I also thought it would make a good blog post, capturing the step’s I did and my findings. Before you read on, a health warning. You can break your iOS device so follow the step’s carefully. You will also have to wait a few days after each iOS version is released before you can upgrade. With those out-of-the-way, let’s jailbreak.

Instead of repeating the jailbreak steps, visit iClarified.com. Click on the Jailbreak link at the top of the page and then select your device and platform. You will then be taken through the steps to jailbreak your iOS device. I used Pwnage tool and it worked without issue. It takes about 20-25 mins to jailbreak your device but then iTunes will restore your app’s and media which can take 20-40 mins depending on your device. After an hour I had a jailbroken iPhone, the only evidence being a Cydia icon in among my application icons.

Firstly I reset the root password on the iPhone to minimise the risk of anyone logging into my phone at a later date. I then connected to the iPhone from the Mac using Transmit (if you don’t have Trasmit then the free app Cyberduck will work just as well) and was able to browse the iPhone like any traditional computing device. Now what?

Well there’s a whole new world of app’s and customisation that now awaits. The first app I installed was SBSettings. This is a free app and once installed via Cydia it gives you a quick list of settings and toggles by swiping the iPhone toolbar. You can quickly enable and disable bluetooth, wifi etc far more quickly than opening settings and drilling into a variety of menu’s. You also get stats like current IP address which is a quick way of finding your IP and accessing your iPhone from your Mac or PC. You can also add widgets to SBSettings like a calculator and skin it so you can make it look as nice (or ugly) as you want. Speaking of skins, Winterboard is another app that is a must install. This will allow you to install themes and hacks to totally change the look and feel of iOS.

In this screen the icons are smaller and there are five columns of icons rather than four. The theme being used is Matte Nano HD but if you look around there are hundreds to choose from. Like all theme’s some theme, like the one linked above, are great and others – not so much. I actually found the theming to be a bit of a pain as once you change the look and feel, especially reducing the size of icons, you are then on a constant hunt to change the individual app icons that the theme doesn’t cover. However Shakeel has done almost everything on his phone (screenshots are from his phone) and it looks amazing.

What’s not apparent from the screenshot are the live notifications. The weather icon is live rather than a graphic and will show current temperature and weather. In the title bar you get have notifications for e-mail, messages etc which makes for a much more informative iOS environment. You can even change the search screen and make it not only informative but like an Android or Windows phone.

Jailbreaking also allows for app’s that are currently prohibited in the App store – emulators for example. There’s a great SNES emulator and SNES games play well as long as you put up with the virtual controller that you need to use. You can also enable tethering so that other devices can take advantage of your mobile data without having to enable it with your mobile phone provider.

The seedier side of jailbreaking is piracy. There are many repositories setup purely to allow you to download cracked versions of iOS applications. What I find most incredible is that for many of the pirated app’s, users are saving only £0.59. Are people really that tight that this is the only way to get app’s for their mobile devices?

I’d been running my iPhone jailbroken for a few days when I started to become frustrated with it. There were slight pauses during operation that I didn’t get using vanilla iOS. Worse, I suffered a couple of major crashes that required a reboot of the device. The crashes weren’t during the install of app’s – the last one was when taking a photo and it took around 15 minutes before the device switched back on. Not good. One thing I value is stability and that last crash was a crash too far. That night I restored the phone back to vanilla iOS and restored from a backup. I missed the visual flair and the handy little hacks I’d installed but it was noticeably snappier and I’ve not had a crash since.

One interesting point on crashes. Apple released Keynote, Numbers and Pages for iPhones this week. Shakeel on his jailbroken iPhone has seen a number of crashes. I’ve had none. Gut feel is that the extra utilities running in the background coupled with running a heavy app is pushing the iPhone in ways it wasn’t designed to be.

So if you are bored with the look of iOS, or dream of carrying a SNES in your pocket then jailbreaking is for you. Good luck! I’ll stick with vanilla iOS and look forward to what iOS 5 brings our way.

