iPad – Page 4 – ɔimoɈɒ

Yesterday was iPad Day UK

Christian echoes some of the sentiments I’ve seen regarding the large but not immense queues yesterday. As long as you remember that people have been pre-ordering them for three weeks in the UK and heaps of them received their iPads via courier on Thursday and Friday, it’s not that surprising that the queues were not … Continue reading “Yesterday was iPad Day UK”

Christian echoes some of the sentiments I’ve seen regarding the large but not immense queues yesterday.

As long as you remember that people have been pre-ordering them for three weeks in the UK and heaps of them received their iPads via courier on Thursday and Friday, it’s not that surprising that the queues were not immense and that in many cases the stores did not sell out.

On Wednesday, MacBuddha had asked me which iPad I really wanted (I already have a 16 GB WiFi model):

and based on figures from an exit poll, I’m not alone.

You can see where the sweet spots are for technology purchases. The 32GB 3G model is, as I surprised, the perfect blend of technology for most people and the model people were more likely to choose after that was the 64GB 3G model. All in all, 74% of buyers chose the 3G model which has to mean that in the UK we consider 3G to have the best options (especially considering the cheap cost of some of the data plans. Three are out in front with a £7.50 pm plan and for an additional £2.50 you can get an O2 plan which includes the Cloud and BTOpenzone WiFi access. )

All in all, I think the iPad launch was a success for Apple by any measure and it will be interesting to hear/see what is announced next week by Steve Jobs. I reckon around 3 million of the devices will have been sold by the time the WWDC keynote comes around in just over a week.

On another note, having iPad Day UK mere days after Towel Day seems entirely appropriate. Don’t Panic.

30 day Tariffs for iPad in UK

I don’t consider any of the daily or 7 day plans to be worth writing about so if you’re interested in them, go look them up. This is a comparison of the 30 day plans available from the 4 UK carriers who have announced support for the iPad 3G. Click on the Corporate Logos to … Continue reading “30 day Tariffs for iPad in UK”

Click on the Corporate Logos to be taken to their respective pages.

Cost £	Data included	Notes
7.50	1 GB
10	1 GB	and Cloud, BTOpenZone
10	1 GB
15	10 GB
15	3 GB	and Cloud, BTOpenZone
15	3 GB	and BTOpenZone
15	3 GB
25	10 GB	and BTOpenZone
25	5 GB

So how do you choose which to buy?

The table above is sorted on Increasing Cost, Decreasing Data, Decreasing ‘additional’ benefits. You should be able to quickly discern which are the best plans.

If you want to keep your costs low, then look at the tariffs from Three. They’re certainly the cheapest and you get heaps of data inclusive.

If coverage matters then you should probably look at Orange as they have the widest coverage in the UK.

If you want fast access and tend to be around urban areas, then having ready access to BTOpenzone when you need it (and the Cloud I suppose), would mean O2 is a good option.

If you plan to travel with your iPad and can’t get a local SIM, Vodafone’s roaming rates are a fraction of the costs of other networks.

Mirror’s Edge for iPad: Spiritual Successor of Saboteur!

For the last few days since Apple opened up the iPad AppStore internationally, I’ve been playing Mirror’s Edge for iPad. Mirror’s Edge was a 2007 First Person ‘Runner’ (as opposed to shooter) which made a bit of a splash and was bundled with the PS3 for a while (which means it can be found very … Continue reading “Mirror’s Edge for iPad: Spiritual Successor of Saboteur!”

For the last few days since Apple opened up the iPad AppStore internationally, I’ve been playing Mirror’s Edge for iPad.

Mirror’s Edge was a 2007 First Person ‘Runner’ (as opposed to shooter) which made a bit of a splash and was bundled with the PS3 for a while (which means it can be found very cheaply in most second-user Game Stores).

Personally I found the game relied on the PS3 gamepad too much which I find difficult to use so I never got past the demo before switching it off. On the other hand, I’ve been finding Mirror’s Edge for iPad to be extremely compelling but I think this might be cause it’s a bit more linear, the controls make a lot more sense (as well as being simpler) and I think it reminds me of some other games, like Saboteur! for instance. Released in 1985 by Durell, developed by Clive Townsend, it was extremely compelling though the video may seem old and outdated by our modern standards.

