It’s a trap! lol
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Before reading, please remember this is all based on my own experiences, observations and ideas from training to be a teacher, obtaining a degree in ICT & Computer Sciences and working in the education sector for 5 years. My current job role encompasses ICT Manager, Network Manager, and all levels of hands-on support.
Now more than ever, “ICT” is so engrained within our lives that we hardly notice much of it anymore. How much thought do you give when you use your mobile phones, games consoles, mp3 players, televisions and whatever you may be using to read this right now? I’m guessing not much; as something you use every day it is just ‘there’ for you to use. And as well it should be; the goal of any piece of technology hardware is to become transparent to the user so as to allow the flow of information to be accessed with ease.
So why is it then, that when transposed to the education sector, ICT so often becomes such an obstacle, such a difficulty, such an annoyance? In the past the finger could have been pointed at the manufacturers for making unfriendly interfaces for devices and software, or to the sharp-suited salesmen who promise far more to unknowing schools than the technology they are providing can really deliver. But we live in a world now where devices are easier than ever to use (just look at the wealth of videos on YouTube of 4 year olds using iPads with ease, or the amount of 8 years olds who have smart phones, games consoles and their own laptop at home) and where salesmen know that with a bit of time using Google almost anyone can find out more information about their product than can be delivered in a meeting.
So with friendly devices, and easy ways to avoid being taken for a rider by smooth-talkers, where do we look now? The answer; these days it all comes down to in-house management. Effective management of ICT within a school will provide engaging, interactive technologies that teachers feel comfortable delivering lessons through and which pupils will gain enjoyment from learning with. Bad management will lead to the path of half-empty laptop trollies gathering dust in a storeroom somewhere, inflexible access to ICT devices provided solely from a timetabled slot, unenthused teaching staff and disaffected pupils who get more effective use of ICT at home than they do at school.
Speaking of ICT access at home, this is one of the key things to consider when thinking about the delivery and use of ICT in an education environment. All too often the “new” devices brought into schools either amaze of confound the teaching staff - yet the children remain unfazed. Look at the example of Interactive Whiteboards. In the past few years, between work, conventions and training sessions I have continually encountered adults from all levels of education (from pre-school nursery assistants to deputy head teachers) who are still unfamiliar with the most basic workings of these boards; at the same time, the pupils in their classrooms are too busy playing with their multi-touch-screen phones or comparing the specifications of their home gaming PC’s to even take notice of a single-touch projected image, which by today’s standards, is a fairly tame piece of technology.
And so we have reached 2012, a time where the current situation is a classroom where many pupils know how to operate the school’s ICT devices better than the adults in the room. Exactly how does this inspire the children to learn, when from their perspective, they already outrank their teacher in capability? This is an issue easily rectified by training. Yes, that word may provoke eye-rolling or sighs from already-stressed classroom workers, but only because ICT training seems to be delivered on a merely ad-hoc basis. Literacy, Numeracy, supporting EAL and SEN; these things have timetabled training sessions every year for teaching staff, while ICT struggles to find a timeslot within a busy term schedule to squeeze in 10 minutes of rushed instruction. No wonder teaching staff become stressed when it comes to introducing a new ICT device or practice - they get no real warning or training to effectively deal with it. Something as simple as a 45 minute session on a training day introducing the whole teaching ensemble to the new device or software could spare many of the frustrations encountered with the current “learn as you go” approach.
Earlier I mentioned “in house management” of ICT, and I truly believe this is key. Yes, of course I am going to say that working as the ICT Manager for a school myself, but I have seen all kinds of approaches to IT management. External companies brought in for half a day a week who do nothing more than keep the most basic levels of access ticking over; ICT teachers struggling to find the time to be a tech when needed; part-time IT Technicians who struggle to keep up with the demands of their jobs on only 20-odd hours a week; term-time only IT Managers like myself, who end up working tons of overtime in holidays to keep on top of things; and full-time IT Managers and Technicians to support them. No external company or IT teacher is ever going to understand, support and grow a network and its infrastructure in the way a dedicated on-site team can. Now, that seems a simple enough idea when on paper - of course a specialist who is employed to take care of something full-time will be able to bring more to a job than anyone else who can only volunteer a few hours a week. So why does this fact seem to escape so many management personnel? I am fortunate in that the management team of the school I work for are communicative, receptive to ideas and appreciate the advantages of having an always-on-site techie, but I know there are far more education establishments out there who do not share this view.