Playback
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Shownotes
0:48 – iPad 2 UK Launch
- This time round, the basic, Wi-Fi only model with 16GB of storage will retail for £399, down from £429.
- The 32GB version will cost £479, the 64GB £559. Chuck in 3G connectivity and GPS, and you’ll pay an extra £100, as before.
- Dollar has weakened against pound in last 12 months though so Apple make more from this price point in the UK
- Massive queues in the UK – 600 at Glasgow store yesterday
- Very busy today – still selling iPad’s, only the red and orange cover out of stock
6:30 – Samsungs Revised Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9
- reworked Galaxy Tab rocking a slightly larger touchscreen over the iPad 2, higher resolution, a 1GHz dual core processor and lighter 595g weight compared with the 601g of the iPad 2 Wi-Fi. But the most important number of all is its price. Unlike Samsung’s overpriced predecessor, the 16 GB Wi-Fi Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will cost exactly the same as the iPad 2 Wi-Fi 16 GB: $499.
- this thinner, redesigned model reportedly felt much better in all respects, it’s still missing one key number, and that is the hoard of software Apple offers for the iPad 2, more than 60,000 apps specifically created for the platform. But that impressive number also includes the fart apps, too. Even so, Apple has a huge head start.
- Meanwhile, Samsung introduced another contender it calls the Galaxy Tab 8.9, a little more than an inch smaller than its big brother. It includes the same 1GHz dual-core processor, and looks just about the same as the 10.1-inch model, as you’ll see in the gallery below.
- Both of Samsung’s new tabs beat the iPad 2 easily in the camera spec department, with a 3-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel up front, both shooting 1080p video. In what could be the clincher for many users, the Samsung tablets boast another capability lacking in the iPad 2: Adobe Flash playback.
- Want to try one? You’ll have to wait until June 8 for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi, priced at $499 for the 16 GB version and $599 for 32 gigs. Samsung was not as specific with the release date for the Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wi-Fi, which it said would be available in “early summer” at $469 for 16 GB and $569 for 32 gigs.
- Best bit – photo of the iPad 2 next to the new thinner 10.1 shows the ipad was thinner – couldn’t be explained at the demo
11:17 – RIM Playbook
- RIM playbook launches April 19th in US – a few months later in UK
- It will ship with 2 app players that will run Android and Blackberry java applications
- Sounds…confusing
- Only supports Android 2.4 OS app’s i.e. app’s built for the phone, not tablet
13:05 – Amazon launches their Android Appstore
- Launched Tuesday 22nd for USA customers
- Android only
- Can Test Drive most app’s from your web browser. Click Test Drive and Amazon will launch an emmulated instance of Android on its EC2 cloud, which you’ll be able to control directly from your browser (it uses Flash).
- Free app of the day – Every day, Amazon will be choosing a premium application and making it free to consumers, giving people a reason to check in on the store on a frequent basis. This is made possible by the fact that Amazon, not developers, sets the pricing of each application.
- Amazon retains full control over how it wants to price your application. The setup is a bit confusing: upon submitting your application, you can set a ‘List Price’, which is the price you’d normally sell it at. Amazon will use a variety of market factors to determine what price it wants to use, and you get a 70% cut of the proceeds of each sale (which is the industry standard). In the event that Amazon steeply discounts your application, or offers it for free, you’re guaranteed to get 20% of the List Price.
- Angry Birds Rio is first free app
- Amazon will be undercutting Google’s own prices
- 8 easy steps to install the Amazon Appstore – http://carpeaqua.com/2011/03/22/8-easy-steps/
- Apple sues Amazon over use of the name App Store
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/22/apple_sues_amazon_over_app_store_name/
21:52 – Lendle
- had their Amazon API access revoked.
- Back up and running now.
- In business – need to be in control of key data.
- http://lendle.me/amazon-api-revocation/
- (Lendle is unfortnately US only for now.)
28:07 – iOS 4.3 Battery Issues
- Ian sees sub par battery performance on iPhone 4
- Others have too
- Disabled ping to see if that helps as it’s been tipped as an issue in various forums
- iOS 4.3.1 is now out – rumoured to address battery issues as well as publicised bugs
30:56 – UK 4G Auction Next Year
- New ‘4G’ network auction next year announced by Ofcom
- 4G refers to the next generation of mobile networks, which promise faster speeds, in particular for data.
- The sale, which Ofcom hopes will happen early next year, will involve two blocks of spectrum which should fulfil two purposes – making mobile internet coverage both wider and faster.
- The first block, the higher frequency 2.6gGHz band, should make all those smartphone users who are trying to watch video or play games online just a bit happier. It’s suited to providing large amounts of capacity over a compact area, so should help ease the congestion on city centre networks.
- The second block, the 800MHz band, is currently used for analogue television and becomes available next year once the digital switchover is complete. It is suitable for bringing mobile data services over wide areas, so it could mean that people in rural areas will find mobile broadband a better option than the fixed line variety.
- 3G auction raised billions, and this is 80% more spectrum – expectation is around £4 billion though
- UK falling behind – Yes, if we’re comparing the UK with Germany, the USA and Sweden, which have already started to roll out 4G networks. Ofcom admits that things haven’t moved quite as rapidly here as it might have hoped, but says it’s full speed ahead now. But even if everything goes to plan, consumers won’t see any 4G services before 2013.
34:43 – Wife says no, Apple says yes
- [Apple's] focus this week has been to troubleshoot all the iPad 2s that customers are returning to the stores. One iPad came back with a post it note on it that said “Wife said no.” It was escalated as something funny, and two of the VPs got wind of it. They sent the guy an iPad 2 with a note on it that said “Apple said yes.”

