For weeks the rumour mill has been in full swing with regards to a tablet device on it’s way from Apple. While excited to officially hear about the new creation, I was unusually tired of the speculation and delusion from many big unofficial Apple news sites, giving us random bits of detail from non-reliable sources – all of which, predictably, ended up being untrue.

So, after shutting down NewsFire RSS for days, I decided to leave it until the big man himself, Steve Jobs, got up on stage yesterday and unveiled this magical new product: the iPad. I didn’t have any huge expectations about what it would do but for me the iPad is the perfect bridge between the iPhone and iMac. No question.

For the longest time I have wanted something with a bigger screen that I could use for sofa and bed browsing and the ability to watch TV shows and Movies that I have purchased/rented through iTunes. With the absence of an AppleTV which I’m still not entirely sold on, I never do get around to watching the media I have bought. The idea of watching on the iPhone’s 3.5 inch screen is a nice one, but really not practical for doing so comfortably. The 10inches of the iPad = perfection.

I’ve been asked by various people today what I am going to use the iPad for…

- Browsing the internet/sending e-mails from the sofa and bed
- Buying and reading books from the Apple iBookstore
- The beautiful Classics app which will be so much more comfortable to read on a 10 inch screen
- Watching TV shows and Movies purchased through iTunes
- Showing personal photos to friends/family on a comfortable size screen when visiting them
- Games. Oh, the games!
- Arty drawing and painting apps such as Brushes
and the fabulous Charadium
- Apps in general, bigger screen, beauty.
- Goodness knows what else!

My PowerBook did a good job of bridging the gap between my iPhone and iMac for a while, but never gets booted up thesedays and needs to be connected to the mains permanently as battery lasts approximately 3 minutes. I have zero interest in buying a laptop as it’s overkill for my needs (see above). I know the iPad isn’t for everyone’s needs, but there’ll be a big market for this I’m sure

The iPad prices have not yet been announced on the Apple UK site, but Macworld UK have estimated the prices as follows…

iPad WiFi

16GB – £388
32GB – £510
64GB – £591

iPad WiFi + 3G

16GB – £490
32GB – £612
64GB – £693

Many of those don’t sound like Apple-ish prices to me, but again are just an estimate. I would take a guess at the 16GB WiFi starting at £379, with the 32GB coming in at £479. But, we’ll have to wait and see when Apple release the prices in GBP. I’ll update this post with the correct pricing when it’s been announced.

I have decided to go for the iPad 32GB WiFi model, at $599. I simply don’t need 3G as I have my iPhone for that. I actually saved up twice the US asking price as I’d heard that the tablet was expected to cost around $1k. So, I can now happily afford the little accessories such as case and dock! Roll on 60 days time. I’ll have a little review up for you when I get my hands on it.

See the indepth spec review of the iPad over at my friends blog, techese.

Whilst on the phone to o2 a couple of months ago to change my Broadband payment details, the chap asked me if I needed help with anything else. I said everything was fine and that I was so happy with o2 that I wish they did a home phone, enabling me to move away from BT and use o2 for everything: mobile, broadband and home phone. He said that they were looking into doing that, but I didn’t give it much thought until yesterday when I discovered that o2 are launching their Home Phone in March.

I’m absolutely delighted with this news. Being able to finally move away from BT is a dream come true, whom I pay in excess of £100 per quarter to for my home phone. With o2 I will pay just £20 per month for Home Phone *and* Broadband – a saving of £40 per quarter. They have two packages available, ‘Evening & Weekend’ for £9.50 per month and ‘Anytime’ for £12.50 per month – both package prices include line rental. I am opting for the latter as it gives me unlimited calls to UK landlines at any time. So, that together with the £7.50 per month I pay for o2 Broadband I will be paying just £20 per month. You can see details on the tariffs at this page and also register your interest, here.

Roll on March. It’s going to be a very sweet day when I can smile and wave bye bye to BT.

On 11th December I placed an order with Meninos for a Twitter Mousepad. Choosing a mousepad can be harder than you think – the shinier plastic/rubber topped ones have been a real drag for every mouse I’ve used including the Mighty and Magic mice – and using it directly on my desktop was even worse. But, the description of the Twitter mousepad made me confident that this would be perfect.

It arrived today and I’m so delighted with it. The quality of the cloth material is excellent and it has a rubber backing to keep it in place on the desk. My Magic Mouse glides across it quietly and fluidly.

The Twitter Mousepad is $11.99 plus shipping – in British money the total was around £12.50. A great price for such a high quality mousepad. A Facebook version is also available for the same price or if you really want to go crazy then you can order the Twitter and Facebook Mousepads in a pack together for $17.99 – a saving of $6 over buying them individually.

After sampling the quality of the mousepad, I will have no hesitation about buying from Meninos again. They carry a range of great products for the discerning geek.

