Switcher: From an iPhone to a Windows Phone – Part 1

I recently was eligible for a cell phone upgrade and I decided to do something drastic—leave my iPhone for a Nokia Lumia 920 running Windows Phone 8. And I thought others might benefit from my experience.

Preface

Let me start by saying that I am an Apple user. I’ve used Macs for more than 9 years. We have an iPad at home and my wife has an iPhone 5. I am also an IT manager at work and I work in both the Windows and OS X world.

All that to say, I really like my Apple experience for the most part, but I’m not a fan boy by any means. I understand every platform has their advantages.

Why I Decided To Leave iOS

After 5 years since I got my first iPod Touch and almost two years with my iPhone 4, I was a little bored with iOS. To be honest, that was a big reason for my switch. I didn’t really want to pay $199 for just a little bigger and (a lot) faster phone. I wanted something new and different.

The interface for iOS is fine, but it was kinda stale. In my opinion, iOS hadn’t had any significant innovations in it’s user interface. Apple had solved lots of problems and refined experience (Folders, Notification Center, etc.), but the UX hadn’t remained much the same since 2007.

What I Considered Before Switching

There were several things that I was worried about when switching platforms and a few things that I had to have in a new phone.

1. Apps: One of the things I worried about were the apps that I had accumulated in the iOS ecosystem. Over there years I had downloaded hundreds of apps. But after looking at what I had used on a semi-regular basis, there were very few that I used all the time and maybe one or two that I paid for.On an Android phone, I new I could easily match all the apps I used. In the Windows ecosystem, I thought most of the apps would be relatively easy to replace, there were quite a few a doubted would be available.
2. Camera: With a 2.5 year old, there are a ton of special moments all the time. So I needed a phone that could capture those quickly and with great quality.
3. Hardware: One of my requirements for a new phone was that it had to be fast and one of the top-tier phones, like  Samsung Galaxy  phone. I wasn’t going to settle for a half-baked experience. I wanted speed.

Why I Decided On The Nokia Lumia 920

When looking at my considerations you might think an Android phone like the Samsung Galaxy S III or IV would be the best choice. However, I had been really impressed with what Microsoft was doing with their Windows Surface tablets and Windows 8 and thought it might be worth looking into their Windows Phone 8 devices.

I then stumbled upon Engadget’s Readers Choice Awards and the Nokia Lumia 920 was the smartphone of the year. And then when looking into the best smartphone cameras, Gizmodo rated it the best overall out of the current crop of cameras in February 2013. Obviously, others thought the hardware and the camera of the Lumia 920 were top of the line.

I went to the Microsoft Store at the local mall and played with the Lumia. It was quick and it’s user interface was a nice change from iOS. After playing, I knew I would be happy risking an underdeveloped app ecosystem for the nice hardware, camera, and user interface. It would only be less than two years until I could upgrade again if I hated it.

The Switching Experience

I’ll tell you this: I’m really happy with the Nokia Lumia 920. In the coming weeks I’ll post a few more articles about the experience, including what I love, what I miss about iOS, some great WP8 (Windows Phone 8) apps, and what I hope Microsoft does to make Windows Phone a real player in the smartphone market.

Together is Better

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Tonight, I was reminded that we are meant to do life together.

There is something powerful about sharing life with other individuals who are moving in the same direction in life—not necessarily with the same expertise or the same interests, but willing to invest in each other and help each other be better.

And I want to be better tomorrow than I am today.

Do you have people you can invest in or others investing in you? Don’t do life alone, do it together.

Make a Documentary. Change the World.

I’ve been invited to go to Ethiopia and make a documentary. And it could help change the lives of thousands of people.

In the last two years, my church (partnered with the Petros Network) has planted over 614 churches in unreached villages throughout the West Shewa zone in Oromia, Ethiopia. During that period, we’ve seen over 92,000 new believers, over 36,000 baptized in water, and more than 650,000 people have heard the gospel. And we are working with 19 denominations in Ethiopia.