Picks
Ian
Sky News iPad App
- Very ambitious app from Sky
- Free at the moment, will remain free for Sky customers but paid for everyone else
- Heavily focused on video which is very good quality and quick to stream
- Can browse a timeline of todays events
- Can also swipe for more detail – lose video but still here it – articles, photo’s, charts, graphics are then displayed
- Very impressed – excellent app
Henry
Wunderlist
- cross platform list app a la RTM.
- Andriod, iOS.
- Recent update has got rid of a few bugs.
- Email list items.
- Free (made with Titanium- javascript)

Playback
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Shownotes
1:39 – Google Tweaking Search Algorithm
- in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.
- We can’t make a major improvement without affecting rankings for many sites. It has to be that some sites will go up and some will go down. Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.
- Doesn’t use Personal Blocklist chrome extension I picked last week
- If it reduces the content farms and spam sites it will be a welcome update
4:37 – GMail Outage
- Thousands lose all their e-mail
- Affected 0.02% of users but GMail has a LOT of users
- a storage software update that introduced the unexpected bug, which caused 0.02% of Gmail users to temporarily lose access to their email. When we discovered the problem, we immediately stopped the deployment of the new software and reverted to the old version.
- Google had to go to backup tapes to get the e-mail back
- Lesson – backup your data, even if it is on the cloud
- Have another way if accessing your mail – IMAP, forward mail onto another provider – dual access
6:18 – Google Uses Kill Switch on Android devices
- 58 malicious apps downloaded to 260,000 Android smartphones
- late Saturday night, Google remotely turned on its kill switch, which is able to remove those errant applications from the phones.
- The kill switch is actually software that’s downloaded onto an Android smartphone and installed automatically, removing the apps in question with no user action required
9:46 – Ofcom challenging broadband speeds
- Data released by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, shows that the average broadband speed is still less than half of the average advertised speed.
- The report, published on Wednesday, says that Britons get an average broadband speed of 6.2 megabits per second (Mbps) – less than half the average advertised speed of 13.8Mb.
- Ofcom is pushing for a change in the way internet providers, including BT, Sky and O2, advertise “up to” broadband speeds, which most customers are unable to receive.
- The only ISP delivering close to the maximum speed advertised, according to Ofcom, was Virgin Media, with the advantage of a relatively new cable network in many urban areas.
- The typical broadband speed received by customers was much closer to the advertised speed with fibre-optic cable packages, such as the those delivered by Virgin Media and BT’s Infinity package. However, only 22% of Britons have fibre-optic connections, with 77% of the population using copper-based DSL phone lines.
13:07 – Harper Collins introduces Library re-buy fee
- After 26 checkouts from libraries of an e-book, Harper Collins is forcing libraries to rebuy the e-book
- Their rational – physical books wear out and have to be rebought so that should apply to e-books as well…even though they don’t wear out or cost money to repair
- Oklahoma’s Pioneer Library system posted a video showing that for 5 random books that haven’t required a repair or replacement they would be forced to re-buy the e-book 12 times to cover the amount of loans
- Old media strikes again
18:56 – Ford Sync coming to UK in 2012
- Sync finally coming to UK next year
- Ford sync is Fords in car entertainment system that takes advantage of your smart phone
- Hands free calling (Neuance voice recognition)
- Audible text messages
- Playback music, podcasts etc
- Traffic, maps etc
20:48 – IE6 countdown
- IE6 is still prevalent around the world especially in large companies
- MS have refused to target IE6 and actively help to kill it…until now
- Friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 6. And neither should acquaintances. Educate others about moving off of Internet Explorer 6
22:56 – Macbook Pro Updates
- Sandy Bridge, AMD Graphics and Thunderbolt
- Same design, lots of drive options
- Fast – outperforming last years Mac Pros
- Thunderbolt
- http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/intel-thunderbolt-a-closer-look/
- Thunderbolt’s a familiar-looking port, a brand-new chip, and a cord, which allows devices to pipe two data streams simultaneously — in both directions — over a single cable at up to 10 gigabits per second to start, primarily using PCI Express x4 for data and DisplayPort for video
- Will charge and daisy chain
- Lacie and Western Digital on board – Lacie drive later this summer
- 4 ½ gb – less than 15 seconds to copy file over Thunderbolt
- Playing 4 1080p streams at the one time
- Not an Apple exclusive but they have a headstart
27:47 – OS X Lion Preview
- Newest version of OS X, Lion will debut this summer but Apple on Feb 24th released a developer preview
- Released via App Store – sign of things to come?
- New details released – Auto Save, Versions, Resume, Mail version 5 (with a new threading feature called “Conversations”), AirDrop, and Lion Server (which itself has its own features).
- This is bringing the iOS features back to the mac – looking a good update
- http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/28/mac-os-x-lion-hands-on-preview/
- What happened to NDA?
35:08 – iPad 2
- Steve Jobs presents – a big FU to National Enquirer
- We’ve been working on this project for a while, and I just didn’t want to miss this
- Thinner, faster, camera’s, same battery life, same price, white or black
- A5 chip – dual core – Performance twice as fast, graphics 9 times as fast
- Front and read camera’s – Touch not iPhone equivalent
- HDMI dongle – 1080p output, all apps, mirroring – very nice
- Enlarged speaker grille
- 33% thinner – thinner than iPhone 4, and a bit lighter
- Smart cover
- Multiple covers
- Plastic or leather
- attach to the iPad with a self-aligning magnetic hinge and can also be folded into a triangle and used as a stand
- they’ll automatically wake or put your iPad to sleep when you open or close the cover, and they even pack a microfiber lining that cleans your screen each time you flip it open
- iMovie and Garageband for iPad – both $4.99
- iMovie – precision editor, multitrack audio recording, new themes, Airplay support
- Garageband – touch instruments, guitar amps and effects, 8-track recording/mixing, 250 loops, compatible with Mac version
- March 11th US, March 25th UK
- £100 off current gen iPad – there goes the eBay prices
- First video’s – really fast now compared to iPad 1
- iOS 4.3 out March 11th
- Faster javascript engine
- iTunes Home Sharing – play content from desktop iTunes over wifi
- Airplay – Apps now support video
- Pick rotation lock or mute for side switch
- Personal hotspot
- Facetime and Photobooth
- Steve Jobs – This is worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough. It’s tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it’s the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC. More intuitive.
- Post pc products…that need a pc to work
58:27 – Xoom UK Pricing
- £500, out April 9th – Pc World – may have to take a trip in to test it
- £600 for 3G version form carphone version – available now, shipping 1st week April!?
1:00:30 – Galaxy Tab Rethink
- We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate,” Lee Don-joo, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile division, told Yonhap News Agency. “Apple made it very thin.”
- pricing is cause for concern when Samsung releases a larger screen model.
“The 10-inch (tablet) was to be priced higher than the 7-inch (tablet) but we will have to think that over,” said Lee.
1:01:44 – Microsoft Tablet Strategy
- Windows 8 will be the platform
- Testing end of this year
- Release mid to end 2012
- 18 months to go

