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It’s alive!


A few days ago I published a blog post on the death of WebOS.

HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones.

One of the consequences of the HP announcement was that initially in the US many resellers immediately dropped the price of the HP TouchPad 16GB model to $99

I noted on the Twitter that if this happened in the UK then I would probably get one. Well as it happens that is what happened, well it happened to the price. The Dixon’s Store Group cut the prices of the TouchPad to £89 for the 16GB model and £115 for the 32GB one.

Within what felt like minutes had sold out on the PCWorld, Currys’ and Dixons’ websites. According to the various websites the stores locally to me had no stock either. Other resellers still were charging £300+ though.

The TouchPad itself, running WebOS has its problems and is probably the reason why HP have dropped it. There are various reports that WebOS could run twice as fast on the iPad as it could on the TouchPad. The conclusion from that was it wasn’t WebOS that was the problem, it was the hardware. The reviews of the TouchPad indicated that the main problem was one of sluggishness, lack of responsiveness and a lack of apps. If all you are going to use a tablet for is web, e-mail and social networking then the lack of apps is less of an issue. The recent Kindle web app also shows that a lack of proprietary apps may not be so problematic either. So what about the speed? Well if I was paying £400 for the TouchPad then yes I would be disappointed, but paying £89 then I would be a lot less fussy and I am sure that this is the reason why it is selling out here in the UK and in the US.

There is also a lot of stuff on the web about converting the TouchPad to run Android. If this can be done and works well then investing £89 in a discontinued piece of technology might in the end be a worthwhile investment.

Though the TouchPad is not perfect, it certainly is now the best sub £100 tablet you can buy and if you can find one, and don’t have an iPad, then you might want to get your wallet out and buy one.

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Paper Camera

Sometimes I am find an app for the iPhone and I go yay, excellent. Paper Camera is one of those apps, the other one that I found recently that had a similar impact was ToonPAINT.

What Paper Camera does, through a clever interface, is convert the live camera footage into a sketch or pencil drawing image in real time. You can then press the shutter to capture the image through the live filter.

Now though this is very clever and useful, when I saw this app a few months back, I realised that what I wanted to do, was apply the filter to images in my photo library too. Well a recent update has added that function, so I can now apply the excellent filters to images I have taken before. This means I can do stuff at home or on the road, rather than always having to take the images live.

Some images work better than others, so you may not always get the image that you hope for.

I do like the range of filters and the three slider bars for adjustment do make it possible to create some really nice sketch effects.

Paper Camera costs just 69 pence and is well worth the money for the clever images you can create using it.

St David's Hotel, Cardiff

Get Paper Camera in the App Store.

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WebOS is Dead!

After all the bad press that the HP TouchPad can I say I am not surprised when HP announces the following:

HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones.

They do say…

HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

I think that this is basically the death of WebOS. It doesn’t surprise me one little bit.

WebOS was initially developed by Palm before it was acquired by HP. Though the Palm Pre received very positive reviews, the HP TouchPad did not. There was complaints about how slow it was as well as the lack of apps for the device. Probably the big story that killed the TouchPad was the report that Best Buy who had 270,000 TouchPads had in fact only sold 25,000 and wanted HP to take the remainder back…

So though it was cheaper than the iPad, people were still buying the iPad, you couldn’t blame the economy for the poor TouchPad sales.

When I managed a very limited try of the TouchPad in my local Staples though I did find it slightly sluggish, I did quite like the interface and user experience. Certainly better than some of the Android 2.x tablets that were alongside the TouchPad. Probably didn’t help that it wasn’t connected to the internet and had no example apps on it.

However talking to others who used it there thoughts were that it was nice, but it was no iPad. I have heard similar things about Android tablets too, including those that run Honeycomb.

Personally I have had similar experiences with touchscreen phones. The LG Viewty for example was a horrible phone compared to the first iPhone from a user experience perspective, even if it did have a much better camera and other features.

It would appear that HP was losing a lot of money with WebOS and decided that killing, sorry discontinuing the devices they were making was the only option open to them.

It is a pity in one respect, good competitive devices keep Apple on their toes and gets Apple to innovate and improve their devices. Or maybe that’s what Apple does anyway, regardless of what the competition does…

I haven’t yet seen a serious competitor to the iPad at this time, have you?


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Skitch is Free

I have been using Skitch for a while now and more so more recently for making screengrabs, annotating screengrabs and for sharing them.

I have had the free version since it came out and due to my increased usage was considering buying the $20 plus version that has a few more features.

Well as of today, Skitch has been bought by Evernote and as a result the plus version is now free.

So if you have been sharing screengrabs and want more than just the built in version in OS X then get Skitch.

Get Skitch now in the Mac App Store.

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Annoying Sonix SN9C201 Webcam iTunes Error

I’ve been having the following iTunes error for a while now.

Generally I ignore it and reopen iTunes. It’s not as though I even have a Sonix SN9C201 Webcam anyway….

After a little bit of internet research it would appear that the problem is when installing Skype that app throws a Sonix SN9C201 Webcam file into ~/Library/Quicktime and if you delete that file, that fixes the problem.

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Camera+ with Captions

I have mentioned Camera+ before as one of my favourite camera apps for the iPhone.

It is a very powerful photography app and it allows you to use the iPhone camera in ways which the standard camera app doesn’t even come close.

Plenty of ways to share the images too.

They’ve just upgraded the app to version 2.3 which allows you to add captions when you add a border to your image.

Quite a nice subtle feature, though the caption “fits” with the border you choose, you can’t change the font or colour of the caption.

At the offer price of 69p it’s currently very affordable and good value for money.

Check out Camera+ in the iOS App Store.

