Why I returned my Iphone 4.

It was with great excitement that I upgraded my Iphone 3g to an Iphone 4.  Even thought there may have been some phone problems, I was mainly excited about being able to shoot and edit HD video on my phone. always having a good camera was also a plus, especially now that there was a flash.

But after shooting just a small amount of video, my smile started to lessen. It seemed no matter how still I head the camera, the video came out jerky and seemed a little wishy washy.  But it wasn't until I did some editing on a bigger computer and could see what was happening frame by frame that I was able to understand the depth of the problem.

My Iphone 4 was distorting and warping images in some sort of unadvertised effort at EIS, or electronic image stabilization.

Take a look at the following frames.  See how the potato is elongated and blurred in the second picture, and then shortened in the next one?



I noticed this in all the videos I had shot up to this point.  So like any good Apple nut I sent the pics to Steve Jobs.  Two days later I got a call back from Heather A. at corporate communications and she asked for the original video file because the engineers wanted to see what was going on.  Cool, someone from Apple actually read my email.

After quite a few phone calls, the engineers said, there was nothing they could do, and there was no software fix.  The distortion was here to stay due to the cmos chip they were using.

Rats! The main reason I upgraded was so I could avoid getting  Flip camera and always have a video camera with me.  The pone part was good and I enjoyed the speed bump over my Iphone 3g but was it worth another 2 years with AT&T?  Eventually I decided no and returned it.  My 3g is just fine and I have other options for cameras and video.

Here's hoping Verizon comes out with an Iphone 5 in January and they can fix this problem.

Here are some other videos I shot with it, you can see the watery effects of the Iphone 4 video.

Strangers on a plane

Nothing brings strangers together
like a crying, screaming child
on a plane:
The smirky glances,
the craned necks,
the shared smiles,
all bonding people with a similar plight -
making light of a loud situation.

For a recording of the experience click here.
Roles are assumed:
The Rogue in 25E laments his lack of duct tape.
(General, muffled, laughter)
Reveling in his triumph he tries again falling flat,
his reign as group comedian is over.
The compassionate grandmotherly type wanting to help,
straining against restraint to see over the rows of seats
her calming hands lonely to sooth.
The irritated business man wishing for a different seat
looks in vain at the full rows.
The attendant with her annoyed smile offering,
distracting, but wanting to be home.
The baseball capped youths laughing,
elbowing, poking. ear buds dripping
down their hooded sweatshirts.
All are reacting differently to
the insistent child who,
has just discovered,
and is now proclaiming
this world to be a place
that isn't fair.
Welcome, young brat.
The indulgent mother, finally paying her dues,
finding herself doing the hard parenting
best done in private,
now done in public
before this group,
this group of strangers
brought together
if only for a short while.

For takeoff will come
and the bell will chime
allowing the child
freedom from his belt
his constrained yelp
now free to fade.
Lesson not learned,
It will return.

To hear a clip of the experience click here