Be Excellent To Each Other

Be sure you do! And to head off any extreme feelings of thankfulness you can buy me a beer in Liverpool*.

_{*and I'll buy one right back}

64 GB black, Wi-Fi for me. It'll be interesting to see how much the 32 GB first-gen brings in if I sell it on. If I could magic a couple of hundred for it, that'd make the new iPad about the same price as I bought my 64 GB iPod for. Which is pretty odd now I think about it.

Craig and Myp: Selling something when you buy something else isn't really a discount

I never said it was - it's my net outlay.

Is it? Wouldn't you have to include the depreciation of the original iPad if that were the case?

My net outlay for this particular item, considering I won't be using the old one anymore.

Wouldn't Ange like it? I seem to recall you saying she used to use it more than you (but it was probably Blucey, or something), and prices are going to dip for a bit, aren't they? .

So, how did you do?

You really have a habit of mixing people up, don't you?

I actually bought it for Ange's last but one birthday. She didn't get on with it much (it was in its infancy, so stuff like not being able to upload photos to Facebook and no Flash annoyed her). So much so that in the end I bought her a laptop to replace it and took custody of the iPad myself. Since then hardly a day's gone by without me using it.

I wasn't bothered about getting one myself, but after using it on a long car journey recently not having mobile data was really irritating. That's when I decided I'd upgrade when the new one was announced - hey presto, Apple have had all my money today.

It's the reason I'm only ever having one child. Closer than normal this time, at least.

7/16.

I got 9/16, or (as I like to think of it) Gaywood +.5

10/16 for me!

Plus a fiver...

Oh yeah, PM me a PayPal address or a JustGiving link or something.

Let me have a search on justgiving for the most well meaning but ludicrous and poorly supported cause I can find

9.5 for me.

I'm quite keen on one of these iPad things. I'm also going to be in the US in a couple of months time. Is there any issue with just walking into a US Apple Store and picking one up to bring home to the UK? I've heard various stories saying that the warranty won't be valid over here and that I'd need a US iTunes account to buy apps. Anyone have any experience of this?

The $600 32GB Wi-Fi model comes to roughly £380 compared to £479 UK price so unless there's hidden costs or inconveniences it seems like a no-brainer.

Sales tax in the store you buy it in?

I love the "coding methods" link

'Hidden' costs will depend on where you buy it in the US (sales tax varies by state, and some states, like CA, also have a 'recycling' tax on top), and if you declare/get rumbled by customs on your return.


Warranty should be worldwide on Apple's mobile stuff. (In the UK, you should be fine for a year—Apple Stores will simply swap your device for a new one if something goes wrong.) Apps just depend on your account's location (as in the store you set it up on), not where you bought the iPad. My iPad's from CA, but I use it with both UK and US iTunes accounts.

Our US-bought kit (iPad, MacBook) has been in to a UK Apple store for warranty work on several occasions. It was fine. I'd 100% buy the US one if I was heading to the US any time soon.

I also use a UK iTunes account with my US iPad, again without issues. The only difference is the plug on the charger, which costs a few pence to replace.

Pence? Really?! Where? I wouldn't mind an extra plug for one of my many cables.

eBay or Amazon marketplace will sell you a normal two-pin figure eight IEC cable that'll fit Apple chargers. Admittedly the cute little adaptor thingies Apple use will cost more than that.

Careful not to buy the IED cable.

10.5 for me

Not too bad, best from here so far?

Malc

I'll offer it up here before putting it on eBay or some other means - would anyone like a 32GB WiFi iPad 1 with TeckNet case/stand in immaculate condition? £200 + postage. They seem to be going for £250 on eBay, so this seems fair.

Considering I'm currently running a fever and have gone through three packets of tissues this evening (and not in a good way), looks like I'm going to have to bail on the weekend.

Oh that is fucking weird. Someone with my real name scored 10. (I got 6.5.)

I had a go on an iPad 2 in Tesco today. First proper go on one since using Trouser's to play Minotaur rescue just after the things came out.

I tried garageband but the stand in Tesco didn't hold it steady in landscape, so it was hard to put a track together. Plus it was in Tesco and some kid was 'on' the one next to me and just watching everything I did, so I couldn't have a proper fiddle with the synths and stuff. Nonetheless it seems like a very, very high quality musical toy... there isn't seemingly much in the way of sound design in there, but I'm sure I can wrangle some unpleasant noise out of it somehow... I think though for 3 quid having something that I can pull out of my bag and start accompanying my mate with if he's playing guitar is rather awesome.