One of the things I love about many of the iPhone apps out there is the way you can interact with others via online multi-player with Cocoto Kart, for example, or games that have Plus+ built in. Plus+ is a social play network for the iPhone and iPod touch, bringing you, your friends and the rest of the world together so you can all challenge eachother.

One of my recently bought games, Skee-Ball by Freeverse Inc., has Plus+ built-in. Skee-Ball is super addictive – a game I used to love playing at the funfair as a child. It’s totally relived in this fantastic game which is just 59p/99c on iTunes. With Plus+ being a feature of this app, I can see what score my friends have on Skee-Ball and compete against them, aswell as check out their Awards and what other Plus+ enabled games they are playing…

With another Plus+ enabled game, Charadium, not only can I once again challenge my friends in a similar way as Skee-Ball, but I can also play against them (and the entire world) as it’s a pictionary multi-player game. If I choose to play against my Plus+ friends only then I can create a room…

…where I can then invite my friends to join me for a game of Charadium…

Charadium is priced 59p in the App Store. Other games that have the Plus+ feature are Rolando 1 & 2, Worms, Topple 2 and many more.

Feel free to add me to your Plus+ friends list: purplelime

Yesterday one of my Twitter friends tweeted the amount he’d spent on the iTunes App Store, courtesy of a clever little Mac application called App Store Expense Monitor which gathers all your iPhone applications from your iTunes folder and provides you with the total amount of money you have spent on the App Store.

I must admit I was a little surprised to see that I’d spent a whopping £190.18. However, I do remember that in the early days of the App Store, many apps were priced at £5.99, but have happily reduced in price over the last 18 months. But it just goes to show how those 59p’s and £1.19’s soon add up.

What’s your total? (if you’re comfortable sharing in the comments, of course)

Thanks to severe back pain for the past 10 days, I haven’t had the opportunity to get a post out about festive gifts sooner than this. So the ones I’m about to recommend for the geek in your life won’t arrive in time for the big day, but we all love a New Year surprise, don’t we?

iPhone App Coasters

www.iphoneappscoasters.com (not taking any more orders currently)
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I ordered a set of these at the end of November as a surprise gift for a friend. A week later I received the news that they wouldn’t be shipped in time for Christmas so a replacement gift was ordered. Less than a week after that, they arrived unexpectedly. So, they became a me-to-me gift.

The cost of a set of six was just £12.99 plus postage and packing, which in total came to around £15. The quality of the images on the coasters are very good and they’re also very well made, with cork backing. Having seen similar coasters in the US for double the price, these are well worth it and the perfect gift for any iPhone fan.

Twitter Mousepad

Meninos

I currently can’t give a rating on this item as I’m still waiting to take delivery, since I only ordered about 10 days ago. But, as a Twitter addict I am so looking forward to having my Magic Mouse glide across it. I’ll give a full review upon receiving mine, but if you are someone you know/love is a Twitterer then they’ll love this. Facebook mousepads are also available and pretty much everything that Meninos sell is Geek Paradise. The Twitter Mousepad cost approximately £12.50 with shipping which is bargainous.

Throwboy Pillows

Throwboy.com
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I wrote about Throwboy Pillows earlier in the year – you can see my review here.

These are perfect gifts not only for the Mac Geek, but now they have a bigger selection to choose from including RSS and Chat Pillows, so every geek is catered for. They’re fantastic quality, great to snuggle up with or have on display. Priced at $29 each (+ $8 shipping to the UK).

Now we’ve covered the hardware, what about some great software for your computer and particularly the iPhone to keep you entertained when festivities are over?

CameraBag Desktop for Mac and PC

NeverCenter.com
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I reviewed CameraBag Desktop a couple of months ago – full review. It’s making my recommendations list again because originally I gave it a 3/5 rating due to no trial period being initially available, so it was somewhat a blind purchase. However, having used it frequently in recent months I have no regrets about purchasing it. Here’s a couple of photos I’ve taken recently and edited in CameraBag Desktop.

CameraBag is also available for the iPhone and is one of my favourite photo editing apps.

Ramp Champ

RampChamp.com | iTunes: £1.19
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RampChamp is one of the most addictive games I have played on the iPhone – combining great game play with beautiful design. Recently they released a free festive ramp called North Pole which you can download within the app by going to to the add-on tab. After you’ve knocked over fun and colourful characters and objects with the 9 balls you are allocated for each game, you can redeem your tickets for prizes and loot.

I’d have given a full 5 stars to Ramp Champ in my rating if the application was a little more stable. Even after recent updates the app still crashes my iPhone occasionally which is a little frustrating when all you want to do is throw balls at the freaky characters in the Clown Town Ramp! Once these little issues are addressed then it’ll get full marks from me.