Mentioned above, communication is essential when you have on-site IT staff, especially with ICT Manager & Network Manager levels of staff. Now, I run the risk of here of appearing egotistic or self-serving, but the fact is that if IT Managers and Network Managers were brought in to the SLT meetings, included in the planning of the ICT curriculum for the term ahead, and kept up-to-date with the ICT vision the Head has for the school, things would run a lot smoother. Offering advice on timescales, costs, if something is even possible and the impacts it will have at the time of initial discussion would be of far greater use than being passed an email 3 weeks after management have decided the project is going ahead regardless, with IT support being left to pick up the pieces afterwards.
It is mistake to think that someone who, from your perspective, sits in a room typing all day and emerges occasionally to put a new toner in a printer doesn’t know what classroom staff need to help them teach, or what resources would suit what purpose. It is a good bet that IT support staff who work in schools see more of the day-to-day goings on than most other job roles in the school. Management personnel are often preoccupied in meetings, elbow-deep in budgets or preparing for an upcoming OSFTED visit. Teachers are busy teaching their own class, as are TAs. EAL and SEN support staff are focussing their attentions on certain pupils. But IT staff, we move around the school all the time. We see what devices get used and when, what for and how successful they are. We see who likes certain pieces of software, and why. We are asked for and offer advice as we pass people in corridors, we overhear conversations in the staffroom about upcoming topics and we know where ICT could help teach it.
Your IT support staff are your best help when it comes to planning the expansion and development of ICT across the school, as well as embedding ICT in your other subjects, so don’t think of them just as toner-replacers or those whom you only see when something is not working. Most of us have a wealth of knowledge and advice about developing ICT across our school as well as delivering the curriculum, even if we don’t know the curriculum in the detail the way teaching staff do.
Having mentioned ICT in other subjects, there is no doubt that this the best way to expose pupils to ICT as much as possible. Don’t get wrong, there is a time and place for ICT and is shouldn’t be used for the sake of it, but there are plenty of opportunities within every curriculum subject for ICT to make a contribution, and if done right, create an improvement in the teaching and learning taking place.
A few quick examples of cross-curricular ICT use from my school alone includes: Using a Nintendo Wii for a PE lesson in dance, which saw 60 children in a school hall using a Wii connected to a projector all exercising dancing along to the Michael Jackson Experience. Brilliant and innovative, and far more fun for the pupils than simply running laps around the hall.
A class of pupils taking Easi-Speak microphones (mp3 recording mics) with them when they met the Mayor of Luton, later transferring the MP3 files and photographs they had taken to a laptop, arranging them in Movie Maker and posting the result on the school website for the other pupils and parents to listen to.
Pupils needing additional numeracy practice being invited to use “iProgress” online numeracy software on for 10 minutes a day, each day at lunchtime. Within a week there were improvements to their maths skills.
Another way to deliver some cross-curricular ICT is allowing the pupils themselves to decide if and when to use ICT, something that with time should become a natural part of their school life, and of course classrooms need to be outfitted accordingly to allow this. Teaching a history lesson on the Kings & Queens of England? A pupil should be able to choose whether they want to help themselves to a classroom textbook, a computer, or even use their own internet-enabled mobile device to do the research. Instructing pupils on when and how to use ICT should become a thing of the past - allowing them the choice of when to use it should be the norm now. After all, almost all of us have that choice in everyday life. If we do not know something, we usually Google it; why should a pupil not have that choice?
Accompanying this should be a shift in the way ICT is directly taught to pupils too. The overexposure to ICT that many children receive means they would be far better taught how to do their own research via effective internet searching than being given a series of pre-scanned websites to visit by their teacher. Don’t instruct children in how to change font sizes and colours in Word 2003, or how to make stick figure animations in Pivot; teach them the general ICT skills, not how to use one certain piece of software. The poor results of this approach are all too apparent when observing anyone who has been on a course where they were taught how to use MS Word 2003 - give them a copy of Word 2010, Lotus Notes or OpenOffice and they are lost, simply because the menu system looks different.
To round this article off, I will simply say this. Technology is here to stay. It will keep growing, evolving, becoming ever more integrated into our lives. As individuals working in the education sector, we have a responsibility to the children to provide them with the very best, most well-rounded education we can, and ICT is one of the best aids we have to do this. We all know that children generally learn faster than adults, and with more and more children being exposed to technology before they even reach school age, it is more important than ever that we make the effort to keep ourselves armed with the best weapon we can; knowledge.