Picks
Ian
Damn You Auto Correct
- Very funny examples of auto correct letting it’s users down
Full Text RSS Feed
- A very handy tool for converting headline only or restricted feeds to full fat
- I do wish people would use full feeds, but this is great for when they don’t
Tiny Wings
- My current most played game on the iPhone
- Lovely graphics, simple gameplay mechanism but very addictive

• Airplay API – devlopers can now utilise API instead of the few Apple app’s that feature AirPlay support
• Personal Hotspot – Launching with the Verizon iphone but coming soon to an iPhone near you turn your iPhone into a wifi hotspot, supporting up to five devices for 30 minutes tops unless there’s a power supply near you as well. Big question – will your telco support it and if so how much?
• Choice. Honest. You too will be able to specify what your iPad’s hardware button can do. Prior to 4.2 it was an much loved by many orientation lock. 4.2 swapped it to a mute button and hid the orientation lock in with the multi tasking/playback controls. Many hated this and 4.3 allows the user to choose which of these two options are controlled via the hardware button. I am amazed – just not like Apple.
• New gestures which look very handy. *groan* Four and five finger gestures, specifically pinch to return to the home screen and swipe to move between app’s. This is the biggest change for me and I’m surprised we’re seeing this in an OS point update rather than with iOS 5 or new hardware. Many are saying that this is the end of the home button but I can’t see it myself. The home button is important for one handed operation and a few other system related features which I don’t think will be replaced by gestures. The few saying this is really Boy Genius Report. The same people that have predicted Blu-Ray on the Mac. Video embed below shows the gestures in action. Nice.

Of course, I say all iOS users will be enjoying these features but this release drops support for iPhone 3G users and iPod Touch 2nd Gen. Performance of the hardware just not up to the latest features or Apple applying chinese burns to users to encourage hardware upgrades? Despite that negative, this update has some welcome new features. I just hope they are still featured when the final release is made available.

The site is simple to use – visit, click on a screenshot and watch the video. Customisation is limited in that you can change the background although in future you can tweak the layout to support lists or a full screen grid. All video’s selected are in HD too. This was an instant bookmark for me, not only on my desktop, but on the iPad and iPhone as all video’s work on iOS devices too. Awesome.

InterfaceLIFT

InterfaceLIFT has offered great wallpapers for years so it’s no surprise that they have stepped up and built a category specifically for iPad. Already offering more than 250 walls there’s a great variety on offer.

iPad Walls

A new site, iPad Walls offer a large number of perfectly sized walls that are split into a number of categories.

iPad Wallpapers That Don’t Suck

This site is probably my favourite of the three as it pulls together the best of the walls out there on a great tumblr site.

So there you have it – three sites with more than enough walls to suit everyone’s tastes.

The magazine that got the most attention prior to iPad launch was Wired. They had partnered with Adobe and developed a Adobe Air based magazine format that could be exported and ran on the iPad. Apple’s developer rule changes in April that banned cross-compilers from being used to create app’s meant that a rethink on that approach had to be done. Wired still made the iPad launch and there’s no doubting it’s an impressive app but is it the future of publishing?

When the iPad app store opened this was my first download. It was also one of the longest – just one issue of Wired is over 500mb in size. Wow. That helped me make the jump from an iPad of 32GB to 64GB. I’ll cover more of why the app is so large later on. The app launches quickly and takes you straight to the cover page of Wired. One of the main advantages of the digital edition is the addition of audio, video, photo’s and other interactive elements. Take the cover – How Pixar Works which is an article on Toy Story 3. The bottom left of the cover has a little black button which once pressed launches a clip from Toy Story 3 – very nice. Not obvious at first but the story headings on the right hand side of the cover jump to the article in the magazine. The jump is quick and the page renders smoothly. Great – I want to jump back. Grrrrr – no back button. If Wired learn one thing, please add a back button as it really hampers navigation.

