I can see why there’s been some dissapointment about the iPad; especially after all the hype. Rumours have circled the web in a misty torrent of completely unprecedented speculation for months, only to be crushed by what initially seemed as a rather overhyped, mediocre product.

No multitasking! No 3G except the most expensive model! What a silly name! It’s just a glorified iPhone!

I believe the iPad’s simplicity is it’s beauty. It’s not overloaded with fancy features and crap you’ll probably never use. The lack of multitasking at least means it will run smoothly and quickly; there’s no doubting that the experience of using it will be delightful.

Brendan Dawes mentioned earlier that as opposed to focusing on what it is and does; think instead about the context in which it will be used. It’s not a home PC or a heavy duty laptop; it’s a lightweight tool, toy even, to lounge around with. Notice on Steve’s presentation that he relaxed in a comfy chair to play with it – THAT’S the environment you’re going to use it in, relaxing at home on the couch or in bed, just picking it up and throwing on some music, reading a book or browsing the web in style.

It’s a ‘coffee table media consuming device’ (coined!). I can’t really think of anything else on the market quite like it.

On a final note, whatever doubts we may have about the device itself will surely begin to dissappear as we start seeing some of the apps built for it. That is, after all, the secret behind the iPhone’s success.

Of course, I’ve yet to actually play with it, but god damn I can’t wait.

“I find a lot of students beginning to resent the computer as too powerful to use without thinking. They now describe it the same way; they say, “Before I start to do anything, I make notes and sketches and draw because otherwise the computer dominates everything I do”.”

Although I believe he’s more likely referring to graphic design as opposed to web interfaces, it’s an important point to consider. Personally I never open Photoshop before scrawling away, pencil on paper. It’s a faster medium on which to lay my ideas and visions as they appear in my mind, without the distractions of colour, typography, design trends and the concern of “How it will work – Flash, AJAX? Scroll right, fade in? Pop-up or slide down?”. It’s just my ideas, the pencil and the paper.

I’ve never been able to draw in the slightest. It’s a flaw I’ve always been ashamed of. I tell people I’m a designer but can barely draw a cartoon dog. Thus I never used to touch physical drawing tools – I’d hop straight into Fireworks or Photoshop and practically will the design into existence. It took me quite a while, too long really, to realise the ignorant error of this approach. As powerful as computer-based design tools are, they do indeed seem to impose a certain level of conformity, structure and precision that’s simply not natural

On another tangent – does computer design software make us lazy? I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve pursued designs in my head in Photoshop, but stumbled upon a particular brush set, font or shape that ‘does the job’, and as opposed to pursuing the vision in mind, I’ve simply settled for ‘nice’, but second best, because it was handed to me on a plate by the click of a mouse.

As per usual I may sound like I’m exaggerating the issue, but it’s certainly something worth considering. Do you feel that your designs, whether they be website layouts, application interfaces, banners and posters, branding etc. are in anyway influenced not just by experience, design understanding, trends and client briefs;  but by the software you use?

It is of course July 11th – iPhone 2nd Generation launch day. This being Manchester, England – it’s miserable and wet and there are no iPhone parties or crowds of hungry gadget lovers camping and clamoring outside the Apple Store. However, there is a buzz in the office – but what do you expect when you cram a bunch of tech geeks into one room?

Suprisingly, as of 9.15am, the only member of the team to be the proud new owner of an iPhone is Nick; hence the reason half the staff are crowded around his desk, jaws dropped in awe. The reason the rest of the team aren’t sporting glossy black Apple bags on their desks is either because they’re currently tied down with other contracts or just couldn’t be bothered to queue outside in the dreary Northern rain.

My reason, as sorry as it may be, is that I’m skint through buying an iMac last week. Does that sound spoilt?

So as I ring round my friends to try and borrow £100, all those who have the pleasure of being the first owners of the new iPhone… enjoy it!

…and darn you.

There was previous logic to my decision. At the time, the PS3 was more expensive, generally less popular and had less ‘really cool’ games out. Add that to the lack of backwards compatibility and the annoying downgrade last year to a 40GB HDD… it just wasn’t on the cards. It was like a Mustang – you want to love them, but you could just never see yourself owning one.

This was still quite a hard move for me, having been a die-hard Playstation fan since day 1, (or more like 1996… I’m still only young.) I have owned 2 Playstations – the first one, and the second one. They have never broke, they have never failed me. However I may have destroyed several controllers by hurling them at the wall in anger (Stuntman comes to mine!)

