Inverted Reality

One day of fame

Well, sort of. It's not hard in a small city like Perth, Western Australia.

Yesterday was the global release of the Apple iPad. I thought it might be an idea to go line up at the local store before it opens to ensure I get myself the latest hot tech gadget. So I did. On my way to work, I stopped past Nextbyte in Nedlands (an Apple reseller). I arrived at 7:15. The store was expected to open at 8AM.

There were three guys already standing at the front door waiting. One guy arrived at 5AM! The others sometime after. I was standing in line hoping the store would have enough iPad stock to hand out the model I wanted. The owner came out, yeah we have heaps of iPads (over 100).

Soon after, The West Australian (local newspaper) arrived, took photo's, asked questions, interviewed, etc. Soon after that (7:45), Channel 9 news arrived with camera in tow and took loads of footage. They filmed us waiting outside, walking in the store, buying our gear, leaving, etc, etc. The news made the front of The West's web site, and also www.watoday.com.au And that was my day of fame.

Later in the evening they had footage of us in the shop buying iPads on the news. Yay! Here's some snippits of the web sites I saved: [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

Time BOM

Check out this new App from Shift Jelly. Time BOM Yeah, it's an iPhone/iPod Touch app. It's simple, it just displays the time, date, and weather for your location on the display, in any orientation, with a couple of different themes. Here I have it sitting in my super awesome MiniDV tape case (iPhone holder)... yeah that's my sik idea by the way. Shift Jelly is an Australian app developer, support their stuff! This app was only $1.19!

New Apple iPad Blog

I've set up a new site. http://www.ipadicle.com/ (it rhymes with Radical, but is spelt completely different) I plan to add all iPad tips, tricks and news on the site, as well as hopefully gain some discussion. The idea is to make it a one-stop-shop for everything iPad. From Developers to regular users, hopefully it will become a useful resource!

Fanboy

I was reading some of Chris Pirillo's tweets.. he's a tech nerd that does a live video tech show, runs some sites, runs a convention, does all kinds of stuff.... recently he's been tweeting about being a 'fanboy' or should I say, NOT being a fanboy. It's got me thinking, am I fanboy? I'm a pretty die-hard Apple fan... I love Apple products! I stalk the rumor and official sites for updates, new products, gossip etc... I could be a fanboy. I've not always been an Apple fanboy. Sure my first experience with a computer was an Apple IIc which my mother bought me when I was nine years old. I must have been the only kid in my entire school who was handing in homework that was done in a word processor and printed on a dot matrix printer. HAH. When Apple announced they were moving to Intel processors, and I had my first experience with a Mac running OS X. I dropped my cash on the bench and forked out for two brand new 15" Macbook Pro's. Revision A, pre-ordered. That was an easy $9k.

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Blogging and iPad

So I'm looking to get myself an iPad, if it's a great device, I'll get two (one for the wife, she loves books, mags, etc). I was thinking about what it will be like to blog using an iPad. A little different I would imagine. I've blogged using my iPhone from time to time, but rarely, it's not so easy with the tiny keyboard and screen. OK for small posts, or processing comments, etc. The iPad has a stunning screen and should be adequate for blogging on the go. Still with the software/virtual keyboard, which may or may not prove odd to type lengthy posts on, but we will see. The beauty of the iPad is obviously the form factor, battery life, display, and the completely awesome multi-touch interface. These things are appealing to me as someone who primarily uses the internet to carry out my tasks. I even write my doc's using google docs. I do not have MS office installed (or any other office suite) Would the iPad replace my Macbook Pro? No. I use my Macbook Pro for things the iPad just can't do (yet). Like coding web pages using coda, editing images in pixelmator, editing HDV movies of the kids in iMovie, etc. Who's to say that some of these apps couldn't run on an iPad? I reckon coda could, if it was designed for iPad. I can see the iPad being a fantastic bloggers tool. A great way to read your favourite blogs, administer and write on your own blogs, heck even blog about the iPad! I'll leave you with a couple of cool iPad things I've come across lately: iPad Safari (web browser) walk through: Wired Magazine on iPad:

Latte sipping techno weenies

Are Apple Mac owners Latte sipping techno weenies? If so, what about Latte sipping, Vespa-riding Mac owners? What kind of image are Mac owners portraying, and what about coffee snobs? and what about Vespa riders? Mac owners like good coffee. Vespa riders like good coffee. Not all Mac owners and coffee drinkers ride Vespa's. Not all Vespa riders own Mac's. But I bet there are a whole bunch of people like me.

iDo

I'm not sure if you can get more "Apple Fanboy" than this.... This couple got hitched in an Apple Store. Apparently the Celebrant was dressed as Steve Jobs (turtle neck), and vows were read from an iPhone!

iPad is just iTunes enabler

or is it? Bringing us the iPad is one of the greatest moves Apple has made since the iPod, and here's why... Think about what the iPod offers us already. Music, movies, TV shows, games. All delivered easily and reliably through iTunes, Apple's digital delivery store. Sure you can load your own music on it, you can check your email on it, you can surf the web on it. Heck, with the iPhone you can even make phone calls. Don't forget about Apple's core purpose for these devices. Delivering digital content to you via their app store / iTunes. Making money. Now think about this... Just how profitable do you suppose iTunes / app store is for Apple? Lets not forget that the iPod single handedly resurrected Apple from a really deep hole. Of course it's profitable. It's also controlled, scaleable, reliable, and simple for the average Joe. Just what you'd expect from Apple. Have we forgotten that the core of all these Apple products is paid (and some free) digital delivery via app store and iTunes? Yeah there's free stuff, it keeps the punters happy, and pulls in the customers. Lets look at the iPad. It's much like an iPod Touch, only, larger and more powerful. When it was announced to be running an iPhone-style OS, I immediately wondered why.. but it's becoming more clear all the time. I bet Steve is sitting at his desk thinking to himself "If only all our devices ran an iphone-style OS". Why you ask? Some reasons:

• Apps for the OS are designed strictly to Apples rules and guidelines. They must be approved before they hit the app store. They even get age classifications. You couldn't possibly install a "bad app" that might wreak havoc on the device. It pretty much makes the device really use friendly and renders any support arrangement almost useless.

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Apple iPad announced

Well Apple have done it again. They've gone and made yet another product that we are all going to want, even if it doesn't perfectly meet our requirements. It's a new wanky gadget. It's the Apple iPad. It's a giant iPod Touch. Yay! http://www.apple.com/ipad/ Do I want one? I don't really know yet. I can see some uses. It has a 9.7" screen (as I predicted last week), and runs an iPhone'esque operating system.

Build an Apple-I

Yes that's right, build an Apple-I, the machine Steve Wozniak invented and first demonstrated at the Palo Alto Homebrew Computer Club in 1976! Check it out at computerworld