Click once in the centre of a page to display navigation options. A home button takes you to the cover page, a bullet list icon on the left of the toolbar shows a drop down list of all the contents. An icon on the right hand side of the toolbar shrinks the current page, displays all the pages and allows you to scroll quickly between all the pages. Finally theres a scroll bar at the bottom which allows you to move between pages. To actually navigate while reading, drag on the page either left to right or up and down. While this is fine for most pages, it does mean that you can miss content that is viewable by scrolling up and down. It’s not the most intuitive but by using the top right hand side icon you can see all the pages that have vertical content – there’s quite a few with the longest being 13 screens deep.

I actually like the added content like animations and video’s and this isn’t just limited to the Wired editorial – adverts also have video’s and extra photo’s as well. The adverts are the same as the print edition apart from the interactive elements so that a sale on the App store counts towards that months circulation. The bit I’m not convinced about is the actual navigation. It’s ok but they have to tell you what to do – click here for a photo, press these buttons to see alternative views. It reminds me of the interactive CD-Roms that were all the rage when cd’s were launched. Another negative is that you need to buy a new app for each issue of the magazine. I would have thought it would have been an app which allowed you to buy anew issue via an in app purchase, notified you when the new issue was launched allowing you to easily replace my real world subscription with a digital one. Alas it doesn’t seem to work that way. It’s going to lead to a lot of installs over time that even the folders of OS 4.0 won’t help much with.

Speaking of price, the Wired app was £2.99 to buy. This was the US version of Wired but assuming this is the price when the UK version launches, that’s £1 less than the UK cover price of £3.99. The price is also $1 less than the US cover price. However I subscribe so each UK issue costs £2 and you can get similar subscriber savings in the US so the app price is higher than I usually pay. There’s quite a discussion around whether digital distribution should lead to cheaper costs. I have no clue on the costs of producing a magazine so it’s a hard one to call – only time will tell if the costs will drop over time. Steve Jobs seems to think that the future is to drop the price and chase volume. Who’ll be bold enough to step up and try it? Will the market be forced into it?

Going back to the Wired app, some industrious folk have looked into the app bundle itself and figured out how it was built – the analysis is quite surprising. From The Hip blog breaks it down quite simply – most of the content of the 527MB app is PNG’s. Each page is a large PNG. Scrap that – each page is at least 2 PNG’s, a different PNG for horizontal and vertical layout. So that explains why you can’t cut and paste text from the Wired app. Interface Lab does a more in depth break down – 350MB of images with the rest being made up of video and sounds. More crazy – some of the animations are just a series of jpg files. The progress bar on audio clips – a series of png’s. Is this really the future? A final detailed analysis on the actual page layout and typography can be found on Information Architects – a great read.

Undoubtedly what we are seeing is the fallout from the Apple developer changes which meant Adobe had a small amount of time to deliver the Wired app. Since the Wired app came out Adobe has announced it’s Digital Viewer Technology for Magazines, which will be an add-on for InDesign CS5. A good play from Adobe as there’s not really another solution on the market apart from developing your own app or relying on distribution via PDF’s.

Wired isn’t the only digital magazine though. Another publication with a funky interface is Popular Science. This is great to look at but not so great to navigate. In fact, they had to add a section on how to use the app – that should have set alarm bells ringing. I prefer Wired to Popular Science.

The magazine I’ve enjoyed the best is Time. It’s app allows you to browse through a range of issues and buy from within the app. Each magazine costs £2.99 and is downloaded and stored within the app. Navigation is similar to Wired but more obvious although they also felt the need to include a guide – I’ve never needed a guide to read a magazine before. Time for me is the winner so far with regards magazines on the iPad but at the same time highlights some features missing from the platform as a whole.

For the iPad to really step in and offer a complete solution it needs to offer a few key features. Firstly you should be able to subscribe to newspapers and magazines. Secondly, the content should be delivered to the iPad rather than the user having to download each time they want a new issue. The biggest omission though is the lack of a unified store front. iTunes for music and app’s, iBooks for books but nothing for magazines or newspapers. Maybe that’s Apple’s cunning plan – let each publisher flounder around on their own then offer a service at a later date which they will all flock to. They’ve got the hardware and infrastructure so maybe it’s just a matter of time. It will be interesting to revisit this in six months time once the user base is more established and publishers have got their heads around content generation, delivery and costs. Are app’s and PDF’s really the way forward? Surely HTML5 formats that can be consumed on any platform make most sense for publishers? Exciting times.

Air Video

Air Video is an app for viewing video content stored on your local Mac. Once the helper app is installed on your Mac you setup shares to your video folders, in my case movies and tv. Via the iPad app you can then browse to the folder and select a video to watch. Playback is crisp and it makes for a great viewing platform. The real magic is that Air Display will do queued conversions of video files including mkv’s. If that wasn’t enough it also does live conversions. Pick an mkv, wait a few seconds and playback begins. The quality is excellent and again playback is smooth. If you have any video content stored on a Mac this really is an essential iPad app especially considering the price is £1.59. Bargain.