Alas no! I had made the traitorous move over to Microsoft. Because don’t forget, you can’t own both… you just can’t. You can own an Xbox and a Wii, or a PS3 and a Wii, but never a PS3 and an Xbox or all 3. You just can’t. And I had opted for Xbox, believeing it to be the wise move.

But oh how the times have changed. 6 months down the line, I own every Xbox game I want, and trust me that’s not many. In the forseeable future there’s absolutely sweet-fck-all to be released (oh no sorry – Gears of War 2 woohoo… not!) and I’m already on my second console. That’s right, within 6 months of purchase, I got the red ring of death. How typically Microsoft.

Let’s have a quick look at what Sony has to offer:

• A new reduced price that competes with Xbox
• Just generally a sleeker, smoother looking machine
• METAL GEAR!
• Gran Tourismo HD (and no matter what you say, PGR and Forza still don’t come anywhere close…)
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Tekken 6 (at some point)
• METAL GEAR… what, did I already say that?
• Free internet (as opposed to Xbox Live)
• Update to
• Built-in wireless (saving £50 on the Xbox plugin)
• PS3 Home (the trophy thing)
• oh yeah, nearly forgot… METAL GEAR!

I think I’ve made my point.

Does anybody want an Xbox Elite? Good condition, one owner, 8 months MOT and a range of accessories…

And how much better life seems now I have this glossy, huge display before my eyes. There are no poor people, no war or famine, no natural disasters, no awkward family gatherings, no rain, no ridiculous taxes… the world is well… all because I spent my first proper months wage on this awesome feat of modern computer engineering.

Alright, it’s not that good. But it is rather darn cool. No longer will I have to perform virus checks every other day, get the latest automatic updates every week, defragment my hard drive every month and reformat every 6… seriously, that was what I had to do to ensure my PC ran efficiently. And somehow it has still managed to become overthrown with viruses and spyware – now lay solemnly at the end of my desk, shoved aside by the enormity and demanding presence of my new Mac.

To all pre-existing Mac users out there, I finally understand why. And to all those who’ve yet to convert… what a treat you’re in for!

So, I will, like everyone else, conclude the events of last week because surely you don’t already know what’s been happening.

1 – Firefox 3 was released. Really? To drop the sarcasm, I’m really pleased about the new release. I was fond of the download day idea, whereupon Firefox was downloaded 8.3 million times in 24 hours. I think this is great for 3 reasons:

•  It’s nice that events like this can bring the web community together and that top companies are coming up with fun ideas like this as a form of marketing.
• It’s a fantastic sign that more people are becoming aware of Firefox and that it’s presence as a dominant web browser is truly being acknowledged.
• It’s a great piece of kit. Firefox always is. The more people that own it the better, and it will only make life for me as a web designer easier.

As for the browser itself, I’ve had the opportunity to play around with it over the weekend and I can’t complain. Little tweaks such as more informative drop-down information in the nav bar, the option to save your password after you’ve logged into a website (which is great because I always make typos) and the continuing support of excellent add-ons and web development tools make such a difference. And I’m sure all the apparent new security features hidden away will prove themselves over time.

If you haven’t download Firefox 3 yet… why not? DO IT NOW!

2- Microsoft and Yahoo… err… still haven’t really done anything. This situation is boring now. When I first covered the subject briefly a couple of months ago I don’t know if I was excited or couldn’t care less (probably the latter) but by this point, I really just couldn’t care less.

I’m not an SEO, I’m a web designer. However SEO plays a role in my work and therefore it’s important that I acknowledge the importance of  both Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s search presence on the net… but why can’t everyone just use Google? They’re so good I could just marry them (that would be one hell of an unusual ceremony!). Google never seems to get into fights or tease the other children in the playground – it’s the smart, popular kid who always get’s the girls, who everyone’s envious of but also wants to be friends with.

Enough with the metaphor, I digress. For those who don’t actually know what the latest is with Microhoo – I can’t be bothered going into details so feel free to take a quick detour to Fox Business News.

3 – The New iPhone. I’m totally getting one, it’s almost embarrasing that I don’t own one already. The new iPhone will come equiped with 3G capability (that’s the real selling point) along with GPS functionality integrated into Google maps which personally I thought was something seriously missing from the first version of the iPhone. Bugs have been fixed and software upgrades should been better performance and there’s an even better support for apps (which will be fun). And apparantly it’s also a teeny bit smaller (don’t quote me on that).

