My first week with the iPad 2

So here it is, finally, I have the chance to comment on the iPad 2. I've had this little beauty for a week now and I feel that is sufficient time to highlight the positives (of which there are many) and negatives (of which there are a few) of Apple's latest offering.
The first thing you notice upon unboxing the iPad 2 is how unfathomably thin it is. At 8.8mm it is 33% thinner than the first generation iPad and is even thinner than the iPhone 4!!
It is also noticeably lighter and easier to hold than the previous iPad, with a flat back and tapered edges it is far more palm friendly.
After switching it on and conducting the obligatory and familiar synching process with iTunes it was time to hit the app store- first stop: Garage Band. This music creation app is the ideal showcase for several other features of the new iPad. Firstly it runs and looks like a dream, this is testament to Apple's claims of a 2X speed boost and a 9X graphical boost. Secondly, it sounds great thanks to improvements and a volume boost to the integrated speaker. And lastly, the instruments 'know' how hard you press a 'piano key' or strum a 'guitar string' thanks to the newly included three-axis gyroscope.
It is remarkable how different the experience of using an iPad is to that of using an iPhone or iPod touch, this is strange as they all run the same OS. It is the sheer screen size (or 'real estate' as the tech blogs like to call it) that makes the difference. Apps look great, games play better, the Internet looks and feels better, email is easier. It is honestly a pleasure to use the iPad on a regular basis and I don't see it losing either the joy or wow factor anytime soon. It is also the ideal way to watch streaming movies in bed or on the sofa and 99% of my surfing is now on the iPad 2.
It would be remiss of me to talk about the iPad 2 and not mention the few negatives that it retains. It still does not support Flash. For those Apple enthusiasts out there you will know this is not liable to change anytime soon...ever. Next, the cameras. For such a premium feeling bit of kit it is a shame that Apple chose to include such pitiful cameras. The rear facing camera is 0.7 megapixels and the front is 0.3, great if you're from 1993, crap if you're from 2011. In all fairness, I won't be using my iPad as a camera very often, that's what my iPhone 4 is for, but it would have been nice to get something a little better.
The addition of these cameras allows some extra features, firstly, FaceTime- a video calling app that works quite nicely and requires no set up whatsoever. iMovie is another app that can be downloaded from the AppStore and edit footage taken on the iPad's video camera (it is apparently in 720p HD but I'm not sure if I buy that).
So, all in all, the iPad 2 is a truly beautiful, desirable, portable and user friendly tablet that is slowly starting to replace my desktop mac as far as usage is concerned. Sure, it has it's issues but these are so greatly outweighed by its charm and usability that you quickly forget them.
This year is likely to be the year of the tablet, I personally think that Apple has done enough to keep ahead of the competitors......only time will tell....but they're off to a good start.

iPad 2... I can hardly wait!

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been weak and for that I repent but, my word, am I excited about getting my iPad 2 tomorrow. An in depth review and rundown of specs when the nice DHL man hands it over tomorrow. For now, share with me in my excitement.

My top five all-time best gadgets.

A quick post tonight as things have been somewhat hectic recently. I figured I could get some feedback on this one so feel fee to chip in with your own top 5's.
Right then my top five, mmmm, let me see. Do I go with what I know to be quality gadge or the tech that provided me with the most enjoyment? It's a tough call.
Ok, in reverse order...

5. Sega Dreamcast - much maligned but damn was it entertaining. "Mitsurugi wins!!"

4. Bowers and Wilkins P5 headphones - trouser-soilingly good audio quality coupled with achingly cool retro design.

3. Apple iMac G5 (20" aluminium late 2007) - iconic design that still begs the question: "Where did they put the computer?"

2. Nintendo 64 - Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye were implicit to my downfall.

1. Apple iphone - whether its my first 3G or my current iphone 4 there is a true elegance and simplicity to the hardware. When you pair this with (in my opinion) the finest mobile operating system available then you have a recipe for success. For any iphone owners out there, I think you'll agree, there's nothing quite like unboxing a shiny new Apple iphone. It's a thing of wonderment. It must be akin to what my wife experiences when she buys a new pair of shoes. Alright, let the mockery begin.....

Nintendo Wii: Genius or Swindle?

