iPad: One Tablet To Rule Them All

I’m a geek! I never used to consider myself a geek but maybe I was always secretly a closet nerd dying to get out. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t speak Klingon, hang out at comic book conventions, play World of Warcraft or fantasise about Kathryn Janeway. Okay, that last bit isn’t strictly true. What I do suffer from though is a deep & powerful desire to own lots of shiny gadgets. The latest tech news has me positively salivating & my RSS feed is full of posts from Engadget, Gizmodo & CNET. The laptop I’m writing this on costs far more than it probably needs to & my iPhone is an integral part of my life (the fact that I’m currently having iTunes syncing issues is giving me no end of grief & sleepless nights). But nothing I’ve witnessed in the tech blogosphere has ever created as much noise as the rumoured Apple tablet.

This thing had been spoken about in hushed tones for years. It was going to take the design elegance that Apple is famed for, combine it with the application & UI juggernaut of the iPhone & put it in a completely new form factor. The problem being that, due to Apple’s policy of never responding to rumours the hype built up to unsustainable levels. When people were discussing the possibility of controlling it by waving your hands Minority Report style or being able to interact with software applications using nothing but facial expressions, the reality was always going to disappoint the hardcore Apple fanboys.

What was unveiled during Steve Job’s keynote was the iPad, essentially a large iPod touch but positioned somewhere between the smartphone & laptop markets. The browser on the iPad looks amazing; truly the internet in your hands. Surfing around different sites on an iPhone just won’t be the same after using this thing. The photo gallery app looked like an incredibly impressive way to show off your images & the digital photoframe frame feature makes you wonder why you would spend over £100 on an object that does only that but not half as well. Same could be said of the iBooks software. Being able to read books, newpapers & magazines on an iPad in colour & potentially with video or other media, would surely make you reconsider buying an eBook reader like the Amazon Kindle. Especially when the Apple hardware can do so much more besides. The iWorks demo really did look impressive in showing how a large multitouch interface could be used to interact with a software application, even ones designed for productivity. Unfortunately, pretty as it was, who actually uses iWorks &, out of them, who is going to use this to create a presentation?

Of course there were also downsides. The main ones for me were the lack of multitasking & no ability for video calling over the internet due to the lack of a front facing camera. The advantage of not being able to run apps in the background is obviously the longer battery life & making the system less prone to slowing down & crashing; all part of maintaining the Apple experience. It’s also been proven that there is a space internally that nicely houses a webcam module & I wouldn’t be surprised to see one fitted by the time that these things start shipping. As the software experience is basically a scaled up version of the iPhone OS, I think that before the launch date there’ll be an iPhone 4.0 announcement that will introduce lots of new UI features & content widgets that’ll stream information from your apps, such as weather or Twitter feeds. Something is definitely needed to fill all that empty space on the home screen.

Despite disappointing a lot of the tech glitterati, the iPad is almost a guaranteed success with consumers. Much as the iPhone didn’t actually do much in its first generation iteration, this is going to be a platform that Apple can build on & role out new features to keep customers coming back. It will also create a whole new goldrush for app developers. Do I need one? No. Do I want one? Absolutely. Will I get one? Depends whether Microsoft can get their act together & release the Courier.

Snow: Good Or Evil?

Tuesday 5th January started like any other day. I woke up to my alarm at 0530 & left the house promptly at 0630. The pavements were a bit slippery & the car was iced up but that’s nothing unexpected considering the time of year. By the time I reached the start of the motorway there was a slight sprinkling of snow on the ground but nothing to be worried about. Or so I thought.

Once in Warrington the nightmare began. The roads were covered in a sheet of ice, with cars skidding off everywhere. Progress were made at a crawling speed & even the stunning white scenery hardly made up for the snails pace. Three hours later I had almost made it to the office before the road ahead was closed & there was no other option than to turn back & head home.