The aim of the game was to fight your way through a 2D maze and retrieve a floppy disk. How totally and utterly 1985! Looking at Mirror’s Edge for iPad, it’s not hard to see how this game could be revived and made extremely compelling. The same can be said for the Tomb Raider franchise, hint hint!

What makes Mirror’s Edge beautiful? There’s the lovely screen, the great perspective, the easily learned controls but there’s also a non-violent element as well. The character, Faith, defeats enemies by slide-tackling or jump-kicking them (as well as a nifty disarm) but there’s no gunplay. The story is not strong and poorly presented by a crawling text banner when an audio or video commentary would have been so much more appropriate but I find the replay value to be high and the Speed Run (where you attempt levels trying to get the fastest times possible) adds another level of competition. Speaking of competition, the single-iPad two-player version is good fun as well – but it’s screaming out for a WiFi co-op or competitive version.

So if anyone wants to remake Saboteur! (or the sequel which involved stealing punched tape), then I’d suggest you look at Mirror’s Edge for iPad before starting. If you’re overcome by nostalgia and want to re-play Saboteur!, then you can grab it from World of Spectrum.

Update: Data Roaming still a rip off.

Paul O’Flaherty writes: I was looking up the charges for WiFi access in Dublin Airport and realized that it was a complete rip-off at 3 euro ($3.78) for 30 minutes. … It turns out that 3 will give me 2 Gigs of data for 10 euro, which is very agreeable to me considering the airport … Continue reading “Update: Data Roaming still a rip off.”

Paul O’Flaherty writes:

I was looking up the charges for WiFi access in Dublin Airport and realized that it was a complete rip-off at 3 euro ($3.78) for 30 minutes.
…
It turns out that 3 will give me 2 Gigs of data for 10 euro, which is very agreeable to me considering the airport rates, but, if I decide to turn in on in the U.S. it will cost me 5 euro for 1 (one) MB of data.
…
Yes, I know there is a connection fee involved with roaming and all the carriers want to get their cut, but seriously – 1000 times more expensive?

With an upcoming week long trip to the US and a two week cruise around Europe, I tried the “recommended solution” for data roamers, MaxRoam, and found them to be €3.90 per megabyte for a “Global SIM” and €5.90 per megabyte for an “iPad SIM”.

For the european leg of my travels, I had thought a Vodafone SIM will do the trick as they charged £4.99 for 25 MB in Europe. But as is typical with carriers, they’ve fucked it up by increasing the charge by a factor of 4.

You can use up to 25MB a day (midnight to midnight UK time) for just £4.99 in Europe – and for £14.99 elsewhere in the world. 25MB is approximately 500 mobile friendly web pages.

From 15th June our new data roaming pricing will come into effect:
Europe: £1 per MB for the first 5MB and £5 for every subsequent 5MB
Rest of the world: £3 per MB for the first 5MB and £15 for every subsequent 5MB

It used to be that a fiver would buy me 25 MB, but now it’s £6 for 10 MB (and costs £21 for 25MB)

For Fuck Sake. In this case, new != better. That’s a pain in the butt but it’s still better than any other carrier. With O2, that £6 would buy me 1 MB of data in the US.

Adobe’s Nack: the iPad is the computer I’ve been waiting for my whole life

From CNET “I love making great Mac software, and after eight years product-managing Photoshop, I’ve been asked to help lead the development of new Adobe applications, written from scratch for tablet computers. In many ways, the iPad is the computer I’ve been waiting for my whole life,” Adobe’s John Nack said in a blog post … Continue reading “Adobe’s Nack: the iPad is the computer I’ve been waiting for my whole life”

From CNET

“I love making great Mac software, and after eight years product-managing Photoshop, I’ve been asked to help lead the development of new Adobe applications, written from scratch for tablet computers. In many ways, the iPad is the computer I’ve been waiting for my whole life,” Adobe’s John Nack said in a blog post Thursday. “I want to build the most amazing iPad imaging apps the world has ever seen.”

