iPad in da house

I've increase my apple family by one, I now own a shiny new white iPad 16gig and surprise surprise I love it… Shocker. I make this statement not to state the obvious but because I expected a lot from this device it has and it delivers, and  them some!

I've been living with this new piece of tech for 3 weeks now and I already use it in most aspects of my personal and working life. This seemingly simple little device opens up new way of doing everything, watching TV, Reading news, Catching up on blogs & magazines, gaming, catching up on email, producing spreadsheet, taking meeting notes the list goes on and on and on. So with that in mind here's my 1st impressions after a short time with my new best friend...

Form factor

The 3rd generation iPad is thin, holding it in my hand it's hard to believe so much can be done with so little. It's a little weighty after holding it for a while but a trade off I'm more than willing to make for the awesome battery life. Better get down to the gym and work on throughs guns!

Battery life

I charge it every night and that's always been plenty to get me through the day which usually involves 2-3hrs of streaming video and 4-5+hrs of web browsing and gaming.

Spec

I went with the 16gig WiFi only model. I chose this model based on cost alone being the cheapest model, big mistake! Being so used to using an always connected iPhone for the last 3 1/2 years has made me come to expect some things from IOS. Case in point, I'm really missing notifications from the apps especially on email. Having to hunt for an available WiFi when I'm out and about, usually at work, is a plain in the ass to say the least. I can tether to my iPhone but it's not an elegant solution having to make the two devices talk to each other every the I just want to check email or sync Evernote, not convenient. 3G is the way forward next time.

As for the hard drive 16 gig does not go far at all! I very quickly filled up my drive space in just one day! I can be an app whore but I was strict with myself and kept it relatively low. Then I added roughly 10 albums and a couple of movies and I was full! none of my podcast were even added not good. I'm finding myself having to manage the storage very closely! When I take it on holiday later this year I'm going to think very carefully what I'm going to put onto it. One thing I should point out is I have photo stream turned on. Because I recently did a shoot using a more powerfull camera my stream is full of hi res image taking up around 4gig of my memory. I love shooting photos and photo stream is awesome for my work flow and so I can't be without but if your a photographer and want to use this in your work then your going to need to go big on the old memory. 

Screen

Retina display, you've heard and read loads about it but let me simply say is georgeous! Photo's look great but I tend to notice it more in websites, text looks sharper along with the images. 

Photography

The camera on the iPad was never a strong contender in previous models but in the 3rd itteration they stuck in the same lens that the 4g iPhone uses. It's not bad, while i'm never going to be doing photo shoots with this thing if i'm stuck in a pinch to snap a photo of something then this will more that do. While I wouldn't be using my iPad for shooting I most defiantly will be using it for editing a sharing. Photo stream makes getting my photo's, especially iPhone photo's, just about effortless and using iPhoto and other apps editing and sharing not only easy but fun too. 

Video

Watching video is awesome amazing retina display is a dream. There a tones of apps to get video onto your iPad I have a whole screen dedicated to them and all without downloading to your iPad it's self taking us valuable space, of course you need a good WiFi connection to make it work. I'll talk more on the various apps and what they do in later posts.

Web Browsing

9 time out of 10 i'll go to my iPad before the macbook or iMac just because the experience is so much better, websites look better on the retina display and browsing using a touch screen UI just seems so natural. Web pages load lightening fast and because it's so portable it's always close to hand. 

Apps

Now this is a blog post all of it's own, no serval blog post all of it's own. Needless to say this is where iPad really shines apps are the gateways to everything, you name it and there really is an app for that! Apps that i've been using on my iPhone for years seem basic compared to there iPad counterparts in both functionality and design. I'll be following section up with more posts very soon. 

Newstand

Newstand is great, its the one stop place for you to subscribe and manage all your favourite magazines. I've been reading some of the various magazines on offer such as Wired, Empire and PC Magazines. All of which take there print editions of there mag and created iPad versions creative interactive version of them. I done think i'l' be buying paper a magazine again. Magazines are available on a subscription bases or there are per item options.

Keyboard

The keyboard is surprisingly easy to type on despite being software and not hardware, most of this post was written on my iPad! It also has a simple dictation function which allows you to speak what you want to type and it converts it to text. It's a little strange to get used to to begin with but once you do it's pretty cool and surprisingly accurate. 

