I’ve just received my iPad Camera Connection Kit through the post today.  This unassuming set of dongles attaches to the dock connector of the iPad and allows you to import photos and videos directly into the iPad’s Photo gallery app.

The premise is simple – just plug either the USB or SD card adapter into the dock, then insert the card, or plug in the camera, and the iPad immediately takes you to the import screen.  From here, you can select the photos or videos you want to import and press to start the process.  On testing, my Canon 5D worked fine with the USB connector (with the camera set to PTP connection mode).  A multi card reader also worked fine (direct from CompactFlash).   As for the SD reader, it picked up the videos on the SD directly from my Samsung camcorder, and imported them no problem.

Once imported, you can choose to delete the images on the camera/card, or leave them there.  Also, once the files are on the iPad, you can transfer them to the your Mac/PC by docking the iPad and importing into iPhoto or Lightroom.  I’m assuming many other apps will work too, but these are the two I’ve tested.

On a side note, it works with the RAW files from my 5D with no issues whatsoever (.CR2 format), and I know it also does the same with Nikon cameras (.NEF).

Disadvantages?  Well, you can only use a limited range of devices.  You can’t, for example, plug in a hard disk and play videos off it.  This would be a welcome addition, but it’s doubtful apple will open it up this much.  Strictly speaking, with a jailbreak and a little inginuity, it IS possible, but not to the non-JB, standard user.

Also, when you import the photos and videos, it places them in an ‘Imported Photos’ album, and does not let you choose, or move them around at all.  The only separation you get is the fact that the last import shows up in a separate folder, but that’s as far as it goes.  Hopefully in iOS4 for the iPad, this will be addressed – we’ll have to wait and see…

So overall, a good little set of interfaces.  It does what it says on the tin, and will be an invaluable tool for backing up/previewing shots when out in the field.

A small tip :Once imported, you have to delete the photos manually off the iPad once you’re finished with them.  Unfortunately, there is no ‘Select All’ button currently on the photo app.  Rather than selecting them all individually, which would take ages for a big collection from a long shoot, you can select them a little more quickly by doing the following :-

1) Press the curvy arrow in the top right, as normal to delete imported photos.

2) Instead of selecting each photo individually, touch and hold the first one for a second or two, then swipe your finger around the shot to select them without lifting your finger off.  You can then press delete as usual.  Much quicker, i’m sure you’ll agree!

Cheers!

So what’s it like? Well, first the bad. Ummmmmmm.

Hmmmmmm.

Either it’s post-purchase bliss, or there really isn’t much wrong with this thing as far as I tell at the moment. I know that there have been a lot of detractors when it comes to Cupertino’s latest output (ignoring conveniently the iPhone 4 for the time being), but after 24 hours of use, I’m starting to think that maybe people are going at this from the wrong angle. In a similar way to how they did with the iPhone, people rare seemingly enjoying pointing out what they perceive as flaws, and make them out to be a deal-breaker where the device is concerned. Things like the lack of multitasking (now to be sorted via the update to iOS 4.0), and the “walled garden” approach to application development, are often touted as reasons to dismiss apple mobile devices outright, without, seemingly, giving them a chance in other ways.

Yes, in a way I think that the restrictions placed on developers by Apple are a little harsh. For example, the turning down of all apps submitted that, in any way, duplicate functionality of the base device, means that no one can produce a fully featured alternative browser. The denial of a release of Adobe’s Flash plugin for iPhone and iPad has been hotly debated in recent months. However, I’ve owned an iPhone for the last two and a half years,and to be honest, I’ve never really found it to be much of an issue. The quality of the appraisal program that Apple employ is dubious to say the least. Just type the word ‘fart’ into the app store to see how many apps there are related to that particular bodily function, and you’ll get an idea of what i mean.  In other words, an approval process doesn’t mean all the apps are any good.  However, there are a lot of great ones out there, and the main issue about having an Android phone now rather than an iPhone is that the app store (or ‘Marketplace’ on Android), hasn’t yet got the spread of apps that are on the Apple app store.  Also, just due to the Apple devices’ visibility, most good apps are released on the iPhone / iPad platform first.  In a nutshell, I’ve lived with this exact situation on the iPhone for the last few years and never really had the issue with it that other seem to.  If you are happy with an iPhone, you’ll be happy with an iPad.

So, how is it then?  The answer is best expressed in one, very British, adjective.  Lovely.

The screen is fantastic quality, and the interface is a joy to behold.  It is by far the single most responsive piece of technology I have ever used, with more or less no lag when performing any task.  At no time do you feel you’re waiting unnecessarily.  The whole unit feels solidly built, and the weight, though not feather-light, is certainly not an issue.  The on-screen keyboard is the first I’ve used that I can genuinely type on at full speed.  This makes real-world use of the iPad for blogging, word-processing etc a reality.