Bravo, John, bravo.

And most of us who grew up with Adobe want to see some of the most amazing imaging apps the world has ever seen. What we don’t want to see is Lee whining. Or giant passive-aggressive adverts in the newspapers. Or bluster about how open Flash is. Open up the code to Photoshop and then we’ll talk.

But I am sincere – make some amazing apps. Make them shine with touch, make them sing with a bluetooth keyboard, make them boot in a second, with support for instant save and multiple levels of undo. Make Adobe the only logical choice for imaging.

And while you’re at it, resurrect Frame and get it on iPad.

Nack also speculated that raising his concerns could hurt Adobe’s iPad effort. “Can you imagine a world where, say, constructively criticizing Microsoft could destroy your ability to ship a Windows application? It’s almost unthinkable, and yet that’s the position in which Apple’s App Store puts us,” Nack said.

Don’t go there, John, that way lies whining.

This was the case for Microsoft partners back in the day. This is part of the evidence for the toothless antitrust case because this sort of shit matters when a company has a near total monopoly. Apple doesn’t have a monopoly.

iPad Data Plans in the Wild

Orange has revealed their data plans ahead of the UK release of the iPad: £15 for 3GB of data? Are you kidding? to be honest, I’ve used just over 6 GB on my iPhone in two and a half years so it’s not that I think I’d use 3GB easily in a month, I just … Continue reading “iPad Data Plans in the Wild”

Orange has revealed their data plans ahead of the UK release of the iPad:

£15 for 3GB of data? Are you kidding? to be honest, I’ve used just over 6 GB on my iPhone in two and a half years so it’s not that I think I’d use 3GB easily in a month, I just wish there was some more flexibility. That said, if I was visiting the UK for a week, the weekly tariff might suit me very well rather than paying for roaming but there are other options which are better out there.

So, Orange, colour me unimpressed.

Frankly I’m more interested to see what Three will provide considering they currently offer a SIM only plan which offers unlimited internet for a fiver a month. Sure, it’s a normal SIM and not a micro-SIM, but that can be fixed.

When you consider that Three offer the best Internet deals and Vodafone offer the best European roaming deals, the future looks a little brighter for iPad users.

On The Box

The television and film industry has always been a bit of mystery to me. It seems to me that people have ideas for programmes, write them up and convince someone in a studio to do a pilot. Then they take that pilot and shop it around some distributors and if they get a bite then that convinces the studio to make the rest of the production. Or something. (And yes, I’d love to hear something from people who make television or films to clarify the process)

To be honest, I find it hard to engage 100% with television or movies. I am one of the Tri-Screen Viewers. When watching television, I am also faced by my MacBook Pro/iPad/iPhone. The experience of viewing is enhanced by the presence of these additional screens. Whether I’m hitting IMDB or Wikipedia, the addition of this information source really improves the experience of viewing television. Adding Twitter into the mix creates an interactive medium which changes the whole viewing experience. This has proven to me that television is not a dead medium and there is certainly some traction by integrating social media and relevant tangents to increase viewership.

According to new forecasts from ABI Research, the estimated 19% of flat panel TVs shipping with Ethernet in 2010 will grow to 46% in 2013 – Digitimes

But tonight I’m sitting in our new family room and there’s some nonsense on the box. On Twitter and on some of the other television channels, the world is discussing the current UK election. The polling stations closed half an hour ago and the count has begun.

What I want is a channel-based app, not a company-based app. I want the BBC1 app to contain information on what is on right now. This means when I’m watching BBC1, I launch the app and it not only gives me the option to watch the content live, a la TVCatchup, embedded in the page but also hooks me into Twitter feeds via pre-determined hashtags and provides links to relevant web sites which render ‘in-page’. Tonight it would be displaying the cool election infographics live and while I’m watching Doctor Who, it would show me links to the Tardis Wiki and embed information culled from the continuity about the Weeping Angels or River Song. And the same for BBC2 when I’m watching Wonders of the Solar System or Brian Cox’ new series, Universal (coming not soon enough!), displaying information about Mercury or Pluto or Alpha Centauri. It will allow me to tweet from within the app and it’ll tag my tweets appropriately.

