It is also the first chance I’ve had to play on an iPad. It definitely does elicit a “Oooh” on seeing it. It’s prettier and smaller than I thought it would be. I’ve already checked out the video capability by watching the Sex and the City 2 trailer (again – well it’s important that it’s something I can do a like for like comparison on my iPhone and Macbook) and now I’m checking out the typing capability with this blog. It’s actually quite nice to type on, I’m getting a fair pace up and feel like I’ve got to grips with the keyboard in a couple of paragraphs even though I have to remember to change for different punctuation. The leap from iPhone to iPad is minimal, but landscape the keyboard is very acceptable for writing.

It is a thing of beauty… I can imagine sitting on a train typing away or taking a break to watch a movie. The most appealing thing is the size is small enough to fit in most of my handbags. If I travelled as much as I used to then I would almost certainly get one of these to save on luggage when a laptop wasn’t necessary. Especially now Im convinced I could type on it without trouble.

Having said that I wouldn’t necessarily use it as an eBook reader. With the iPad you are reading a screen, unlike the Sony Reader where the experience isn’t nearly as harsh on your eyes (as someone who is due their first pair of glasses probably due to too much screen time that’s a huge drawback). The other reason is that I don’t believe the days of the book are over, I’m quite sentimental about holding a real book in my hand to read. And these days even the humble paperback is multifunctional. Place it under your iPad and it makes it just the right height of the surface to be able to type comfortably! (although I’m currently using an empty Graze* box, they are multifunctional too!)

The only major downside is publishing this blog. In an hour of playing about on this thing I have learned many things, such as how to save an image from the web or email to your iPad and realised just how fast you can switch between apps. But to work between Evernote, WordPress and Safari is too fiddly for my liking and I’ve ended up heading back to my work PC to finish up the job. It’s probably a good job there is a downside as it stops me from heading straight to the Newcastle Apple Store after work (actually my leg would also do a pretty good job of slowing me down!)

Compared to the iPad my iPhone suddenly seems tiny too! And that’s the third first of the day. Hopefully sometime soon after 6pm (BST) Steve Jobs will announce the new iPhone HD/4G and that i am very excited about. Never before have I been at the moment of a major Apple release able to justify indulging in the newness. For the first time i have a genuine excuse of being at the point of upgrade on my contract. Much as I may have to have this iPad prized from my hands in an hour or so, I will let it go and for now resist rushing out and buying one for myself. But once the new iPhone is on pre-order wild horses won’t be able to stop me…

*try Graze for free (includes free iPad stand… kind of!) using the code RDFJPGB at http://www.graze.com/

1. xkcd – Static
I discovered xkcd a few years ago and I have been known to spend hours hitting random and browsing through this wonderful land of geeky goodness. For me the xkcd strip of the year goes to… ‘Static‘.

2. Dilbert – 4th October 2009
When everything seems a little bit insane and off the wall at work you know there’s someone out there experiencing exactly the same thing. Dilbert. And of course this year Dilbert discovered Twitter, and this became one of my favourite strips of the year.

3. The Terminatrix
I just want it to be true…

4. The world according to Americans
A picture (or badly drawn map) paints a 1000 words

5. Why I’d rather be punched in the balls than call customer services
This showed up just before I experienced a years worth of bad customer service in a week. Bad customer service drives me insane. I felt this eloquently captured the experience many of us have had on multiple occasions. (I couldn’t post the whole thing on here so just mosey on over to The Oatmeal to check it out)

I’ll start with ‘Five… things I learned from the internet’. Back in August I finally discovered Google Reader as a way to keep up with all the blogs and websites in the past I’ve wanted to follow but always forgot to check. Most of these links have come via ‘What’s Hot in Google Reader‘ and ‘This Isn’t Happiness‘* which between them keep me up to date with things that make me smile, laugh and go “wow!” I’ve picked five things that I liked so much they got passed on to other people, and that I keep going back to myself.

1. Visual Aids
Do you remember those wall charts for facts you had at school. Well Visual Aids are like those but 100 times cooler! Buy their books from Amazon or posters of the charts from their own online shop.

2. The Deadliest Place on Earth?
This possibly got one of the biggest “WOW“s of the year! I’ll be tuning into ‘How earth made us‘ on BBC2 in the new year to find out more.

“It’s 50 oC and has a humidity of 100%, less than a hundred people have been inside and it’s so deadly that even with respirators and suits of ice you can only survive for 20 minutes before your body starts to fail. It’s the nearest thing to visiting another planet – it’s going deep inside our own.”

3. Did you know? 3.0
I saw this a few months ago, but it was also shown at a conference I attended in November. It’s enough to make your head explode. There is no a Did you know? 4.0 but I prefer the 2008 version.

4. Internet Speeds & Costs around the World
Maybe it’s just because this year I have the worst broadband I’ve ever had that this caught my eye. I do find this fascinating to see how the UK compares to the world in different ways, and this is a very pretty visual comparison. (On the Gizmodo site click the image to see a bigger version)

5. Who is getting rich off the iPhone?
I’m a mac geek and an iPhone fan. And unlike recent suggestions in the media I’m pretty sure I’m not suffering from iPhone Syndrome. Using pretty graphics to explain something fairly complex to me is always going to be a winner!

*Warning: This Isn’t Happiness is NSFW & some posts may contain images which are offensive to some people.

Now I’m writing more regularly I’m getting less scared about making mistakes, and accepting that not everything is perfect first time. I’m rubbish at carrying a pen and paper with me, but have discovered Evernote which lives on my Mac, iPhone and PC at work. As it’s on the web too I’m never far from having somewhere to jot notes down.

For a long time I have been a “writer” in my head. Virtually penning a wonderful masterpiece, only for it to be lost from memory when it’s been pushed out by something else such as an urgent phone call.  But now I get more of it down. I’m not scared of it being right or wrong, or of it being irrelevant at a later date. I just write it and stick it in my Evernote archive. Here there are blogs that have never been published. Things I’ve written down to think through. Links and notes I’ve picked up that might be useful in future.

But the fear of writing hasn’t gone because of a handy computer application. It’s gone because I practiced. Because I made myself write and deal with whatever came out. It’s just handy to have somewhere to store it all without emailing myself or writing on scrap pieces of paper.

Now I can write a blog in 15 minutes. It seems when I’m less scared of the words they come out more quickly and need much less editing. I can even do it on my lunch break!

The moral of this tale is if you want to write just do it. There is no easy quick-fix to make writing easier and develop your talent. You just have to keep doing it, and like exercise (which I’m now “practicing” too) it does get easier the more you do. If you keep this up then one day you’ll be unable to write and find that you are craving it. It starts as a chore, becomes a habit and ends up as an addiction. And I’m proud to be addicted to writing.

p.s. If you don’t believe me get yourself a copy of ‘The Right to Write’ by Julia Cameron. I love it.