Aaron Irving – Nightshadow

Despite it’s nicknames such as the itampon – it poses an interesting idea.

So we all know by now it is basically an iphone on roids.. – so what’s the deal. The deal is apple. They are a marketing power not to be taken lightly. They do a damn good job of convincing you that you need to buy a shiny version of relatively normal hardware. So…

Software: Basically if you have used an iphone you will know how to use the ipad. Why they didn’t choose a lighter version of OS X – who knows. My gripes – single program usage. In today’s world, people are use to multi-tasking. They have multiple programs at once. Like the iphone the ipad only lets you have a single piece of software running at once. There is no minimise, its open or close. This is a smart idea as it minimise the need for large amounts of RAM (of which apple doesn’t say how much in the Tech Specs.  It’s also annoying as all software must be loaded via itunes – no plug and play. At least until you hack it and therefore void your warranty. Of course this forces you to use apple software, have an apple account – list your credit card details in the apple store and yeah – be one with apple. I am surprised that the US government hasn’t deemed this some sort of anti-trust, c’est la vie. The 3g model is the only one I would consider – this also gives you a choice of GPS software – if you feel so inclined. Several features such as ibooks aren’t available in australia (and won’t be for at least a year, if ever). This is due to licensing agreements with the authors publishers.

Hardware: Now this is nothing new. It’s all been around before. Apple claims they have this special A4 processor that is all theres. It’s based upon the typical ARM-based processors found in your GPS or smartphone and made typically by centrality or samsung etc. They are good processors and power windows CE, windows mobile, android, win 95 (on a nokia) or even linux (tomtom etc). APple has modified – and supposedly produce it themselves (which is a first in a while). This version runs a 1ghz chip – which is pretty damn fast for a little device that only runs one program at a time. I have a more powerful than average GPS unit running a dual-core 600mhz ARM chip and it is damn impressive what it can run (my GPS plays divx’s, has a DVB-T tuner in it, opens word files, opens pdfs, has corel draw, reads out ebooks using text-to-speech etc). These ipads come with various size flash disks (!6, 32 or 64gb) which is nice. Of course they are tablet-only (multi-touchscreen) which is getting more and more common – and the way of the future. All will be that way soon enough. It is a 9.7” screen (diagonally, non-widescreen). Why the hell aren’t they widescreen apple – they would be perfect for playing movies. They also only run 1024×768, so despite having a good quality, shiny, pretty screen, isn’t even true High-Definition.

I guess apple is the first to put it all together with a 10” version – but the 13” netbooks are getting damn common nowadays (and make a lot more sense for travelling than a laptop). a 10” tablet will be available by other manufacturers soon enough (one would imagine). The other features like 3g, N(108mbps) Wifi, A-GPS, acceleromator, light sensor, etc are all found in current ARM-based GPS devices with touchscreen (though not many on the Australian market – I can get all of those features on a 5”/7” iphone clone GPS device for about $200/$280AU incl. duties). The apple software does multi-touch better than most though and they are the first to do it in 10”. It is interesting to see how well it goes. It looks damn hot and the apple marketing will tell you need it (especially to go with your iphone or apple mac laptop). For me the ability to only run one piece of software at a time and forced to use itunes is a deal-breaker. It’s a big NO from me…. though it looks sexy and I don’t have one.

I am kind of fond of long random titles for blog posts.

Just got back from seeing Avatar in 3D with a good mate who is visiting from Tasmania (Seth). James cameron did a good job in re-creating a fantasy world, as did Weta Digital. I quite liked the storyline and character development – despite the bad reviews. Was a visually stunning movie, though I felt a little dizzy/headachy by the end. This was likely due to the heat though and my dehydration. 36 degrees is not that hot (when not humid) – but the warm wind makes it pretty uncomfortable.

More warm weather to come – yay. Christmas in Brissy though so the weather will be nice then. A whirlwind 4 day trip, but c’est la vie.

Work has been busy. Yay. As per the monash guidelines we have from the 23rd to 4th jan off. I was in today though to do a maxi – got a cool new construct in that I want to use asap. Writing up my paper (actually several’) – hopefully a decent impact factor first author though. Got news today the Molecular Therapy paper with Michael got accepted (I’m an author anyway, even if not first). Papers are always good. Finally on top of things and starting to feel comfortable. Eventually I will get motivation back and maybe even be inspired to go out photographing. meh, maybe.

Enjoy the break peeps – happy festivus (As daz would say), merry christmas (remember it’s about jesus and not gifts/food) and happy new Year!

Joy to the world, for new years has come.

Chrstmas was a blast, kind of. I cooked an awesome macadmia/basil pesto roast pork, italian herb/garlic turkey, roast ham and steph took care of a multitude of salads. Her family enjoyed it, and I would say it is the best roast pork I have done. I like it when family visits but damn that’s a lot of people in a kind of small apartment.

Speaking of apartments, the landlord wants to increase the rent. Steph and I are considering what’s available to buy, or if we want to rent and research more. Fun times. But yeah, Melbourne is the GO. New years party tonight; who the hell picks the theme “9″. Oh yeah, Seth does. grr @ seth.

so… any ideas for the theme – maybe a cat (9 lives) or something – sms me as there are only a few hours left.

SMS hey…. I now have a new phone. I succumbed to the revolution and got a PDA/phone. The HTC touch Diamond:

WM6.1 / 4gig internal memory / wifi, 3G, sms, mms, office, mp3, mp4, voice calling, vid calling, 3.2mp, blahhh.

I am now with telstra, and they paid me $200 to go from optus to telstra (cost me $109 to leave Optus). Ahh business plans, so much better.

I am not the only person at work today – hooray for Dakang working his ass off too.

I am going to get back on top of things and not leave people/sites etc neglected (including logging into facebook more than monthly).