It’s March 2nd and any Apple fan will tell you that today the iPad2 will be announced. What they can’t tell you is what the latest gadget from the Apple development team will include. There have been rumours of what the second generation iPad will bring to the now over-crowded tablet computer Market since the first iPad was released last year, but until today nobody outside of the apple offices have known for sure.

While many Apple fan-boys will say Apple is cutting edge – leading the way in technology, it’s unlikely this next-gen iPad will bring any major surprises. 3D? No way, front and back interface… Doubt it. But what is for certain is whatever apple announce today, they will tell us it is revolutionary!

I’m writing this blog as the event happens. It’s now 18:20 in the uk and the first big surprise is that steve jobs, after all his health problems, is giving the presentation. It’s good to see. No apple presentation is the same without “The Jobs” at the helm!

There is no denying the iPad has been a massive success and Apple are hammering this message home. This “post-PC” device has caught the imagination of both consumer and business around the world and they are taking advantage of it.

So, here we go with the new features…

Dual core CPU – A new A5 chip. No surprise here. The iPad would have been left behind if it hadn’t included a dual core processor. With multitasking incorporated in iOS 4.2 the iPad began to lag. A much needed feature.

Video cameras – front and rear cameras. Again no surprise. With the development of FaceTime it was inevitable these would be included.

Gyroscope – As it’s included in the iPhone 4 it was expected in the iPad. Some new apps may take advantage of it in a tablet, but as yet nothing has rocked the world in the smaller devices for us to be able to say this will happen anytime soon.

The design – Thinner (8.8mm) and lighter (1.3 pounds) Aesthetically not that different though – apart from the cameras there are no great design differences. Obviously being thinner does make it look slightly more attractive, it’s now thinner than an iphone 4! and the iPad 2 is going to be available in White… From day one! Also Apple have pulled off a master stroke to keep the battery life to 10hours with these new changes.

The main new feature here though, is with the new case (smart covers) which uses magnets to hook onto the iPad. Pretty clever. This covers the iPad and even wakes it up when opened. It also has a micro-fibre cloth on the inside to clean the screen.

So – here’s two issues with the original iPad Apple have addressed. The weight. For reading books the first iPad was just too heavy. The smudges from greasy fingers! Not totally solved, but the new case may help.

Mirrored video output – this is a peripheral, but through a new cable we can now mirror the output onto a tv using a hdmi connection. At the moment I’m guessing this will only be activated in certain apps, like keynote (presentation software) or when playing videos or photo slideshows. I doubt this will mirror all activity on the iPad… Which would have been great!

IOS 4.3 – due march 11th, improvements have been made to safari and airplay in the new iOS. I’ve got an apple tv and do find airplay a tad clunky at the moment, which is unusual for apple, so this will be interesting. Also airplay only works on a few websites when browsing in safari so hopefully this has been addressed.

IMovie – a movie app for the iPad. With the integration of the cameras this made sense. It will allow you to simply put together and edit movies on the iPad. Again, with the introduction of the A5 dual core processor, this should run like a dream.

GarageBand – A music composing app that also includes instrument simulators such as guitar and keyboard. This will integrate with iMovie really well I should imagine.
The app looks really good and is available for just £4.99 the same as iMovie.
With how the iPad has been adopted by the music industry, especially with some fantastic dj apps, it’s a clever move by apple to make their own.

looks like that’s it unless they have something else clever at the end of the presentation.

The iPad 2 will hit the uk shelves on March 25th and it looks like it will be priced the same as the original.

I would say overall, as I guessed, there was no major surprises. Unfortunately the roomer-mill, ever since the first iPad, has been in overdrive and has probably increased peoples expectations. That said, it would have been good if apple had a few surprises up their sleeve. The biggest one tonight has been Steve Jobs delivering the presentation rather than the iPad 2 including something revolutionary.

No doubt we will therefore have to wait a couple of years for the 3D iPad. Maybe that will be the iPad 4. But rest assured when apple do announce it, they will make out they have invented 3D!

One thing Apple do emphasise at the end of their presentation is that this is a Post-PC device. They reinforce the fact that it is both the hardware and software that make the experience. Some will say this is a bit of a cop-out and it’s because there are no giant leaps forward with the iPad 2 in terms of technology. I would say there wasn’t any giant leaps forward in terms if technology with the first iPad, but it’s still one of the best devices I have ever used in terms of the experience when browsing online or utilising one of the thousands of apps. I would also say with the fact that Apple owns over 90% of this market (tablet) they know what they’re talking about.

I’ve just realised I’ve developed a new obsession.  It crept up like a sneaky stealth like burgler without me noticing and has started to take over my life.  It’s not eating pies – although I have had a fair few recently, I would have noticed the considerable weight gain.  It’s not buying new gadgets either – although it is closely related.  My obsession is connectivity.  Getting all my gadgets connected over my home network.  Why is this important?  That’s a very good question!

