Huawei MateBook X, photo: Katja Hentschel
A few weeks ago we were lucky to witness something quite special during a presentation at the Blogfabrik. Our partner Huawei who we’ve collaborated with recently for our smartphone vs. DSLR camera test invited us and a couple of blogger colleagues to introduce us to a brand new product that they had been working on. But it was not another edition of their high-end smartphone lines as we expected, this time it was something completely different that will expand the spectrum of the company into an entirely new market: notebooks. With the new Huawei MateBook X the brand revealed the long-awaited Windows operated alternative to the Macbook. Of course there have been other products on the market before, but to be honest so far I have seen nothing that comes close to these levels of design perfection and performance.
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by Frank | Products
In the last two years I have grown a bit tired of always carrying around my heavy SLR camera that I normally use to capture places and events in Berlin. I would still take pictures, but with my smartphone. I felt the quality was quite good and the convenience of it was too tempting. Also you just look less suspicious with a smartphone than with a real one.
But the fact is, I never really put it to the test how good the quality of mobile phone cameras really is compared to the big ones. A few weeks ago I joined a comprehensive workshop with famous photographer Paul Ripke who showed us some basic tricks on how to improve your photos and he also introduced one particularly interesting new development of smartphone photography which is the professional manual mode. We got to play around with the Huawei P9 and brand new Mate 9, both of which have quite remarkable cameras with a double lens by Leica. I took one of these two with me on a photowalk around Berlin and took direct comparison shots with a medium-sized SLR camera. The results will probably surprise you…
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by Frank | Photos
photos: Matthias Piket
Lately, I’ve been totally into workshops. I like the feeling of learning new crafts and perfecting already existing skills. So I was more than happy when Huawei invited me to a mobile photography workshop by Paul Ripke. If you haven’t heard of this man, you should definitely google his name. He rose to fame with his book One Night in Rio where he captured the German soccer team up-close and personal at the World Championship in Rio back in 2014. But he’s not a typical sport and event photographer. With his work he comes so close to the action and the main protagonists that it almost feels like being right there between the athletes celebrating their victory.
With someone so accomplished of course there is a lot to learn, so after he introduced himself to us I was really curious what secrets of his success and profession he would share with us during this workshop. Much to my surprise, in the end the most valuable insight that I got beside a lot of technical stuff, was something quite more personal and inconspicuous…
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by Frank | Photos, Stories
photos: Alejandro Arretureta
Last week I had the pleasure to go on a little trip to beautiful Munich to join the press conference of Huawei who launched their brand new smartphone, the Mate 9. Much to my surprise the event that gathered journalists from all over Europe started with the reveal of a quite prestigious collaboration of the Chinese smartphone giant: They teamed up with none other than German car manufacturer Porsche to create a special edition of the Mate 9 that is as beautiful and fast as the famous car itself.
I was quite impressed with this because Porsche is one of the most respected and most beloved luxury cars in the world and to make a phone in collaboration with them is pretty awesome. Most new phones that come out don’t have anything special to offer other than that they are superior to previous phones which is pretty much a given I think. Even the new iPhone didn’t have anything revolutionary going for it except that it is better than its predecessor. So are collaborations with other iconic brands the way to go from now on? It does make sense and in the case of Huawei and Porsche it certainly looks like a clever move.
We had the chance to play around with the new Mate 9 a bit and we thought what could be a better test object than an actual Porsche. So we took the phone to one of our favorite places for amazing cars in Berlin: The Classic Remise in Moabit. This depot for luxury classic cars is a mecca for car lovers and of course it’s full of Porsches (amongst other prestigious brands of course).
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by Frank | Products
photo: The Drummer
I always like to refer to Berlin as a playground for grown-ups. Here you can easily try out new things, start new projects and experiment with crazy ideas. You will find lots of enthusiastic people willing to get involved, the resources are amazing and diverse and since Berliners are so curious to discover new things you will quickly find a willing and attentive audience. People here have a certain understanding that some things are a work in progress. Some experiments will thrive, others might not work out, but you won’t fall very hard, because the playground has a very soft floor made of sand.
Last week I met one man here, that totally takes advantage of the playfulness of Berlin and its curious audience. He woke up one day with the dream that he wanted to be a drummer. He was often involved with musicians and rock bands, spending time with them backstage, but in terms of his own musical skills he is a complete novice. Let’s face it: Playing the drums is really difficult to learn. But he saw it as a challenge and decided to make a project about it: The Drummer was born. The Drummer is not simply a nickname for him, it’s also the quest of learning this instrument in only one and a half years, and it’s going to be the name of his band that he is about to form.
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by Frank | Music, People
photo: Sascha Kohlmann
A few weeks ago I was spontaneously invited to be part of a video shoot by Huawei for their new #humantouch campaign. The video is all about sending people some positive messages, touch their hearts and give them a smile. It’s a very minimalist concept, yet it’s emotionally loaded.
Seeing the finished video now got me thinking. I like the spirit of it, taking one moment of our busy lives and write something sweet or funny to a stranger to give them a piece of happiness. We need this, especially in the cold and dark season we are in right now, especially here in Berlin were everyone is grumpy and complains. We need a bit of light-heartedness and optimism here right now. So I wondered about what could give the Berliners a smile, even if it’s just a small one, or maybe even a laugh?
After the jump I prepared some positive messages for Berlin. Let them brighten your day a bit 😉
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by Frank | Stories