Ok, so shortly after Microsoft and Sony announce their respective powerhouse consoles in the middle of last decade Nintendo turn up and announce their new box of tricks. I'd love to have been in on that pitch:

Designer - "Ok boss, got this great concept for our next console",
Satoru Iwata "Right, before you start, is it gonna be HD like the Xbox or PS3?"
D - "Not so much"
SI - "Ok, not to worry, what about films, you know, DVDs and the like, can it play them?"
D - "Er, no boss"
SI - "Riiight, 5.1 surround?"
D - "Yep, oh, hold on, no that's not happening now either...... but we have a revolutionary interface!!"
SI - "Now you're talkin' son, gimme the lowdown"
D - "Well we thought to ourselves what would the average (overweight, sunlight deprived, pot-smoking) hardcore gamer want from a console and we think we've nailed it"
SI - "I can barely contain my curiosity! Spill it!"
D - "One word boss.......exercise!"
SI - "Genius! Got a name for it?"
D - "We were thinking of something that brings to mind beauty and elegance with athletic undertones that in no way sounds like the contents of your granddad's colostomy bag. We came up with......Wii"

I mean seriously, what were they thinking? How the hell the Wii became the phenomenon it was is beyond me. Yes, I understand it was aimed at a different audience, and yes, I get the idea that it was being marketed as a lifestyle item as opposed to a full-on, media devouring console but I still find it hard to fathom how Nintendo then managed to shift millions of balance boards as well. Essentially what they were doing was selling fat people a glorified set of scales for £70. Now that's marketing savvy!
So I guess there's the rub, the Wii is a gimmick, most people have one just gathering dust along with the balance board under the TV, no doubt alongside a Sony PSP and minidisk player. On the other hand this little box (along with the DS) was responsible for reviving the fortunes of a once dwindling company and at one stage was surpassing its two rivals combined sales. Perhaps the reason for the Wii's success is the novelty factor, the fact that this sort of experience had not been available to gamers before. It will be interesting to see what Nintendo do next, are they going to bet big on 3D? Will the Wiimote survive as the primary method of control or will they choose a method more akin to the Kinect? Will Nintendo finally embrace HD? Who knows?
Wii will have to wait and see....

Product review: Apple TV (2nd Generation)

Well, here we are then, my first product review and what better place to start than by reviewing a product that looks like a hockey puck. In my opinion this is possibly the blandest looking product that Apple have produced in recent years but to be honest this may work to the little fella's advantage, more on this later.

To start with it's probably worth mentioning what this slab of Apple-branded chicanery actually does. It is aimed at competing with the myriad number of media streamers on the market at the moment such as the Boxee, Roku and Google TV boxes and as such it allows you to stream your music, movies, photos and podcasts from a computer (Mac or PC) connected on the same network. Big deal!! I hear you yell incessantly in my lug hole. Indeed, it's fair to say that this product offers no more functionality than the boxes mentioned above however what it does do it does very well indeed. Movies are streamed wirelessly with no issues whatsoever in HD at 720p (shame it's not 1080p but can you really tell the difference? Really?? I'm not sure I believe you. You're a damn dirty liar!!!) with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Music delivery is very straightforward and both movies and music display album/cover art. Photos are very slickly displayed with a choice of slideshow transitions including one called 'Origami' that gives the impression that your photos are being folded.

In addition to all of this on-tap goodness comes the ability to stream the latest films, HD YouTube clips, movie trailers and podcasts directly from the internet along with literally hundreds of digital radio stations.

A new feature called Airplay allows any visitor with a mobile Apple device (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch) to stream their music, movies and photos to your Apple TV- very slick!

One lovely feature is the option to forego using the unfathomably svelte remote supplied and instead control the entire interface using an app on your iPhone should you be lucky enough to have one (coughs, I have, coughs).

So what's the drawback? See, I knew you were going to ask that and there are a few. They aren't deal-breakers but certainly are minor annoyances. I personally love iTunes but I know that many people would rather use their buttocks as brakepads than use iTunes to store and play their media, secondly it is essential that the networked computer where you store your media is not only switched on but running iTunes if you wish to stream anything. Then there's the lack of 1080p I mentioned earlier, the limited ability to personalise and expand what the box can do and of course there's those looks. Anyone who saw the previous generation Apple TV would tell you it was a real looker, the Scarlett Johannsen of the media streaming world you might say, whereas you might say that this the Heather Trott. In a clear attempt to lower production costs Apple have fashioned this little bugger out of fairly dull black plastic. Now then, here's the controversial bit, I personally prefer this form factor, it's discreet (a quarter of the size of the previous generation) and practically disappears on a crowded TV stand such as mine. It has a certain understated cool to it, as if it's saying "Yeah, I'm tiny and butt ugly, what of it bub?".

