I have now had my iPad for over a month, and I did wonder prior to getting the iPad how much I would use my netbook. In this past month i have been a little shocked at how little its been used, I have not used or switched it once! My iPad has now become the go to device for all of the above, as well as surfing, blogging, tweeting and posting to Facebook.

Apple did say that the iPad really wont replace your computer and will be more of a lounge device, but to be honest, if you have a separate laptop for lounge use then the iPad will and does replace your laptop.

Looking at the Acer Aspire Windows Netbook sitting here in the lounge, I feel kind of guilty that I haven’t powered it up once, but the iPad is doing everything the net book previously was doing but so much more. I haven’t even switched on my PS3 or my PSP to play any games, the iPad has taken over that realm too.

Do you have an iPad, if so how much have you found it’s changing you’re life?

Why am i using the iPad so much? Well its quite simply a much richer experience with the larger screen and not having to squint at such a small screen like you have on the iPhone. The iPad is really my lounge device, or if I’m going over family or friends or know there will be a wifi access point that I can access, then I’ll take the iPad with me. For everything else, including out and about internet access outside of a wifi hotspot, the iPhone for me still rules. Unfortunately 3G although fast, for me is still way too slow for a larger 10″ display, and i think this is something that most people will find when they our chase an iPad 3G.

Launched in North America to coincide with the U.S. release of GPS enabled iPad 3G models, detailed street-level maps of the U.S. and Canada are stored directly on the iPad. Customers do not need to download maps for each trip or worry about being left stranded without maps in mobile dead spots. Apps for additional regions will be launched as the iPad 3G becomes available worldwide in coming months.

A Sensational Visual Experience
CoPilot Live HD makes complete use of the iPad’s large touch screen in portrait or landscape, displaying the route ahead clearly and with beautiful hi-resolution graphics. The split screen navigation view uses the 768 x 1024 screen real estate to maximum effect—combining uncluttered 3D or 2D map views with clear, non-distracting turn instructions. Four dual view options available.

In-Car Navigation You Can Rely On
With CoPilot Live HD, you don’t have to download maps for each trip or worry about being left stranded without maps in mobile dead spots. CoPilot Live stores detailed street level maps of the U.S. and Canada directly on the iPad 3G—allowing offline GPS navigation and comprehensive trip planning. Free MapSure map improvements and updates keep your CoPilot Live current with changes in the road network.

Powerful Trip-Planning Features
More than just voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation. CoPilot Live HD’s powerful offline trip planning and route preview features let you plan complete door-to-door itineraries on your iPad 3G before you hit the road. You can enter multiple stops for a single journey and optimize to calculate the most efficient route. Additional features include a fuel cost estimator and the ability to create customized routing profiles for your personal preferences.

A Dedicated GPS Navigation System

• CoPilot Live HD is packed with all the navigation features you know and love in CoPilot Live, including:
  Turn-by-turn voice directions
• Clear 3D and 2D driving views with speed variable zoom and full street names
• Lane indicator display and CoPilot ClearTurn™ for a realistic view at complex intersections
• Navigate to a house number, street intersection or address book contact
• Guidance in tunnels and underpasses
• Thousands of pre-loaded Points of Interest
• Free monthly map improvement downloads directly to your iPad 3G Free quarterly full map updates of the U.S. and Canada
• Portrait / landscape display auto-switching and pinch-zoom functionality
• Access to iPod music controls from within the app
• Live Local Search
• LiveLink™ location sharing with Facebook status updates
• Live weather for your location or destination

More information available at CoPilot Live HD website.

The way I see it, with the App Store fully backed by Apple, that most people will want to go directly for an iPad over the Archos, although the Archos 9 is still reasonably priced for their 60gb version.

For anyone wanting a Linux or Android or Windows flavoured tablet pad, then the Arhcos 9 will definitely be for those people in mind, but for the regular consumer on the street who already has some investment in Apple whether it’s iTunes music, or other Apps on their previous devices, Apple will most likely be the way to go for their purchase of the iPad.

I read a comment from a customer on Amazon that said…”I bought the Archos 9 thinking I was buying into new technology, what a let down.
Windows 7 took ages to boot up was so slow in running I thought the touch screen was not working but the machine is so slow. Also MSN Messenger video always froze the whole thing up I would not recommend this machine to anyone, sorry to archos.”

