Industrial Revolution show jingle idea 1 @sn0w_crash

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And both myself and Snow will be there to see them! Oh, and we had an email from ZooG Von Rock to say we could interview them too, so that will be on the show (by *the show* I mean when we get off our collective asses and get it sorted out with Rhubarb Radio).

Will be pics and videos uploaded after we’ve been though, so keep your eyes peeled.

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Posted via email from chimerax

Posted via email from chimerax

Posted via email from chimerax

Posted via email from chimerax

The fabled Apple tablet had finally been announced, and they had called it iPad.

OK, not the greatest name, I won’t be moaning about it, after all, there are lots of product names which sound stupid at first, but after a while you get used to them, and then all of a sudden, you wonder why anyone would have named it something else. Let’s also not forget that Star Trek fans will already be aware of ‘the pad’ as a data viewing device. You don’t do serious computing on it, you have larger computers for that, you just read/view things on it. Gene Roddenberry’s view of the future seems to have struck gold.

So onto the iPad itself. Do I like it? I hated it at first. A big iPod touch, an iPhone without the phone, a kind of pointless mobile photo frame that plays video etc. In all honesty though, now I have thought about it, yes, I do like it. I wish it could do more, such as use a stylus to do proper graphics work with it, have a full OS on it, bluetooth for wireless headphones and so on, but then I come back to the core functionality of it, and I realise that it’s simply the Apple netbook. They dropped the keyboard, installed their own slimline mobile OS rather than a slimline mobile version of Linux (have you actually used Windows on a netbook? Yes you can, but it’s so slow it becomes almost an achievement rather than a joy to use), and added their app store.

This is why it’s the perfect netbook. It has the speed and useful day to day things you need on your small mobile device, but it also has access to the largest online store for applications, music, videos, and now books.

I won’t be buying the all singing all dancing 3G enabled 64gb model, but I think I will give the 16gb WiFi only version a try. I have a Three MiFi for my 3G data needs on the go which I already use on my 13″ MacBook Pro, and that serves me well, so no need to pay the extra.

Also, I have been seeing a lot of people complain about the price. Is it that expensive compared to similar spec netbooks? I don’t think so, certainly not the ones with 16gb or larger flash drives. Netbooks are also not made of aluminium and glass, they are cheap plastic. This thing is also less than half the thickness, and is totally silent. Every netbook I have had sounds like a little wind tunnel when they are working under pressure (and that is most of the time on a netbook).

It’s not as bad as I thought initially, it’s actually exactly what you need on the go. It won’t be a laptop or desktop replacement, it’s just exactly what a netbook should have been all along.

And lest we forget, all the original netbooks relied on linux, it was the consumer that demanded Windows because of the ease of adding applications, and ease of use. The latter two points are exactly the reason why this will be a success, as Steve Jobs said, there are already 75 million people who know how to use the iPad. There are also almost 150,000 apps in the iTunes store at the time of writing this.

After my initial feelings of ‘meh’ I have decided that Apple deserve a pat on the back (perhaps an iPat) for steering an existing market back on course. They weren’t the first to make mobile devices with a streamlined OS and set of apps, and I doubt they will be the last, but they have spent a few years researching what the device should be, and seem to have made the very device we didn’t know we wanted.

Posted via email from chimerax

Just been playing with Color Splash on the iPhone and I must say, it’s pretty good

On the whole, I think many councils are adopting the views of we few attendees, even if it’s taking them a while to implement, but will there be a tangible turning point in all of this?

As many of you know, I hate the term Web 2.0. I hate it with a passion, as the web doesn’t have versions, or defined moments, it’s a continual progression of ideas and technology. It never stops. There are no change freezes to rush out the next iteration.

As we’re forced to market this to our peers as something though, I suppose Web 2.0 will have to do. And as such, they will see a turning point that they can define, and say “from here, it all changed”.

Will that make us, the early adopters, or leaders, whatever you want to label it, be seen as the instigators, visionaries, masterminds, or pains in the ass who kept on at people until they listened.

Government loves analysis, there’s bound to be papers written on it at some point. Will our names go down in history as the ones who were part of the change which enabled them to finally engage with the public on a level playing field?

For my part, I have helped Solihull MBC get on Twitter and Facebook, although the latter was short lived, but I have been working with the youth services to get it up and running at least for the young people, as somewhere they can keep in touch and learn what’s going on. I am setting up social media surgeries for our Councillors, and will be setting up a Social Media Cafe soon for the council, and our partners, and community/voluntary organisations in the area.

I have also seen many more things get underway in other councils, many by people I met at LocalGovCamp.

So although we joke about being epic visionaries, perhaps we really are, and history (albeit not pop history) will record this.

My only other question, is will Epic Visionary c2009 be a valid headline on our CV?

In a big way!

Gone is my Samsung Q210, HP Mini 2133, and HTC Touch HD, and in have come a MacBook Pro 13″, iPhone 3GS, and AirPort Extreme.

I missed you Apple.