Not only that, but the villages are starting to see redemptive lift thanks to the gospel presence. Social systems are improving, including health and hygiene, women’s rights, treatment of children, sponsorship of widows and orphans, micro-finance projects, and more.

It’s pretty incredible. We believe that people need to hear this story.

However, we need help to tell the story. With the skills and experience Wiley and I have, be will be able to capture the story and create compelling visuals to help. All we need is help funding our travel and minimal gear rentals.

How can you help, you ask? Please take a couple minutes and check out our IndieGoGo campaign to make this project happen: http://igg.me/p/235353?a=1394612 (or see sidebar widget). Even if you can’t support us financially, we would love your help spreading the word to your friends or people you know who may be interested in this project.

I honestly believe that the impact of making this film and starting to screen it through our partnership with the Petros Network will be an influx of people wanting to partner with us and help bring more of this social change to other parts of Ethiopia and around the world.

Do me a favor and check out our project.

Thank you!

An Interview with a Cute 5 Year Old

This video was a project I was asked to produce and shoot for a Sunday morning church service. It was my first time really trying to interview a child on video. Aside from the fact that there were three other kids running around (mine included) and having never been to the location and needing to do it pretty quick, the big challenge was getting compelling responses from a 5 year old.

And I didn’t really get what I was hoping for.

However, the parents really had a ton of great things to say about their daughter and memorizing scripture as a family. So, I was able to reshape my story a little and tell a story that—hopefully—people would enjoy and feel encouraged after watching.

New, Faster Drobos Are Coming!

So, I’ve been needing to upgrade my storage solution for my video projects for quite some time. There are two things to consider. First: data protection. You’ve got to make sure your data is safe in the case a hard drive fails—because it happens. Second: speed. I need to be able to edit several streams of full 1080p video footage in realtime. THat needs speed. What is needed is a RAID solution that has Firewire 800 or faster.

Drobo has always been an option I liked. It’s ability to mix and match hot-swappable hard drives with an easy interface, expandability, and redundancy. And they come highly recommended. However, as a Mac laptop user, I never liked the idea of having Firewire 800 as the fastest connection available.

Enter the new Drobo 5D and Drobo Mini.

The new Drobo 5D will replace the Drobo S as the 5-bay video/photo professional solution. Drobo Mini is an entirely new product. It is a portable 4-bay solution that uses 2.5″ HDDs instead of the 3.5″ HDDs that all the other Drobos use. It’s meant for the people on the go or that shoot & need to backup their files on location.

These new Drobos have all new architecture built from the ground up. Supposedly they are 5X faster than the Drobo S. And they have two Thunderbolt ports (read 10 Gbps each) and a USB 3.0 port. That means they will be about as fast as it gets for external storage aside from fibre solutions. On top of that, they have a bay for an additional small form-factor SSD (or mSATA) to help accelerate database driven apps, etc.

One of the best parts is that the drives actually buck the trend and come with Thunderbolt cables included ($50 via Apple).

The release dates are suppose to be sometime in July. I hope to get my hands on one to review when they become available. These new Drobos will give me the speed I need while ensuring my data is protected from hard drive failure. That’s a must in my book.

Little Moments Are Precious

The things that are most precious in life aren’t necessarily the big moments, but they are the people that you share life with. And I’ve been blessed with one precious daughter.

I love spending time with her. Aside from hanging out with my with or family time, there is nothing I love more.

So, on a Saturday evening when Mommy was gone, what am I gonna do? Capture one the little moments I get to spend with Sophia.

Shooting an Event Solo

I don’t know about you, but I find myself shooting events solo A LOT. Shooting by yourself presents a particular set of challenges that require you to be prepared if you want to make the most of event.

Patrick Moreau of stillmotion shares some really good tips for making the most of shooting solo. Head over to stillmotion’s blog to check it out! It’s worth the read if you ever shoot by yourself.

Link: [Q OF WEEK] – SHOOTING SOLO