I came across LensHero by accident, or maybe a tweet led me there.
Interesting concept, select your camera body, your budget and the type of photography you do (portrait, landscape, travel, ...) and LensHero recommends several lenses for you to choose from.

I like the approach of choosing the different type of photography, not sure I would keep the more traditional approach (wide angle,zoom, ...) in the list as it might confuse newbies who are not that technical yet.
The parameters for the selection are very narrow, which is good for novices. However I would love a bit more insight in the fine tuning o the selection, for example the Canon 24-105L lens is not recommended as a travel lens on my 50D because of the crop factor but it is still one of the best out there.

LensHero is off to an interesting start, how ever user might wish for more features really quickly as they get more proficient in their photographic skills.
Here are a list of features I would love to see:

• Multiple Type of photography: being able to select multiple types at the same time
• Some sort of rating of lenses. Right now I feel the list of proposed lenses is too long and novices might not be able to compare them efficiently. I love DxO Mark sharpness ratings, but I am sure there are many other options
• A few more parameters for the lens recommendation (primes vs. zooms, ...)

I tweeted about a couple of points and @LensHero quickly replied to me, which lead to an interesting discussion.

I am looking forward to improvements, as this could be a good we sites to recommend to novice who always feel they need lenses purchase advices.

It is getting quite cold here in Beijing, but I still consider going out and taking pictures. The main problem is that hands can get very cold very fast with out gloves. Most gloves are not usable for photography, and most photography gloves I tried are too thin to be effective in northern China temperature.

I think I may have found a compromise: diving neoprene gloves!
Mine came with index and thumb cut for easier camera operation and leather inside which makes them not slippery.

I can handle my Canon 50D easily: it holds well in hand and buttons and wheels are working well thanks to open finger tips.
I also wore them outside to test the cold protection factor. They are definitely better than slim photo gloves, but not has good as those warm gloves you might usually wear. After 15 minutes, the finger tips start to feel cold, but the rest of the hands are OK (not warm, but not feeling bad about the cold). If I keep my hands out (like regular shooting with out getting my hands in my worm pockets) I start to feel quite cold after 30 minutes, but still much better than not wearing gloves.

I got mine from Decathlon (RMB120 in Beijing, about USD18), I ma sure you can find many other choices.
If your do not have the finger tips pre-cut I am sure it should not be difficult to do by self.

This is the best compromise I could find. How about you, how do you shoot in winter?

I have been thinking of getting an iPad for sometime, but was holding of for the opportunity to get a 3G version. I want to use the GPS feature, as maps look much better on the larger screen compared to iPhone and WiFi is still not that wide spread in China, so 3G connectivity is handy.

I got the iPad a few weeks ago and I started searching for 3G data plan options with Unicom the only WCDMA carrier in China. Here are my findings.

There is only 1 family of plans (see photo below).

As you can see, the plan starts at 80RMB/mth for 1Gb and goes up to 300RM/mth for 10Gb.
According to the Unicom staff I talked to, the plan automatically upgrade if you go over the 1Gb in 1 month and return to the previous band after that. This seems strange and conflicts with the brochure that says extra Mb cost 0.1RMB. I doubt I will go over 1Gb any time soon, so I can't check.

The other specific part is that you have to deposit cash on your account (it is still post-paid, but they want some cash upfront). Depending how much you deposit, you will get a free USB 3G data dongle or other perks. The catch is that not all Unicom branches carry all options. The branch I went to conveniently only carried the most expensive option.
For details about what is included in each option, look at the table at the bottom of the brochure

About the 3G USB dongle:

I got the Huawei MF633.

Once plugged, it mounts like a USB key and contains its own driver installation, even for Mac OS!
Works as expected. Comes with a small Unicom application that allows for sending and receiving SMSs.
Noticeable benefit, my 12VPN still works on 3G!
I did not test further since this is not my primary intended purpose.

iPad Micro SIM:
The iPad requires a micro SIM, not the standard SIM format Unicom currently offers. There are countless tutorials online on how to cut the SIM to micro SIM size by your self. I was lucky to have a colleague who owns one of those cheap small punching machines that cut the SIM.
I just had to trim the corners and rims with a sharp pair of scissors to make the cuts cleaner.
A word of caution about the micro SIM holders to convert back to normal SIM size. They seem made of very soft plastic and might get stuck inside phones or devices. You might have to damage the device to get them out. Use them at your own risk!

After being poisoned with melamine tainted milk based products, we can now safely use melamine kitchen water in a restaurant near you in Beijing!