PSVita - first impressions
Out of the box, the PSVita handset looks very nice. I’m glad that portable gaming has picked up on the fact that smaller and smaller devices & screens are not the way forward; the large screen of the Vita is a major improvement over the PSP and certainly over the 3DS, which to my eyes is tiny by comparison (OK you can argue the 3DS has 2 of them, but still 3.2” vs. 5”? No contest). Anyone who has used an iPod touch, iPad, or any smartphone lately will be right at home with the Vita’s screen. A solid glass feel with excellent response to the lightest touch, with some very nice ‘gestures’ for completing actions such as swiping away an open app you no longer want open, and the up/down to move between the “Home” screens containing the app links feels nice given the landscape layout of the screen.
Holding the device is comfortable, though for those with smaller fingers it might become a stretch to reach all of the touch-screen on the front without significant movement of the whole hand as opposed to just the thumb - a drawback of the larger screen, but a worthwhile trade in my opinion. The touch-back (can’t really call it a rear touchscreen as it is not a screen!) seems equally responsive, though I can foresee accidents in games occurring from resting fingers on the back of the device in the wrong place. Time will tell I suppose.
The image presented by the screen is crisp, clear and nicely bright - by comparison it made the colours on my HD-TV screen look quite dull! Again this will vary in games, no doubt, and the brightness will likely need to be reduced for many things as the white would become overpowering. Still, deep colours and high-quality black means it’s very easy on the eyes in terms of both physical hardware and the screen output graphics. On that subject, the graphics are not HD, but are somewhat comparable to the PS3 - still impressive for a 5-inch screen held in your hands.
Dual analogue sticks have become a standard for most console gamers now; these days the thought of having only 1 thumbstick is pretty horrific to say the least, so it’s good to see them on the Vita and in a comfortable position, unlike the horrific placement of the sticks on the PS3 controller (at least in my opinion). There is also a D-Pad on board too, not sure why but no doubt some games and/or menu systems will make use of it.
I’m not going to mention internal components like the CPU or RAM, they are there to do what they are doing and are fit for purpose, enough said. However the lack of internal memory for game and download storage is a drawback, providing Sony with the wonderful option of overcharging you for a ‘special’ Vita SD card, meaning more cash you have to hand over before you can make best use of your system. For a £300+ device, I find this almost spiteful, I’m sure they could have kitted it with at least 1Gb of internal storage without fuss - hell, mobile phones come with 2Gb+ these days!
Battery life, well, it’s a handheld device that is throwing out fully rendered 3D in twice the resolution of the PSP (remember it’s not HD though!) so battery life isn’t going to be a strong point. 3-5 hours is the estimate, which to me means I would just be getting into a good session on Uncharted and the juice would run out; to others, that could mean playing for a week without charging if it’s only a ‘lunch-hour toy’. Still, when devices like tablets can kick out 8+ hours while playing games and surfing the web, I expect more than an average of 4 hours from a £300+ device.
Camera, well, at 0.3 Megapixel you aren’t going to be using your Vita to take stunning sunset photos, but then why would you? Cameras are almost just an add-in to devices these days, something that would be bemoaned if it wasn’t there and made little use of when it is. Still, there is the potential for augmented reality and some game integration down the line.
Backwards compatibility; or rather the lack thereof. The Vita has absolutely no backwards compatibility at all. All those PSP UMD’s you’ve stocked up on? Well keep that PSP charged because you’ll need it if you want to play / watch them still. Oh sure, you can get a digital copy of some PSP games for the Vita, all you have to do is purchase them again. Disposable income, anyone? Sony is only sticking to its practices though, and we saw the same with the PS3 not playing PS2 games, a fact which we’ve all gotten over by now…haven’t we? Sony primarily wants us to be playing Vita games on the Vita, which is what it’s for really.
Regardless of how great the screen is, or how well the dual-touch panels work, a handheld gaming device is only as good as the games that you can play on it. So far I have only seen Uncharted being played, but it look fairly impressive. My girlfriend is firmly in the category of “casual” gamer with handheld gaming being her personal favourite, and it didn’t seem to take long for the combination of the dual sticks, buttons, touchscreen and rear panel touch controls to all come together to create one multiple-choice method of controlling the game, which looked graphically smooth, stunning and sure beat the leaving daylights out of anything Nintendo could hope to achieve with their handheld efforts of late.
Now more than ever, the handheld gaming market is split between so many platforms and devices; 10 years ago there were a few companies vying for a small handheld market consisting of 8-bit graphics powered by AA batteries - today every manufacturer of mobile devices is part of the struggle.