Hmmm, that’s not a good endorsement for a tablet or for Microsoft Windows 7

Multi-touch isn’t new, many manufacturers have been using it, for instance Apple have multi-touch on the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can have multiple fingers on-screen gaming using virtual controllers, and you can also use other nice features like pinch to zoom.

So how will multi-touch change our lives I hear you say?

Well, like all old technology that disappears over time, the mouse input that we have on PC’s and Mac’s is very antiquated. You would think in the last 20 or 30 years that we would have designed multi-mice or track balls so you could have two pointers on-screen and use both hands, e.g. left hand to move one mouse or trackball pointer and right hand to move another mouse or trackball pointer.

The problem with many of the operating systems to date is they still don’t support multiple inputs of the same type. They do support multiple inputs though, like you can use the keyboard and the mouse at the same time, you just can’t use two mice because it will involve two pointers on screen. Probably one of the reasons we don’t have two mouse pointers is that it’s going to be difficult to work out which pointer is doing what on screen. Then the operating system needs to understand are you left clicking with one mouse pointer and right clicking with the other mouse pointer. It gets quite complicated.

Here’s where multi-touch is changing our lives already and will ultimately be the killer of the mouse. Why use an antiquated device like a mouse or a trackball to control something on-screen? It’s very unnatural to do this and the more natural to just touch the screen in multiple places. The downside with touch is that you can’t left click or right click, but you can hold your finger pressure on a subject for a second or more that could bring up a right click context.

Apple are one of the main companies that has designed multi-touch to be very sweet and to the degree that most people don’t even understand the technology is actually there on their iPhone or iPod Touch as it works extremely well and doesn’t inhibit you in anyway. That’s how technology should be, it shouldn’t be something that stands out and gets in your way, it should be something that’s subtle but effective.

Multi-touch will make us more productive and increase productivity, and multi-touch might go from two or 4 pressure points to 10 or 20 over the next few years. Microsoft have also been pushing the boundary with Microsoft Surface which is a massive table top screen that allows for multi-touch.

Apple have also recently incorporated the same multi-touch that they have in the iPhone and iPod Touch into the new Apple iPad to bring multi-touch to a much bigger 10″ screen. Other companies have tried to implement multi-touch but many still haven’t implemented it to the same quality or accuracy as Apple has.

This is mostly to demonstrate how ebooks or etextbooks could be used on a daily basis by students, but equally this translates well into the business world and that’s where it would first start off.

Think about it for a second, if you could have not only a 8″-10″ tablet that works great for ebooks and etextbooks, but also allows you to look at PDF’s, work on word or excel documents, perform annotations on books, take lecture notes, record voice, this could be pretty cool.

With the thousands of devices on the market today, there’s 3x main operating systems for me that stand out. They are Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile. There are other platforms like Symbian (although a dying breed) and Linux in general.

Most people are buying mobile phones that fit into one of the above 3 (or 4) camps. Personally I’ve always been a big fan of Windows Mobile in the past, frustrated with the lack of progress seeing the Android and iPhone platforms coming up very fast from nowhere. Although I’ve used Android quite a lot, I decided to switch from Windows Mobile to the iPhone and have not regretted it yet.

Each of the above platforms now have SatNav for them, CoPilot Live v8 for me is awesome and runs really well on all the platforms, they all have met the needs of the mobile profesional, e.g. Push Email, Facebook connectivity, Twitter Connectivity, Mobile Web Browsing, and the list goes on. There’s so many devices to choose from, but only a small amount of platforms.

The platform / OS war is really starting to open up. Currently Apple is in the lead followed closely by Android and Microsoft are now falling behind. Where will it be in 6 months or a year from now, or maybe 2 years?

We’re all wanting bigger and better screens, better touch technology, better battery life, better mobile interconnectivity. We want our devices to have GPS or SatNav as standard, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Exchange and much more. Could the iTablet from Apple (still under wraps) be the ultimate answer? Could a 7″ or 10″ internet tablet be what we all crave for with bluetooth phone connectivity? Time will tell.