I spent some time cleaning up my iPhoto library after upgrading to iLife'11 and I decided to update the "Faces".
Turns out that it is still very easy to confuse the automatic face detection:

I took a wide angle shoot of food on display in our office canteen, for some reason iPhoto thinks a chicken leg makes for a perfect face:

It does not stop there, so does a car rim & tire or a turtle shell!

Besides false face detection, I also found interesting faces.
I guess this one was to be expected:

And not to forget colleagues with good sense of humor while working on difficult code!

this tweet 

makes you think about traffic jams, highways and ring roads instead of web traffic!

 

As a follow up to my post yesterday, you can also see the software engineers position on LinkedIn.

The next leap in mobile phone usage will come from people who never owned a mobile phone or a computer. They live in emerging economies and their mobile phones, how they use it, what they can do with it, will have a significant impact on their lives. You can be part of this by joining us at Nokia S40 R&D team in Beijing.

A word about S40:

S40 based phones represent more than one third of mobile phones shipped by Nokia and a significant part of our revenue. The current growth in mobile industry is clearly in the emerging and developing markets, the BRICA countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China & Africa), the perfect market for S40 powered devices. Beijing S40 development teams are actively participating in the development of new key features, new user experiences and enhancements of the platform to meet our consumer needs.

You want to re-invent the mobile phone for the next billion users who have never own a mobile phone or a computer. You want to break free of the boring candy bar phones and re-invent user interface like we are doing with the newly launched Nokia Touch and Type X3-02 (see videos below).

Then you should apply for a job in Nokia S40 development team at our Beijing campus

Int't Links:

China Links:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTk4NjEyNzQ4.html
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTk4NjEyOTE2.html

The Positions:

We have a lot of open positions, more specificaly in my team:

• Senior SW engineer: http://search.51job.com/job/43722071,c.html
• SW engineer: http://search.51job.com/job/43721998,c.html
• User Experience Designer: http://search.51job.com/job/43722314,c.html

For more Nokia positions in Beijing: http://companyadc.51job.com/companyads/2010vip/bj/nokia0824_7194/job.htm

The Team:

Our team is a cross functional development team with User Experience Designers, Software Architects and Developers. We use Agile Scrum development methodologies with a very strong focus on User Experience and Quality.
Our main responsibility is SMS and MMS messaging for all Nokia S40 products and we will also contribute to a wider portfolio of applications in the future. The team was started a year ago with a focus on hiring the best possible people because good software starts with smart engineers and designers. The result is a team with some of the best and smartest people you can work with in Nokia Beijing, having fun doing it!

If you are interested in any of the 3 positions above, send me an email (mentioning which position you apply for and you resume) at bruno.raymond [at] nokia.com

My team has been growing strong this year. We have now 15 SW Engineers, 3 User Experience Designers, 1 Architect.
I am still hiring several positions, based in Beijing, working mainly on S40 native messaging applications (scope might increase).

First a word about S40:

S40 is a C language based feature phone platform. S40 based phones represent more than one third of mobile phones shipped by Nokia and a significant part of our revenue. The growth in mobile industry is clearly in the emerging and developing markets: BRICA countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China & Africa), the perfect market for S40 powered devices.
Beijing S40 development teams are actively participating in the development of new key features, new user experiences and enhancements of the platform to meet our consumer needs.

1 position for Application Software Architect:

The software architect is a technical expert and leader in his team. He focuses his expertise on one or more applications area and the overall Nokia S40 platform.
He is involved with a broad range of contributors, very early in the project phase.

Main Skills Required:

 

• CS or related degree
• at least 6 years experience in developing SW in relevant fields (mobile, embedded, ...)
• Deep understanding of embedded systems (OS, memory management, ...)
• Very good software design, analysis skills, included object oriented design,
• Very good oral and written communication skills in both Chinese and English
• Ability to multi task across several projects and demonstrated problem solving ability
• Prior experience with Nokia S40 a very strong plus

Main Responsibilities:

 

• Work closely with requirements owner to estimates technical feasibility, risks, effort estimations,
• Work closely with user experience designers to estimates technical impacts, feasibility,
• Support software engineers in the team and act a technical role model
• As one of the most knowledgeable engineers about the platform in the team, share, coach and train others in the team
• As a technical interface of the team, follow up system level technical trend and answer technical questions in domain

2 Interns positions:

 

• 1 SW Engineer
: Good C language coding skills, problem solver and passion for technical challenges.
• 1 User Experience Designer
: Experience in consumer user experience and user interface design (university projects, previous internships, personal portfolio). Graphic design, Flash prototyping would be good plus.

Interns will have opportunity to work in a large international environment, working on real products. Unique opportunity to acquire good working experience
For internship agreement reasons, Interns must be in their last year of study (Bachelor, Master, ...) with a Chinese university.

Send resumes to me (email protected by captcha)