DropBox

DropBox is a cloud based file storage service. The iPad app allows you to browse your DropBox files, view them within the built in viewer and also send files to apps installed on the iPad. For example, send a pages file to Pages or GoodReader. Very handy way of using files on the iPad. The app is free and the 2GB service is also free. Essential.

Evernote

The go anywhere note taking platform has launched with a great iPad app. Taking advantage of the increased screen size the interface allows for browsing and viewing of notes at the same time. As well as notes you can store photo’s and PDF’s which again are displayed well within the app. You can also create audio notes but one thing that is lacking is an ability to sketch/draw. Like DropBox the app is free.

GoodReader

There are many document viewing apps already for the iPad but GoodReader is one of the best at reading large PDF’s. You can transfer files to GoodReader wirelessly from your Mac or PC or vie USB using iTunes file transfer. I’ve found iTunes file transfer to be awful so stick with the wireless option. Opening even large PDF’s is trivial and navigation is clear. Files can be managed from within the app itself and can be starred as favourites and marked as read. What’s clear is that the iPad really does miss having a universal file management system. Each app is implementing it’s own system, each having a different UI. This is the iPads Achilles heel in many ways but that’s for another post. Compared to the other readers, GoodReader is by far the best when it comes to large image heavy PDF’s.

Geometry Wars

The iPad as a games platform – just how powerful is it? Geometry Wars is an Xbox Live arcade game that is known for it’s fast paced gameplay, old style arcade origins and an amazing amount of activity on screen. The iPad version comes with six different game modes and is graphically very impressive. Online scoreboards and achievement round of an impressive game. The only slight -ve is that touch controls don’t compare well with a joypad. When the screen gets busy there is some slowdown, but that also happened on the Xbox so that shouldn’t be seen as a particularly big issue. A heat game that really shows off what is possible on the iPad.

Guardian Eyewitness

This free app from The Guardian brings the latest 100 photo’s from the Guardian’s Eyewitness photography series. The photo’s are amazing and really showoff the screen on the iPad. Each photo has a pro tip but most of these seem pretty weak. The photo’s can be saved or shared – it’s a great app to dip into every few days.

IMDB

If you love films then this is a must have app. Browse movies, actors, award winners and the best reviewed movies on IMDB. It’s fast and a great resource for browsing while taking in a film. One downside is that it shows movie times but for USA only, which is a shame as IMDB started as a UK site.

Financial Times

This app was a real surprise to me . The Financial Times app on the iPad is one of the best newspapers available so far. Clear readable text and a simple but easy to use navigation structure makes it a winner. There is also a lot of video content and the market data is interactive while all the time making it obvious to the user how to back out of a chart or page. One area lacking is in sharing content but in it’s favour you can download the current edition to the iPad so making it useful for plane journeys. However this goodness won’t always be free. The app is free and access is also free but only until July 31st. After that you can only access 10 articles per month unless you pay for access which starts off at £3.29 per week. If you like the journalism on the FT then this is a snip – only the reader can tell whether this is good value.

Instapaper Pro

Instapaper Pro is an app for viewing web sites that you’ve previously saved. Via a bookmarklet or a large number of Twitter clients it’s easy to save a website for later reading. This might be my most used app at the moment. I stack up articles for reading at lunchtime or in the evening and it’s a great aggregator. Not only that but you are reading just the article content in a lovely clear screen – no adverts or other site distractions. Just the text – it’s like reading a book. You can also create archives, share starred articles but to be honest it’s just great a saving content for later reading. Essential, especially with the extra screen real estate on the iPad.

NewsRack

One of the key app’s that I need on the iPhone or iPad is a RSS reader that syncs well with Google Reader. While I wait for Reeder to hit NewsRack has been an able replacement. Syncing is fast, reading and navigation is excellent with support for sharing services like e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and most importantly Instapaper. Love this app but I think the new iPad version of reeder will be my RSS feed reader of choice.

Pulse

Now this is nice. Just as I was finishing the article a brand new feed reader hit the iPad – Pulse. This is more visually appealing than any of the other readers so far. You can sync with up to 20 feeds and they are displayed visually in a grid. It also updates pretty quickly and instead of manually adding RSS feeds there is a smart search which allows you to search and browse feeds and add instead of typing in an address. Sharing options are limited but more are promised – a lovely app that really shows of the iPad well.

So there you have it – our current iPad recommendations. This will likely change quite radically when the market matures and iPhone OS 4.0 hits so we’ll definitely be revisiting later this year. One genre I haven’t really covered in this post is books and magazines. The iPad is an almost perfect size for reading books and comics or browsing magazines, so much so that it deserves a post all on it’s own. Look out for it soon on DigitalOutbox.

It feels great in the hand but heavier than I expected, although considering it’s metal and glass with two large batteries in it thats no real surprise. The screen is clear and has a great viewing angle. Photo’s really pop on the screen – it’s a great device for viewing and sharing photo’s with. However it’s very reflective – I’ve not had a problem in finding a position for me to view the screen but it can be difficult when demoing to others. It’s also a fingerprint magnet. You really do need to carry around a small screen cloth for when it gets gunked up especially when everyone wants a shot of your iPad. I’ve not had another device that so many people want to touch and play with. Almost all walk away with an envious grin.