Doodle Jump

iTunes: 59p
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Having read the rave reviews, I decided to download this app last week. The warning was that it was insanely addictive. A bold statement, one that it definitely lives up to. The aim is to get the Doodle Monster to jump onto each platform and basically go as far as you can, with springs, trampolines and rocket packs assisting you on some of the platforms you land on. The newest update gives it a snow-mode so it’s fun and festive at the same time.

Outside

Outsideapp.com | iTunes: £1.79
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The standard Weather app on the iPhone is okay, but it’s a bit limited and a bit boring. I’ve searched for a while for a replacement weather app and last night I found it, Outside in the App Store. Not only is this a very polished and elegant application that uses GPS to find your exact location but it also comes with Push Notifications which will tell you what you want to know, when you want to know it such as when the temperature drops below a number you set, when rain is forecast and more.

You will receive 4 weeks worth of free push notifications and if you want to subscribe for longer then it will cost just 59p for 90 days worth. This has instantly replaced Weather.app on my home screen and seems to be pretty accurate so far.

American Greetings eCards

iTunes: Free
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If, like me, you are a little behind on posting out cards this year by the deadline, then you might be wanting to send an eCard to a friend to wish them a Merry Christmas or Happy New Year. American Greetings eCards has a bunch of categories to choose from and you can even build your own card and e-mail it to a friend.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp.com | iTunes: 59p
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This is an app that is definitely up there on my Festive Survival Kit list. I can’t speak highly enough about this one which just keeps on raising the bar with every update it releases. If you have an iPhone and your contacts have an iPhone then this will replace SMS for you. I wrote a review of it a couple of months ago, but recently it has received some extra features which make this a must-have for your iPhone.

Version 2.3 brought us the ability to send pictures, video (for the 3GS users) and voice memos to others with the application. I use WhatsApp to keep in touch with several of my iPhone using friends and this is particularly useful when one of them is overseas. Sending an SMS/MMS to him would cost me money via the data network. However, with WhatsApp it’s absolutely free. Fantastic application to keep you in touch with friends over the festive period.

So, that about concludes my must-haves for this Festive Season. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Because of the wonderful and almost frighteningly simple way one can spend money online these days, I have always written down my outgoings into a notepad on my desk. However, with the frequency of buying apps and music from the iTunes Store, sometimes these little purchases going unrecorded and the balance in my bank differs from the balance guessed on my notepad.

So, a few weeks back I felt I could do with an application to keep me on track with my budget for online transactions. I browsed through the app store and came across Cha-Ching. Not only can I manage my finances there but I can also sync it, via wifi, with the Cha-Ching Mac application, which is currently free in beta. The best of both worlds.

I firstly put in my budget for online spending and then whenever I make a purchase online I tell Cha-Ching and it will then show me my remaining balance. Plus, I get to keep a record of the purchases I’ve made which is very useful to have. This has made me so much more conscious of what I buy, but more importantly spend. Instead of having to go through the tedius task of checking my bank account each day for my balance, Cha-Ching keeps me on track.

I’ve been using Cha-Ching for about one month now and I’m pleased that it hasn’t been a novelty purchase that I’ve used for a few days and forgotten about. Because I have it on my iPhone and Mac, I have Cha-Ching where I need it so when purchasing an app over the air on my iPhone I don’t have to wait until I’m back at my Mac before entering this transaction, which I’d likely forget about. Now I can just open up Cha-Ching, enter it, sync it and forget about it.

The Cha-Ching iPhone app [iTunes link] is just £1.79 and as mentioned above, the Mac application with which it syncs beautifully with is free in beta.

Fruit Bytes Rating:

When I ordered the Magic Mouse from Apple Store online a couple of weeks ago, I popped the new Apple Remote into my shopping cart. Then a day later the shipping dates changed on the remote which would have held my mouse up for at least another 36 days. So, I removed the remote and decided to buy at a later date when stock was in.

After doing a Twitter search for ‘new apple remote’ a few days ago, some were reporting that their Remote was now being shipped, despite the availability still showing as 2-4 weeks on the store listing at the time of ordering. (now changed to 1-2 weeks). But, I decided to pop in my order on Monday and just sit it out. Less than 48 hours later the remote had shipped.

Delivery method showed as ‘Postal’ on my invoice, so because of the Royal Mail strikes across the UK recently I wasn’t expecting it to arrive anytime soon. However, it seems Apple are now using a different courier service to get their goods to customers in the wake of these RM strikes, so it arrived in a timely manner by UK Mail this afternoon. Apple packaged it very well, in a shoe-box sized box!

Check out more photos of the New Apple Remote on Flickr.

I unpaired my old Apple Remote and paired up the new one by holding down the right and menu buttons together for 5 seconds, then a link icon appeared on the screen to show I’d successfully paired it with my iMac. I’ve been asked a few questions around the internet about the remote already, so here’s a little summary.

