Updated Software Recommendation Page

Updated my software recommendation page here with a handful of new entries under the general productivity zone.

• Musicbee: my go to music player for playing back offline music and audio files, as well as using the portable version of it to make a simple music player on-the-go.

• Obsidian: a highly customizable Markdown language visualizer software, and depending on how you customize it or what plug-ins you add to it, it could assist with and handle with a huge variety of use cases, depending on the user’s needs. I have to admit I do not use the full features of it, but the backlinking ability itself is a huge help is managing my notes and sorting out my thoughts.

• Localsend: a decentralized direct peer-to-peer (or device-to-device) file transfer tool, which is useful for sending files without passing through a central server.

Hope the information helps!

Hardware Monitor Calibration and ICC Profiles

Just chanced upon this video while looking for some other information regarding ICC profiles earlier on, and thought that it might be an interesting share to post here.

Q&A on Switching ICC Profiles on Hardware Calibrated Displays (opens external YouTube link)

This video talks specifically about why ICC profiles are still required even though a display is hardware calibrated and have LUTs stored within the monitor, and under what circumstances should users change the ICC profile.

While the video uses a hardware calibration capable BenQ display, the concepts and insights shared here are applicable to most, if not all, hardware calibration capable displays (like the EIZOs with Color Navigator).

Please take note that the principles and concepts shared are not applicable to software based ICC profiling with LUTs by using a hardware display calibration device, but rather for a display that is capable of saving LUTs within the display itself.

To briefly summarize the main points in the video,

• A hardware calibrated monitor should have an accompanying ICC profile, which usually contains only the gamut information of the calibrated display.

• Changing just the brightness of the display while all other gamut/color settings are kept identical do not require a change in ICC profile.

• Changing to a calibration slot with a different gamut (like from sRGB to AdobeRGB), the corresponding ICC profile has to be selected and loaded into the OS.

For EIZO users, if Color Navigator is active when you change the calibration slots, the proper ICC profile would be loaded into the OS automatically.

So to extrapolate the information from this video a little,

• When using a hardware calibrated monitor (not same model, but the exact same monitor) on multiple PCs, it is advised to load the ICC profile on all the PCs so that the OS and software know how to map the colors to the display’s gamut.

• It is simpler to just calibrate to the widest gamut the display can show (native in most cases), and let the ICC-aware software you are using handle the conversion of colors when the proper corresponding ICC profile for the native gamut is loaded.

I think Art, the author behind this video, did a wonderful job explaining and demonstrating, and this video is definitely worth your time taking a look at if you are running a color managed workflow.

Thoughts on the Synology BeeStation

Earlier this year Synology announced the BeeStation, a simple Network Attached Storage (NAS) solution to create personal cloud servers.

(For more detailed information, the official press release of the product can be accessed here, with its corresponding product page here.)

While using NAS to create a personal cloud and backup solution is definitely not a new idea, BeeStation seems to simplify the process as much as it could to appeal to a wider audience.

With your typical NAS systems, it does require one to have certain technical knowledge (like port forwarding etc), and most NAS devices come without drives so hardware installation skills are required too. In this particular aspect, I personally do think that the BeeStation is going in the right direction by simplifying the whole device set-up process so that users can just get it up and running with minimal fuss.

As of writing there seems to be only a single model available - a single bay BeeStation with a 4TB HDD pre-installed.

From what I have read online, the set-up process is pretty straightforward - after plugging it into a router, create a Synology account and activate the device via the BeeStation portal site (I wonder if it is called BeePortal?), install and sign-in to the apps on the devices (mobile/desktop) you want to have access to the BeeStation, and that’s it.

No fighting with port-forwarding rules, no fighting with expired SSL certs.

More advanced users who require specific features or higher levels of customization may find this a bit too simplistic and lack many options that the usual DSM offers, but for the target audience of this product I think that its simplicity is definitely very appealing.

I personally own a couple of Synology NAS devices and while I have no issues about them with respect to my use case, I do find it hard to recommend to friends and family who are not very comfortable with tech as initial set-up and the occasional troubleshooting do require some knowledge of how things work.

The BeeStation does look like something that I could recommend to them for a simple personal cloud solution, though I do have certain reservations about it right now:

• Which exact 4TB HDD is pre-installed?