Due to budgetary constraints, I chose the 16Gb WiFi model, as, to be honest, storing lots of music and movies on it is fairly far from my mind.  I’ve never really been one for movies on the move, and I have an iPod or my HTC Desire for my MP3s.  I’m much more interested in its use as an imaging/photography tool, and for web browsing, twitter, reading ebooks/magazines etc.  I’m going to get the camera connection kit when it becomes available here in the UK.  This allows the connection of any (in theory) mass storage device to the dock connector, to transfer files (including RAWs) from cameras and media cards to the internal memory for reviewing and backup.  This will be a great way to give myself a little more storage when I’m out on shoots, and will mean I don’t have to cart the netbook or laptop around too.  My recent migration from the iPhone to the HTC Desire will pay dividends soon, as come the Android 2.2 update, it’ll make my Desire into a mobile Wifi Hotspot, meaning I can use that as my access point when I’m out and about.

Apps-wise, the growing choice of iPad specific software is really impressive.  A lot of the older apps have been updated, some for free (i.e. they now have a version that works both on iPad and iPhone), whereas other seem to have come out with what is commonly now being called an ‘HD’ version.  usually this means buying it again if you want the iPad version.  Depending on the app involved, and the price, this can be a bit of a bind.  However, the most expensive app I’ve ever bought, Logmein Ignition, happily did the former.

Some of the highlights app-wise so far…

• The aformentioned Logmein Fusion.  This app, great on the iPhone, has been updated to use the iPad’s higher resolution, which has made an already great PC/Mac app all the better
• Google Earth – Good old google earth, is, not surprisingly,  much more usable on the iPad.
• The first electronic issue of Wired Magazine is an explosion of multimedia delight.  It’s hard to explain without experiencing it, but the dynamic layout,  embedded media and hotlinking make the whole thing a joy to behold (and to use)!
• Brushes – The already-well-regarded iPhone paint package gets a resolution and usability upgrade for the iPad.
• FlickrStackr and Photo Pad are both fantastic Flickr-based apps.  The former has a better interface for online browsing of your flickr photos, and enables you to comment etc.  The latter is a syncing tool which downloads all or part of your Photostream for offline viewing.  Great for showing people your online portfolio when you don’t have an internet connection.
• Ebay - A great app, making browsing and buying via eBay a joy on the iPad.
• The Elements – A real showcase app for the iPad.  This is a reference book with a graphical periodic table.  Each element has its own set of pages with animated and interactive diagrams, and loads of info.  Written in quite an entertaining way which borders on the silly sometimes, but is nevertheless a great read.
• Last but certainly not least, the official WordPress app has received and iPad boost.  Turns it from a basic editing tool to a much more comfortable blog composition tool.  Still no WYSIWYG editor, but fingers crossed for the future…!

Blimey – I could go on and on.  One thing to note is that you can run most of the iPhone apps on the iPad too.  These appear in the centre of the screen, at the same resolution as on the iPhone.  Mostly though, I wouldn’t recommend using them this way, as they don’t look particularly nice.  Exceptions where function over form is important, like, for example, Skype, of which the iPhone version runs perfectly on the iPad.

Battery life for this thing is phenomenal.  I had an afternoon (a good six hours) of (non-charging) syncing, browsing, YouTubing, and general messing around, and my battery life was still around 50%.  Now to me, that’s one of the most impressive things about this device.  Full stop.

In the end, the iPad is a device that does what it does extremely well, and in a way that is so polished, that it is yet to even be approached for quality in the tablet world.  It’s a media consumption device that branches out into other arenas with a generally high level of success.  As I get a bit more into real-world usage, I’ll report back and give my opinions.  Until then, its going to be interesting finding out…

Aspire One, Ubuntu Style!

After much deliberation, hand wrangling, and reading around, I decided to go for a netbook.  Many people look on these things as underpowered toys, but after having a bit of a play with one in PC World, I decided to take the plunge.  After all, if it ended up being no good, I could sell it on the back of the current netbook craze and make my money back easily enough.  So how did it work out?  Very well as it happens. The model I decided to go for was the Acer Aspire One.  After a bit of cashback and some vouchers, I managed to get hold of one for £125, which was, in my opinion, a great price.  The A150L is an Intel Atom based 8.4″ netbook, with 1Gb of RAM, plus a 120Gb Hard Drive (rather than the Solid State thing in the earlier models).  It has built in 802.11b/g WiFi, but no bluetooth.  The screen is glossy, but to me this isnt an issue, as the display is bright and clear, and very sharp (despite only being 1024×600).  The keyboard is pretty responsive, and I actually like the feel of it, and dont find it to be flexible like others have reported. The keys are 85% of the size of standard laptop keys, and whilst small, are still easy to get used to, unless you have a bunch of sausages for fingers.  The built in webcam is basic, though works absolutrely fine for the likes of MSN or Skype.  The trackpad is small, but again works very well.  The placement of the left and right buttons is unorthadox, with the buttons mounted to the right and left of the trackpad.  I use ‘tap to click’ anyway, so the placement doesnt really bother me, but if you like your buttons rather than your taps, you may want to use a notebook mouse with it.