I then played a couple of games and that was fine. In the menus I had a nosey around and then I attempted to rearrange some of the icons, get a new folder set up, generally configure the interfac a bit. I couldn't do anything. Now, I know it's been designed for simplicity and every time I reached for the non-existent back button to close a menu or whatever I realised I needed to click open menu again. That's fine. But can't I choose (apart from Newsstand which I've already been told about and is shocking behaviour) which apps I need to do scrolly scrolly to get to and which are there on page 1? What happens when i get to 4 pages. How do I tell it to make a new folder? Can I set new wallpapers?

Finally, I went into Safari for a browsery experience. My first thought was that if they made chrome for this or something similar I'll probably want it - can I specify which 4 things are at the bottom of the screen, so if I'm not using Safari it doesn't have to be there or whatever?

Browsing I noticed the text didn't flow at all when I zoomed. Example being the BBC page. On my Android phone I pinch zoom onto the main text in an article, which as we know can flow hither and tither around boxouts, clips, etc... and it just gives me a scrollable screen full of text, first time every time, more or less. Safari just zoomed into the page, quite uselessly. That said, I could read the whole page without zooming, which I guess is the plan, but the smaller text was really fuzzy for a 1024x768 screen. Again on going to beex my Android will snap to the 'thread titles' column with a little encouraging stroke while this just zoomed where I pinched. Will my android antics just require a different action or does it not do this? Why the fuzzy text?

It's a strange experience being an Android power user on one of these, you feel quite out of control sometimes, and I really can't see why a back button isn't included, they're as good a thing as you'll find in all of technology. In Safari for example I'm reaching right up the device to click back, which I'll be clicking a lot... I fear tired-arm.

I will have more questions, I'm sure. I might even need to visit Trousers...

It's all very exciting. This computer magic.

Oddly enough watching the Korg apps on youtube has made me get the Korg DS-10 and start flanging about with it. Cracking bit of code for the platform, saved me buying a Nanokorg.

To re-arrange icons in the launcher, you tap-and-hold on one, and they all start jiggling. You can then drag them around. Dropping on onto another makes a folder. Apps that aren't part of the OS get delete buttons in this mode too. You can also change the Dock icons in the same way.

The behaviour you are looking for in Safari is done by double-tapping the content you want to snap to -- pinch-zooming is always free form, double tapping isn't.

You can install alternate browsers but they all use the same rendering engine so only the UI skin varies. Also, http:// links in other apps will always go to Safari. Yes, this is weak. I've never seen a good reason to really want another browser though.

Oh, and for back and forward in the browser, it's just a swipe gesture, but even though I use it all the time, I can't remember what it is, which says something about the ease of use I think.
Two fingers and left swipe isn't it?

Your main issue seems to be that you are trying to use it like an android device, which takes a lot of its design cues from PC interfaces. Apple have moved away from that in a lot of places to make in intuitive for the non-pc user, which is what makes it so easy to use for most people, but can take a bit of a brain switch from expecting buttons to do various things and the like if you are used to them.
The UI for iOS is based on the interaction of the gestures, rather than what is displayed on the screen, as such. If that makes sense

Gesture control is a pain in the arse to get used to, especially the touchpad on the MacBook Pro. Once you've learned them all though, it speeds up common tasks no end.

Think double tap to zoom. It's ingrained now.

Is there a gesture to quickly get to the bottom of a web page?

I just push up fast and let it spin to the end, takes less than a second unless the webpage is mahoosive.

Just get an ASUS Transformer prime, or wait for the 'Inifinity' in a couple of months with the hi-res screen

Yeah, it's a bit tedious on long pages. I just thought that since you can jump to the top I thought there might be a way to get to the bottom which I was missing.

Turn it upside down and shake.

On a MacBook Air you can swipe three fingers down to go straight to the bottom of the page.

It actually annoys me that the gestures on the iPad and MacBook aren't consistent

Having used quite a few of these apps, it really depends on the type of music you want to create. GB is, for me, rather more toy-like than the surprisingly excellent Mac version (which is essentially Logic Lite Lite), but Apple did reveal in the recent event that—FINALLY—note-editing has come to GB/iOS, so that actually makes it useful to me. But there are loads of other DAWs, including the excellent NanoStudio (well, excellent if you work on primarily electronic music) and BeatMaker 2. Additionally, there are tons of mid/pro-level soft-synths, running the range from old favourites like ReBirth through to my personal fave, the wonderful Animoog.


I've got iELECTRIBE on my iPad. IMS-20 is well regarded, as is iKaossilator. I don't know if it makes any odds to you, but I've also found my first-gen iPad works perfectly well with the stupidly named Camera Connection Kit and a USB MIDI keyboard with the various music apps. (Mind you, I actually prefer Animoog with the touchscreen—it's just much nicer to play that way. GarageBand, on the other hand, is better when you've an external keyboard.)