Looking back, I think it started when I bought my Philips stremium WAC7000 back in 2006.  I first of all bought the main centre station for the front room and a sub station forthe dining room  then later went on to buy another sub station for the main bedroom.  I toyed with the idea of one for the bathroom, but thought I was taking things to far.
I loved the fact I could store all of my music in one place and stream it to other rooms with no wires attached.  At the time it felt like pure magic and although in reality I was only human and could therefore only be in one place at once – it didn’t matter.  I would broadcast the music to all three sources and sit back smugly thinking how good that was.  Obviously I would be having several house parties any time soon and therefore this would be worth every penny.  It’s now 2011… still no house parties.

A few years may have gone by, but in that time I have had a few laptops and smartphones – all of which I have been battling to connect togther and with my streamium to see if I can share their lovely resources.  Varying success has been achieved.  I’ve certainly had my laptop playing tunes off my streamium and visa-versa and I’ve had the wii connecting to my laptop playing video and music.

But recently, in the last few weeks – the simmering need to connect my gadgets has gone into overdrive.  Why?
Because I’ve purchased two new gadgets.  A Seagate GoFlex Home 2TB hard-drive and a 2nd gen Apple TV.

These two items have brought together the following items.
Front room TV, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Streamium, wii and laptop.  Fully connected – I’m loving it!
Not only that, but the connection has manifested itself out of the house.  I can now log-in to my GoFlex from anywhere with an internet connection and access my media!  Bang!  That’s connected!

Being able to connect my streamium to my networked attached storage (NAS) has increased the 30GB capacity to 2TB!  I spent weeks stripping down a streamium so that I could install a new hard-drive.  It worked… but it wasn’t easy!

It’s also vastly increased the media that I have access to from my iPad and iPhone – Lovely!  Glad I only brought a 16GB iPhone and 32Gb iPad now.

Finally it has meant I can store mp4 videos on my NAS and stream these to my Apple TV for playing on the main TV in the house.

The only drawback is with the last peice of the connectivity jigsaw.

I have to have my laptop on for Apple TV to recognise the iTunes server on the NAS drive.  Damn!  This has meant the solution I have in my house is tainted.  Why should I boot up my laptop to play something on my hard-drive on my TV.

Well the answer is, I don’t have to put up with this.

I can jailbreak my Apple TV, install xbmc and use this to stream movies and video from my NAS.  Perfect!
Only, I don’t have a MAC running iOS and therefore have to wait for Firecore to release a windows version of Seas0nPass so I can do the necessary.

According to the Firecore blog this will only be a couple of weeks.

Or, I could buy a MAC.  After all.  That’s something else I can connect up!

It’s going to be one of the biggest tech fights we’ve experienced in a long, long time and the winner will be decided by us, the consumer.

It will also change the way the majority of us consume news, music, films, local business info, games and search the web. The fact is, our tv is about to become the central hub of our lives (if it isn’t already), by opening up a portal to the world wide web.

Apple TV and Google TV are the reasons why consumers will be using their TV instead of their laptops to update their status’s one minute then stream a movie the next. But the question is, which one is the best choice for the UK public?

First things first, if you want to get into surfing’n’streaming via your TV now then there is only one option and that’s Apple TV. Apple have stolen the lead in terms of this technology through releasing their Apple TV globally first and here in the UK, although it’s not appeared in many stores yet, you can order one online and it will be with you inside two weeks.
Google on the other hand have not officially released a UK launch date as yet, with the only indication of a launch at all coming from Logitech who is building the boxes for Google in the US. They have said we will see “developments” leading to its roll-out in the UK from next January.

So, if you want one of these in the UK now, it has to be Apple TV.

However, if you are prepared to wait, then which one should you spend your hard earned monies on?

With both offerings you are going to be able to stream HD films from Netflix at the same price of approx £3.50. You’ll also be able to watch everything that’s on YouTube and flick through your holiday snaps on Flickr.
Alongside this both have good music offerings with Apple granting access to iTunes while Google loads up Napster.
Both make use of your mobile phones as remote controls, with Google allowing Androids to control the device as well as share media content to the big screen. The same goes for Apple; the iPhone or iPad can be used in exactly the same way.

Alot is on offer… but what are the differences?

Apple TV… what’s the deal?
It’s Apple. I know that will annoy some people, but in my opinion Apple’s design oozes quality and this small shiny black box will look the part in any home.
Connects to the iPad. I know Google allows their Android phones to connect to Google TV but the iPad is a bit different. You are more likely to have a lot more media content on your iPad just begging to be streamed over to the TV.
iTunes. Apple TV give you access to the proven excellent storefront that is iTunes. This may also get even better soon with the introduction of Ping. Opening up social networking on your TV.
Bound to set up very easily OK, I’m plucking at straws but I bet my bottom doller that Apple TV will be the easiest thing to set up you will ever plug into your TV.

Google TV… What’s the beef?
Open Source – Just like the difference between Apple and Google with regards to smartphones. Google are opening their TV offering up to the community to encourage them to develop apps for their black box. This could open up a whole host of possibilities.
Web browser – Google have included a version of Chrome so you can surf the web from your TV. That’s a biggie. If you want to find a local plumber your TV may now have the answer.
Power House – Googles box is full of power and can offer full 1080p rather than Apples 720p. The Intel chipset used in the Google box will also lend itself to upgrades… or a little tampering with at least! No chance of that with the tiny Apple TV box.
Apps – I really don’t know why Apple TV doesn’t have apps… but it doesn’t. (Steve – a word: It’s what made your iPhone the best selling smartphone of all time!). Yet it is only Google TV that will offer up apps, with the operating system being an Android platform.

