dopaminimum
I feel like I'm getting regular dopamine doses just from using my new iPhone. It's both fun and creepy when I think about it, the way these gadgets create an arguably false sense of satisfaction while simultaneously pulling our attention from the real world around us.
One can easily go round and round in circles with these arguments, though. I mean, nobody scoffs at me for, say, writing these blog posts on a computer rather than in a paper journal. Writing is writing no matter how it's done, really. And although I do use my phone for far more than just this, photography is a huge, huge part of my life, and the photo capability is finally impressive both at night and when using the zoom. I'm sure some Samsung user would still happily chime in about how superior their mobile device's camera is, but whatever. I've just long been too steeped into Apple products for all my devices (phone, tablet, Apple TV) for me to branch out and complicate things with one of them.
I am already seeing a noticeable difference in just day to day usage of the camera. This is probably no difference whatsoever for someone who, say, upgraded to the XR from the 8. But I upgraded from a 6s, and there's a big difference -- the kind of difference I've been waiting for, for years. Consider the above photo, which I took from the AMC Theatres on the fourth floor of Pacific Place, looking north in downtown Seattle: the full size of the image is impressive in its detail. Maybe not impressive to someone else who is already conditioned to such changes, but impressive to me.
Granted, it probably isn't good enough to render the use of my binoculars unnecessary in a scenario like my trip to Yellowstone National Park last June. But! I bet anything photos I still took through the binoculars with this phone would be far better. The real issue is just the narrowness of the phone, precluding a genuine telephoto lens. I still need to look into getting an accessory attachment.
After the degradation of my 6s's battery life, the battery performance of this new phone so far is actually astonishing. I did not charge it all day yesterday, after waking up with it fully charged, and did not need to charge it again until this morning. I wasn't able to do that even before the 6s's battery went tits up. I know it's only been a couple of days but I sure am happy with this phone so far.
So anyway, I took myself to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse a second time last night, and for some reason now they aren't even offering it in 3D, so I have both versions to compare and contrast. The visual experience was far superior in 3D, which is truly unusual. The story is still great and the animation too, but this was a rare example of 3D really being preferable. There were frames even in 2D with aspects on the screen clearly designed to be seen in 3D and it was occasionally distracting. People who watch this at home will be really missing out.
Shobhit had a Braeburn Condos board meeting last night, which was why I timed my one movie this week for last night. He was gone most of the time I was anyway. He got back right after I got home, and immediately watched his DVRed Rachel Maddow. He now gets up in the morning and immediately turns those news programs on. For me, it's way too much. I'm not interested in spending three hours every day watching that stuff. Bleh!
I went to the bedroom and poked around online to learn about interesting skyscrapers in Seattle that I had recently walked past. So yeah, we all have our own things. That would bore Shobhit to death, of course, as it would probably most people. But not me!
[posted 12:16 pm]