Summary

My new iPad really has changed the way I work and relax I really wouldn't be without it, i'm a little ashamed to say my iphone has been getting neglected. I really can see why sales of this awesome little gadget has greatsales numbers. They can be pricy I know but the good news is that older version can be picked up cheap and cheap, the iPad 2 is pritty much the same and the 3rd gen the main difference being the retina display. I can't recomened this enough, once you've played with one for a day or two you will find yourself wounder how you survived without once for all this time.

This post is just a very small summary of what I found so far. I will be following up with multiple posts about various aspects about iPad and iPhone and other IOS releasted things. If your not into apple you might like to take the blog out of your bookmarks. Just giving you fair warning now

Thanks for Reading and don't go changin'

G

It's that time of year again...

Once a year I get very very excited! It's a special time of year were people of all walks of life come together to celebrate a joyous occasion. They will go to bed early the day before getting a good nights sleep in preparation of the big day ahead. All the excitement culminating in the receiving of something very special.

NO i'm not talking about Christmas, that's for kids! I'm talking about something much cooler, the launch day of the new iphone! Whilst there is no release date or even confirmation a new phone is about to be released, tech blogs are on fire regurgitating any wild rumour they hear on a daily basis. Unless you've been doing peace work in a war torn country or simply you have an actual life, you would have heard that invitations have been sent out for an Apple event being held on there own campus on Tuesday 4th October. This my friends can only mean one thing, it's time for them to announce the next iphone! BOOM :D 

The invitations simply read "Let's talk iphone". Brilliant, you've really got to admire the Apple marketing department as they really know how to create hype through saying very little. This however could mean so many things, not necessarly an brand new device but it could just be about ISO 5.0 update for example. Of course any Apple fan would bet their 1st born that a new phone is about to be released but will it be a semi upgrade release in the form of an iphone 4S or a more substantial iphone 5 launch? We are about to find out but my money is on the latter.  So as every tech blog in world worth it's .COM domain name is doing, I thought I would give you a little heads up about the various rumours floating around and add my 2cents in. Here we go... 

• Faster - Not really stunning news but always welcome. The new phone will almost definitely contain the latest A5 processor currently running in the ipad 2. This ones a no brainer but hey ho there you go. 
• Assistant - Now this one has me very excited if it becomes real. In a nutshell the new phone is expected to have some very sophisticated voice recognition software inside, very similar to the one found in android powered phones. This function is said to be deeply tied into core functions of the phone such as the GPS, web browser, email, phone and SMS programs. This will mean you can talk to your phone to carry a wide range of tasks such as compose and send an text message, dial a contact or conceivably book a hotel room all by using just your voice. The likelihood of this one is looking good as Apple bought the company pioneering this technology, Siri some time ago but no results have been seen from this acquisition, just yet. Since then there have also been rumors that Apple are trying to tie up a partnership deal with Nuance who are market leaders in this field. Slightly bad news on this excitiing new feature is that it will only be availible on the new hand set, so if you want your own personal atomus assisant you have to upgrade... shocker ;0)
• New design - Tones of photo's from manufacturing companies have been posted on the interwebs depicting spare parts for the new handset which clearly show that the new iphone will be a different form factor. Most speculation is around the new iphone being thinner with a tapered back. Some evidence is suggesting the new handset will have a large 4.5' screen but the jury is still out on that one, whilst a bigger screen would be nice the extra power required and subsequent reduction in standby time might be a deal breaker.  I'm a fan of the current glass front and back design but I get why there is a call for this to be changed. There's only so many time you can pay to have the glass back replaced because you keep dropping your phone 3 feet. My favorite photo is the artist impression photo's from Mac Rumours if one of these came into being I would be a happy chappy. 
• Better Camera - Another obvious one but one i'm very pleased to hear about.  I love using my iphone to snap photo especially on instagram. I don't think Apple themselves expected their iphone to become such a prolific contributor to the world of photography.  Quiet rightly the iphone camera is considered to be the best smart phone camera and better than some point-n-shoots. A higher resolution camera can only help with the adoption for photography enthusiast.