Anyway, back to the review. The first launch will allow you to play with the default app’s. Straight away you notice how fast this is – web pages load quickly but pinch to zoom on a web page, photo’s etc is instantly responsive. Everything on the iPad feels so much quicker compared to the 3GS. Using a touch screen of this size also makes certain tasks easier/quicker. Browsing, viewing photo’s, video scrubbing is a very intuitive action on the iPad. It doesn’t take to long though before you want to put your content on it – your videos, music and most importantly, your app’s. Enter the iPad’s achilles heel – iTunes.

Plugging the iPad into iTunes for the first time was painful. Not only is the first sync slow as it transfers over selected music, video’s etc but unless you uncheck app’s it will transfer over every iPad AND iPhone app in your library. For me that was a lot of app’s. It also meant a lot of app’s to remove as I don’t really want many of the iPhone app’s on the iPad. After around an hour of syncing I’d realised the error of my ways. Two options to remove the app’s. I could remove the app’s one at a time on the iPad but surely there was an easier way in iTunes – filter by iPad or iPhone for example? No. I had to check each app individually that I wanted to remove. iPad and iPhone app’s were grouped together in one list. Uggghhhh – nasty. After I’d re-synced I was up and running.

With the app’s installed the iPad was transformed. I think it’s a great device for consuming content – video’s look great and books, magazines and comics are very readable. After using the iPad it’s even more of a surprise that the iPad launch didn’t come with some magazine content software like iBooks for books and iTunes for music and video. I’ve mentioned that iTunes word again. Another -ve is the file management that Apple have introduced for the iPad. In the App’s section of your device within iTunes there is now a File Sharing option. Select the app in the left hand box and either upload content or save content from the iPad.

This is only available when the iPad is hooked up to your machine. It’s a clunky solution to file management and one that I hope is addressed soon. You can’t create folders of content, it’s not browsable from Finder and it screams out for something new. I can’t believe that the Apple iPad apps (Keynote, Numbers and Pages) don’t have some built in synchronisation to Mobile Me, never mind to something like DropBox. GoodReader allows you to connect wirelessly to a PC or Mac and content can then be uploaded with ease – why can’t Apple offer that as a default option for all app’s? In fact, where is wireless sync?

This is even more frustrating as my iMac won’t charge the iPad. It turns out that you need quite a lot of current to charge the iPad so there area lot of devices that won’t charge the iPad via USB. So when I’m connecting to sync data the iPad isn’t being charged! I only hope that Apple, maybe even on June 7th, will announce some serious improvements to their cloud services. MobileMe doesn’t justify the yearly fee and beta offering iWork.com just doesn’t cut it. MobileMe/iDisk isn’t even available for the iPad as an app which is a serious omission or a sign that something new is coming soon. If they offered a service like DropBox, coupled with 20GB instead of 2GB, serious integration with iPad and iPhones and wireless sync, possibly to a cloud based iTunes then I’d be delighted. Without it, Google is in a really strong position as Android has caught up with iPhone OS.

Thankfully the battery life is excellent. The tech spec’s quoted 10 hours and it really is that good. I’ve used the iPad extensively over the last week and only had to charge it once. That partly explains the weight but it also means the iPad is a great replacement for a laptop for those frequent travellers. One hardware feature not yet mentioned is wi-fi or 3G? I spent a long time debating which iPad version to buy as the 3G version is £100 more expensive. One option was to go the mi-fi route but I eventually plumped for 3G and I’m glad I did. The iPad without connectivity is an empty experience and although the 3G route is more pricey, it’s far more convenient and makes it a take anywhere device. We’ll have a post up soon comparing the various 3G and wi-fi options but I’d really advise getting the 3G version or at least budgeting for a mi-fi.

The iPad comes with only a USB connector. No headphones, no dock and no case. Apple really likes to sting you with add-ons! The first thing I needed was a case. I would be travelling with the iPad and wanted to protect the screen. I picked up an Incase Convertible Book Jacket at launch but that was quickly returned. The iPad slips out slightly in this case and reviews from America show that this only gets worse with time. I plumped for the standard Apple case which is a lot better than it initially felt. It’s a snug fit, gives access to all ports and protects the iPad without adding much bulk which was another annoyance with the Incase. Connectivity is covered by picking up the Camera Connection Kit. This connects to the dock connector and gives you a USB or SD slot. I use it to download images from the Canon 550D – I can view images on the iPad and even do a first pass sort on images I want to delete before heading back home. More surprising is that there are a number of other USB devices it supports – headphones and mic’s for example are supported depending on how much power they require.

