iPod, iMac and now iPad

So after all the hype and online chatter the iPad has now arrived. Reading many of the reactions online there does appear to be disappointment but personally I'm not all that surprised. Lets take a quick look at the predictions I made in my previous post.

1) The screen will be about 10.1 inches and will not be OLED
Actual - 10 inch screen this is not OLED so good start.

2) Price point of approximately £400.
Actual - We don't know the UK price yet but seeing as it's $499 in the US I would say this might be a good prediction too.

3) Simple and intuitive UI with sensor bed under the screen
Actual - The UI could not be more intuitive, it's the iPhone UI. Doesn't type like a Storm tho.

4) iWork, iPhone OS, iLife and iPhone App support.

Actual - Again pretty good you gotta say. iWork is on there and part of the iLife suite will be present, iTunes, Photo etc. We can also see that this runs a slightly more powerful version of the iPhone OS with backward compatibility with iPhone applications. The only thing not here was the online services which is a pity considering the iPad will have 3G.

5) 3G Connection and eBooks support
Actual - These were almost givens before the announcement but it's still another tick in the accurate prediction column. The iPad is an eBook, sorry iBook, reader and can have a 3G connection depending on the version you purchase.

I'm keen to see the device in the Apple Store and I would love to review a unit come it's release in 60 days, if anyone happens to be reading this from Apple I would be happy to review the iPad if you can spare a review unit :) It's great to see a new product from Apple and I don't feel disappointed in what I've seen but we'll wait until the reviews start to come in and until we can actual hold the iPad  before judging it. Let's not forget that the iPhone was heavily criticized in the time between it was announced and it was released and the iPod was soundly bashed in 2001 on it's release so lets give Steve the benefit of the doubt and hold the judgements until it actually arrives in our hands.

Final Apple Tablet Predictions

We're only a few hours away from Steve Jobs taking to the stage and introducing us to Apple's latest innovation. We can only assume at this point that this is going to be in a tablet form factor and after hearing that Apple store employees were going through confidential training today I can only assume that it's going to be available to purchase tomorrow or at least within the next few days. So what exactly will this device have? Well that's what I'm going to look at in this post.


The majority of rumors claim the screen will be OLED and about 10.1 inches. I do agree that it'll be 10.1 inches but this device is not quite a laptop and not an iPod/iPhone so the cost has to be low. This low cost, approximately £400 would be a realistic price point, requirement would mean that OLED is too expensive.


It has been claimed that the Tablet has a steep learning curve when it comes to user interaction. Is this true? Is this really the Apple approach? Look at the iPhone. This device was developed with pure ease in mind, same goes for OS X. Why would jobs suddenly decide to make things complicated for the Apple users? The height of the complication is likely to be multi touch, nothing like Magic Mouse I hope. I would love to see a screen something like the BlackBerry Storm but with a bed of sensors allowing anywhere on the screen to be pushed down and so creating a keyboard like feel.


The software is going to be interesting. Since the ordinary user really doesn't care about the OS on their portable devices I don't see Apple having a problem releasing an OS that is an expanded version of the iPhone OS. This would give it backward compatibility with existing iPhone applications but also allow it to take advantage of the added power that a tablet would have. The applications from Apple will be similar to the defaults on the Mac and iPhone. I can see them adding to the iWork and iLife suite to support more online services, perhaps even an online version of Pages, Keynote and Numbers through MobileMe and I sincerely hope to see a mobile version of these applications on Tablet and iPhone.


A big surprise will be a streaming version of iTunes offered as both a part of MobileMe but also independently. The user can store their music in the cloud using the Home Sharing functionality built into iTunes already. The Tablet will then be able to stream this music through it's 3G connection. The removal of DRM will make this service possible for music.


The final core selling point will be ebooks. We've seen with applications such as Stanza how popular these now are so it's expected that this device will partner with a number of major content providers to provide books, magazines and newspapers. It's been interesting to see how magazines such as Esquire and GQ have presented themselves on the iPhone over the last couple of months and I believe that this is a similar style to what we can expect tomorrow. Full magazines well presented and easily accessible.