Channel 4 report that web site hits start on Embarrassing Illnesses before the programme ends. There is appetite for this sort of programming and yes, the iPad (and other tablets to come) are the perfect vehicle for this sort of entertainment. And building this sort of thing in HTML5 will mean everyone can view it.

This is the 360° play. It’s not just about building the web site. It’s not just about putting together an iPhone app in support of the programme, it’s about taking advantage of the programming, making the best of the schedule. You know what is on BBC1, you know when shows will be broadcast, you have legions of people who will help you generate the content. You know they’ll be watching, you know they’ll be online and you can help make them watch the programming when it is broadcast rather than time-shifting it by adding in the most compelling content: the social context.

Repeat for all the channels. Give me what I want. I will pay for this.

Adobe is trying to bring in the Feds

From Bloomberg.com U.S. antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe’s products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity … Continue reading “Adobe is trying to bring in the Feds”

From Bloomberg.com

U.S. antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe’s products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the case.

The complaint triggered discussions between the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission over which agency should review the allegations of anticompetitive behavior, the people said. Neither agency has decided whether it would open an investigation, one person said.

The problem in Adobe’s plea is that Adobe’s products can certainly be used to develop for iPhone and iPad. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, even Premiere, can be used to create compelling content for iPhone and iPads. Acrobat’s PDF format has long been a first class citizen on the iPhone platform and comes into it’s own on the iPad.

Just not Flash.

And for those of us who choose to use Click2Flash, we can see why. As Adobe have failed to deliver a good experience of Flash on Mac OS X and has no plans to enable Flash on iPhone (note their project was for a cross-compiler, not something that would make Flash on iPhone just work).

This is all about control. It’s Apple’s platform, not Adobe’s. Adobe wants to be everywhere and they’ve asked the Feds to force Apple’s hand here.

Keyboards

Fraser Speirs is back in the iPhone app game which is good but the most poignant writing comes from Brian Hayashi on page 2 of the comments. Brian writes: the iPad’s manufacturing process has completely re-engineered 20 key notebook computer sub-assemblies, such as the keyboard, that have resisted further savings from economies of scale so … Continue reading “Keyboards”

Fraser Speirs is back in the iPhone app game which is good but the most poignant writing comes from Brian Hayashi on page 2 of the comments.

Brian writes:

the iPad’s manufacturing process has completely re-engineered 20 key notebook computer sub-assemblies, such as the keyboard, that have resisted further savings from economies of scale so long as we were stuck in the tired old notebook/netbook paradigm.

The keyboard has always been an intricate piece of subassembly (learning from nearly a decade of running an Apple Service Provider and being in IT for nearly a decade before that). It collects the detritus and filth of the human condition, be that skin flakes, hairs, food crumbs, the grime from your fingers. It is a portal to the delicate, moisture-sensitive insides of the computer as evidenced by dozens of hapless but repentant computer owners who have spilled their hot, sticky beverages on the keys and are seeking forgiveness (and repairs). It’s a bed of strange little plastic pebbles that a child or pet can manage to remove irrevocably and leave the owner again repentant but also strangely angry at the repairer

So, frankly, I’m glad to see it disappearing.

Looking at the average PC laptop – there are a myriad of little catches and switches, ports and holes which are just totally redundant for the vast majority of the home computing market.

I’m really glad to see the keyboard going.

Office2 HD testing

I’ve been playing with Office2 this week. It’s a Word/Excel editor for iPad which not only allows the opening of attachments from email but can also connect to MobileMe, Google Docs and other WebDAV instances. I’m also using the Universal version of WordPress on iPad to compose this. Related posts: Rickshaw. Golly, Oh Gosh, Oh … Continue reading “Office2 HD testing”

I’m also using the Universal version of WordPress on iPad to compose this.