Updated: Apple And The BBC To Co-Host iPad 2 Release Event?

via crunchgear.com

the last link didn't seem to want to work - hopefully this will

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Ipad 2 will be launched at the BBC - Inquirer | So Stephen Fry ... in real time | SoCelebrities

via sostephenfry.com

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Is today iPad 2 day?

Who knows but it probably is. We'll have to see what comes out from Apple over the day - perhaps Steven Fry might be able to answer this.

Sent from my iPad

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What travels a third of a mile an hour?

Sand Dunes - Lindisfarne,

Some days it feels like me but the answer, according to the national treasure and iPad fanboy Stephen Fry, is spring*. I believe this having driven back from the frozen north of England to the relatively balmy East Midlands. One sign that spring is here is the dawn chorus of birds. In Seahouses there was none but back home the birds are on fine form - a joy to wake up to - especially after the long journey.

So I am back home, refreshed and raring to go and what a lot the spring has to offer. Exhibitions to visit, competition to enter and disappointments to get over, historical facts to unearth and who knows what else? So lets start with a disappointment. My book. I have no idea why but the production was a total disaster. Not only was the dust sleeve not produced but also the reproduction of the photographs was appalling. Over the next week or so I am going to work out what went wrong and I am sure I did some things wrong but I am also sure I did a lot of things right. I will not pontificate any further until I have undertaken a full post mortem.

Enough bad news. On a more positive note I got round to producing a couple of photographs last night from the visit to Northumbria and the results are most encouraging - perhaps I might be able to produce a photograph of Lindisfarne which is not a cliché after all - lets hope so.

*I always get my vast amount of useless information from QI - a veritable vat of such things.

iPad - the device you didn't know you needed until now...

A much anticipated launch - you can view this on line all over the net but just ibn case you were not aware Apple has launched the iPad. So what to think about this product? Well at one end of the spectrum are the fanboys, such as Stephen Fry, who view this as a wonderful machine you just MUST have. But is it? Is it the new coming of of whole new device you didn't know you needed until now? Or is it a way of large companies making money out the internet? After all many of these companies, News Corp jumps immediately to mind have been making very loud noises about charging for their content. I have nothing against this in principle but the internet is such a large ferment of news and comment that it is very difficult to see how this will really work. The larger question is news Corps continuing attacks on the BBC's web site which, after all, is free and provides everything and lot more that News Corp wants to charge for.

It would be unfair to single out News Corp as the only large multi national that see charging for their content as the way forward and now we have a device that will take this one step further. The iPad is unashamedly aimed at the reading public. It is being launched along with the iBookstore where you can buy and download books to read on your iPad, initially only in the USA. However, this is were some of the problems start for me. Why pay at least $499 for the ability to read something you can get for $9.99, something that never needs updating, is always available without being charged. Something that you can spill things on and still use, you read in the bath, on a plane, train and auto mobile and will work in ten years time. It is called a book.

This is not to say that the iPad is not going to be a success and I might ultimately buy it just means don't buy the hype. There are as many things wrong with this machine as there are right. It is not a new concept or mould break as the iPod and iPhone were. It is a nice piece of kit that you may want to take outside your house but I doubt this. It is simply not as compact and useful as the iPhone.

My final thought on the iPad is this. Don't be an early adapter unless you want to waste your money. The iPod and iPhone were nothing like as good in their first incarnations as the second. Wait a year and see how the wind is blowing and buy one when the bugs have been ironed out and the basic spec becomes more sensible.