Showing posts with label iPad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPad. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 May 2012
366/134 - Getting ready for the Premier League finale...
Click here for today's Day of Judgement Project 366!
Monday, 21 November 2011
10 things I like
After I wrote my blogpost 65 Things I Hate, several people challenged me to come up with a list of things I like - some wondering whether I just hated everything!
So, after much consideration, here is a list of 10 things that I really like (in no particular order):
1. Jellyfish - I think they're beautiful. I'd love to have a room where the walls were an aquarium full of wonderfully lit jellyfish...
2. Debating for the sake of debating
3. Old, historic cities like Oxford, York, Bath and Edinburgh
4. Composing and conducting
5. Cathedrals and other big churches (which may seem odd as I'm an atheist - but I love the architecture and scale of the buildings - I find nothing spiritual in them)
6. Going to the cinema (particularly when I'm the only person there)
7. The Adagio from Schubert's String Quintet in C
8. Art galleries
9. Silence (or as near to silence as possible)
10. Gadgets - particuarly my iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iMac....
So, after much consideration, here is a list of 10 things that I really like (in no particular order):
1. Jellyfish - I think they're beautiful. I'd love to have a room where the walls were an aquarium full of wonderfully lit jellyfish...
2. Debating for the sake of debating
3. Old, historic cities like Oxford, York, Bath and Edinburgh
4. Composing and conducting
5. Cathedrals and other big churches (which may seem odd as I'm an atheist - but I love the architecture and scale of the buildings - I find nothing spiritual in them)
6. Going to the cinema (particularly when I'm the only person there)
7. The Adagio from Schubert's String Quintet in C
9. Silence (or as near to silence as possible)
10. Gadgets - particuarly my iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iMac....
Thursday, 27 October 2011
REVIEW: Tap! On Newsstand
If you've not used Newsstand on an iOS5 device yet you really don't know what you're missing (obviously).
In the same way as the iTunes store revolutionised online music sales, Apple hopes that Newsstand will revolutionise the newspaper and magazine market. It is both an online newsagents and a library for your purchases - so far I love it. I've felt guilty for a while that I hadn't given up paper magazines in the same way as I've stopped buying CDs, books and DVDs (unless they're offered very cheaply in a sale!).
I've never bought a lot of magazines, and early attempts at e-magazines were awful... Just PDFs of the physical product that you flipped through. Newsstand takes magazines into the 21st century - at last!
It's like the newspapers from Harry Potter - the pages come alive!
Tap! is a magazine I've bought since it launched a couple of years back. It gives information and reviews about apps, devices, etc. for iPhones, iPods and iPads. It's always been a good read but the Newsstand version takes things on and makes it a much more enjoyable experience.
But it's not just a web site - it's a completely different experience!
The writing is good, informative and not too techy. There's always a celeb part (in the latest edition Graham Linehan discusses his iPhones home screen) and there used to be a column by Caitlin Moran but that seems have gone. I guess it was unnecessary puff.
Via the Newsstand version you can not only read a review of, say, an new app, scan through various images of it in use but, from with within the magazine, click straight to the app store so that you can download it. You can purchase individual issues or subscribe too.
Genius!
The other publication I love is the Guardian newspaper Newsstand edition. Currently it's free (due to a sponsorship from Channel 4) - then it will become become about £10 per month.
Yes, yes, I'm sure I'm going to be called a Fanboy again but, really, you should try it out or, at least, get someone to show you how good it is.
The one thing Newsstand needs is a bigger range of magazines but, surely, this both heralds the end of print media whilst giving a lifeline to the same publications.
In the same way as the iTunes store revolutionised online music sales, Apple hopes that Newsstand will revolutionise the newspaper and magazine market. It is both an online newsagents and a library for your purchases - so far I love it. I've felt guilty for a while that I hadn't given up paper magazines in the same way as I've stopped buying CDs, books and DVDs (unless they're offered very cheaply in a sale!).
I've never bought a lot of magazines, and early attempts at e-magazines were awful... Just PDFs of the physical product that you flipped through. Newsstand takes magazines into the 21st century - at last!
It's like the newspapers from Harry Potter - the pages come alive!
Tap! is a magazine I've bought since it launched a couple of years back. It gives information and reviews about apps, devices, etc. for iPhones, iPods and iPads. It's always been a good read but the Newsstand version takes things on and makes it a much more enjoyable experience.