And Finally…

It will be very interesting to see which one wins. Googles device is clearly the more powerful and encompasses all media rather than just giving you access to iTunes and a few channels like YouTube and NetFlix.
Google TV has opened itself up to developers, fully specced its device to run 1080p and included a proven web browser (Chrome) running on a proven operating system (Android).

But for all this, who would bet against Apple? They have launched a £99 device first and is the only option here in the UK. It also looks gorgeous when compared to Google lump of a device. iTunes is the comfiest jumper you’ve ever worn and that’s your arena for your content. Finally you can also be certain of a marketing campaign that will push this device like mad in the next few months. This may just steal a lead that Google TV finds too hard to claw back.

I’ve been quite pleased with my purchase of an iPad, but when you spend your hard earned monies you want to be more than quite pleased. The reason I purchased an iPad was because I thought it was a revolutionary device, one that would bring a new dimension to surfing the web, enjoying multimedia and playing simple games.

But most of all I was looking forward to some apps from some highly skilled developers that would take advantage of the amazing apple UI that made the iPhone the best device of our time so far and the quality HD screen that displays bright vivid images beautifully.

Until now, I have been largely disappointed with the apps on offer, until now I have been struggling to find an app that delvers something new and noteworthy. Until now! So what app have I stumbled upon that has urged me to go as far as pick up my iPad and blog about it?
Answer: Flipboard.

Flipboard is a new take on the flip style flash interfaces many catalogue sites such as Next are offering. It allows you to add categorised content that is gathered from multiple sources to your contents page. So, you’re interested in technology? Add the TechCrunch feed, love food Add the smitten kitchen feed. The feeds are then presented in a flip style format, but you can also touch the article you want to read more about to see it in large format. This is presented beautifully with a slick zoom fade animation. If you want to see the full article on the web then a simple click on a web link takes you to the page. The clever part here is that it doesn’t just open up safari, it does this in it’s own browser so that when your finished you can go back easily to where you left off.

As well as adding content from multiple feeds, you can also add your Twitter and Facebook accounts. This again presents your Facebook and Twitter feeds in the same flip magazine style format. As far as Twitter is concerned, for me, this now makes it 100 times more interesting. The reason for this is the tweets from people you are following are pulled in as well as some of the content from links they are including in their tweet. This means you can read a snippet of the information on the URL they’re tweeting and see if you’re bothered enough to read the whole article.

The Facebook feed is also nicely done, allowing you to focus in on certain status updates or photo postings and add your own comments.

From the opening of Flipboard where you are presented in style with pics of the latest articles slowly zooming in and out, to then point you close the app after feasting on the all the content you’ve just flicked through. You know it’s an application you won’t be deleting any time soon.

I wouldn’t like to criticise anything about flipboard. You can see the time and effort that has been put in by the development team with every aspect of the app. I would like to see the option of adding more content boxes on the contents page, but understand this may have performance implications. The only other improvement I can think of is the ability to add urls of any rss feeds that are then pulled into the flipboard environment.

All in all though… What a Flippling good app! (sorry!)

As I sit here enjoying my pork pie sandwich and watching a line up of hopefulls contend to be the uk eurovision entry, I cast my mind over the days events and think about what I’ve spent my hard-earned cash on.

Well, I purchased a second controller for my new wii, resident evil game, two snack sized pork pies and a loaf of bread.

in the uk?

What I didn’t buy is a brand new 190mm(w) x 243mm(h) x 13.4mm(d), touch screen, 16gb, wi-fi enabled, 1ghz A4 processor, 9.7 inch LED-backlit screen and 10hrs battery life device.  What I didn’t buy was the new apple ipad.

A couple of weeks ago I was going through one of my “I love apple” 15mins and was bigging up the fact they were launching this amazing new device globally at the same time.  Unfortunatly, that hasn’t happend.

Those lucky people in the US have been able to order today though, so if we’re lucky Steve Jobs is logging how many of his fellow countrymen have pre-ordered and therefore will be able to judge the demand that will be present in the UK and rest of the world.  Then when the ipads launched over here, apple will be able to meet demand and keep all its loyal followers happy… yeah right.

Almost certainly apple will limit supply, fire out a few thousand press releases about how the ipad sold out within a couple of hours and then say they’re working flat out trying to meet demand.

So, when is the UK public going to get its hands on the ipad?  Late April.
Yep… Late April.

You could buy one through using bundlebox who register a US postbox for you and have said they won’t charge duty.  Not bad.  But also be careful.  I’ve noticed a lot of blogs recommending this route and I’ve no idea how geared up they are.

If you can wait until the end of April, personnaly I would.

After all you’re only missing out on a non-flash-complient, non-multi-tasking, non-camera-owning, big ipod touch… and a revolutionary, lifestyle-changing, user interface experience you won’t find anywhere else.

Damn you apple for this love hate relationship.  If only you were marmite! I could make up my mind so much easier!