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Podcast Choice #05 – iPad Today

I have been asked a fair few times about the different podcasts I listen to. I not only have a lengthy commute to work, but also travel a fair bit for work, so it’s vital to me to have something to listen to. This series will discuss and review the different podcasts I listen to or have listened to. In a previous blog post I spoke about the why and how I listen to podcasts, now we look at the actual podcasts I listen to.

This week’s podcast is iPad Today.

Tech geeks Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane love their iPads so much they’ve created “iPad Today,” the TWiT network’s first show highlighting the best apps, most helpful tools, coolest tricks, and essential news surrounding the iPad revolution. “iPad Today” is smart, informative, and lots of fun.

If you have an iPad and are interested in news on the iPad and app recommendations than this is the podcast for you. This is very for the iPad user and isn’t really for anyone else…

I find there are lots of ideas to take away from the podcast on how to make better use of your iPad and what fun, useful and interesting apps that are out there.

This is one of the few podcasts I listen to where I actually prefer to watch it! The video version of iPad today is available in both a high res and low res format. As the podcast is looking at apps, the video version makes a lot more sense when the hosts are describing what they like about apps they are viewing. The audio version is still though eminently listenable to.

One of the “features” of iPad Today (and the other podcasts from the TWiT network) is that notes from the show are available within a few days on the show wiki. So if you are listening in the car or on your iPod and want to know the name of the app that was mentioned, it will usually end up in the wiki with a link.

So if you have an iPad and want to know what new apps are available and what the latest news is, then this is a great podcast to watch (and listen to).

Subscribe to iPad Today in the iTunes Store.

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Staples, really no idea!

It has been sometime since I went to a mobile phone store, but I do remember that all the phones on display were fakes, plastic copies to give you an idea of how it looked and size, but had no functionality whatsoever and were very lightweight so bore no resemblance to how heavy the actual phones were.

How different it is at an Apple store. If you have been to an Apple store you will know that all the kit that is laid out is the real kit. It also all works too. If you want to make a phone call on the display iPhone, you can! Well you could the last time I tried… All the iPads have real apps on them that work, okay some are “lite” versions, but they do function as well as the real apps. I also like the fact that they have photographs in the photo albums, music, films and TV shows. You can really get a feel for how the iPad will work and how it would fit into your lifestyle and your needs. The same can be said for the Macs, which again are populated with Apps and content in a similar vein.

Another key feature of the Apple store is that all the devices can connect to the internet, so if you want to check how the web works on the device you can.

So what has that go to do with Staples as it says in the title of the blog post?

Well Staples could learn a lot from Apple about how best to present the kit they sell they have on display.

I was in there the other day and they had a really nice range of tablets on display, most were Android, but there was also the HP TouchPad.

Most had power, but not all.

None had anything on them except the default install, so no apps to try, no content to view or look at.

Though all had wifi, none could be used to access the internet as none of them were connected to the internet!

Really what was the point of having them on display, when the average consumer is going to have no idea about how they work and how they could fit into their lifestyle.

In a recent blog post of mine I said:

1.21 million Android tablets have been sold, and in the same time period 28.73 million iPads have been sold by Apple.

In that post I put the focus on the price and went on to say:

…with the iPad, though its price is more than the price of similar Android tablets, people buy the iPad because of factors other than price.

Well if the buying experience is anything to go by and I had to make a choice based purely on that, it’s a no brainer you would go for the iPad.

Apple have made a reputation in the retail business by providing a good retail experience. I am sure if Staples created a buying experience that matched the one you find in the Apple store I am pretty sure that the sales of Tablets in there would increase. By how much, probably double or even treble. It’s not that difficult, get the tablets to sell themselves.

I am sure it’s not entirely the fault of Staples, the suppliers of the tablets probably don’t provide anything either except perhaps a “demo reel”.

So have you bought a tablet from Staples or other retailer? What was your experience like?


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Connectivity Issues

For the first time in ages my internet fell over. I can’t actually recall the last time it did something like this.

The first I knew about it was a web page failing to load on my MacBook. I assumed at first it was the website… then I checked the MacBook and noticed an Airport issue. I then opened the Airport Utility to find that my Airport Extreme was having a few problems and showing an orange light in the utility. I found though I could restart it from the Utility, which told me that it was very likely not going to be the problem. Generally if I have an issue with the Airport Extreme, the only real solution is a hard reboot, i.e. turning it off and back on again.

In the end the problem I decided must lie with the Modem, so I unplugged it, counted to ten and then plugged it back in again. Within about 30 seconds all was back to normal and I could surf the web without any problems. Not sure of the reason for the failure, probably either an issue with my ISP, or an issue with BT. However as I said it happens very rarely and I think this is only the second time since I had FTTC installed that the connection has gone down. No real concerns, as rebooting the modem has fixed the issue. Will make a note though just in case (this is it, this blog post).

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Snapseeded

Over the last few days I have been playing around with the Snapseed app for the iPad. 

This is a wonderful photograph editing app that I was told about by Mark Power.

Unlike other similar apps in the iTunes store, this has a unique interface that at first takes a little getting use to, but once you’ve mastered it you realise how powerful and easy it is to use. It certainly makes the most of the touch interface that the iPad has.

It can even handle RAW images from your DSLR if you use the optional iPad camera connection kit.

As well as the usual brightness, contrast, saturation and other ways to tune your image, there is a useful selective adjustment tool that allows you to adjust part of the photograph.

I also like the included filters that can be used to add drama, grunge or make your photograph look vintage.

This is one of the most powerful apps I have used on the iPad for image manipulation and certainly I have been pleased with the results.

Get Snapseed in the iTunes Store.