Sony and Nintendo are the big ones who release devices geared primarily towards gaming, but chances are that most of you reading this have a mobile phone, Windows tablet, iPad or similar device close at hand that can perform many of the things the Vita can - in fact there are existing phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 that have 8Mp cameras and true 1080p HD screens, outperforming the Vita in both areas.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Vita isn’t impressive. It really is. But it’s too early yet to tell if it’s going to be a real winner. The list of games available currently I would deem decent, and while there are upcoming titles that I look forward too, many of them are remakes (or should I say “remasters”) of older games such as the Oddworld series & Final Fantasy X, while the new games such as “Super Monkey Ball Vita”,”Marvel Pinball”, “Top Darts”, “Fish On!” and “Super Chess” leave me aghast and wondering how long we will have to wait after launch before another decent title pops up.
Finally, while it was only released in the UK yesterday, there are already a few holes that the development team of the “Vita v2.0” should seek to fill. The lack of any built-in internal memory to store games really should be addressed. The output of the screen needs to be upped to true HD - we know it can be done, it already has been. Depending on the lifespan Sony expect from the Vita line, supporting 4G would be a good move (yes, the UK is behind in its adoption of the super-fast mobile internet connection, but it’ll be here soon).
And for God’s sake, someone please invent a better battery to power these things!
My first ebook is up on Smashwords.com!
You can get it here https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131148 in ebook format, plain text, plain text PDF, open in web browser, java version, kindle, epub… pretty much anything you want to read it on is in there. PLUS there is also a full colour PDF comic version of it too, which really is the best way to read it (details on how to get this version are inside the ebook versions).
It’s in the style of a “found” medical record, concering the strange condition of J.W.Gray as documented by Dr H. Renholm.
There’s a free preview of the first 30% of it, and it’s $2.99 (about £1.80) for the full ebook.
Here’s a preview of the full colour PDF
If a couple of people fancy reviewing it and posting the review on their blog, on Smashwords, and generally helping publicise the work if they like it, then get in touch via cog.geekster@hotmail.co.uk and I’ll send you a free copy for you to review :)
Number 10 - Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
A lot of people may not have seen this at it got a limited run in UK cinemas as far as I can tell, which is a shame because it’s a brilliant film. A twist of the “deliverance” theme, a couple of shy, nice blokes who just happen to look like hillbillys retire to their woodland cabin for a relaxing holiday and to fix the place up. Along come a group of teenagers, who immediately assume that our two ‘billys want to kill them and rape their mouths, and in a fit of panic, start to accidentally kill themselves in hilarious and fantastic ways. As Tucker and Dale grow evermore scared and concerned about the safety of the teenagers, the teenagers grow evermore feral and determined to get revenge on T&D for the ‘murder’ of their friends.
One of the main reasons this movie works so well are the guys playing Tucker and Dale (Tyler Labine, who you may have seen in TV shows “Reaper” and “Invasion”, and Alan Tudyk , Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball) are endearing and right from the off, make their characters truly loveable to their audience.
The teenagers are so wonderfully stupid that you can’t help but hate them, so seeing them die in self-inflicted gory ridiculous ways is all the more satisfying. A marvellous compilation of stupidity and cleverness.
Number 9 - Kung-Fu Panda 2
Considering my usual film tastes, an animated aimed-mainly-at-kids film might seem a surprise to find on this list. It certainly surprised me when I went to see it the first time. After the original (which I only caught on DVD thanks a random rental from LoveFilm) brought Jack Black’s loveable panda Po to my attention, I crept into the sequel expecting more of the same – but it turns out that it is so much more.
A touching story, brilliant character development, great animation, and fantastic voice acting had me back to the cinema 2 more times to see this while it was showing.
Number 8 - The Inbetweeners Movie
Possibly the film that has made me laugh the most during this year. Having never seen the TV show before I went into to watch it, in my mind I had this movie pegged as a sort of “Kevin and Perry Go Large” for the generation of people who won’t know who Kevin and Perry are.
Filled with hilarious moments ranging from gross-out gags to awkward encounters to pure embarrassment and beyond, the story of 4 blokes off on holiday to get “knee deep in clunge” had me crying with laughter.
Number 7 - Drive Angry
And so, my action-junkie side is revealed as Nic Cage escapes from Hell and goes on a rampage of violence to save his dead daughter’s baby from being sacrificed to bring about some kind of evil. Ok, so the story isn’t exactly Oscar-worthy, but from the first teaser trailer I saw it was clear this was never meant to be. It’s all about the high-octane stunts, gunplay, car chasing, and devils-accountant-killing 3-barrel shotgun that can take out the side of a car. This movie is just me all over.
Number 6 - Conan the Barbarian
Conan roars and beat his chest manly-style as he chops and slices his way through hoards of evildoers in search of revenge for the killing of his father and townspeople.
