iPhone 7 Plus - My Impressions

Last week I finally got my new Apple iPhone 7 Plus in 256GB. I was originally waiting on a Matt Black iPhone via a reservation I had with my Cellular Provider but things where not moving all that fast! So I went with plan B and reserved the same iPhone but in Silver with my local Apple Store, no more waiting, I had my iPhone 7 Plus 256 in Hand :)

So now that I have had my iPhone 7 Plus for a week or so, what do I think, was it worth upgrading from my iPhone 6 Plus 128GB? For me the upgrade was mostly about the improved cameras but I am enjoying the other improvements. Let's get into my impressions of the new iPhone 7 Plus.

The new iPhone 7 is touted as being the fastest smart phone on the market with its super fast A10 64-bit Quad Core CPU. Compared to my old iPhone 6, it really hauls, I notice it with pretty much everything I do from simply navigating through Apps, working with video or exporting a file, I'm not a big gamer so I can't really comment on the gaming side of things.

Usually with more speed comes faster battery usage, not in the case of the iPhone 7. Apple found some extra room for a little more battery output which helps, they also designed the new A10 quad core chip to utilize two of its chips to run super efficiently when less intensive computing is required. My iPhone 6 Plus would be pretty much dead by the end of the day where as my iPhone 7 Plus usually has at least 25-35% left when I plug in at end of day.

The new iPhone 7 is water proof or should I say water resistant. This is not a big deal for me since I don't plan on swimming or showering with my iPhone but it's good to know my iPhone 7 can take a bath and still come out working. After all $1200 would be a pretty devastating loss if my iPhone where to get water damaged.

My iPhone 6 did not have Force Touch ability so the addition of Force Touch with the new Apple Tactic Engine and the new iPhone solid state home button was all rather new to me. After a few days of getting use to it all I have to say I love it. When I press the home button to unlock my iPhone, the reading of my thumb print and the launching of the home screen is virtually instantaneous. The subtle tactic vibration along with Force Touch has really opened up a ton of new ways to make my iPhone experience easier and more efficient.

For some reason people where complaining that Apple did not increase the screen resolution up from 1080p on their new iPhone 7 Plus? Instead Apple chose to improve the brightness and color depth which is something I can actually see an improvement in. Let's get real, 1080p on a 5.5 inch screen is more than high enough resolution, my eyes would never be able to pick out smaller pixels or higher pixel density on a screen this size with so many pixels already jammed into it. The new iPhone 7 Plus screen looks amazing in my books!

Apple added another speaker or should I say they improved the "ear" speaker so it can now be used as a secondary audio speaker to give the new Apple iPhone 7 not only a louder overall volume but also true stereo sound. Don't expect any thumping bass but the new configuration is for sure louder and clearer than before.

A big advantage to picking the larger of the two iPhone 7's and going with the Plus model is the extra rear facing camera, you now get a 1x and 2x lens setup which does help a lot to get closer into the action when you can't physically do it yourself. The 1x lens is also super fast with a f/1.8 aperture and both rear facing cameras are 12 megapixel. Too many of the camera features have been improved to even go into detail so take a look at Apple's website for more info on this. I did want to mention that the front facing camera also takes advantage of many of the new hardware and software improvements and also sports 8 megapixel quality with 1080p video recording. Great for Vlogging!

I plan ot use my iPhone 7 Plus for much of my Vlogging and perhaps even to shoot some of my main video since I can shoot in 4k and have a 1080p front facing camera now, this means I will need more storage space which is why I bought the 256GB model, That's double the space I was able to get before with my iPhone 6 or even a 6s.

Something not many people talk about is the Bluetooth quality on the new iPhone 7 and I am not even sure if Apple change anything about it in their latest model but I can say I do notice the Bluetooth seems to be more solid for me with less cutting out and loss of connections to devices.

It's a good thing the Bluetooth is so good since the new iPhone 7 does not have a dedicated headphone jack. To be honest I can't remember the last time I used a headphone jack with my iPhone so again this is not really a deal breaker for me. All the audio devices I use connect to BT and my high end Sure Microphone already uses the Apple Lightning port.

