Analysing iPad Analysis - contains no references to female sanitary products, because let's face it, it wasn't funny the first time.

Some schools of thought witnessed so far in the tech blog world:

- Huge step backwards in computing terms.
- Revolutionary.
- Giant iPhone.
- People against it aren't the people it's aimed at.

Some facts are going to remain facts no matter how you dress them up. Just because the novice computer user wants a simple device doesn't mean they don't want to listen to the streaming music in their Spotify/Pandora app whilst they're browsing the web. Ignoring this is ignoring reality. These novice computer users *will* want to know why their iPod music is fair game whilst they do practically any of around 140,000 other things but all other audio entertainment sources are off-limits unless the device sits otherwise useless on the couch. The "it's meant to be a phone" excuse and whining about stressing batteries both become invalid for this new type of device and a more satisfactory explanation will be needed. The so called multitasking issue is the main thing now bugging me about my iPhone on an ongoing basis (sadly I have the one iPhone model that doesn't jailbreak in a very persistent way, for the moment at least)

The iPad s a unique product that will remain unique for a while as all other manufacturers churn out similar looking devices running Windows which, let's be very clear, aren't competiton for this device. They are personal computers. This isn't.

The iPad would only be a huge step backwards if it somehow restricted choice. The knowledgeable will buy it with eyes somewhat open and certainly won't be getting rid of their laptop, whilst the less knowledgeable will become both enamoured and frustrated in varying measures. Whilst so many are happy to relegate these less knowledgeable novices to idiots, I have more faith that they'll actually realise why they're frustrated with their $500 tablet. People are confusing lack of IT skill with lack of intelligence. People do that a lot, everywhere. You've done it, and so have I.

Is it revolutionary? I've been back and forth on this. The answer is no. How can it be? It's a new iteration of a previous revolution - iPhone OS. Evolution, clear and simple. The fact that it's only a 0.1 (ish) version up just cements this. The device itself means absolutely nothing, and is very clearly a giant iPhone.

It's going to be very popular. For some reason I also have faith that the "multitasking" issue mentioned earlier will be addressed. Best case scenario: iPhone OS 4 is the other shoe. That way perhaps those of us that clearly won't be buying this tablet still get to benefit from it's existence on our phones.

Of course by then i'll have probably switched to an Android phone. It's inevitable. I don't need in this Apple world. Not one bit.

2010 - What Now?

I liked the old list and there's still work to do. Carried forward (with a little rewording):

- Eat better
- Keep Exercising
- Improve my guitar skill level further.
- Figure out my next career step.
- Make more of an effort to better understand important, but far away, happenings.
- Cook more varied meals.
- Isolate myself less at work at lunch time.
- Try harder to meet people.
- Try harder not to have that argumentative tone in friendly conversation.
- Visit more of the UK. None of it is that far away.
- Weigh less than eleven and a half stone.
- Put away less alcohol.
- Clean up more.
- Don't cave in to climate change propaganda beyond career supporting lip service.
- Keep walking. Do some really long walks.
- Code something outside of work. Looking like Android.
- Keep plants alive.

New:

- Make a decision regarding buying vs renting longer term.
- Get involved in some house refurb work and see if it's something i'd like to pursue further.

This is the least thought i've put into this since I started doing it 2-3 years back, partly because you need to be in a certain frame of mind for this which today i'm not,
and mostly because i've come to understand the aspect of doing this that I find beneficial and enjoyable. This post isn't anything like as important as the one that comes in 364 days.
That's also why what I posted yesterday was extremely long whilst this is fairly short.

What about the accountability cop out? I'll reconcile it in my own mind as i'm sure I already do. If the 2008 weekly review didn't force me to act on things, it's hard to see what will.

What an unsatisfying end to a new years resolution post.