Some people make an event out of The Oscars or even the final of XFactor, for me my Oscar party is the Apple announcement.  I'll take over any device that has a screen in my home and fill them with live blogs from the event from different sources and any bootleg live stream's from a brave developer in the audience who has the stones to face his webcam at the stage. I know it's seriously sad but I love it.  Watching as the rumor mill goes into overdrive, as we lead up to the offical announment event is crazy. Every tech blog trys to out do each other with who can produce the most fantastical rediculous rumors. Then the tech pundits spend hours debating the merits of each rumour exploring a) the likelihood of said rumour coming true b) would it be a good thing if it happened. Of course after all the hype the announcment comes! The new iphone is unveiled faster, shinnnier and slimmer than it's predicesor. We must have it my precious, and as we follow the breaking news with baited breath we wait to hear not the price, the price doesn't matter, we just want to hear WHEN Mr Steve Jobs, When!? (moment of silence for his Jobsness stepping down as CEO).

See we've not even got up to buying the dam thing yet and we're having a ball. Launch day is another big day. Fan's will go down super early. Some will have been queuing for almost a week just to have the prestigious award of being 1st in-line. Silly Americans don't they know Apple stores in Austrailia have been open sellig iphone for hours by now? The whole thing fasinates me. When do we ever see a line of perfectly inteligent, learned people queuing outside an O2 store in the pouring rain since 2am just for a phone!? and don't forget the bloody Morarola Razor was massivly popular. And i'd also like to make a bet now to all you iphone users out there especially the ones with an iphone 4 in your pocket, right now your thinking this is the greatest phone in the world with absolutely nothing wrong with it. But once that new phone is released the once faithful companion will now become a clunky piece of junk ;0)

So I know where I'd be tomorrow eveing where will you be? having tea, watching TV, problably doing something much more normal but if you are interested in following the event here's some places i'll be keeping an eye in for breaking news.

• Twit.TV - Live commentry from the king of tech Leo Laporte from his personal little empire.
• MacRumors - no 1 stop shop for all things apple related. Macroumors will be live blogging from the event
• Engadget - Another live blog. If your a tech fan then you already know this site.
• Twitter - Of course there's good old twitter the river of all realtime info. Just do a simple search to get in on the conversation and breaking news. You can guarantee a hashtag will be trending tomorrow.

So the fun kicks of at 6pm GMT tomorrow, no matter what tomorrow brings it's sure to be some good news and fingers cross we'll have IOS 5.0 availible to download by the end of the day. Before I get off just want to ask will you be buying the new phone? and if you are, are you in the comfortable position of being out of any contract or you going to be selling off anything you can get your grubby hands on to pay through the nose to get your hands on it?  

This is my Christmas 

God bless us everyone

G 

200 Paper Plans with memory card payload dropped from space by Samsung

Just caught this article on wired.co.uk. Thought it was so cool I had to post it here. Here's the skinny...

Step 1: Post message on website asking people to leave message that will be put onto the SD cards which will be on the paper planes.

Step 2: Make a weather ballon capable a) reaching 21 mile (the stratosphere) b) releasing 200 paper planes. 

Step 3: Load data onto memory card then make a load of papar plan and attached one SD card to each plan.

Step 4: Head to germany and launch balloon. 

Step 5: Tear arround Germant countryside looking for downed balloon via tracking magic. 

Step 6: Wait for the messages. Each card also has a message saying what the project is about and asking for info on where the plan was found.

Check out the video. Little stunts like this are awesome, now where are them party balloon left over from christmas?...

Video - Gang of Smart Mini-Copters Learns How to Build Stuff

Check out these cool little quad copers building shit!

Check out the full article over at Mashable.com 

Mobile Phone Charging Wellies From Orange

Yes, you hear me correct. The mobile phone company orange have created a pair of wellies that can charge your mobile phone while you wear them.

These power crazy bad boys were launched at this year Glastonbury festival for the soak soaked revelers to try out.

They work by converting heat generated in the heal off the wellie as you move in them into an electrical charge. It goes without say that these aren't going to charging you phone in a hurry but they could get you out of a pinch if your caught short of a charger or an electrical supply. 12hrs of walking produces around 1hr of charge so if you do need to charge your phone this way you'd better let your feet do the talking and jog on.

G