The proof is in the pudding and the main reason I upgraded from my iPhone 6 Plus to the new iPhone 7 Plus was for the improved video and photo abilities of the iPhone 7 Plus. To see how the iPhone 7 Plus does in real life I recommend you watch my below YouTube video where I have included some sample photos and videos shot on the iPhone 7 Plus.

Train Everything Everyday 1 Week Followup

I know it's only been a week since I started my "Train Every Body Part Every Day Program" but I thought I would give you my feedback so far...

One concern I had was potential strain on my joints, especially my elbow/bicep area where I tend to get flare-ups even when doing traditional split workout programs. So far so good, and I think this is because I'm distributing the stress on these areas throughout the week rather than hitting a specific pull day and really socking it to my elbow joint and then paying for it for the next few days. Same would be true for my knees when doing a dedicated leg day.

In terms of strength gains it is way too soon to tell but my repeat Day 1 Monday workout went well and I feel I was a bit stronger compared to last week, this could simply have been a good workout day, we all have good and bad workout days.

I forgot to mention one other benefit to hitting every body part every day. And that is, it really doesn't matter how many days you workout each week  since you will always be hitting each muscle group evenly. So if you miss a day it's no big deal and if your schedule does not allow you to workout the same amount of days each week then this type of program could work well for you.

2016 CBBF Canadian Nationals - Men's Masters Contest Photos

It took a while for me to get my official professional 2016 CBBF Canadian Nationals Contest photos this time but I finally got them :) I'm still waiting for my DVD Video that I paid for from both the 2016 Vancouver Pro Am and of course my recent Canadian Nationals but at least I can now share with you some high quality stage shots.

I did find it very interesting looking at the photos from the Men's Masters Top 3 Overall which I was a part of, when you are up on stage you can only guess how you look compared to the other competitors. Seeing if from the perspective of the camera lens I kind of feel like perhaps I had the Overall but in the end I did not win nor did I get the IFBB Pro Card that went with it. It was not meant to be this time around, I will try again another day. Congratulations to the winner, I am sure he is overjoyed and was well deserving.

Down the road I may share some of my photos from the Open Division where I went up against some absolute giants of men, some of them looked like full on body builders in board shorts! I ended up placing 10th in a group of around 20 or so competitors, not bad for a 47 year old a this extremely high level of competition.

Get Fit Over 40 Update Video - Train Everything Everyday

In this video I talk mainly about a new workout program I will be using based on 5 workout days per week. Most people train one to two body parts per workout and rarely train a body part more than twice per week. With the workout program I will be using, I will be training pretty much every body part every workout for a total of 5 days per week. That may seem excessive to some people but the reality is your body can get use to daily training of every muscle group and don't forget that each workout does not hit each body part as hard as you would if you dedicated an entire workout to that body part, so recovery and repair time is much shorter between workout sessions.

For me, body part workout frequency works and I have seen very posative results from training each body part three times per week so why not ramp it up a bit and hit every muscle group 5 times per week. Some of the best squaters in the world squat every day so there is some evidence that this works. I have been traingin Abs every workout for years now and one of my best features are my abs so there is already some proof that this works.

I also talk a bit about the new iPhone 7 plus which I have on order as I feel the new camera features will imporve the video quality of my Video Logs. to make my video even better, I have another cool gadget on order, the DJI OSMO Mobile three way smart phone gimble. This compact steady cam is made to work with my iPhone and keep the image super stable even when there is a lot of movement going on. The DJI OSMO Mobile even has built in motors and a tracking option so I can put it on auto pilot and have it track me while I shoot a video, no extra camera man required!

Lastely I mention that I'm getting a new roof for our house and I was impressed to see the Indo Canadian roofers we hired had incorperated pretty much their entire family to do the job including two elderly gentlemen well into their sixties. And they where not taking it easy, these elderly men where right on top of the roof pulling off shingles with a shovle sitting knee's to ears while they did it, just watching them work away made me sore! It goes to show that staying active in your elder years keeps you young, if you don't use it you lose it!