Why I don't take photos anymore + a mobile rant

Recently, a co-worker found my blog, read some bits, and gave me feedback on it. Mind you I don't do this for any kind of promotional reasons or because I have to. I have a gift for gab and I'm not the worst writer so I essentially do this for me. He mentioned that he liked the posts I've done but that I don't have a lot of pictures. He likes pictures. To be honest, I don't post a lot of pictures because my cell-phone sucks.

Yes, I'm one of those people who doesn't own a camera but generally uses my cell-phone for all of my picture needs. No, I don't use Instagram or cheesy effects/filters. However, coming from a lineage of professional photographers, I know a thing or two about taking decent pictures. For cell-phones, it's all about the lighting and keeping steady. 

Shortly after my birthday, I rode my motorcycle home one day in a heavy downpour that absolutely ruined my HTC Evo. The Evo had an 8mp rear-facing camera with autofocus and really wasn't all that bad. Sure, low-lighting shots have always been hard for cell-phones (and most point-and-shoot digital cameras for that matter) but if you do it right, I've gotten some pretty decent pics with it. With the Evo out of commission, I was forced to go back to my Palm Pre. 

I loved my Pre when I had it, I really did. However, the world of business, much like time, hasn't been kind to Palm, WebOS, or the Pre itself. The Palm Pre was a pretty awesome phone if it had come out in 2008 with the rest of the phones of similar hardware specs. It had a 500MHz single-core ARM chip running the show, 256Mb RAM, a 3.1" display, an entirely plastic body (yet still felt incredibly dense for it's size) and lastly, a portrait hardware keyboard (à la Blackberry and Palm Treo devices). It actually had a nearly identical keyboard to the Palm Centro that came before it. The 1150ma/hr battery was enough for about 4 hours of usage, and the sliding display that hid the keyboard quickly developed an "Oreo" effect (where one felt as though they could twist the unit in two). I said above this would've been awesome if it'd come out in 2008. This device debuted at CES in 2009 and released in summer of the same year. By the time it reached the market, Android was taking off, phones were already getting faster with more RAM, iPhones were iPhones and all Palm had was a legacy of Blackberry-crushing Smartphones of yester-decade and this lone new device. Sprint wasn't exactly a star-player in marketing the device as well but that's a whole 'nother story in itself. 

From a software standpoint, Palm really had it going on. This new device was running an all new platform called WebOS. This is really what shined about the Pre. WebOS was very intuitive, easy to use, offered real multi-tasking in the form of cards. In a world of Android vs iOS, I have no shame in saying that I love WebOS and wish wasn't dragged down by poor hardware and business mistakes. 

Aside from WebOS, I've never been a mobile fanboi for any particular platform. I wasn't crazy about switching to Android with the Evo and the iPhone wasn't yet available for Sprint. However, upgrading to the HTC Evo did give me a break of the hardware qualms I had. I wanted a larger screen (what guy wouldn't want another inch, amirite?), better battery life and better hardware specs. The Evo was a better device all around and I quickly learned to deal with Android's way of doing things. It worked and worked reasonably well so I had no real complaints. 

Like many things in life, you don't realize how much you loved them until they're gone. With my Evo out of commission, I begrudgingly came back to my Pre. It's dead by lunch if I don't charge it, it doesn't support 802.1x networking so I can't get on the university's WiFi network (trust me, I've tried. And tried. And tried again. And again), and because people stopped developing for it, I'm missing out on Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Star Wars. 

My contract with Sprint is up Valentine's Day and the day after, my girlfriend and I are switching to Verizon, which has much better service in my area than Sprint does. We're both settled on the iPhone 5 but ready to return them for something else if we don't like it. My backup is probably going to be the Motorola Droid Razr HD MAXX. (Jesus, I hate the names of phones these days. "What phone did you get?" "Oh this? It's the new 'The new Samsung Alpha Epic Dazzle Fitness Refresh HD 6G LTE RMA AR15 by Samsung'. Isn't it awesome?") I'm by no means an Apple person but in talking with a friend about whether to get the new iPhone or one of the new Android devices, he, an iPhone user asked me this simple question; "How many people do you know that have an iPhone and hate it?" I thought and none came to mind and I know plenty of people that have an iPhone but nobody that hates has one AND hates it. I've gotten to spend some seat-time with a 4s and a 5 and like them both. As long as it does what I need it to do, I don't care who makes it.

Whatever I get, I promise it'll have a decent camera so I can get back to taking some pictures. I've literally got at least 2 posts that are waiting for pictures. That is, until I get a DSLR. 

/rambling