Mac20Q Podcast 121 – Zkarj – Allister Jenks

Talking to Allister Jenks from New Zealand

Jenks

Allister is a podcaster from New Zealand although he is of no fixed abode for a home podcast at the moment. He does do guest podcasting for Alison Sheridan on the Nosillacast and he also appears on other Mac-based podcasts such as the Let’s Talk Apple Podcast which is run by Bart Busschots. Do have a listen to the whole interview with Allister as it is quite interesting we talk about various applications both for the Mac and for iOS.

Looking to the Skies

Allister has an interest in aeroplanes and this comes from his dad having been a pilot. He uses an application on his iPad that gives him information about planes that are flying, wherever around the world. It is much more interesting when you can see these flights above you and you can get information about them. You can see where the plane is going from and to and which airline is running the flight, and the type of aeroplane. Allister uses the application called FlightRadar24. I have a similar application called PlaneFinderHD. This app also has a feature where you can point the camera of your device to the aeroplane as it flies above you and you get a badge which tells you some of the details. Allister has a story about seeing a notification about a problem, emergency on a flight and was able to watch as the flight made an emergency landing. He could then follow up with googling for the news about this flight to get the full details about what actually happened. I just did some tests with the application I have been using to find information about aeroplane flights and I don’t think it really worked very well. The aeroplanes that I can see in flight above my don’t really match what I can see on the map in the application. I will have to give FlightRadar24 they try to see how it works. I see that there is a Mac application for this and also an iOS application.

Flightradar24 com Live flight tracker

A House Full of Apple Computer Devices

As a family man and the rest of the family using Apple devices also he has several computers, iPads and iPhones belonging to himself, the wife and the kids. He has a website called Macthoughts. one of his recent blog posts is about his recording setup in which he talks about the microphone that uses. I see that a has a mixer just the same as one that I own when I’m using my top quality microphone. I don’t use it so much now as I have a Samson microphone which I can connect via USB which is a bit easier.

An Interest in Photography

ZKARJ dot ME All roads lead to me

During the interview we talk about using Aperture and taking photos. Allister on Flickr. We go over the workflow that he uses that suits the way he wants to get the RAW files in from his big DSLR camera into his Mac. Like myself, Allister is optimistic about the plans Apple have for sun-setting the Aperture application and bringing in an app which will cover all ends of the user spectrum from beginner to professional photographer. Well in truth, we are both taking a wait-and-see approach and continuing to use Aperture. I think it makes sense to see what happens and it is not necessarily the best idea to have a knee-jerk reaction and jumping over to Adobe products. Apple did a great job with Final Cut Pro with getting it up to date and enhancing it for everybody. I expect them to do a similar job with the Photos App.