The one advantage of having an impromptu snow day off work was that I was able to grab my camera & head off to Sefton Park to see some of the white stuff from outside the confines of my car. The park was almost deserted with the exception of a few dog walkers & a couple of other photographers & there was the most amazing stillness in the air as the snow began to fall even more heavily. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much fall in such a short space of time in the UK. You can see some great images of the snow in the North West on Matt’s blog & Mark’s blog.

Unfortunately, the country has now descended into chaos, with traffic causing gridlock & pavements turning into death traps. But at least it looks pretty.

365 Project

2009 was a great year during which I developed a real passion for photography. It may have proved rather expensive investing in a lot of gear but I’ve seen some great events & met some fabulous people.

In 2010 I’m hoping to get involved in numerous photography related projects, both personal & collective, in an effort to improve my image taking ability &, more importantly, focus on my capability to see.

I’ve been thinking about starting a 365 project for a while & suddenly the 1st January is upon us & so it begins. As part of this 365 project I have set myself certain rules:

1. All images are to be taken & uploaded to Flickr on the day in question.

2. All images are to be taken using an iPhone.

3. All images are to be processed using nothing but applications on the iPhone.

4. All images are to be uploaded from the iPhone.

This is mainly because my iPhone is constantly to hand & the applications allow for some quite creative experimentation. I’m hoping that by keeping things simple not only will it help in maintaining the 365 project but also allow me to concentrate on other aspects on photography.

Have a very happy New Year & here’s to a FAB 2010.

Liverpool ONE Wheel

The Liverpool skyline has been changed dramatically with the addition of a gigantic carousel towering over the Liverpool ONE shopping centre. This wheel not only looks stunning when viewed from the ground but offers amazing views of the city in every direction.

My wife & I went for a ride last night & seeing Liverpool lit up, especially with all the Christmas decorations adding a festive edge, was something really special. Unfortunately, it’s only a temporary attraction, so it’s well worth a visit if you get the chance.

Wirral TweetUp

Having already answered the question “What the hell is a Twestival?”, I decided to find out what exactly a TweetUp is all about. Last night was the inaugural Wirral TweetUp held at Cromwells restaurant in Irby & I managed to get on the guest list along with my good lady wife.

My initial findings are that a TweetUp is all about good food & excellent company in some very pleasant surroundings. Not to mention chocolate cake that is well worth selling your first born child into a life of hard labour for. It was also great to finally meet another member of the FAB Collective, Mark McGowan, whose photographs adorn the walls of the restaurant.

The camera stayed firmly in the bag all night long but there were plenty of other togs capturing the evening as it unfolded. In fact, some of the images, taken as the evening descended into sexual debauchery, are particularly interesting. A massive thank you to Kay, Kate & the rest of the staff for putting on such a fantastic evening & raising over £250 for Clatterbridge cancer research charity. Look forward to the next one.

Santa Dash

Everybody loves Christmas right? & what iconic image better symbolizes this festive period than jolly old Saint Nic, with his bright red suit, fluffy white beard & big round belly? How about 7,000 of them?

That was the scene down on Liverpool’s Pier Head at 0930 this morning as a herd of Father Christmases gathered, ready to take part in a 5K charity run around the city streets. This is an annual event that’s growing in popularity by the year & the view of thousands of Santas stretching as far as the eye could see, all raising money for a good cause, was truly impressive. Even some local celebrities took part, like none other than Big Brother’s first ever winner Craig Phillips.

Obviously, the whole event was a magnet for Liverpool’s photographers & other sets of images can be seen on the Flickr photostreams of Dave, Sam & Pete. Even the fact that the snow was falling out of the sky pre-melted couldn’t dampen the festive spirit of the morning.

Family Photos

After a discussion about the importance of capturing images of those close to us in order to preserve memories whilst we had the opportunity, a photographer friend of mine directed me to the website Days With My Father. This photo diary details a person’s last few years with their elderly father & is truly one of the most emotional & moving things I have ever seen.

It just goes to show that whatever time we have with the people we love is finite. Every moment needs to be treasured & every effort made to capture the memories because one day you won’t have the chance to. This is even more important to me as a first time father. Looking through my Lightroom catalogue the other day, it really surprised me to see how much my daughter, Isobel, had changed over the course of a year. You almost don’t appreciate it on a day-by-day basis.