• Can the HDD be changed to a higher capacity or a different brand by the end-user?

• Will there be RAID-1 (or SHR-1) 2-bay models down the road?

That said, I am definitely interested to see how this product line will develop over time and am keeping my eyes on it. I can see myself adding it to run alongside my current NAS’es as a family shared storage of sorts, though I would like to see how the product line evolves first.

Update on Brother’s PICOCHARGE Service

Got a reply from Brother earlier today regarding some of my questions about their new PICOCHARGE service which was announced earlier last week.

Here’s a summary of my questions and the response from them:

• Do the pre-paid allocation expire after a certain time?

  • No. Any pre-paid print allocation can be used any time after purchase without an expiry or duration limit.

• Are replacement ink cartridges free, or only shipping costs for the ink cartridges are free?

  • Replacement ink cartridges are free and included in the pre-paid print allocation. This is a new model that we are creating so that instead of having to purchase ink every time it runs out, customers purchase print allocation instead and we will provide the necessary support. Strictly speaking, the ownership of the ink cartridges still belongs to Brother.

• Does printing a full color A4 photo on a photo paper count as 1 page only?

  • Yes, a single page of printing is counted as 1 page of your print allocation regardless of size, color or monochrome settings, or amount of text or images.

    While auto-duplexing is not available, it is possible to print on both sides of a paper manually, and would count as 2 pages.

So with these answered, now this seems like a feasible option for my use case, and is honestly really tempting.

Now I just need to find out more about the print quality when it comes to photos. Wonder if it will be displayed in the upcoming CP+ show.

Brother’s New Printer Pricing Model

A few days back Brother announced PICOCHARGE, a new type of printer pricing model for consumers and home users. (as of writing it seems like this service is only available in Japan)

The basic concept of this new pricing model is purchasing of pre-paid print allocation.

You do have to purchase the printer (JPY 20,000) initially, and it comes with a pre-paid allocation of 1,000 pages.

When your print allocation runs out, you can choose to top-up your print allocation via their app/portal page, which currently comes in 6 tiers:

• 10 pages for JPY 200

• 50 pages for JPY 500

• 150 pages for JPY 1200

• 500 pages for JPY 3500

• 1000 pages for JPY 5000

• 3000 pages for JPY 9000

As you can see the bigger the pre-paid allocation you purchase, the less it cost to print per page.

Furthermore there is no difference in price for printing in monochrome or color - printing 1 page counts as 1 page regardless of color settings.

When the ink is about to run out you will get a notification asking you to request for new ink, which will then be delivered to you for free.

At the time of writing, I do find this a little confusing as the official site does have slightly contradicting statements in their contents:

• The special contents page (linked at the start of the article) states that replacement free ink cartridges would be sent to you when your ink runs out.

• The official news release article states that free shipping would be available for replacement cartridges - somehow the wording here sounds like you have to pay for the ink and only shipping is free?

There is no proper FAQ page up for this new service yet (only article in their FAQ is how to top-up your allocation), so right now the only information I have are from the press releases and the official site.

In all honesty I do think there might be a small miscommunication in the wording of the official news release, since by buying pre-paid allocation you are supposedly already paying for the required ink (and hence a new pricing model) - it just does not make sense to have to buy allocation AND ink at the same time.

** I will update this post again when I get more clarity regarding this issue.

That being said, if the new pricing model means just purchasing pre-paid allocation, and replacement ink cartridges are all provided at no additional cost, then I think it does make it very applicable for my use case - if I top up JPY 9000 I would be able to print my photos at JPY 3/page, which is much more economical than what I am paying for right now.

** Update 14/2/2024

Got a response from them regarding my enquiry, and yes the purchase of the print allocation includes the replacement ink cartridges, so there are no additional costs apart from having to purchase the printer initially and print allocation top-up.

Surface Pro 4

I’ve been looking for a solution to get data backup and movie streaming for shoots out of town, as my XPS 15 isn't exactly lightweight to lug around.

And also that I'm kind of lazy to plug and unplug all my peripherals and display cables when I need it for the trip.

My requirements were pretty straightforward - at least 8GB RAM, at least 256GB SSD, at least 1080p display, and if possible, 100% sRGB coverage.

