Children of Men

Take a couple of 2 year olds, give them each an iPad and let them play around with it. Before you know it you realise two things (1) Apple owns these kids for life and (2) when this current crop of 2 year olds grow up I am not sure we will even be able to communicate with them anymore given our old-fashioned ways of doing things, out thinking, our language and whatever else is bound to change over time as they grow up and acquire skills we can't even start to predict. Check out these two videos and let your imagination roam a little. You'll understand what I mean.

The iPad scoop we somehow missed

A few weeks before the actual release of the iPad 2 these Scandinavian guys seem to have gotten their hands on a top secret prototype model. This is actually a very cute video with a lot of cool masking effects to achieve the desired result.

The iPad 2 promo they will never show you

Those of you who have seen the new iPad 2 promo video will immediately recognize where this spoof gets it from. Funny stuff.

Light: yes, Lite: just a little

 

As it turns out my predictions in a previous post were ALMOST on the money. The MacBook Pro line DID get updated today, LightPeak technology did make it in there, but no SSD or doing away with traditional hard drives...yet. Apparently the machines are a little lighter, contain a new chipset, have a new type of front-facing camera and are generally more powerful. Apple calls its version of the LightPeak technology Thunderbolt (after FireWire I guess it kind of makes sense). 

Now we wait patiently for the March 2 announcement. 

I can hardly contain myself...

 

OK, so this is all Apple will show us. We are to infer from this that on March 2 the iPad 2 is coming out. Nice use of the number 2, and that calendar page is strategically ripped so as NOT to show us that front facing camera we have all been waiting for (or have we ?).

Patience, my friends, patience. All will be revealed in due course.

Travellin' Light

I have just spent a week traveling with a MacBook Air 13 inch in my bag. For those of you unfamiliar with this little beauty, we are talking about one of the lightest, thinest laptop computers ever created as a consumer product. Leaving beauty and elegance aside for a moment, what is amazing about this baby is that you don't even notice you have a computer with you until the moment you need it. The machine weighs about 1.3 kg, is super thin (1.7 cm at its thickest point) but once on you notice that the screen real estate is identical to the MacBook Pro 15 inch. The fact that it only contains flash storage means your bootup time is cut to a minimum and starting Word or Excel, which can otherwise take forever, is now a matter of a couple of seconds. No compromise as far as the keyboard is concerned: we're talking full size here. I won't attempt to edit a movie or do much music production on this baby, but that's not the purpose it serves either. 

So far I am having a ball. I'll occasionally dip back in and let you know how I make out with this little gem.

Tech-Year In Review

As we approach the end of the year it is appropriate to do a quick review of the best and worst tech that appeared in the market. But it's always best to leave such things to professionals. Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal considers the iPad to have been THE product of 2010. Here are his views on the best and worst of 2010. (Give the ad at the beginning of the video a few seconds to run first).

My Blackberry Is Not Working

Harry Enfield and Ronnie Corbett "take the piss" out of Apple, Orange, RIM and a few others. VERY original and VERY funny. No need for me to elaborate. Just watch and enjoy.