About 10 years ago around 2001 which incidentally was pre-SmartPhone days, I was in a hotel using a Compaq iPaq Windows CE based Pocket PC which was at that time the best operating systems and devices to use for a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). This wasn’t my first one, no I actually had prior to this the Casio E105, E125 and many more other Pocket PC’s after the iPaq.

I was in the hotel and I wanted to connect to the Internet to check my personal email, so I got out my Nokia phone, lined the IR (Infrared) port up on the Nokia phone with the IR port on the Pocket PC, allowed the Pocket PC software to then dial out and connect using the phone as a modem. From recollection I think I was getting around 3 kbps, one thing I remember is it was slow, very slow. It did the job and providing I didn’t knock the Pocket PC or Phone, and the IR beam didn’t get interrupted in any way, and the phone signal didn’t drop, I could eventually download my email to read it off-line.

I also had a keyboard dock that I could place the iPaq into, the keyboard worked great and it enabled me to not have to use a stylus on-screen. It allowed me to type large amounts of text without having to use the 1 tap stylus. Of course, I’d have to then reconnect the modem and then it would take an age to upload it.

Looking back, those were the days where technology was a painful experience getting on-line.

Fast forward 10 years, and now every phone has a built-in modem, it’s capable of broadband speeds (up to 7.2mbps) and most of them have a built-in on-screen keyboard you can use without a stylus (aka your fingers are the stylus). The phones are always connected, so you don’t have to wait a good 60+ seconds for it to connect to the Internet, it’s always connected.

Now if I want to connect to the Internet, I just open up my email icon and it’s already checked using push email seconds to a minute before, so I don’t even have to hit a send/receive button. If I need to send an email, I just type out the email, hit send, and it’s gone within seconds. Likewise there’s Internet apps, which allow me to check where my friends and family are, interact with them, share things like my location, what I’m doing, even play a game on-line, all done within seconds.

Technology is a big part of our lives now, whether we like it or not. Gone are the days of not being connected to the Internet for the most of us (unless we leave our phone at home) and that’s a tough pill to swallow. What if someone wants to contact you? What happens if you need to make an emergency phone call? What if you’re lost? Picking up our Internet connected SmartPhone now is simply like picking up our car keys or house keys, basically you wouldn’t leave your keys at home as much as you wouldn’t leave your SmartPhone at home.

Many of the younger generation won’t have had to have gone through the painful experience, very similar to playing with pixel clashing 8kb ZX Spectrum. Now we can play console games on our phones and even beam them to our large screen TV’s.

It’s strange to see how far technology has come, for the most it’s even harder seeing what technology will be like in another 10 years. One thing I can tell you is the hover boots and flying cars still won’t be available, nor will living on the moon. These things take a lot longer to accomplish, but our every day technology moves so fast that it’s easy to forget how painful using technology once was.

Going back even further to 1993 I remember when I purchased my first modem, I connected for 25 mins to the University of Berkeley’s FTP Server, and was amazed that my computer was actually talking to another computer the other side of the world (quite literally) and that was on a 9k modem connected to my PC. Now I have a 7,372.8k modem built into my phone and it’s always connected (and not costing me a penny until I download something).

Technology is a funny thing, sometimes we love it and sometimes we loath it, but it’s now apart of our every day life and it’s here to stay.

Unfortunately I usually find there’s about a 20% chance of either coming down with something rotten either before the trip or whilst I’m up there. Don’t ask me why, but it happens. This time wasn’t any different and managed to come down with acute laryngitis whilst up in Scotland. I suffered for most of the week but managed to get somewhat well for the weekend where I managed to get my energy back and get out and do some driving around Scotland.

I drove up through the highlands passing Glencoe and up to Fort William and the beautiful Corpach. The weather was picture perfect and was really warm.

The Highlands were perfect and once the sun burned through the clouds, it was a really pleasant day.

I then drove onto Corpach which is a little quaint town the other side of Fort William. Corpach canal / loch overlooks the mountain range of Ben Nevis.

For the second day I went up to a place called Rest and be thankful and you can see why, it’s utterly stunning.

Then I travelled onto Inveraray and visited the quay, the high street and Inveraray Castle.

I used the iPad 2 with the SD card adapter to quickly take photos off of my Canon EOS 550D Digital Camera which used an 18-55mm IS lens. For post processing of the 15mp photos I used my MacBook Air in the hotel and after the trip to process the photos using Aperture.