Turns out that Surface Pros do meet that specs, and refurbished Surface Pro 4s are quite a nice bargain now so I snagged one recently.

Being my first Windows tablet, it’s quite an interesting experience per se to try to balance it on my lap when using it with the keypad.

And to be honest I'm pretty impressed with the hardware. The system itself is snappy and responsive, screen is bright enough and covers 100% sRGB, the keypad is very tactile and nice to type on, the body looks and feels polished and I don’t feel insecure about the kickstand at all. The machine itself is perfect for my needs.

But for whatever reason, it feels like a disastrous marriage between good hardware and badly written code - it feels as though the software is bogging the product's greatness down.

There were a few quirks that I had to sort out ever since I got the system.

1: Windows Update kind of needs to be a little smarter in terms of installation. My machine came with an older build of Windows 10 preinstalled, and upon connecting to WiFi for the first time, it just downloaded ALL the updates available and installed them ALL at one shot. I'm pretty sure certain updates require restarts, and certain updates should be installed prior to later ones.. but it was so haphazardous in terms of the order of updates installed that I could not reboot the system halfway while installation/downloading was ongoing. And voila, a couple of cases of corrupted .dll and missing directories emerged.

2: Surface NVMe firmware drivers seem to be bottlenecking the SSD. Yes I don't expect WD Black or Samsung 980 Pro performance, but 300MB/s write speed for a NVMe SSD is just sad. I could live with this speed for my current uses for it, but knowing that the drive could perform better (apparently it’s rated at 1GB/s write speed) just feels frustrating. And nope, never managed to find a fix for this.

3: Ah.. connected standby. Why does it even exist? It felt strange that the battery drain was so bad - even when my machine was shut down about 50% was drained overnight. I went to read about it and found out that connected standby was the culprit, but latest build of Windows removed the option to disable connected standby via registry. I had to use another registry key to permanently disable Sleep mode instead - so now I only have Hibernate and Shut Down options. But the battery drain, while improved, is still there.. perhaps about 5%/day even when shut down?

I really enjoy using the machine, and am really glad that the hardware itself suits my purpose perfectly, but having to work around or find solutions for these software kinks do irritate me every now and then.

EIZO CS2410 Thoughts

While I have been using an software color calibrated displays for a long time now, I have been wanting to upgrade to a color accurate monitor that can be hardware calibrated, but had to put it off till we moved to somewhere more permanent. And after moving in to our new place in the late ‘19, COVID reared its ugly head and it was really difficult to justify a purchase as we tightened our belts.

But, ironic as it is, being at home pretty much the whole time due to COVID got me thinking about the purchase of a display again, as I spend more time in front of the PC reprocessing older images that I had previously archived (that's a story for another day), and some new assignments that I am receiving would receive a nice productivity boost from having more real estate for viewing.

And after a month of deliberation with myself, I went on ahead and purchased my first EIZO display - the basic CS2410 sRGB model. While not as slim or light as the wife's BenQ GW2480T (which she also recently purchased for working from home, and is absolutely awesome for its intended purpose and price-performance ratio), setting it up alone was not much of a trouble and within several minutes the display was hooked up to my XPS15 and running.

The build is solid - no rough edges, the base plate locks into place intuitively, all the tilt/height adjustment/pivot actions are smooth, and the base plate swivels around easily. And having an extra 11% of vertical real estate is simply fantastic.

Linked up my Spyder 5 calibration unit next, ran the calibration software Color Navigator 7, compared the calibrated CS2410 and my XPS15's display side by side, and it confirmed what I had been suspecting for a while - my XPS15's display (4K touch version) does have a slight reddish tint to it, even if I tried setting the white point to a higher 7000K rather than D65.

The common consensus seem to agree that the older Spyder units (or Spyder units in general?) are not good at calibrating wide gamut white-LED displays, and perhaps that is the cause of my red tint? I guess I might pick up an i1 Display Pro unit some time down the road..?

Well, at least now that my suspicions are confirmed and I know that my eyes were not playing tricks with me, I have shifted all color sensitive work to the CS2410, which is really a breeze to work with as I no longer have to fight with the red tint (cheers!) or glare from the windows (double cheers!).