So I never bought the 1020...

I take a lot of pictures with my phone because it is the camera that is always with me. Naturally, whenever I look at a new phone, I always consider its imaging prowess as one of the top priority. When the Nokia Lumia 1020 was first announced, I was one of the many people excited but all that changed when it finally arrived. While significantly thinner than the Pureview 808, it is way bulkier than I imagined. Its write speed was also reportedly very slow and I know how frustrating that is using my old Nikon S210 and my older phones. The Lumia 925 may turned out to be the better option with its smaller footprint and still very good 8MP optically stabilised camera. 

Nokia has a great track record in producing revolutionary camera phones. My favourite though, is still the Nokia N8 in its beautiful aluminium body. The larger than compact camera sensor of 12MP is ground breaking then and arguably, still not beaten up to today. Its meager 680MHz processor did bothered me a little but I figured that as long as the phone can runs smoothly, its actual clock speed doesn’t really matter. Truly, the only reason I didn’t go for it was simply because I can’t quite afford a new phone at that time. 

The still beautiful Nokia N8

 

Unfortunately for Nokia, most people didn’t feel the same way. The phone was considered too slow and its Symbian platform unsalvageable next to the beasts that Android manufacturers have been churning out.  Eventually Stephen Elop from Microsoft took over as CEO and announced an exclusive focus on Window Phone platform. Some two years down the road, I read the sad news that Microsoft  will be buying over Nokia.

I was sad because I have great respect for Nokia and their works. The company struck me as one that looks beyond making a profit and often uses its vast resources to enrich the lives of others, especially its employees. Its defeat is a defeat for economy justice and a victory for corporate monopoly. An agreement that seems to favours MS heavily rubs even more salt into the injury and most of us began to question Elop’s role and integrity in the whole matter. As I understand Nokia will still be around but its mobile division now belongs to MS, which also own the right of the Nokia branding for the next 10 years, during which the original Nokia is not allowed to produce any smartphones. An apparent clause to prevent Nokia from making Android phones to compete with the WP platform. 

In my eyes, the CEO of Nokia has failed. He may rightly predicted that Nokia will dominate the WP market, a feat more conceivable than in the Android market but the WP’s share is simply too small. Going with Android would provide a quicker and more assured recovery and keeping Meego will ensure a proprietary license-able backup platform to fall on.  And yes, I am aware this has been mentioned many times by many different people before. 

In my opinion, Window Phone is refreshingly simple, cool to look at and surprisingly functional. It is a great mobile platform that deserves greater success than what it has achieved now but it is unfortunate that it has to drag Nokia down in the process.

Port Klang

This road leads from Port Klang to the KESAS highway and is usually very busy and even more so on this day. Traffic seems to be never ending and pedestrians have to craftily squeeze between the gaps of the traffics if they are to cross the road. 

 

As I was working, I only have the camera in my phone but the best camera really, is the one you have with you.

 

The West (and East) is Red

I came back from work greeted by a gorgeous sky with clouds bathed in warm light from the setting sun. I wasted no time grabbing my camera and caught a few shot. I was in a residential area and there were plenty of obstacles so I have no choice but to include some of these objects. As I usually tend to do, I placed the foreground object on the left, not yet realising that the best view was on the left, outside of my framing. realising much later that the best scene was outside of my framing. 

 The plane that just happened to fly by as I took this shot is just another lucky coincidence.

Fortunately, I also shot one with the tower in the middle and was able to cropped the picture. 

After a quick shower, I realized what I missed. The sun was almost set and its outline was very well defined so I grabbed another shot. 

Red seems to be the theme for the evening as I unknowingly ended up in Paradigm Mall which happened to host a fashion show dubbed The East is Red, by designer Keith Kee. And very fortunately for me, I actually have my camera with me. (But that would be another post for another day.)