IMS-20 is the one for me, I reckon - enabling me to get my Reznor on, though obv. Nanostudio being the most full-featured it'll be on there, and Garageband for jamming with mates when pissed up.

This is what will prevent me doing a Mr. Dom - I'd really like an Eee Transformer, my EeePCs were a minor revelation at the time and I do love a good build of Android... but it wouldn't run anything my HTC Desire doesn't and I want any expensive purchase to work as games machine, general media/web fun portability monkey and most importantly to integrate with my existing music hardware. Also, must have all the good software.

I don't want that to be the iPad but it is, and I don't want to be tied into their platform with the software I purchase but there's no real alternative. Once I retire the tablet and get the next big thing for general use in a few years, it'll still be a well-supported musical instrument of profound flexibility.

What does it do that your HTC Desire doesn't?

It's bigger, has much more memory (can install many more apps than the poor desire could hold) & CPU/GPU grunt, lasts a lot longer, much nicer to use (runs ICS), and has a real keyboard (which doubles as a 2nd battery that it uses to recharge the pad battery while docked so when you undock you should be back to full pad power) Also comes with Polaris Office (MS Office compatible) so you can write docs & stuff on the go with it, so it works as a mini laptop.

It has become the device of choice for browsing on the sofa

It also has the added advantage that if you buy any apps from the market, you can download & use them on as many devices as you want so you can re-use anything you have already bought on it.

I also used it to watch some 4OD stuff in bed the other day which worked luvverly. My one gripe is the speaker is a bit naff for watching stuff, but if I do more in-bed streaming (fnarr-fnarr), I would probably think about getting some bluetooth speakers to use instead.

Uhhh, doesn't everything do this? What is this an advantage conpared to?

Edit -- wait -- is your first "it" the Transformer and the second "it" your Android phone?

You see, I've already got a couple of EeePCs.... and with the exception of an office package which I don't really need, all the stuff I'd run on it runs on my Desire. I know the capacity is small but that just prevents me from installing loads of crap I never use.

It's all about the software library, this tablet malarkey for me. There's nothing I want to use on Android that I can't already. That said, the Eee transformer looks fucking lush and I want one, just to have one. But I shan't get one. The paucity of app support relative to iOS makes me think that a similarly specced tablet to an iPad from anyone else should cost less.... quite a bit less, given the software support. Then again there's fuck all software for Mac compared to PC and those are more expensive...



If Android had the music apps and possibly certain games, like the current crop of Llamasoft stuff (I know, I've got the PC Betas, but hey...) then i'd get an Android. But I've already got an android, so that places iOS above in terms of how it expands my software horizons.

I could always just get an iPod touch and save some money

I just totted up the price of all three. £36.47. I paid more than that for a single AU soft-synth a couple of weeks back. If you do get an iPad and iMS-20, I'd love to hear what you reckon. I'm hovering over the buy switch, but can never quite commit. (By the way, again: Animoog!)


Yup. I know I have a reputation for being a MASSIVE APPLE FANBOY, but when it comes to iOS, I didn't really have a great deal of confidence Apple wouldn't fuck up mobile. Gaming-wise, I was hugely into the DS. Phone-wise, I thought Apple would maybe produce a lovely and shiny expensive piece of kit that approx. three people would use. The App Store was a revelation, though, and while Apple's ecosystem is walled, it's in some areas (notably gaming) surprisingly 'open'; in others (apps, music), it's far less so, but that's balanced by the capabilities of the device and, frankly, some amazing developers. It seems not a month goes by without some dev going "but now look at THIS", and musicians are particularly well catered for. On Android, things are moving in that direction (such as with SketchBook Pro), but it's happening quite slowly.

The iPad, however, really has turned into a device that's great for working with music. What's even more bonkers is how small some of these apps are. GarageBand, obviously (what with it being by Apple) is predictably insanely weighty, but iMS-20 is 15.7 MB. Animoog: 5.4 MB! 5.4! Even NanoStudio's pretty wee (71.9 MB). And the other thing I've discovered is I get some serious blocks now when I'm in front of the Mac, but when I'm downstairs, relaxed and just fiddling around with NanoStudio on the iPhone, I'm being more creative.

As for Llamasoft: AGREE! I was so happy when Jeff leaked that Gridrunner grab on Twitter!

Oooh, could be the start of the measles, man. It's ripping through Liverpool at the mo. Take care!

Yes

Then that's really badly written, but I now see your point

Anyone who's upgraded to 5.1 - does it do a wipe and re-image of the device? Thanks.

Delta update on 4S. And 4. So I'm assuming the same on on P and P2