TaoSpace

Rebooting

This blog will soon relaunch, with a pure focus on photography. I hope to combine practical tips, techniques and reviews with opinions on photography and its industry in the broad sense. Of particular interest, as before, are digital workflow, RAW management and processing as well as printing!

The R2880 Profile Tracker continues to get a sizeable number of hits and emails with updates and questions keep pouring in. I hope to find a way to tie that in closer as well.

Sit tight!

WWDC 09: The usual predictions

I do these every year and seem to get a slightly-better-than-50-50 success ratio. Since nobody reads this anyway, this is mainly for my own amusement.

iPhone

1. iPhone OS 3.0 demo. Shoe in. 
2. iPhone OS 3.0 will have some surprises still. I'd bet on a new, previously unseen, Apple app.
3. New iPhone. Better camera, more storage, compass, video recording and clipping. At the risk of sounding like Bill Gates ("640K ought to be good enough...") I'd wager no faster processor. OS 3.0 will be more optimized and some of the peripheral hardware (video & audio chips) will be more efficient, which leads to a better overall experience. I still feel a much faster processor would put developers in a bind, with a large installed base using slower phones. Then again, I might well be wrong here.  
4. Expect some big announcements/highlights of new companies joining the developer program. Enterprise stuff, like IBM, Oracle, etc. Note that most games produces are already there. iD software might show up and demo a new unannounced game: hardly the first time. 

Mac

1. No new hardware. Certainly not a netbook or tablet. If they did, it makes more sense to do that at a special event.
2. Snow Leopard demo. Expect some actual surprises here. I'm betting on a new UI. Also, Apple quite likely wants everybody to upgrade, so I wouldn't be surprised if this release would be priced in a friendly way.  
3. Social network integration. Several apps in Snow Leopard and iLife have some form of this. Expecting at least some mention of this, if not some announcement of further integration
4. App-store for Mac apps. Haven't seen much mention of this, but I'd say it would be silly not to extend the app-store to include all Mac software. It works and devs are willing to give Apple part of their cash for the privilege.   

MobileMe

1. This was last year's big thing. Expecting some announcement in this area, perhaps related to the social network stuff. Remember that all Apple really lacks to turn MobileMe into a social network is friend lists...

Well, let's see how I did on monday.

Almost one year on: Epson Stylus R2880

Almost a year ago, I threw out my HP B9180 and replaced it with an R2880 and wrote about the initial experiences. Since then, I started the Epson R2880 profile tracker page and have generally printed bucket-loads of photos.

The profile tracker is basically "done". All paper merchants, that I've managed to track down, have created R2880 profiles for their papers and there is little news to report. This is actually perfectly fine. It means the R2880 has become a reliable workhorse, like the R2400 before it. No surprises, stuff can just be expected to work.

It took a new comment on that original R2880 post, to remind me how long ago it has been since a bought it. The printer has been performing exemplary since I got it. In the beginning I was worried it would develop issues similar to the HP, but no. 

Before each print run I print a quick test sheet, and if needed, run a cleaning cycle. Cleaning isn't necessary that often, and if needed, it pretty much never has to be run more than once.

The fact that I can buy ink at several stores, including one 200 meters from where I live, is also nice. It was necessary to order HP cartridges over the web, as no stores carried them. One hint here is to totally ignore the low ink warnings the printer throws out, until it simply refuses to print. I have done this for a long time now and never had trouble with it. It does however save you a lot of money, as you truly use all the ink in the cartridge.

All told I'm very happy with the R2880. It does what I need it to do, and does so without complaining. The results have been consistent and of high quality and regularly draw praise from people that see them.

If you're on the fence about buying this printer for some reason, get off it and buy one.