The opening scene, featuring a young-boy Conan taking on a bunch of would-be killers by smashing their faces open on fallen trees, breaking their legs by chattering their kneecaps and smashing their skulls in using a war-axe almost as big as Conan is had be grinning like the Cheshire cat merely minutes into this movie.
Sure there are problems, some of the fight scenes are jumpily-cut, CGI isn’t always great and acting is sometimes stiffer than the corpses Conan leaves in his wake, but nonetheless I saw this movie 5 times in the cinema, and would have gone back for more were it still showing.
Number 5 - Captain America: The First Avenger
The only ‘superhero’ movie on my list this year, seeing as how Green Lantern is sat firmly in the naughty chair for sucking more than your average vampire.
Captain America manages to do something that a lot of superhero/comicbook movies of late don’t do – it provides an almost perfect balance between Captain America being the hero, and Steve Rogers growing as a person (see Spiderman 3 or Green Lantern for how to cock this up completely).
The fact that we are taken from meek Rogers trying in vain to join the army, being recruited into the super solider program, discovering what his new abilities can do, becoming a mascot for the war effort, throwing that aside and becoming a self-made hero to his war buddies, moving up to being a hero for the whole nation and taking on the big bad guy, all within the 120 minutes of the film while at the same time seeing enough of the Red Skull’s planning and activities to accept him as a viable world-threat, blossoming a romance for Cappy Rogers, seeing enough screen time of his long-time friend “Bucky” to feel the sting when he appears to be lost and having the whole thing culminate with an ending that sets the stage perfectly for the upcoming Avengers film is nothing short of spectacular.
Number 4 - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The only thing I love more than a good action movie is a good thriller/mystery/detective movie. I doubt I need to write any further justification for TTSS being near the top spot on my list. If you have seen the film, chances are you too would put it amongst the best of the year, if for nothing more than Gary Oldman’s performance alone.
It’s over 2 hours of a twisting head-scratching “whodunit” mystery, with intense screen presence from all the cast involved, and you really need to keep your eye on the ball while watching it. To quote a friend of mine when we left the cinema “I think I nodded off in the middle. I haven’t a clue what was going on for almost all of that”. Cinematic magic.
Number 3 - Unknown
Liam Neeson stars in this, another thriller/mystery but with some action thrown in for good measure. When Dr Martin Harris (Neeson) is involved in a car crash on his way to give a speech, he awakens 4 days later to find that someone else has taken his name, his career, his position – and even his wife.
It’s a race against time for Harris as he tries to prove the only thing he thinks he knows for sure; that he is Dr Martin Harris.
Or is he?
Number 2 - Source Code
Despite being release early in the year, I knew this would be almost, if not at, the top of my list this year. The ultimate in sci-fi thriller courtesy of Duncan Jones who also gave us the wonderful “Moon” back in 2009.
Captain Colter Stevens wakes up on a commuter train headed for Chicago. The woman opposite him talks to him like she knows him, but he has never seen her before and has no idea how he got there. When he looks in the mirror, he sees someone else’s face. 8 minutes later, the train blows up.
Captain Colter Stevens wakes up strapped into a chair, being given order by a woman on a screen. He has no idea who she is, or how he got there. There is a flash.
Captain Colter Stevens wakes up on a commuter train headed for Chicago. The woman opposite him talks to him like she knows him, and says the same thing she said before. When he looks in the mirror, he sees someone else’s face. 8 minutes, later the train blows up.
Captain Colter Stevens wakes up strapped into a chair, being given order by the woman on a screen again.
And so it continues, until Stevens figures out what the hell is happening, and why.
Now, the idea of the same 8 minutes spent on a train being played out over and over for 90 minutes sounds dull – and yet, with just the slightest changes on each “trip” through the 8 minutes, a brilliant and convoluted mystery begins to unfold, and as Stevens begins to unravel what is happening around him, there is a glimmer of hope that in 8 minutes, he could change everything.
Number 1 - Paul
Simon Pegg. Nick Frost. Seth Rogen as an alien. Jason Bateman as a no-nonsense agent. Bill Hader and Joe Lu Truglio as nothing-but-nonsense agents. Sigourney Weaver (cast in a film with an alien? Wonderfully comical). Jeffrey Tambor as Adam Shadowchild, sci-fi author of “Flux in Uranus” Voice-cameo from Steven Spielberg .
This movie is a nerdvana for geeks and sci-fi lovers, but also very accessible to anyone who loves the duo of Pegg & Frost, hell, anyone who loves comedy should love this.
