Apple iPad 2

As you know, I already have the original iPad, or should I say, I had the original iPad (C is now the proud owner of a shiny, carefully used, original iPad).

I decided that due to my iPad 2 shipping early (the 9th, and not the 15th that they originally stated), and C was working away for a week, I could survive a couple of days without the iPad and handed it over on Friday night. To be honest, you don’t realise how dependant you become on tech, I felt like I’d lost a limb…..that was until today when my iPad 2 turned up

A few noticeable things,  it’s definitely a lot thinner, and seems a lot lighter….as for the speed…much snappier

Like most people getting the iPad 2, I threw on Infinity Blade to see how it looked. Infinity Blade is one of the games that has been enhanced for the iPad 2….and yup, the additional textures really do make it look at lot better, make me almost forget that it’s the same resolution as the first.

To be honest, I was slightly annoyed at the official announcement of the iPad 2, and how it was keeping the same screen and same resolution. Being an iPhone 4 user, the resolution difference is very noticable.

The only other real addition that affects me is the front and rear facing camera. I’ve had a quick go on Facetime with C, and all worked well, but I can’t see me really using it much. I currently have a front facing camera on the iPhone 4, but can’t remember the last time I used it, and with the recent purchase of the Panasonic DMC-TZ10, I don’t really see a use for the rear camera.

The improved gyroscope is a god send, as I couldn’t play Rage HD on the iPad as I’d got so used to playing it on the iPhone. As for the rest of the games, to be honest, it’s still early for the new hardware, and expect more developers to hit the “More Textures” button as time goes on, as they did with the Retina Display patches they provided. Right now, I’ve just got a thinner, faster, lighter iPad.

All in all, it’s new, it’s shiny and it’s Apple

One last thing, before I had the official case for the original iPad, this time I thought I’d give the Nude Case a go as it was meant to be lightweight…..to be honest I’m blown away buy it, you can hardly tell it’s protected

Unboxing photos below.

Tags: apple ipad, Blade, button, couple, couple of days, DMC-TZ, Facetime, Friday, friday night, God, gyroscope, hardware, HD, infinity, iphone, iphone 4, last time, nbsp, new hardware, panasonic, panasonic dmc, proud owner, purchase, rage, rear camera, resolution, Retina, screen, snappier, textures, time, today, tz10, use, yup

ted (Television Episode Downloader)

If you are anything like me (and god help you if you are ), and use the internet as a PVR, then this software will be a god send to you.

I’ve just recently ordered a Mac Mini to replace my last remaining Windows machine, and thought I’d better check if I could still do what I do now.

Currently my Dell machine, sits in the corner, and is used as my media server, my iTunes server and my torrent machine. Currently I have uTorrent installed, which downloads each episode using the RSS Feed option. Each of the RSS feeds points to a particular RSS feed for my favourite TV program from eztv, and once a new episode is detected, it’s downloaded.

Once the episodes are downloaded, these get copied to a shared location on my NAS Box, which I can then stream to my PS3′s or Xbox using PS3 Media Server.

I did a little googling last night, and even though there is a Mac version of uTorrent, it’s still in beta, and missing a lot of the functions that the Windows version has, eg the RSS downloader.

After a little more googling, I found a tidy little piece of freeware software called ted (Television Episode Downloader). Essentially it has a list of all the TV episodes that you can select from, and when a new episode appears, it will download the torrent file, and open this with your default torrent client.

Ok, this that fixes the missing functionality of uTorrent, however the software is a lot smarter that the RSS Downloader function in uTorrent, as once you’ve added your favourite shows, you can choose to start from the next available episode, the previous episode, or even download every episode. You then have the option to select “HD Only”, which will only download episodes with the tag of HD or 720.

The interface will also show you the name of the next episode, and when it’s going to be aired.

The good thing about this software is that is available free of charge on Mac, Windows and Linux, and only requires that you have a torrent client installed (I highly recommend uTorrent, Mac and Windows clients available).

Now some people may have a problem with downloading episodes from the internet, I however don’t mind, as I tend to buy the boxsets once they are available. Also this is little different to using BBC iPlayer, or Sky Anytime.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts, and enjoy

Tags: anything, client, dell machine, Download, downloader, episode, eztv, favourite, favourite tv, feed, feed option, functionality, God, HD, help, internet, lot, mac, Mac Mini, mac version, mac windows, machine, media server, option, PS3, pvr, RSS, server, Sky Anytime, software, TED, television episode, Torrent, torrent client, tv episodes, tv program, utorrent, version, windows, windows machine, windows version, xbox

Finally got an iPhone

“Dear Mr Jobs, your work here is now done, it’s taking 2 years for me to fully make the transition to Apple, however my quest is now complete, and apologies for taking so long…”

If I was writing a letter to Steve Jobs, it would go something like that

Well, my journey started a couple of years ago, with a iPod Shuffle, then iPod Touch, then MacBook Pro, then iMac and finally I’ve got a iPhone.

Every device I’ve bought from Apple has wow’d me in 1 way or another, and they “just work”

I’ve been fighting getting an iPhone but I just couldn’t wait any longer. The last year has been a bit of a roller coaster to be honest. I remember reading tech blogs saying that o2 were due to loose their exclusivity. Then there were reports that Orange would be selling the iPhone, and even Tesco, but no sign from Vodafone. Then finally Vodafone jumped on the bandwagon, and finally started to sell the iPhone.

As I’ve been with Vodafone for as long as I can remember, I wanted to stick with them. My plan was to wait for them to release the phone, then buy a pay as you go version, stick my sim card in this, and wait for you contract to run out, however…..Vodafone for some reason don’t want to do a Pay as you go version ?

Anyway, my contract ran out in January, and though “Well, the next gereneration iPhone will be out in a couple of months, so I can wait. After reading some recent tech blogs, it seems that the new iPhone HD won’t be officially announced until the next WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) (Monday, June 28, 2010 to Friday July 2, 2010), and each time a new phone is announced, there is normally another month delay….Grrr !

So I made the decision and bought an iPhone 3GS from fleabay, use this until the new phone is out, then extend my contract, and stick it back on fleabay

I think I got myself a bargain, Brand New Sealed, Black, 3GS, 16Gb for £420 delivered, and on Thursday it turned up !.

Now I’ve been a iPod Touch owner for a couple of years now, but the iPhone takes it that one step further, granted my iThingy now makes calls, is able to send texts, and works without being on wi-fi, but it’s the other little thing that really do it for me. The location service is something that only kinda worked on the iPod touch, it’s nice to “select my location” and have everything map to me, and not the local exchange.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the speed difference !….Geez this thing is quick in comparison to my iPod Touch 2G, browsing, gaming, and well everything is just a lot quicker.

I so wish I’d taken the plunge a couple of years ago when they first came out, Love it !

Unboxing photos below, and again hats off to a designers for making the box look so cool !

Tags: 3gs, apologies, Apple, bandwagon, bargain brand, Brand New, contract, couple, dear mr, everything, exclusivity, Fleabay, HD, iphone, ipod, ipod shuffle, ipod touch, jobs, journey, letter, location, Mr Jobs, pay, phone, quest, roller coaster, sim card, something, Steve Jobs, Tech, Tesco, thing, touch, transition, version, vodafone, work, world wide developers conference, writing a letter, wwdc