New Years resolution = take more photos of the family.

Disposable Shoppers

When I was asked to join the FAB Collective, one of the first photography projects that was discussed was the idea of a disposable camera photo walk. The plan was simple. We would leave our collection of Nikon, Canon, etc, DSLRs at home, along with their wide variety of accompanying lenses, & head out onto the streets of Liverpool armed with nothing more than a £1 disposable camera & a winning smile. There were no rules as such, apart from a 2 hour time limit & 1 mile radius from our starting point, the Ship & Mitre pub.

Many people kept to a theme, others just took shoots of things that looked interesting. My original plan was to approach random strangers in the street & ask them to pose for a photo with me in it, camera held at arms length, a la the hundreds of thousands of images posted on Facebook each day. But when it came to the crunch I bottled it. I didn’t think that people would be too keen when approached by a 6 foot unshaven bloke brandishing a cheap camera with cartoons of badgers printed on it. Fortunately, Sam had far more courage than I, although admittedly I don’t look as pretty in make up, sparkly pink T-Shirt & feather boa.

Instead, I tried to take advantage of the fact that the little disposable camera was far more discreet than my usual Nikon weapon of choice & capture some candid street portraits. Scanning the crowd of shoppers in Liverpool town centre, I would try to pick out the most interesting characters, plot their course, stand in a position to intercept & at the last moment…..snap!!! A lot of people just hurried on by, some people didn’t even notice & the girls with rollers in their hair threatened to track me down & kill me whilst inserting said camera into a very private part of my anatomy.

All-in-all a very enjoyable day of photography fun & the rest of the images can be viewed here.

Ride With The Homies

The first time I went skiing was about 6 years ago &, whilst I haven’t been able to fit in a winter break every season, we’re fortunate up here in the North West to have the Chill Factore on our doorstep. Located next to the Trafford Centre, the massive sloping structure is one of the largest indoor snow domes in the country. Great for keeping your skills sharp when you’re not in Chamonix.

Friday night is freestyle night, when they set up one half of the slope as as miniature snow park, with kickers, rails, boxes & all other manner of things for me to avoid whilst snowboarders half my age hurl themselves over these obstacles in an attempt to break their necks.

This Friday night saw a group of professional snowboarders, calling themselves the Homies, put on a demonstration of their skills before premièring their new film. The whole event was sponsored by Monster energy drink &, whilst there was a professional photographer & film crew doing their thing, they graciously let me take some shots of the borders & skiers pulling some sick moves.

Blackpool

Sunday afternoon saw a few members of the FAB Collective, Pete, Sam, Jane, Pedro & moi, descend upon the sunny quaint seaside town of Blackpool for a nice photo walk. Did I say sunny? Sorry, I meant howling winds & driving rain the likes of which resembled a Perfect Storm. & did I say quaint? What I meant was the tackiest, most culturally deficit place on the face of the earth. But that was partly the reason why we were there.

What once was a pleasant holiday destination for people looking to get some sun, sea & sand without the expense of travelling abroad, is now a combination of boarded up shop fronts, vulgar comedians, strip clubs, abandoned piers & empty fairground rides. All-in-all an ideal venue for a bit of photography.

To give the place it’s due, once the weather began to break, the promenade, which is currently in the process of being redeveloped, was transformed by an amazing light. There was also some great little cafes hidden away, which served amazing combinations of hot chocolate & were ideal places to try & warm our numb fingers. The people I met were also incredibly friendly, although that may have been because they were trying to get me to either buy a necklace made of shells or play their obviously rigged game to win an oversized cuddly toy.

We didn’t hang around for too long after the sun went down due to a combination of freezing temperatures & a distinct lack of any tripods. The seafront does come alive at night though, with the illuminations creating a totally different atmosphere to the place. Still haven’t made it to the top of the tower yet but I’m heading back soon to go to Them Crooked Vultures gig at the Empress Ballroom. Very rock’n'roll.