The driving was pretty tiresome especially seeing I was still suffering from Laryngitis and a temperature. I drove 18 hours within 2 days, but as the weather was great, it was well worth the punishment to get the 300 photos I came away with Thanks to the MacBook Air and iPad 2 making the work load a lot easier, and my trusty Canon EOS 550D

In slightly warmer conditions today (bright sunshine and -4C) the weather seems to have improved a lot, there’s no snow for one thing. Last week I was nearly stuck up in the Highlands, hopefully I will get a much warmer look at the Highlands and Glencoe in months to come.

Driving through white-outs, blizzards and wondering every couple of minutes if I should turn around as I didn’t have any cellphone coverage, here’s what it looked like.

The trek up to the mountains was well worth it, although it’s left me feeling really tired after driving in blizzards for 5 hours. I doubt I’ll get another chance to see it this white in a long time, so I’m glad I made the trek. Now trying to warm up!

Just way too much snow here…

Outside of the Macbook Air 13″ I’d have to say the iPad is the ultimate couch device for me. I like my iPhone but sometimes you just don’t want the small screen to tweet or facebook or read emails or more importantly surf the web.

Likewise you don’t want to power on a laptop and have it precariously balanced on the arm of the recliner chair or sofa. For this time the iPad is the perfect couch computer, like the iPhone it’s always on, you can pair a Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard with the iPad to allow for quick typing rather than using the on-screen keyboard. You can have the iPad placed in a portrait dock stand sitting on the arm of the recliner. For me it’s the best of both worlds of being mobile but also wire free and having a long-life battery (10 hours).

For short-term use, e.g. minutes I’ll pick up my iPhone that I usually have sitting next to me, for moderate use which mainly involves Twitter, Facebook, Email and the occasional web browsing I’ll pick up the iPad and for long-term 1+ hours continuous use of surfing the web I’ll use the Macbook Air 13″.

1. Reduce my expenditure on the iTunes AppStore – £607.19 to date
2. Embrace the Mac OS more (which ultimately will mean I break (1)
3. Keep up on my RSS feeds for checking the latest news
4. Watch more Tech Podcast videos (that’s been falling lately)
5. Try and convince work to migrate to Mac’s
6. Try to resist buying the iPad 2G when it’s available in March
7. Use my iPhone battery extenders more by taking them with me wherever I go
8. Fully embrace the Mac AppStore when it’s released
9. Chuck out all of the Christmas food that hasn’t been eaten
10. Oh and the popular one on everyones list….lose some more weight!

Go and drink yourself silly, eat lots of mince pies and enjoy the festive season! Go break open those presents and start playing with your iPhone’s, iPad’s, iPod Touch’s and Games Consoles!

Thanks for all your support!

I had a bit of a bumpy ride with the Macbook Air, I ordered from Apple.com on Thanksgiving, it took a week to arrive, got delayed by the snow. Within two days the ESC key had broken after three key presses. Had to return the Macbook Air to Apple, two weeks later received the replacement again shipped from China. This time I was lucky to get it two days before more snow hit the country.

So far so good, loving the new Macbook Air experience. The only thing I would say is the 128gb SSD isn’t nearly enough once you start using iTunes with iOS devices like the iPad that are 64gb in size + a large music collection, but other than that it’s very nice and very fast. I don’t think I’ll ever buy another Windows laptop.

It’s bright and sunny down here in the south coast of the UK and hitting into the high 20′s today but with a nice sea breeze as I walk along the beach, it keeps the air nice and cool without making it too hot.

So why am I writing is post from the beach and not enjoying the outdoors I hear you say? Well I am! I’ve been walking along the beach for an hour and decided to stop and sit for a while. I decided I would sit and take a break from walking and whipped out my HSDPA router (HTC HD2) from my new STM iPad bag, followed closely by my iPad. It just goes to show how mobile you can be with the iPad and you don’t have to be stuck in doors on a nice hot sunny day to write a blog post. Why HSDPA router? Well simply put I only have the WiFi version of the iPad and not iPad WiFi+3G. Using another mobile phone as a wireless router for the iPad also means I can get faster speeds with HSDPA over what a regular 3G iPad would get. Unfortunately you can’t tether in the UK with the iPhone unless you want to jailbreak, so the HD2 is the next best thing for me

The photo above was taken with the iPhone 3GS (iOS4)

Here I am sitting on the beach, listening to the high tide of the waves lapping against the sand in a nice calm tranquility. It’s these times I really like my technology and being able to take it almost anywhere with me and still use it without any great hardship.

time to get some book reading in before walking further along the beach, hope you all manage to get in some relaxing time in the sun too this weekend!

PS. Using Blogpress on the iPad to post todays posts.

Er, what? what was that? uh huh, okay, you sure? hmmmm.

Okay, maybe it’s the other way around, but shouldn’t we also celebrate independence day too?