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On the eve of the UK launch of iPad 2 I find myself thinking about the year I have just spent with the first generation. What a ride it was!
If you take a quick look back at the news archive you will find an excited post from me about how I had received the iPad the night before the official launch day. It’s fair to say I was more than a little smug about it [Understatement of the year].
So after a year of using the device what do I think? How has it fitted into my home and work life? The answer is quite well – but not without some adaption. Let me explain. I am a long term Mac user and as such I am never far away from my beloved MacBook Pro. I am also an avid iPhone user and here in lies the problem.
I have long got used to only breaking out the MacBook Pro for heavy lifting tasks or to Sync my iPhone (and various iPods). For most of my casual browsing, music, films and gaming I use the iPhone. The convenience of the iPhone makes it my go to gadget and 9 times out of 10 it is always in my pocket or in easy reach. Generally I have to make a special trip to retrieve my iPad from the where it’s stored. It’s not that I am lazy but there is nothing I can do with iPad that I can not do with my iPhone! The iPhone 4 is also substantially faster! I also have the wifi only iPad which limits it’s use on the move – an issue not faced by my iPhone!
I’m painting a bad picture here but that’s not what I want this post to be about. After I got over the initial excitement of iPad ownership I noticed a definite drop in its usage. But the iPad benefited from one of the oldest things in the universe…
…Time.
Time has been great for the iPad. Over the last year my iPad usage has increased greatly. Here’s why.
Apps
When first released there were a number of iPad apps but nothing like the number of apps there were for the iPhone. Over the year the number of really useful apps have appeared for the iPad. I bought Pages at launch and have used that extensively for taking notes or writing copy. Gusto means I make simple code based changes to the websites I design and administrate. Twitterific (in my opinion) is the best Twitter client available and I prefer it to the official Twitter app. Also nods to Flipboard, Friendly and Garage Band.
Software
With the launch of iOS4.2 the iPad really came into it’s own and 4.3 was the icing on the cake. Being able to stream to the Apple TV or from other iOS devices was a revelation. Multi-tasking made switching apps a joy (especially as I was rocking a dev account with those now widely publicised additional gestures). I could print from it (thanks to the AirPrint Hack for my MacBook Pro). These two software upgrades made the iPad more work friendly and a hell of lot more practical for me.
Work and “the cloud”
My office finally granted me access to the wifi network and now I run the design team job tracking system from the iPad. I can search for information during meetings. I configured my calendars using Google Calendars so my many Macs, my iPhone and iPad calendars are always in sync without physically having to plug in the device. At work my iPad is now my go to device (even more than my iPhone!)
The Wrap Up
I had no illusions when I first purchased the iPad that, for me, it was a luxury device. At the time I didn’t need it – I just wanted it. However over the last year I have to come rely on my iPad, especially at work where I don’t know how I would cope in meetings without it (and not just to sneakily check the geek sheets for the latest news when the meetings are dull!)
The iPad is a joy to use. I still think if you have an iPhone and a laptop then an iPad may be overkill. However the always on convenience and screen size means (if I can be bothered to get up and get it) I will now always favour the iPad over the MacBook Pro and my iPhone for emails, casual tasks and light lifting.
So what about iPad2? Well although my heart says “gimme gimme gimme”, I’m letting my head (and wallet) rule this decision – it’s not for me. The design (although similar) is not as cool as the original. Although slower than my iPhone I really don’t need the extra speed. Cameras should have been included in the first version – but there inclusion in the latest version doesn’t make me want to switch up. Good work Jonny but I’m waiting to see what you do with iPad3. My game plan of buying one, skipping one (as I did with the 3G to 3GS change) has worked out pretty well for me. I would have been gutted if I was tied into a two year contract on the 3GS having seen the iPhone 4!
So as I slip from the position of “early adopter cool” into the “rocking last years model” category, I do so with joy not regret. The iPad2 will be a huge success and definitely outsell the original – but I know I was part of the “first act”. I know that I experienced the joy of first opening that box on a wholly new device, pressing the home button and being blow away by the sheer scale, brightness and beauty of the big black slab screen. I wont make the mistake I did with the first iPhone and sell it buy the next – a decision I still regret now! I wont be making the same mistake with the first gen iPad.
The original iPad is a work of art and for that reason I’m respecting a classic and skipping the new kid on the block… well, for now any way.