Just as you would expect coming from the guys who brought us ‘Spaced’, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’, there are so many subtle (and not so subtle!) references to other movies, characters, themes and of course, comic books laced throughout this movie.
Seth Rogen’s voice fits the alien ‘Paul’ perfectly, and the CGI for the film is so good that you forget that he isn’t really there – and that’s a credit to Pegg & Frost too, their acting towards a non-existing character is flawless.
There’s so much good in the film that it would take way too long to write about everything I loved, and take you longer than you’d like to read it. But it’s one of the rare times I can say that there was nothing (and I really mean nothing) that I didn’t like about Paul.
That’s why it’s my favourite film of 2011.
So it’s been 1 week (give or take a few hours) since I got my iPad2, so I thought it about time I shared some further thoughts about it. Let me start by saying, god-damn I love freakin’ love the iPad2.
If you are an Apple hate, then you don’t know what you are missing. And no, I am not a ‘fanboi’ merely an enthusiast of excellent technical engineering and capability.
So, first off, Internet browsing: Safari browser included in iOS is speedy and renders pages very well in both portrait and landscape modes. There is still some ‘checkerboarding’ (showing a grid of small grey and white squares while the page loads) but only on pages with large amounts of content and only for a split second.
Once the page is loaded, the RAM of the iPad2 (a figure currently unknown) can handle having 9 Safari windows open at once, and very quickly switch between any of the windows without re-loading the webpage being displayed (something the iPad1 was not always capable of doing).
There are two main Apps not included in the pre-installed iOS that I have been making use of this week;
Garageband - a fantastic App and a steal at £3.99, making music becomes easy and fun. Drums are my favourite, but the guitar and bass works really well. The piano can be adjusted to show more notes or a double-organ style screen, and the pressure-sensor is good enough to be able to change a note based on how hard you hit the screen. Being able to record tracks piece by piece and layer them up then export them to your iTunes library and/or share them with others is a neat feature too. Defiinately worth it, just for the fun of hitting the crash symbol and bass drum alone!
Adobe Ideas (free version) - a pretty decent painting/drawing app, though features are limited to one type of brush, 1 layer (+1 photo layer), a decent colour palate but you can’t save your own selected colours to it and no ‘eye dropper’ tool to select a colour already on the canvas makes it hard to find the exact same colour later on. I managed to knock up a few drawings on it, though not with the best of ease, it’s very different to drawing with a pencil or even using a drawing tablet. You can purchase to unlock more layers for use but there are probably better Apps out there and I continue my search to find one.
Have also been using the official Twitter app, and I like it better than the full-on Twitter site I have to say! Viewing any weblinks within the app means no switching between Safari and Twitter, and the interface is nice and clean making good use of gestures/multiple finger taps for things such as opening profiles, and switching between Timeline and Weblinks.
What else…… the built-in cameras do a decent enough job. They are by no means high-spec, and the light level can really affect the pictures. No auto-focus on either camera means some apps for iphone can’t be used, I tried to test some Augmented Reality apps and was dissapointed to find I just got error messages. Oh well.
The screen really picks up on dirt and finger swipes. Cleaning it is easy, and the marks are not noticeable while you are using the pad, but once it’s switched off you can really see the marks.
Hence why I bought a Apple (Blue) Smart cover. Yes OK, it was probably £35 that I didn’t need to spend when a much cheaper unofficial cover would suffice, but in the interest of, well, being interested, I went for it anyway. The magnetic-on feature is really good, cover just snaps on in a second and is perfectly aligned to protect the pad every time. Cleans the screen really well and works great as a stand, also makes hold the pad easier too!
Overall I am majorly happy with my iPad2, it has very quickly become an ingrained part of my ‘online life’ and it much easier, quicker and more convenient than booting up my PC every time I want to use something better than the crummy 3G web on my phone.
So yeah OK, I caved in and got an iPad2 instead of a cheaper iPad1. My main reason though? An iPad1 was going to cost me £300ish, and then I was going to pay for a data plan on top of that each month too; my iPad2 cost me £289 and I get a data plan with that each each month….. so, kinda sort saving money. And the hardware is so much better it is worth the small extra cost I think.
Anyway, here’s some nice pics of the unboxing taking place.
The thing that got me was the fact that no-where on either the box, the manual or the actual iPad2 itself does it say “iPad2” - it kinda worried me that I’d be given the wrong device until I got it home and checked to see the camera’s! lol
This thing is gorgeous to look at. It feels really nice to hold, just like the first one. Unless you happened to have the first iPad to hold at the same time for comparison, the suttle weight difference largely goes un-noticed. The difference in thickness (or thin-ness?) is very apparant though. See next pic for just how thin this great bit of kit really is!