The case is mostly glossy, and along with the screen, soon becomes close friends with your fingerprints.  You’ll find yourself obsessively wiping the thing for a while, until you get used to it… The ‘L’ models come with Linux preinstalled.  The flavour in this case is a kind of cut down distro known as ‘Linpus’.  This has Firefox 2 (rather than the more up-to-date 3) installed, as well as a simple messanger client, a proprietary mail client, as well as Openoffice, and various other apps.  However, for someone with more than a little OS experience, the whole thing feels a little restrictive.  You can enable a more advanced mode, which actually enables you to install more apps.  However, it still feels a little ‘Knobbled’ (so to speak!).  The whole Linpus install has a relatively pretty front end, which is great for people who just want to use it in its basic configuration, and makes it a brilliant first computer for a technophobe who just wants to surf the net, write a few emails, do a bit of word processing etc. After a good play with the installed OS, I decided to do a bit of research and replace the installed OS with something a little more flexible.

I decided on Ubuntu Linux NBR (Netbook Remix).  This is a version of Ubuntu that, whilst not being cut down, has a rather nice Netbook front end shell. The install couldnt have been easier.  I just used a little app to write the 1Gb image to a USB flash drive, which was then booted from on the netbook.  This booted into a live distro, which I had a play about with.  Once I decided I wanted to carry on with a permanent install, I just selected the relevant menu option, and the OS install proceeded.  I made a few tweaks to the partitions, but apart from that it was a case of next, next, next. Once installed, the OS takes only 40-50 secs to boot.  All devices work absolutely fine, apart from the SD card reader, which only works if a card is in it at boot time.  As long as you do this, you can take the card out and put another in and it will read it fine.  The webcam, sound, Wifi, etc, all work with no issues whatsoever.  The device has three USB connections, as well as VGA out, and the normal Mic and Headphones sockets.  It’s also furnished with two memory card slots.  The left one is SD only, and just serves to expand the machine’s storage (i.e. it comes up as a separate partition I believe).  The Right one is a multi card slot which takes SD, MMC, Memorystick and XD cards.  This is a more standard reader, but as previously mentioned, is not 100% working in Ubuntu. With Ubuntu, you can install any number of packages from Linux application repositories with the ‘add/remove’ app.  The main menu (the Ubuntu version of the windows ‘Start’ menu) is presented on the netbook shell as a nice full screen interface.  It’s easy to switch back and forth between the NBR shell and the standard Ubuntu desktop. Even the suspend/resume works perfectly, meaning you don’t lose the good power-saving facilities that netbooks are designed for. The battery life only weighs in at about 2 hours maximum, so you need all the power-saving you can get. You can buy bigger batteries (twice and three times the capacity and physical size), but this has an obvious impact on the size and weight of the device, kind of diminishing the point of it.

It works!

I was gobsmacked that even a ’3′ mobile broadband dongle was picked up and installed via a wizard. All it did was ask for my provider, and it went away and did the rest.  It then just appeared as a connection option in the networks menu.  Brilliant!  Even though, in relation to the Aspire One itself, the dongle seems huge, it’s not really a problem as you’ll be taking the thing out when you pack it away anyway. Playing video (including streaming DivX, Xvid etc over the WiFi) worked well, but this is partly due to Ubuntu.  Apparently the pre-loaded Linpus Linux is not so forgiving, and lacks basic support for DivX, XviD, Quicktime and some other common codecs.

Overall? I’m impressed.  I didn’t think the thing would be more like a mini laptop than a purpose-built net surfing device.  It has, however, proven to be much more powerful than I though it would be, and is, in effect, a fully fledged linux box.  It even runs the Visual effects if you choose to enable them, but only in the full Ubuntu Desktop.  Running these in the NBR mode causes issues with graphical glitches. You can buy the same model with Windows XP installed, but the idea of using Windows for a dedicated surfing and email machine kind of fills me with dread security-wise.  Apparently, some have even installed Vista, and Windows 7 on it, with reports that both run fairly well.  I’ll stick to good old Ubuntu though. All-in-all, its a really good purchase.  It does exactly what I want, and it does it well.  For the price, it amazes me what you can get now.  With more and more companies sticking their toes into the lucrative waters of the netbook phenomenon, it seems that price to power ratio is only going to improve.   Going by the few days usage that I’ve had with the Aspire One, I’d recommend it heartily to anyone who wants what it proclaims to do.  Anyone who wants a true laptop replacement would be best to try it out first if possible.

I won’t list full specs here, as you can find them easily via the gift of google. Just for a bit of fun, I thought I’d stick a quick video overview (and I mean quick).  See below – press the HQ button for a much clearer view once playing if your bandwidth will handle it. Oh, and apologies for the apparent widescreening that youtube has done. It seems to have chopped it a little, but it doesn’t really affect it too much…