But it's not just a web site - it's a completely different experience!
The writing is good, informative and not too techy. There's always a celeb part (in the latest edition Graham Linehan discusses his iPhones home screen) and there used to be a column by Caitlin Moran but that seems have gone. I guess it was unnecessary puff.
Via the Newsstand version you can not only read a review of, say, an new app, scan through various images of it in use but, from with within the magazine, click straight to the app store so that you can download it. You can purchase individual issues or subscribe too.
Genius!
The other publication I love is the Guardian newspaper Newsstand edition. Currently it's free (due to a sponsorship from Channel 4) - then it will become become about £10 per month.
Yes, yes, I'm sure I'm going to be called a Fanboy again but, really, you should try it out or, at least, get someone to show you how good it is.
The one thing Newsstand needs is a bigger range of magazines but, surely, this both heralds the end of print media whilst giving a lifeline to the same publications.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
OBITUARY: Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
Of course I never met Steve Jobs but he still had an amazing effect on my life.
I still remember the date: December 4th 1999. That was the day I bought my first Apple product.
It was a Blueberry iMac. I loved it. It just worked. Straight from the box, it worked. No effort, no installing countless disks. Within minutes I was online from home for the first time ever.
Before that, I had been using an Atari for music stuff - notation was done on a program called Sharpscore, which was good but a bit buggy, and sequencing using Cubase. My old Atari was great for music things but it wasn't the way ahead.
My iMac had, what was then, a huge hard drive (a whole 8GB!) and, because it was in the days before broadband had arrived, it announced it was connecting to the Internet with that fanfare of pings and pings and white noise that will surely be remembered as one of the most important sounds as we reached the new Millennium.
For the creative industries there is no other choice. Apple computers are the ONLY ones worth bothering with.
Apple products have made being a musician much easier and PCs have, and still, trail in their wake.
Since then I have had MacBooks and a more recent iMac, various iPods, several iPhones and an iPad. I've used my Apple TV to stream movies from computer to TV. I've bought books and magazines digitally. My life has been totally transformed by Apple. They've made life simpler and easier and they've done it better than anyone else.
Sure, I've been accused of being a Fanboy I'm not. So many who snipe at Apple products do so having either never tried them or simply from a position of jealousy. And even if I was a fanboy, doesn't it make sense to be a fan of things that are just so good. As near to perfect as is possible?
But, of course, Steve Jobs was more than just Apple. As a parent, Pixar and their innovations have enriched the lives of my children. Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Up! to name just four of their movies, will be remembered as some of the greatest movies ever made.
Steve Jobs was an inspirational figure, who took a whole generation and made them realise that it was right to dream. His products have changed lives in a positive way. His contribution to society will not be forgotten.
I still remember the date: December 4th 1999. That was the day I bought my first Apple product.
It was a Blueberry iMac. I loved it. It just worked. Straight from the box, it worked. No effort, no installing countless disks. Within minutes I was online from home for the first time ever.
Before that, I had been using an Atari for music stuff - notation was done on a program called Sharpscore, which was good but a bit buggy, and sequencing using Cubase. My old Atari was great for music things but it wasn't the way ahead.
My iMac had, what was then, a huge hard drive (a whole 8GB!) and, because it was in the days before broadband had arrived, it announced it was connecting to the Internet with that fanfare of pings and pings and white noise that will surely be remembered as one of the most important sounds as we reached the new Millennium.
For the creative industries there is no other choice. Apple computers are the ONLY ones worth bothering with.
Apple products have made being a musician much easier and PCs have, and still, trail in their wake.
Since then I have had MacBooks and a more recent iMac, various iPods, several iPhones and an iPad. I've used my Apple TV to stream movies from computer to TV. I've bought books and magazines digitally. My life has been totally transformed by Apple. They've made life simpler and easier and they've done it better than anyone else.
Sure, I've been accused of being a Fanboy I'm not. So many who snipe at Apple products do so having either never tried them or simply from a position of jealousy. And even if I was a fanboy, doesn't it make sense to be a fan of things that are just so good. As near to perfect as is possible?
But, of course, Steve Jobs was more than just Apple. As a parent, Pixar and their innovations have enriched the lives of my children. Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Up! to name just four of their movies, will be remembered as some of the greatest movies ever made.
Steve Jobs was an inspirational figure, who took a whole generation and made them realise that it was right to dream. His products have changed lives in a positive way. His contribution to society will not be forgotten.
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