What devices and platform do you currently use, and what do you like or dislike about them?

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Just imagine a laptop or notebook that has a flexible screen, and that screen can be one giant display once it’s unrolled. Or it can assume a laptop/notebook form, with part of the screen serving as a touch keyboard.

The future is just around the corner!

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The HD2 was announced for Europe yesterday and there were some rumblings that HTC said it would be in the US in 2010.

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HTC said “We believe that the best things in life should be experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is based on this principle by making the phone more simple and natural to use and by enabling people to personalise their mobile experience in their own unique way,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. With HTC Sense, the HTC HD2 melds the power and flexibility of the Windows platform with the most advanced phone we’ve ever created.”

“HTC has a long history of innovation with Windows Mobile, shipping millions of devices over the years in a wide range of designs,” said Andy Lees, senior vice president, Mobile Communication Business, Microsoft Corp. “The HTC HD2 Windows phone breaks new ground with its responsive, touch screen.”

The HD2 is the first capacitive touch display on a Windows Mobile phone to make viewing, zooming and resizing websites, Microsoft® Office files, PDF documents and pictures easier with just a pinch of your fingers. The large display also enables faster, more efficient and accurate typing using the on-screen keyboard.

The HD2 sports the new Qualcomm’s 1Ghz Snapdragon mobile processor offering enhanced performance that improves the speed of applications, videos, games and more.

With the launch of the HD2 it also comes packed with the Windows Market Place to allow to download a wealth of applications from the newly released Windows® Marketplace.

The HD2 comes with a large 4.3-inch window-like display, HTC has brought a new dimension to weather with a localized, animated weather experience that utilizes HD2’s entire display without being invasive to your important content and information.

With the HTC Sense experience, the HD2 includes a variety of enhancements that expand and improve the overall phone experience including a variety of sensors like a proximity sensor that is used to prevent false screen touches when the phone is picked up to answer or make a call. Also a light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the display.

With its industry leading, high-resolution, 4.3-inch capacitive touch display, the ultra thin HTC HD2 delivers more visible content in a sharper, brighter and richer way.

If you like the idea of a Windows Mobile device, or an iPhone but want a bigger touch screen to read those web pages on (bordering on the grounds of an internet tablet) then the Touch HD2 might be for you.

Specification

• Windows Mobile 6.5
• 1GHz Processor
• 4.3-inch VGA display
• GPS
• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• 5 Megapixel Camera
• 3.5mm Audio Jack

What’s in the box of HTC HD2?

• HTC HD2
• Battery
• UK AC Adapter
• USB Cable
• Stereo Headset
• Documentation

What’s more is that CoPilot 8 for Windows Mobile is fully compatible with the HTC Touch HD2.

Availability: Available across Europe by the end of October 2009
Price: £546

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Microsoft are working on a new tablet dubbed the Microsoft’s Courier project. This comprises of two 7-inch multi-touch tablets, sandwich them together like a book, throw in a camera and it looks amazing!

This really does look like an awesome eBook Reader but likewise an awesome laptop/tablet PC with dual screen.

“Several years ago, a modified version of OS X was presented to Steve Jobs, running on a multitouch tablet. When the question “what would people do with this?” couldn’t be answered, they shelved it. Long having established music, movie and TV content, Apple is working hard to load up iTunes with print content from several major publishing houses across several media.”

“Two people related to the NYTimes have separately said that in June, paper was approached by Apple to talk about putting the paper on a “new device.” The R&D labs have long worked on versions of the paper meant to be navigated without a keyboard or mouse, showing up on Windows tablets and on multiple formats using Adobe Air. The NYTimes, of course, also publishes via their iPhone application. Jobs has, during past keynotes, called the NYTimes the best newspaper in the world.”

Source: Gizmodo

Early reports on the ARCHOS 5 Android Tablet have been pretty positive, it’s definitely a better offering than your run-of-the-mill media tablet.

Personally I’ve purchased a lot of Archos products over the years and I’m always weary of Archos now because either their power charging circuits blow or their hard disks die. I really hope they’re hardware quality has improved. Most of the products I’ve had from Archos have never lasted a year or die just outside of the warranty period