below:

Lindsey Stirling - A truly amazing and talented young lady!

(My personal favourite video atm ^^)

Also check out Lindsey’s EP here on iTunes for a fantastic £1.79 with 3 awesome tracks! http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lindsey-stomp-ep/id402671777

Another great channel to watch is Devin Graham’s who creates some truly awesome videos in HD and often featuring some great slow-mo content!

More YouTube fav’s next blog post!

Personal

Another key thing I have been waiting for was the start of my second year back at University. I have had almost 5 months off for summer holiday (Awesome I know!) since I only had written assignments in my second semester and no exams I finished very early compared with many of my other friends attending different Universities here in the UK. I have been looking forward to seeing people again but also to start my new modules and get back into my course which I have really enjoyed so far and am sure I will continue to do so!

I have had a great first week back and am looking forward to my session tomorrow afternoon (a web based module ).

Finally today is 9/11 – Remembered all around the world but of course especially in New York. We are now 10 years on from the events that changed our outlook on terrorism and how we would battle it. I have seen many statuses, tweets, web posts and comments today in relation to it and thought I would sum up my feelings briefly in a status I have just posted on my Facebook and Twitter. I hope that anyone reading it understands what I mean, the importance of these words and why we must never forget.

“10 years ago a darkness fell on good people. Their loss has created a resolute unity against terror and today the world stands strong, in defiance of that evil”
Let us never forget..

Take care,

Harry

A few weeks back I was asked if I would like to review a product from
GearZap, who specialise in the online retailing of some of the best and well formed Netbook and Laptop accessories around!

The product I received was the STM Alley MacBook Bag. “Alley is a multi-functional shoulder bag with a heavily padded laptop section, a full-sized file section for documents and a pocket for cables and adapters.”

I chose this product over some of the others I was offered as it
immediately appealed to me in both style and functionality (See pictures).

The bag features 5 key areas which you can find outlined below, along
with my personal review of each section. In order to produce the most insightful
review I could, I’ve tried my best to use the bag as much as possible from the
day I received it, as its primary use to me (another key point for why I was
interested in this product over others to start with) was as a perfect bag for
taking to and from University, holding my macbook pro (13″ late-2009
model), cables, memory sticks, lecture notes and my iPhone. It has so far been
out with me to a photography session I worked on, carrying my macbook pro,
power and connection cables, camera charger, memory card and iPhone, proving invaluable to me as it resulted in only one journey from the car to the session as usually I have to carry the cables etc separately. It has also been with me when out diagnosing and fixing computers (another small side area I work in), again allowing me to take a variety of tools, cables, CD’s that I might have needed for the jobs at hand. Finally and most recently, I used it as a travel bag on a short 4 day holiday to take all my macbook cables, power adapters, a book, iPod, iPhone and more. It is small enough not to feel encumbered by and at the same time, provides ample space for all my gear!

1 – Padded laptop section

Perhaps the most important area on the Alley as I am sure many who own
bags for their laptops/netbooks will agree, the last thing you want when
carrying your device to and from places is to have a weak and un-protective
section holding it. The Alley sports a flexible but strong design which keeps
the inner sections from loosing shape and therefore their protective
durability. The padded laptop area securely holds my macbook pro 13″ in
place with very little room for it to move during transit and with an
additional fold over velcro flap, it is very safe. The material is soft and
smooth, preventing any scratching or trapping of fabric in/on your device.

2 – Pockets for documents and cables

The Alley has a considerable amount of storage sections for such a
small bag, with a large zip sealed area on the front of the bag (perfect for a
notepad and pens etc), a large compartment in front of the padded laptop
section for either another thin device (an iPad perhaps) or in my case all my
cables for charging and data connection to be placed which are covered by the
internal velcro flap, leaving you with yet another full width zip section and a
small pocket near the bottom which I have used to house my iPod and headphones. Finally there is also another full width zipped section on the back of the back which stretches the length of the bag behind the padded laptop section, ideal for perhaps some printed work you don’t want scrunched up!

3 – Removable phone/iPod pocket

Yet another storage area for my gear, the Alley also has a removable pocket on the shoulder strap for your phone or as I have used it, for my iPod, sitting in a perfect place to have on, listening to music whilst on the go! It is secured with a good long strip of velcro and can be easily removed and moved across by unclipping the shoulder strap, with an elasticated top to stretch and hold wider devices like an iPod in the
pocket.

4 – Removable shoulder strap

The bag is supported very nicely across your body with solid shoulder strap and a small shoulder pad  making it comfortable to wear when out and about. The strap is attached to the bag by two large duraflex clips which use a metal release to ensure that the strap doesn’t come off accidentally.

5 – Contoured padded handle

You might be wondering (as I was to start with) why have a removable
shoulder strap? Well there is a very strong padded handle at the top of the bag
should you wish to carry instead, which I have found particularly useful when
placing it in the car, picking up and moving etc rather than reeling in the
shoulder strap or picking the whole bag up in two hands. The handle allows you
to use one hand to hold the bag firmly, whilst not being too large as to
prevent your hand closing around it but at the same time being large enough to
provide more than adequate grip.

The bag is available in both small and medium sizes from STM, with
small fitting most 13″ devices and medium designed for most 15″
devices.

STM’s slogan printed beneath the company logo on the bag says
“protecting your digital cargo” and they couldn’t be more spot on!
The Alley bag is slim, stylish, multifunctional, durable and very well made! My
only issue with the bag whilst I have had it so far is that one of the zipper
pulley tags came straight off when I tried to undo a section, however this is
primarily down to the adhesive perhaps not setting quite right for this one,
individual tag (as the others are fine!). This in no way affects my overall
opinion of the product.

It is well worth the price, available on GearZap for £39.95 (at the
time of this post) and will not let you or your digital gear down!

I hope you have found some, if not all of this review useful and recommend you take a look at the Alley bag on the GearZap site along with their many other products such as MacBook Pro 13″ cases, MacBook bags and MacBook cases.

Take care,

Harry

Sorry for the recent lack of blogs at the end of each week. I have
been busy, away on a short holiday and a little forgetful on my part.

Anyway…. the last 2 weeks I have been up to a few little things
that I shall quickly mention. Last week I spent a couple days up in Yorkshire
with my brother and father, staying with some family friends, allowing for some
relaxing, time away from computers and their problems!

I took a load of black and white photo’s whilst there and will be
uploading them to my facebook later this week after processing them so I will
include a link to them next time!

I went to see the Inbetweeners film Wednesday and although I have
not seen all of the series all the way through, it was very, very funny!
Perhaps a little rude and crude at times but that is what the Inbetweeners has
always been about so it just added to laughs and I can safely say the whole
cinema was laughing right the way through too!

I have been working on a few small web projects too, with some of
the base functionality going into a very special project I am working on for a
friend, utilising both PHP and MySQL functionality! The next WordPress tutorial
which I know is overdue by quite some time now, will be sorted and uploaded
this coming weekend!! (if it isn’t you can officially complain to me! as I
simply haven’t had the time required to create it and process recently)

Finally and this is something I am very pleased with, just after
this post goes live there will be another post up, my first product review of a
MacBook Pro 13″ bag from STM, sent to me by GearZap (thank you again!!) so
please read it and share it out!! I’d appreciate some feedback on it (be nice ) if anyone wouldn’t mind and hopefully GearZap will like it too!!

Ok thanks for reading! I’ll be on time with the next blog! Honest!

Take care,

Harry