The fact of the matter is, this is probably the most obvious news ever. If you’re here on my small, little-known blog and reading about this for the first time then something is seriously wrong.

The new iPhone will be retailing over in the UK for £100 for the 8GB and £150 for the 16GB, and like the old model will be available from the Apple store, Carphone Warehouse and 02. As far as I know the contract prices are remaining pretty much the same.

Come 11th July (the release date) I will be £100 poorer but a hell of a lot happier. If you want to shed a tear over how beautiful the iPhone is – pop along to the Apple website and see for yourself.

OK folks, that will just about do for this morning. I’ve got to get working now so I’ll get some more stuff up later this week.

Bye for now!

 ”Hack Your Kindle: 100+ Tips, Resources, and Tutorials to Get More Out of the Amazon
Kindle”:

http://www.collegedegrees.com/blog/2008/06/17/hack-your-kindle-100-tips-resources-and-tutorials-to-get-more-out-of-the-amazon-kindle/

If you check out the link it’s actually quite interesting just how much you can do. I’m so tempted to get hold of one, but only after a new iPhone, and HD TV, and Macbook Pro, and Playstation 3…

I wish I’d hurry up and win the lottery!

Which, if you haven’t guessed by the picture and my introduction – is exactly what Amazon’s new Kindle is. This is interesting for so many reasons – but a big one for me is that it comes from Amazon? I know Amazon are rolling in the Benjamin Franklins and unless my memory deceives me – their origins are planted in online book sales, but I just never expected Amazon of all companies to come up with a great little piece of tech like this.

Personally I had my money on Amazon all the way. It just seemed another stage in the iPod evolution. First they had black and white music, then colour music, then colour music, videos and pictures and I’ve even lost track now. But I was sure it was no more than a few years before Apple developed an palm-sized iPod that could handle full books and magazines.

But it seems Amazon have made first place

The Kindle is a hand-held device for reading primarily books, but also uses an advanced wifi technology called EVDO to access hundreds of blogs, top newspapers and magazines and can also manage your personal Word documents. Even though full internet browsing access isn’t granted – users have the ability to download samples of books and magazines before the proceed to download the full versions, free access to wikipedia.org and also includes email technology. And it’s not 72dpi before you moan! Although I don’t actually know what resolution it displays at, the official Amazon site states that the Kindle sports a “Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper” – cool!

It all sounds great. But a nasty side effect of living in this rapidly evolving technological revolution is that nothing seems to amaze us any more. The Kindle hasn’t even been released in the UK yet, but I’m already awaiting it’s follow-up. If Amazon take a leaf out of Apple’s book, or unless Apple get there first – the next logical step would be to include full blown internet access, or installations of DTP software like Word, or the ability to watch videos or listen to music…. or make phone calls!

The Kindle sounds great, in the US at the moment it currently retails for $399 from Amazon.com. I’m unsure as to an official UK date. But there are 2 aspects of this addition to the hand-held screen tools market that possibly concern me.

Firstly – what’s next? We’re gradually getting closer to the ultimate hand-held device. The iPhone is an extremely powerful device (and so cool), the Kindle is useful but let’s face it, from the screenshots on Amazon’s site, it’s not exactly hip and dandy. But what about when we reach the stage of a device that can play music, videos, books and print media, browse the internet, use Messenger, email, phone people, video call, remote access your Sky box, play games etc. Imagine combining the iPhone, Kindle, Sony PSP and palm-pilots (or other generic small laptop device). Then what’s next? I guess that’s something for the sneaky developers to come up with. It won’t be long till we have the silicon chips inside our heads!

Secondly – what does this mean for physical books? I have a computer, an iPod, an Xbox and a laptop. I can’t remember the last time I bought a CD, DVD or PC game, and I very rarely buy a newspaper anymore. You can download everything or access it online for (in most cases) free, or at very affordable prices. Which links in with my ‘What Can’t you do on the Internet article’. You may laugh it off, but this little device could potentially cripple the book market.

Well enough doom and gloom, and waffling for that matter. If you’ve managed to reach this point in such a long-winded article, I congratulate you. Will I buy an Amazon Kindle when they’re release over here? Probably not. Because although it would save me money, space, portability and the discomfort of holding a big book for hours – I don’t want to loose that. I’m no book worm but I like to read, and I like buying a new book – the smell of it’s paper and the neat, unturned pages. I stare at a computer screen for at least 8 hours a day, sometimes you need a break.

But you never know, let’s see when Version 2 comes out.