iPad Guided Tours

You can now learn all about your favourite tablet at the US Apple website (there's nothing on the UK site yet). The actors in the films must have the world's strongest left arms to hold the iPads still for as long as they do.

Snow Leopard updated to 10.6.3

Fire up Software Update. This system update includes general fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

• improve the reliability and compatibility of QuickTime X
• address compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
• address an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail
• resolve an issue that prevented files with the # or & characters in their names from opening in Rosetta applications
• resolve an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows file servers
• improve performance of Logic Pro 9 and Main Stage 2 when running in 64-bit mode
• improve sleep and wake reliability when using Bonjour wake on demand
• address a color issue in iMovie with HD content
• improve printing reliability
• resolve issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server
• improve the reliability of 3rd party USB input devices
• fix glowing, stuck, or dark pixels when viewing video from the iMac (Late 2009) built-in iSight camera.

Apple Store open again.

No pre-orders for the iPad are being taken yet.
Officially it will be available to buy in late April, so you'll just have to wait.

Get your Apple history here.

The film Welcome to Macintosh has been uploaded to Snagfilms.
Click on the picture above to watch.

Apple store currently closed.

The Apple store is currently closed. I wonder if this signals updated products or pre-ordering of the iPad? Probably the later.

The new iPad telly advert

Hey I've just noticed that if you shuffle (or type them wrong as I did) the letters you get iPda. 
I can't remember I last time I heard that acronym.

Amazinger!

This pastiche is spot-on. Jumping on the back of the iPad launch next month, Channel 4's sister channel had produced
a lo-fi version of the Apple' touchscreen wonder that more in common with the old Apple Portable.

The iPad: the important bits.

Here's something funny for all of you who can't be bothered to watch the whole iPad keynote.

Apple Special Event now online.

Download the movie in three different sizes here.
I couldn't help but notice the lack of Flash when Steve Jobs demonstrated the New York Times page. You'd have though that he would have picked a page without any Flash content.

Kindle owners, go and get your money back now.

So the iPad is finally here and yes,  I want one. Even though I already own the two products it sits inbetween - an iPod touch and a MacBook Air (both 1st-generation mind).
I was expecting the new device to be at least £600 and be far too expensive for most people, like a flat new Cube. But for the price of their cheapest model ($399), they've well and truly targeted the eReader market (and possibly the laptop market too). To make an eBook reader with such a clear screen that shows an open book as it actually looks in real life is one thing, but to be able to use the same device to play games, watch movies, read new, surf the web, edit photos, play apps, write emails and use iWork is mind blowing. Amazon, Sony and every other eReader producer will have to reinvent their whole product line. That Kindle DX with it's 9.7" monochrome screen now really does look like something from over a decade ago (like a slimline Speak & Spell redesigned by the people who created the Amiga-500), and it's priced at $489.
Few things surprised me during the unveiling, it does everything an iPod touch can do, just bigger, and all the things you wished the iPod touch could do, if it had a bigger screen, like read books through the iBook app . The remainder of Apple's own applications (Mail, Contacts, iPhoto, etc.) have been tastefully redesigned for the 9.7 inch screen. One thing that did surprise was that it's powered by a 1GHz A4 chip that was custom-designed by Apple's own engineers (watch your backs, Intel).
Like it's smaller brother the iPod touch, it has Wi-Fi, comes with 18, 32 or 64GB of storage and attaches to your Mac with the usual 30-pin connector; not that you need too. You can also connect the dock to an optional camera connection kit or keyboard dock. Unlike the iPod touch an extra $130 gives you 3G connectivity.
It's missing a few things, like a USB port, SD card port and an iSight camera for iChat, but it seems that, for once, Apple has given the world what it had hoped for.