Posted from my (Original) iPad
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I remember rave the first time round. I was 10 years old when I was hearing tales of acid house parties on the news and seeing people with smiley face badges. It was around this time I got my first “Ghetto Blaster”. Fate played a hand in what happened next. The radio was tuned to a local pirate station playing acid house music. I was hooked. Every night I would scour the dial for pirate stations playing acid. Over the years acid became rave, rave spawned hardcore, jungle, D&B and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now some 20 years of listening to pirate radio, Dreamscapes, World Dance’s, clubs, pubs and my own forays in to the world of DJing I’ve just downloaded Danny Byrd’s latest album “Rave Digger”, and for the record its awesome!
Danny has managed a rare thing. He’s taken a form of music some 22 years old and injected a new energy into it whilst keeping it true to the style it represents. The production is flawless whilst maintaining the chaotic anything goes combination that made rave music so exciting to listen to. Samples overlaying samples, vocals, piano, raster chants, screams, squeaks and bangs, it’s all here in spades. (Spades – Rave Digger – get it?)
The album is a mixture of the D&B styling we have come to expect from Danny with tracks so rave fueled they wouldn’t sound out of place on an old Prodigy album!
Stand out songs on the album for me are “Hot Fuzz (Featuring Tomahawk)” and “Planet Earth”, both of which are so rooted in the 90’s you can’t help but want to reach for the lasers! If you’ve listened to the Prodigy’s Warriors Dance or Take Me to the Hospital you already know the score.
The only disappointing track on the album is Danny’s version of “Sweet Harmony”. Don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad track. The classic piano rift and vocal sampled from Liquids original track still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. However unlike “Ill Behaviour” which takes influences from “Wildchilds Renegade Master” and twist them into something new, Sweet Harmony leaves you feeling like you’ve heard it all before. It’s not a bad version just a missed opportunity but one that shows respect for not messing with a classic!
There are two skits intercut into the album which offer a both interesting insight and amusing take on the whole clamp down on illegal parties.
This album is a must for any D&B head, hardcore or old skool raver. The best £5.99 you’ll ever spend on iTunes. So dust off your whistles, break out the white gloves, decorators masks, boiler suits, get your hands in the air, give someone a love and stay sorted - Safe a f*ck! ☺
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Just wanted to weigh in on this. There are lots of posts about the "grip of death" however in my experience its totally dependent on where you are?
At work my phone has full signal over GPRS (out in the sticks so no 3G). No matter how I grip or hold the phone i can't get the bars to drop, not even by one bar.
At home my signal is a very weak and I can get it to drop off by applying "the grip".
I have tried in varying locations and with varying signal strengths. Sometimes the phone will lose bars and others it wont.
Maybe I am just lucky in the South East of England but for the majority of the time the phone works great - unless I am in a poor signal area.
I'm not down playing or denying the issue - just speculating that it could be more to do with the area you live in and how many bars the phone says you have compared to how many it actually gets rather than a fault with the actual antenna.
I'll post again after the forthcoming update but for now I'll just say I am more than happy with my iPhone 4 - o2 just needs to improve their network coverage! Buy with confidence!
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As hysteria over the so called iPhone 4 "death grip" grows and new reports of proximity sensor issues come in there's a lot of rumors circulating about a soon to be released update.
iOS 4.0.1 is being touted as the silver bullet that is going to solve all the woes of the world. Maybe it will maybe it won't. This blog post ask one simple question. Does it matter?
Whenever Apple decides to update the operating system it will come in for flack from both sides of the fence. If it's released this week the name sayers will say it's proof that Apple are acknowledging that there is a problem with the new iPhone. If it takes a few weeks critics and end users will cry that it took Apple too long to respond. No win!
My own thoughts. If you buy version 1 of anything you take a risk. The secrecy surrounding any new Apple product clearly limits their ability to perform real world testing. Apple have done an awesome job but no amount of testing can prepare the product for several million users using the real products in waves on real networks in real countries. Yes this is version 4 of the software but the .0 on this makes a real difference. This is version 1 of iPhone 4. The many revisions that follow will fix things, break others and split the camps in equal measures. It's all part of the ride.
As a dedicated Apple fan I wish Apple well with the next update and look forward to future updates and revisions. They are going to get flack what ever they do but it won't stop them from making some of the best products on the market.
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