Archive for August 23rd, 2012

23
Aug
12

Photo-Realistic Bic Ballpoint Pen Art. Mind –> Blown.

f00ad6ec868b326fbd39ab2fdaf5a286-d4ne392This sure as hell isn’t something you see everyday. My internet travels have brought me to the doorstep of one Mr. Samuel Silva who, to put it mildly, is one talented man.

This 29 year-old uses normal, everyday bic ballpoint pens to create the most incredible art I’ve seen in a very long time, and I don’t say that lightly. His drawings are so richly textured and realistic they almost look like photographs.

Craziest part of this is the fact that the guy isn’t even an artist, he’s a motherflippin’ LAWYER! This is what he does in his spare time with only 8 different coloured bic pens, the badass.

Here are some of my favourites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, my all-time favourite:

 

 

You need to check out this guy’s Deviant Art page – he writes detailed notes about every piece he uploads, it’s really interesting stuff.

Also, you can see his drawings bigger and in more detail, so totally worth the click.

Amazing how much natural talent some people have. This is the work of an old soul, of that there can be no doubt.

-ST

23
Aug
12

Gettin’ Steamy With The Nokia Lumia 900

1301066774672I’ve had the pleasure of using the Lumia 900 for about two weeks now, so I’m starting to get to know this phone on a far more intimate level.

I have one or two gripes so far, but before I get into those, I want to focus on one of the things this phone does really well and that’s speed.By which I mean the phone is very fast.

This is a legitimate phone review damnit, not a rave in the 90s.

The Lumia 900 packs a 1.4 GHz Single Core processor which specs-wise doesn’t sound too impressive considering the iPhone 4s has a 1GHz Dual Core processor and the HTC One X has a 1.5 GHz Dual Core processor.

BUT read a few reviews online and most people agree that the experience of using the Lumia 900 is just as fast if not faster than other heavy-weight smartphones on the market.

Web browsing is ridiculously sick. Resickulous. Most 1-5min YouTube clips stream without buffering (provided you’re in an area that has decent 3G coverage) and websites open in a matter of seconds.

 

 

I’d recommend downloading the free Twitter and FB apps featured on the Windows Phone Marketplace because not only do they look slick, but also open and update almost instantly.

It was the one thing that used to drive me nuts about the N8 – tweeting from that phone was a total ballache.

Not so with the Lumia 900, which I can see being a potential problem the next time I’m out and I think up a hilariously insightful tweet after my 7th whisky…

So that’s a huge thumbs up for the Lumia 900 – browsing, Facebooking and Tweeting are all quick and painless.

One of the things I’m finding a little frustrating though is taking pics and recording video using the Lumia 900.

 

 

As with the Lumia 800, unless you hold the phone dead still when taking pics, they come out blurry almost every time.

The lens is super-sensitive and doesn’t perform well in low light situations. The digital zoom is very clunky and basically decimates your picture quality when you’re fully zoomed in.

If anyone knows a great photo / video app for the Lumia 900 that fixes this problem, lemme know.

I’ll be looking for one as well because I don’t think the hardware is the issue here, it’s packing an 8MP camera with a Carl Zeiss lens so it should be shooting like a dream.

 

 

I found the same thing when trying to record sound with the Lumia 900. It doesn’t come with a native sound recording app, so I used OneNote, which comes with Outlook on the Lumia 900.

OneNote allows you to record voice notes but the sound quality sounds like you were speaking into a tin can with a string attached to a second can your neighbour three houses down was holding to his ear.

I downloaded the “Pocket Recorder” app from the Windows Phone Marketplace and magically fixed the problem in less than 5 mins.

So to sum up, I’m still very much into the Lumia 900. She’s sexy, laughs at all my jokes, is seriously low maintenance and moves fast.

 

 

If the Lumia 900 were a girl she’d have a mind like a diamond, and you bet your ass, she’d know what’s best.

She’d wear shoes that cut and have eyes that burn like cigarettes Winking smile

More on the Lumia 900 next week.

Later Party People.

-ST