The last thing I must mention is the price. Apple certainly have managed to cut corners here and have delivered a truly excellent little box for the (quite frankly) obscenely low cost of £101- I managed to pick one up with an educational discount for £90!!

You'll be glad to know the end of this review is fast approaching, you ungrateful bloodsuckers, but before I go, to summarise, I strongly believe that if you are happy to exist within a iTunes-centric environment then you will get a kick out of this little puck of loveliness.

Do I qualify as a gadget geek?

The title of gadget geek is one that I have had bestowed upon me upon many an occasion. Frequently it is intended as an affectionate term of endearment. However, increasingly I find the moniker being yelled at me as detritus and stale food is hurled in my direction from windows as I amble down the street only to eventually retreat into a cocoon of fear and self-loathing. It is with this abuse in mind that I question my status as a gadget geek. Am I, in some sick, masochistic way, inflicting this hardship on myself? Do I truly deserve this lofty title? Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you must decide.
Below is a list of some of the gadge that I have been lucky enough to own (or part own - I claim siblings' co-ownership rights on a few items) over the years:

Amstrad CPC 464,
Sega Game Gear,
Sega Dreamcast,
Nintendo 64,
Nintendo Gamecube,
Nintendo DS,
Xbox,
Xbox 360 premium,
Sony PSP (1st gen),
Sony PS3 Slim (250gb),
Apple iBook G4,
Apple iMac (late 2007),
Apple iPod Nano (1st gen),
Apple Airport Express,
Apple TV (2nd gen),
Apple iPhone 3G,
Apple iPhone 4.

I'm sure there are a number of items that I have forgotten and there are many that I have excluded that fall into categories such as TV, audio equipment, mobile phones and so on that I will no doubt comment upon in future posts. For now, however, my fate rests with you, the public. Based on the above information do I truly deserve my self-inflicted ridicule or am I merely a pretender to the throne? You decide.....

Where it all began...

So, where to begin a blog about gadgets and tech? Well, I suppose I should go back to my first true gadget. Fair readers, I give you the venerable Amstrad CPC 464.

This computing behemoth was introduced in 1984 and possessed a mind-boggling 64kb of RAM and had a built in internal cassette deck. The cassette deck would allow you to load games or word-processing programmes (the latter being the reason I used to convince my parents that it was an essential purchase) and whilst loading (a process that could take up to 20 minutes) would produce a noise akin to a cat suffering a seizure. 

Customers were offered a choice of green screen or full colour monitor, the latter package costing the princely sum of £359. Being the tech savvy wünderkind that I was I knew that future-proofing would be vital and opted for the colour monitor. Unfortunately, my prodigious foresight failed to alert me to the release of the CPC 6128 the following year. The advent of this newer model brought with it a monumental 128kb of RAM coupled with loading times of a matter of seconds. And yet, in spite of being faced with what I now realise were the first pangs of prepubescent tech-envy I loved my 464 like any normal child might love a puppy or petit-filous. I still remember the feverish anticipation of loading up titles like:

Crazy Cars

Ghostbusters 2

Batman

Naturally, it wasn't long before I turned my hand to programming and, armed with a book I borrowed from Altrincham Library, I set to work. Several days later, I emerged from my bedroom, victorious, ego swollen by power at the sheer scale of my crowning achievement. The hours of toil and sweat saw me realise my dream of making white pixels tumble down the screen and settle like snow.

Unsurprisingly, this is where my programming career ended as I decided that my skills would be wasted.

It is probably worth mentioning that I never once word-processed a single document on the Amstrad, a fact for which I will forever carry a burden of guilt and shame. It is however fair to say that this machine provided literally years of enjoyment for both myself and my brother (and our friends), as we would while away the hours developing repetitive strain injuries trying to achieve a new record on 'Daley Thompsons Decathalon' or try to get that little bit further on 'Ikari Warriors'. In fact this little machine saw us both through until the appearance of the Nintendo 64 many years later, but that is another story.......