Author Archives: J.D. H.

Smartphone low-light image quality factors

Camera questions from my good friend Jesse: Hola Mr. Hodges! I have a newish Android phone, Moto X Pure (following my trend of getting 6 month olf technology for half price), which has a decent camera (Sony IMX 230 1/2.4-inch 21MP BSI CMOS sensor and a dual-LED flash. F2.0 aperture and 4K video). It works well, but it pales in comparison to some phone’s ability in low-light situations. Is that on the camera hardware, or the app? Same with image

RTIC lids, BPA free? Dishwasher safe?

I use RTIC products on a daily basis for coffee and iced beverages. Their spill proof lids are a real life safer! Recently, I had the opportunity to ask RTIC a couple quick questions about their tumbler lids: #1 are the tumbler lids (both regular and spill proof) dishwasher safe? #2 are the lids BPA free? Here is their response: Hello J.D., We advise hand washing your cooler and the lid. Yes, they are BPA free.   Debbie So, that is some

Business, Pleasure, Commute for Car Insurance [which is cheapest?]

At the bottom of this page you will find some of the different vehicle use scenarios that Progressive.com lists. If you are wondering which is cheapest between Business, Commute, and Pleasure vehicle use… Pleasure will normally be cheapest. The reason being that pleasure entails the least amount of miles driven (i.e. weekend use) under generally less accident prone circumstances (short trips, open roads, etc.). Conversely, a commute to work or school can entail repeated daily driving in heavy traffic and

Best (low cost) digital signage solution w/remote centralized management

Recently I was tasked with recommending a digital signage solution for a client. Specifically, they needed centralized maintenance and control of approximately 20-30 signs covering 10-12 locations. Another paramount goal was cost effectiveness via no recurring/subscriptions costs. Here is my digital signage recommendation: Specific unit recommendation: Mvix Xhibit Myrko   Mvix Xhibit Myrko   http://direct.mvixusa.com/product/xhibit-mykro-digital-signage $259 single time cost to purchase device No additional license cost, no subscription fees Remote management Single HDMI output My recommendation is for one of the

Drawbacks of Mvix Amazon Fire TV app

As best I can tell, for digital signage there are two main drawbacks to the Mvix Amazon Fire TV app solution:   #1 Monthly fee They charge a $30 per month fee per account. However, that does cover all the devices/displays that are in use (it is NOT a per unit fee). For more details: http://signagecreator.com/pricing (click the “Amazon Fire TV” button for that pricing, or see my attached screenshot) #2 Performance or content limitations I am  also worried about the

Sony RX1 Sample Photos

Today my RX1 arrived in the mail. Very excited to test it out!   And here is one of my favorite photos of the day taken with the RX1, thank you to my wife for taking it! This was inside a restaurant with fairly low lighting and the RX1 did a splendid job IMHO. Focus appears to have actually been more on the hat brim than faces. Still, the photo is very pleasing to my eye. More samples to follow

How to set time on Amcrest IP camera [SOLVED]

Amcrest makes a variety of IP based security cameras. Overall the camera do a good job at a reasonable price. However, occasionally after setting up a new camera there can be issues with an incorrect timestamp date/time. The issue is easily resolved via the following configuration screen: Therefore, if your Amcrest wifi/Ethernet camera is showing an incorrect date/time, here are the steps to manually update the date and time: Open the camera’s local IP address in a web browser: #1