It’s slightly heavier than the white plastic remote. It’s also a lot colder to the touch, being all aluminium. Even though the play/pause button has been moved from the centre, the centre still acts as a play/pause button. This is good news as I’ve become rather accustomed to clicking the centre for that and I’m sure it would take a while to re-program that action.

There isn’t a great deal more one can say about a Remote Control, but if you do have any questions then fire away in the comments.

The Apple Magic Mouse arrived at Fruit Bytes HQ late this afternoon, courtesy of UPS. Having ordered it direct from Apple Store online 9 days ago, I was very much looking forward to receiving it and having a bit of a play to see how it compared to it’s older sibling, the Mighty Mouse.

When I unpacked the mouse I was expecting it to come in the cardboard packaging like the Mighty Mouse, but instead it’s a plastic box much like the ones that the iPod range come in nowadays (below). The batteries were already inside of the mouse, so all I needed to do was flick the switch underneath, browse for a new Bluetooth device and within a few moments the Magic Mouse was ready for business.

The back of the box shows all the various actions such as the two-finger swipe and screen zoom. But, I know you’re keen to know how it feels compared to the bigger Mighty Mouse…

Because it’s so much thinner and flatter, you will notice the difference in your hand right away. A couple of my fingers felt like they didn’t quite know where to be, mostly my ring finger which ordinarily would be hugging the side of the Mighty Mouse. I sometimes found myself using my index finger to scroll rather than my middle finger. I didn’t expect anything other than an alien feeling to begin with and it would be silly to say otherwise. The more I’m using it, the more intuitive and natural it’s starting to become and I know for sure that the Mighty Mouse would feel big and chunky in my hand now.

I’ve had a play with just some of the functions of the Magic Mouse in the short time I’ve had it. Obviously vertical scroll is particularly enjoyable and the thought of no more scroll ball getting clogged up is a sweet one. I have scrolled through my iTunes music library (cover flow view) using one-finger horizontal scrolling. This was just to test this feature out but doubt it will be an action I use regularly as I never browse my library in Cover Flow view. Similarly, two-finger swiping for going back or forward in Safari may not be something I use much, but it works and works well.

These are my Magic Mouse preferences…

I increased the Scrolling up one notch from it’s default and it feels perfect for me. Aside from it’s functionality, it’s a beautifully designed piece of hardware as one comes to expect from Apple. Underneath the mouse is almost as gorgeous as the top of it. No doubt I will take further pictures to show off it’s slim profile soon and put them up on Flickr.

I know there have been quite a few questions on Twitter about the particular functioning of the Magic Mouse which I have been unable to answer due to being away from the device at the time. But, I’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have, in the comments. My Mighty Mouse is currently being packed up and will hopefully be off to a new home very soon. The Magic Mouse is here to stay.

I’ve been trying to find the perfect push notification iPhone-2-iPhone messaging solution. An app that falls between instant messaging and SMS, without the cost of SMS. The two top ones on the App Store are Ping! and WhatsApp. I reviewed Ping! recently, but I just had to try out WhatsApp to see how it compared.

WhatsApp differs from Ping! in that it uses your phone number and your contact list rather than a PIN/username, so there’s no signing up or having to pass a username onto friends – and no need to add new contacts – your whole iPhone contact list is available within the app. If you have friends with an iPhone then all they need to do is download WhatsApp [iTunes link] which is currently absolutely free, then when you open the app you’ll see which of your contacts already have the app installed by looking through the Favourites list. You also have the option to send an invite to your other friends so they can download the app and interact with you.

The advantage WhatsApp has over Ping!, for me, is the timestamps are correct. You’d have to take a guess when a contact had sent you a Ping! message as the timestamps would read whatever they wanted at any given time. The UI in WhatsApp is also far more attractive than Ping! – and the icon is a lot prettier. That matters. On sending a message you get a little notification tone, much like in the default SMS app on the iPhone. You can also see when one of your contacts is online and composing a reply – ‘typing’ will be displayed under their name at the top of the messaging window.

In WhatsApp you can set a status from the ones given as default such as Available, Sleeping, Busy, In a Meeting and many more, or you can create your own such as ‘iPhone docked and charging’ – a status which indicates that I am unable to reply right away…and something I find myself using a lot! In the settings you can switch status notifications on so that you will get an instant push notification when one of your contacts changes their WhatsApp status.

I can see many people using Ping! alongside WhatsApp. Ping! is the better alternative for chatting to online friends who perhaps you don’t feel comfortable about giving your phone number to, but WhatsApp is probably more suited to those that you do know and trust enough to share your vCard with.

WhatsApp is currently free so there’s no excuse for you and your iPhone friends not to check this one out.

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