Thin thin thin!
Baby got back.
The screen is brilliantly bright, and almost all of the reflecticeness of the glass screen is lost once the iPad2 is turned on.
Currerntly it’s updating to iOS 4.3.1, then I’ll be hitting the apps store, testing the camera, Safari browser for speed/rendering…… the fun hs only just begun!
So with Friday’s ipmending release of the iPad2 in the UK and the USA having had it for a few weeks now, there are plenty of snippets of info out there on the web about the differences between the two. Some are pretty big, while others may go unseen or un-used by many. Here is a quick roundup of the differences;
Hardware -
First, the iPad 2 has more RAM, which affects almost everything the iPad2 does and makes it faster. Apple won’t say how much it has (the original iPad has just 256Mb) but it’s likely that the iPad2 has 512Mb, though it could be as much as 1Gb.
Second, from what I’ve seen the screen is crisper and brighter with better image resolution. Overall though there isn’t much difference and for most things that you will use the iPad or iPad2 for, both will give you a great view of whatever webpage you are viewing or app you are using.
Third, a minor one, the “lock/unlock” switch at the side of the pad can be changed on the iPad2 to be a quick “mute/unmute” button. Perfect for if you are sneaking a look at something during a boring meeting and don’t want to get suprised by an advert playing music!
Fourth, the cameras. This is a big one, something that most people felt was missing from the iPad1 within hours of it being released. One forward-facing camera and one HD rear-facing camera built in to every model of the iPad2. Good stuff Apple!
Fifth, a built-in gyroscope combined with motion sensor means that iPad2 knows not only which way you are holding it, but what angle, how fast you are walking with it, if you shake it, spin it, do a 360 spin or just turn it upside down - something that no doubt game creators will take advantage of.
Sixth, the processor has been doubled now to a dual-core. There is a lot of misleading info on what “Dual core” actually does. Yes, there are two processors, but no that doesn’t make it twice as fast. It is faster than one core, but not double the speed!
Seventh, graphics have had a real boost for the iPad2. Apple claim that the graphics are up to NINE times faster than the iPad1. I’ve seen lots of videos of the iPad2 in use, and have to say it does appear to be true.
Eighth, the iPad2 has a range of hardware accessories coming out that the first iPad doesn’t; there is a cable that displays your iPad2’s screen onto your TV in very high quality HDMI, and there is a SmartCover that connects using magnets to always be in the right position on your iPad2 - plus, when you close the cover the iPad2 goes straight to sleep, open the cover it automatically wakes up, saving you battery life and being very convenient at doing so. Plus it comes in dark red leather - sweet!
And lastly, despite putting all the extra stuff in the iPad2, and making it thinner than the iPhone4, the 10 hour battery life with up to a month of standby time remains. And that’s not just 10 hours on the lowest brightness setting with it doing nothing but being on, that’s 10 hours of real use, something that has been tested by many a skeptical reviewer and found to be true most of the time.
So the hardware is an impressive upgrade; thiiner, lighter, but more content and even more attreactive looking than the first iPad. But what about software?
The iPad2 will run the latest version of iOS with all the usual Apple trimmings. It will make use of every app created for the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad1, as well as the bounty of apps that will appear rapidly making use of the new iPad2 hardware features.
Apple really promoted FaceTime for the iPad2 at it’s launch campaign. The idea of being able to video-call via the web (or 3G if you have that version of the iPad2) using a near-HD camera and see crystal clear image of the person you are talking to on a near-10-inch screen is pretty exciting (unless you have really ugly friends I suppose!) The downside to it is that you can only call other Apple devices that have FaceTime on them. So hard luck if your mates have Android phones, Samsung Galaxy tablets or Motorola XOOM tablets, your FaceTime will be useless.
Other Apps that got a plug included GarageBand, where the power of the electronic mixing desk was shown to great effect. Being able to create music directly on the iPad is pretty cool, I especially like the Virtual Drum Kit which you can play using your fingers, and the Piano which can sense how hard you are pressing the iPad2 screen to change the sound of the notes being played.
One thing we don’t know yet is if these new iPad2 Apps can be used on the iPad1 at all. I suspect they probably can, but perhaps won’t perform quite as well.
So, the most important thing then: THE PRICE!
