Adam Weiss

Digital Media Strategist | Podcaster | Science Communicator

Founder/CEO of AppDemoVideos.com

Digital Media Strategist
Podcaster
Science Communicator

Testing the Canon 7D with Sennheiser MKE400 Shotgun Mic

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Last month, I attended the first MegaTweetup at the N.E.R.D. Center in Cambridge, MA. At the event, I decided to “torture test” my new Sennheiser MKE 400 Shotgun Microphone ($200) in a loud environment. The microphone was mounted in the hot shoe of my Canon 7D, plugged into the built-in input. Here are the results:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhR792b96yk[/youtube]

This first video is of Joselin Mane, the organizer of the MegaTweetup.  This recording was made in a large, hard-walled room near the end of the event, with probably 30 people talking around us. I was standing about 3 feet from the subject, putting the camera and microphone about 2 feet away. The background sound level was similar to what you’d have in a shopping mall common area on a normal weekday evening.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AScmGcN-ESs[/youtube]

This video is of Rebecca Corliss, whose a capella group performed at the MegaTweetup.  This recording was made in a large, hard-walled room near the end of the event, with probably 30 people talking around us. I was standing about 3 feet from the subject, putting the camera and microphone about 2 feet away. This time, the background was extremely noisy, similar to a crowed bar with no music playing. It was a situation where you had to speak very loudly to be heard over the crowd.

Overall, I think the microphone performed quite well. I’ll be keeping it, and using it with my 7D quite often.

Zosh App Demo on Gizmodo

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Sign Documents on Your iPhone Through Zosh App - Zosh - GizmodoI enjoy reading Gizmodo, so I’m honored that this is the second time one of my iPhone videos has been featured on the site. This time, it’s a demo for the PDF-signing app Zosh.

I made this app demo using my new setup, which eliminates all of the shadows I had to deal with when I made the GV Mobile demo. Of course, that video was a fun favor, and this was work for a client, so I needed it to look good.

Here’s the demo video itself:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/6685108[/vimeo]

Robo-Call Reminding Me to Vote TOMORROW

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IMG_0319I received a voicemail at 2:23 PM today (November 3, 2009 — election day) encouraging me to vote for Tom Menino for mayor of Boston. Not unusual on election day, right?

Right, except that it asked me to vote tomorrow, not today.

I don’t know if this is a case of computer/operator error or a legitimate case of electoral fraud through misinformation, but I was asked to record and share it by a number of people on Twitter, so here it is.

Because it was left today, I could not figure out how to get the voicemail system to say the actual date it was left. If I wait, I can get a properly timestamped version, but that will take a few days. In the meantime, I’ve included a screenshot of my iPhone voicemail screen taken at 2:41 today. I don’t think iPhone screenshots have EXIF data, but it’s the best I can do.

Did anyone else receive one of these calls?

For the record, I didn’t campaign for or support either mayoral candidate this year, so this isn’t an attack on anyone. I just found it curious and thought it was worth sharing.

Click the play button below to play the message.

Apple: Let Us Answer Our iPhones With Gloves On!

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iPhone in Gloved HandApple,

Please allow us to use the iPhone’s Home button to answer calls.

I know it doesn’t get that cold in Cupertino, but it sure gets cold in many other parts of the world. In colder climates, the iPhone becomes almost completely unusable for its primary function — a phone — as soon as you put a pair of gloves on. If you don’t have iPhone-compatible headphones on when a call comes in, you have to fish the phone out of your pocket, take off one of your gloves, then “swipe to answer.”

I’ve missed calls doing this. I’ve seen people drop their iPhones doing this. I’ve even seen someone use their (probably runny) nose to swipe on a particularly cold day.

The most frustrating thing about this problem is that there’s an easy fix: the Home button.

The Home button is already multi-talented, but it does nothing when a call is coming in. If you enabled the option to push the home button to answer (or push and hold for one second if you were worried about accidental presses), there would be no need for me to take off my gloves. Sure, I’d still need to use my uncovered fingers for dialing, but I can plan when to dial — and plan to be in a warm place. I don’t have that luxury when it comes to incoming calls.

I love my iPhone, but this one thing is incredibly frustrating for a good chunk of the year here in the Northeast.

Winter is coming. Please don’t force me to use my nose to answer the phone.

Adam Weiss

I submitted this idea to Apple’s iPhone Feedback Page. If you agree with me, please do the same. Feel free to copy and paste from my post if you’d like. I just want this to get fixed.