As for the dock, it’s pretty disappointing. Well, thats probably not fair. If you are using the iPad without a sleeve the dock is good. Stable and sturdy, about it’s only downside is that it forces you to use the iPad in portrait mode only. However with a sleeve fitted the dock is unusable and the Apple sleeve isn’t easy to remove. So I’ll be returning my dock. In it’s place I’ve been using the
BookArc for iPad from Twelve South. This allows the iPad to be stored in portrait or landscape with the dock cable attached. Also, the insert that holds the iPad can be changed to one that allows for an iPad with an Apple case to be held in position. This is great for watching video tutorials on the iPad while working on the iMac or for looking up manuals keeping the iMac screen clear. Using the iPad for creating content is actually very good. In landscape mode, the keyboard is almost the same size as a normal keyboard and I’ve created this post mostly on the iPad along with a few other posts recently. Sound is also a lot louder than iPhone’s/iPod’s. You can feel a slight vibration from the bass and it means around the house there are is no need for headphones. One little niggle – the home button is the same size as the home button on the iPhone. I find it’s easy to lose where it is – top or bottom, which side etc as you move from portrait to landscape to suit the app your using.

So, the final verdict. Can the iPad replace a computer? If not, what’s missing? The iPad needs a computer to work – thats the only way to get software updates and backup the device fully. It also can’t print although that allegedly is coming soon. While it’s not a computer replacement it’s a great computer supplement. If you’ve currently got a desktop and laptop then I can see the iPad acting as a laptop replacement for the majority of users. It’s a great couch device, perfect for use in front of the TV. Quiet, cool, long battery life and with a screen large enough to do around 80-90% of my laptop tasks. Surf, e-mail, game, watch videos, read books and magazines, look up IMDB, buy your shopping, listen to audio – the list goes on.

It’s been a great purchase for me and the surprising result is that the new iPhone isn’t the stick on it once was. If I’ve got some spare time it’s the iPad, not the iPhone I reach for. If I’m at the airport it’s the iPad not the iPhone I reach for. It’s not without shortcomings, especially around file management, but for a device only a week old it’s got a surprisingly large software library that makes great use of the platform. This will only get better with the upcoming iPhone OS4.0 release later this year and hopefully an improved cloud solution from Apple. So have you bought an iPad? What did you like/dislike – leave a comment and let us know.

So it was a cold morning in Glasgow when we joined the queue at the Apple store. There looked to be around 50 odd people and this was around 06:30 which was more than I expected. It wasn’t long after that the Apple staff started walking around letting us know the first 50 would go into the store and they would be assigned a personal shopper who would help us to buy the iPad, accessories and sims. Say what you will about Apple but they definitely know how to launch a product.

With the help of a Starbucks or two the time passed quite quickly. With five minutes to go the Apple staff did a run around the block whooping and a cheering. Fair play – it did help to build a bit of excitement but rather them than me. Then at 08:00 the doors were opened and we trooped in. Thankfully we were in the first 50 so got some heat. I was surprised how quickly people were served and we were both out of the store by 08:30 with our 64GB 3G iPads. I should note that the buying experience was pretty unique. We were brought into the store and each customer got an individual personal shopper who introduced themselves, asked what we were looking for, ran around (literally) to pick up any accessories we may have wanted and them completed the purchase. No hard sell of insurances, add-ons etc. A big well done the the team at Glasgow Apple store as it looked to go incredibly smoothly.

Thinking back to the queue, one aspect that stood out was variety. If you’d ask me who’d be there on a crisp May morning I would have guessed male 20-30 year olds, not all wearing black turtlenecks, but not far off. The age range was massive and demonstrates why Apple is so successful. A computer and eco-system oft criticised as being closed and restrictive but to the majority of end users that doesn’t matter – the Apple platform is easy to use and the hardware is some of the best designed in the industry. Not only that, everyone knows someone that has an iPod. One chap that stood out was an elderly gent wearing a cap not disimilar to one that Shak frequently wears. We saw him pass by but it was only when we were inside the store that we realised he was queuing for an iPad. Maybe for a relative or grandchild?

No. It turns out the chap, William Boyd, was buying his first computer – an iPad. At the grand old age of 78 he wanted an iPad for internet, e-mails and things like that. Main reason for choosing the iPad – simplicity. Great story and one that sums up Apple’s popularity. There’s products aren’t for everyone but they appeal to a broader base than any other tech company.

Another aspect of the shopping experience – Apple store employees were more than happy to pass you on to an expert who would take you through the setup of your iPad, how to use it and how to get the best out of it. You don’t get that at PC World (although you could also buy the iPad on launch day from there if you wanted). I declined as I wouldn’t get to play with the iPad for another 12 hours or so due to a works outing. Thankfully we did take a holiday on Friday as our photo appeared in many papers on Friday and Saturday. Geek fame. By all accounts sales were pretty brisk in the UK which I didn’t really expect. Also surprised that 3G models seem to be most popular.

So after the queuing and waiting the big question – how good is the iPad? In the last 48 hours I’ve tried to do as much on it as possible, including crafting this blog post. It’s a remarkable device and those that say “it’s a big iPod touch” either haven’t used one or don’t get it. Speed, battery life and portability coupled with a great screen and a fantastic line up of app’s at launch make for a superb experience. There are many cons which we’ll cover in the next post but there are two thoughts that I have today which I didn’t expect. One is that the iPad and a desktop computer are a combination that works really well for me – no laptop required. Second – the next iPhone isn’t the guaranteed purchase that I’d originally budgeted for.