No matter how many or few of these predictions turn out to be true I must say I would not like to be in Mr Jobs shoes tomorrow. The hype around this upcoming announcements has reached such an extent that even if this device is brought in on the back of unicorns being held aloft by God Himself I still can't see how it would be anything other than slightly disappointing. I hope to be proved wrong and I hope the price point is positioned well so I can buy one.

Why Are RIM Over Complicating The Touchscreen Blackberry?

In recent years Blackberry have produced the Blackberry Storm and Storm 2, both sporting a large touchscreen with SurePress technology. There can be little doubt that this device is inspired by Apple's very successful iPhone but in making the Storm similar to iPhone's design I feel that RIM may have missed a great design opportunity. Find out why after the jump.

The Amazon Kindle Comes To The UK

It's finally here. The Amazon Kindle is now available to order through Amazon.com. According to the Amazon website it will use the 3G  network but without any mobile phone contracts. With access to 250, 000 books and newspapers such as New York Times and The Daily Mail this is looking extremely tempting even to the owner of a Sony E-Reader like myself. The device will cost $279 and can be bought here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015T963C//ref=amb_link_84995193_2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=054RKV5NH0EYVHGTZHTH&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=472917413&pf_rd_i=468294.

Is anyone thinking of getting it? Let me know if you are and why.

Image from Amazon.com.

Blackberry Bold Caller Exception Tip

I recently picked up a BlackBerry Bold and I must say I love it. I would tend to put my phone onto silent at night and this has led me to miss a few important calls. So when I got the BlackBerry I wondered if it had anything up it's sleeve to prevent this and it does. I thought I'd blog this tip for anyone who hasn't found it but is interested.

1. From the home screen navigate to the profiles menu item and select it.

2. Scroll to beyond the bottom of the screen, after Off, and you'll find an option for Advanced.

3. Select it and you'll see an option called "Use Active Profile Except for:". Scroll down to the check box "Important Calls"

4. Press the BlackBerry key and select Edit from the menu.

5. In the resulting screen you will be able to choose the contacts from whom a different profile can be used, the profile the phone should use when they contact you and finally the ring tone for any incoming calls.

6. Once you've made the changes press the BlackBerry button and save the changes.

That's you done. Now when one of the contacts you have selected contacts you, including texts and hopefully emails too but I still need to test emails, the phone will ignore the active profile and will use this one instead. Great for filtering out calls if you've work to do or if you have your phone on silent at night.

Any questions about this or anything else give me a shout.

 

Image from blackberry.com

Ghostbusters Game Save Bug

I've been playing the Ghostbusters game from Atari for a few days now and I must say I'm really enjoying it. I'm not sure if that's just because I love the game or because I grew up loving the cartoons and films and I'm getting a kick from being able to catch ghosts along side the greats. Either way the game really is great fun.

However, it has rather an annoying bug. Twice now I have accessed the career menu to be presented with a New Career option and that's it. No way at all to play on from my last saved position. Apparently this is quite common and there's an easy workaround.

Simply load into the Multiplayer game and then exit back to the Main Menu. Go back into career and you should be able to restart again almost as if nothing happened. I say almost......Sadly the game removes all you Tobin Spirit Guide Tokens and Artifacts. My finances were unchanged but I have heard of other people losing those too. It seems to just have varying degrees of impact.

Being able to get the save back is at least something but come on Atari lets get this one fixed. It shouldn't really take long to get a patch released for this. It's a great game that does not deserve to be impacted so negatively by a beginners programming bug.

Image from Game.co.uk where the game can be purchased for PS3

Office 2010: The Movie

Just watched the video on YouTube, I’ve embedded it below, and it’s fantastic. The boys on Redmond really have gone all out for this one and it really shows. Great job on the advertising. Now lets hope the product is equally as good.

Microsoft Office 2010 Movie