Panasonic Image App phoning home

karl — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 16:58:30 +0000

Today I test-installed the Panasonic image app for Android, closed the firewall for the device and had a look at the network traffic whether and if so whereto it "phones home".

Without being configured/instructed by the user to do anything on the network, the app (right after pressing the "cancel" button on the initial camera connect screen - didn't want to connect to the camera at this time) places HTTP POST requests with "lumixclub.picmate.jp". At least if that URL is unreachable, the app will also try to contact "panasonic.net" via HTTP.

Obviously, I won't let my firewall allow this unsolicited "phoning home". I'm not a member of any "Lumix club", I don't intend to become one, and I do not want to share any information about my camera or my images with anyone at Panasonic.

It's a plague how electronics manufacturers today abuse your InterNet connection as they like without asking for permission and without having any reason to do so.

Music and Art

DrDave — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 19:07:23 +0000

For my art and music show, I had been thinking for quite a while now about Robert Altman's use of extended depth of field in his movie "Prairie Home Companion." In his movie, Altman often stops the lens down to capture the ensemble feeling on the stage, sort of the opposite of using shallow DOF to highlight a soloist. So I decided to try and use this effect in the wide angle shots in this video--I used the Panasonic mini-pancake 14mm/2.5 at F4 (more was grainy). Nice to have the whole stage reasonably well in focus. Flowmotion II on lowest setting, as it was a concert and I needed the card space and reliable spanning. Unfortunately the heater blower was on during this winter show, I decided to leave most of the noise in and just roll off some of the rumble.

Tagged with home - Personal View Talks

Panasonic Image App phoning home

Music and Art