There is currently nothing published that states the actual cost of the iPad2 in the UK other than Steve Jobs’ promise that it will cost the same as the original iPad did when it was released last year. In the US the basic iPad2 model starts at $499, so it’s probbaly safe to assume that the basic 16Gb WiFi-only iPad2 should come in at around the £429 mark, with the top end 64Gb Wifi-and-3G model hitting around £700.
I received an email from Apple earlier today stating that the iPad2 will be going on sale from 5PM on Friday this week. Apple stores should be opening for that time, and staying open until midnight I expect. Other shops like PC World and Dixons offer no guarantee that they will have any stock of the new iPad2 units at all, due to the way Apple operates (no stock will be delivered to stores until a few hours before it goes on sale). If America is anything to go by, you can expect people starting to queue outside Apple shops in the UK on Thursday evening, willing to spend the next 24 hours on that spot to ensure they are one of the first to get their mitts on the new ‘pad.
As for UK pre-order, it is assumed that the Apple online store will start to accept them from 12.01am on Friday morning - however, it will likely only be a “Collect in Store” job for a time, forcing you to reserve an iPad2 online then make a trip to your local (or not so local, depending on where you live!) store to pick it up.
If you don’t sit at the Apple store website and keep hitting F5 (refresh for those who dn’t know!) to ‘pre-order’ or ‘reserve’ yout iPad2, or are not willing to sit outside your local Apple Store for 24 hours and gain a claim to fame for Apple FanBoi-ism then you will likely be waiting a few months *at least* to get your hands on one of these devices. A few weeks into the release in America and the Apple Store is telling people to expect to wait 4-6 weeks after placing their order for any model of the iPad2. I expect that in the UK that will be more like 8-12 weeks myself.
So is it worth getting an iPad2? Well, it depends what you really want it for I suppose. If you want to come home, pick it up, check your email, post something on facebook and check the local cinema times while listening to the radio or your iTunes, then the 16Gb WiFi-only iPad1 will do you just fine, and considering you can get those brand new for as £329 now it’s not really such a great expense anymore.
If you are going to be watching movies, storing a massive iTunes library, pictures, games and have a real appetite for apps than the iPad1 32Gb or even 64Gb might be better suited for your needs.
for the iPad2, I think we have to go a step further to really justify the cost of the product. Ask yourself, are you going to be getting a 3G model? Or perhaps more approriately, is the aim of your iPad2 to become your always-on internet-everywhere compainion to everything you do in you day to day life? If the answer is no, then I already advise you to look at an iPad1 instead.
If you have lots of friends who have iPhone4’s or are also getting iPad2’s, who you are eager to video call and can’t wait to webchat with, then sure the iPad2 holds appeal for you. If you are looking for a new type of gaming console, no doubt the iPad2’s faster graphics and built-in cameras will lead to some fantastic augmented-reality games (Google it if you don’t know what that it, it’s very cool albeit something still very muich in the Beta-test & development phases). Musicians who want to compose on-the-go, video editing guru’s who’d love to edit their latest artsy movie while on the London Underground, these people will push the iPad2 to it’s true limit. The majority of users will use the iPad2 coasting along to check Facebook, read MSN News and maybe play Doodle Jump.
Overall, the iPad2 is a brilliant new bit of kit (and even if you hate Apple you can’t deny that….. well, you can, but you’d be a moron) but as with the iPad1 when it was first released it doesn’t have an massively obvious market. Yes, the FanBoi’s who love everything with an Apple logo on it so much that you could stick it on a turd and sell it to them will rush out, queue for 24 hours buy one and proudly proclaim that they were the first to use an iPad2 to FaceTime to someone. And those that never owned an iPad1 but are curous about the technology and how it could (for lack of a better phrase) enchance their lives might part their cash to get one.
But for me, having spent the last few weeks agonising over whether or not to buy one, reading everything iPad2-related that I could clap eyes on and checking the Apple Store 20 times a day to see if that “Notify Me” magically changed into a “PreOrder now!” button, the thing I think is best about the iPad2 coming out is the reduction in price to the iPad1. Besides, it’s not always a bad thing to be slightly behind the new market, at this point any bugs and issues with iPad1 hardware and software will be ironed out, whereas the iPad2 is still yet to face it’s true test - the hands and minds of the non-techy general public (and trust me, that is a scary prospect for any new device!)
Want to pick up an iPad1 then? Definately ignore sites like eBay, where bidding-happy morons are paying out over £400 for something Apple and PC World sell new for £329, but maybe check your local classifieds for someone parting with their iPad1. Alternatively, pop along and get a spanking new iPad1 from a shop near you (or from the UK Apple Store, where you can get free engraving on the back of your iPad if you so desire).
That’s what I’ll be doing!