Munchtech.TV - The Two Techies

9am! 9am! Who records a podcast at 9am?

That would be Jamie and Aaron over at Munchtech.TV!

Actually, they had already started recording the first of 4 shows they do each week at 7:30am - that's dedication for you.

They were kind enough to invite me on to their Two Techies podcast this morning, to chat about the iPad 2 and some other news stories of the week.

The show has been posted over at http://munchtech.tv/the-two-techies-64-twitters-monopoly/

Thanks to Aaron and Jamie for inviting me on and I hope my voice doesn't sound too deep so early in the morning, especially after heavy night on the town the previous night.

Apple TV Update

During the beta testing of iOS 4.3, Apple issued a special build of the Apple TV to allow developers to test AirPlay.

Previous "official" builds of the ATV2 software didn't play nicely with my Sony TV. No matter what I did, I couldn't get a stable image - just ghosting, as the ATV2 output at 60Hz and my TV couldn't cope. There was no way to switch the ATV2 to 50Hz, unlike the original ATV.

My problems were solved, however, with the beta version of the ATV 4.3 software.

Apple duly issued the official iOS 4.3 for iPad, iPhone and ATV2,

The iPad and iPhone didn't need upgrading as the GM seed was the same as the final release. That wasn't the case for the ATV2, so I duly upgraded.

Guess what, it broke the fix and I now can't get a good picture on the Sony TV again.

A kind Twitter follower was able to provide me with the old beta release of the ATV2 software, but Apple won't allow you to install this over the current release. During the restore process, it checks back with Apple HQ and says no!

Bother!

Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and get a new TV sometime this year, now that I've decided to go with a full Apple ecosystem and encode all my videos for iTunes.

The enhancements to AirPlay make having an Apple TV on my main TV pretty much a necessity.

All for the sake of the Apple TV not having selectable output on the menu.

MacJury #1102: A Weekend with the iPad 2

One of the reasons I decided to go and get an iPad from the US was so that I could take part in interesting and fun discussions with esteemed panels.

This is one of them!

I skyped into one of Chuck Joiners excellent MacJury panel last night, to discuss the buying process, our iPad configurations and initial experiences with the iPad 2.

Some of the comments surprised me, I have to say!

You can check out the podcast for yourself - MacJury #1102: A Weekend with the iPad 2 - and thanks as always for the invite Chuck.

Quick Update

Just in case you don't follow my Twitter stream, a quick update from yesterday. After queuing for around 5 hours outside the 5th Avenue Apple store, I finally got the two iPads.

The day got off to a bad start with the terrible news from Japan. It sort of puts things in perspective, but I was there in NYC and had to follow through with getting what I'd set out to do. I'll see what can be done in the way of donations when I get back home.

So anyway, I queued up with Kaz, a friend of mine from the MacMania cruise, joining the line at around 12:00. There were already about 350 people ahead of us. On the dot of 5pm, Apple opened the doors and the first 100 or so people went in. By this time, the visible line had increased three fold and I'd heard that the line went down the side street for at least a block. Apple really know how to execute in these launch events. Literally hundreds of blue shirted Apple staff of hand for the various stages of the welcoming and purchasing process. It pretty much worked like clockwork. After plenty of whooping and hollering, we were down in the store, split into cash and credit card buyers and assigned an individual member of staff.

Ten minutes later, I've my iPads and accessories and I'm headed up the stairs.

From the doors opening to being back outside on the street took about 40 minutes, baring in mind that there were 350 people ahead of me.

So what did I get?

As expected, I got the Black 16GB WiFI as the Prize for the current ScreenCastsOnline members draw (open to all new and existing ScreenCastsOnline members).

For my personal iPad, I ended up going for the Black 64GB GSM 3G iPad with the black Smart Cover and HDMI cable, pretty much what I decided yesterday, with a bump in storage.

I did a rough and ready Unboxing video, now available on YouTube if you want to checkout my initial thoughts.

I'll post more thoughts as I get more familiar with the device.

The Decision!

It's Friday morning and I'm about to set off to make the final leg of my trip, from Newark to Manhattan. OK, so it's not really, I'm writing this on the plane the day before and will set this up to auto publish.

The issue is, which iPad to get!

The first one is easy, I'll be getting a black, 16GB, WiFi model to give away on the show. I won't get a case as there are so many colours, the winner may as well choose their own.

But what to do for my one.

My current iPad 1 is a 32GB 3G model and I've been very happy with it.

The three main decision points are the colour, the storage and WiFi or 3G.

First, the colour.

Easy, it has to be black. Don't like the white one in the photos on the website, besides, I think the white bezel would be too distracting.

Next, the storage.

16GB is probably fine if your not intending to put any media on the device. Say you just want to use it for apps and browsing. I have no plans for any music, all my music (at least the music I want to carry around) is on my iPhone. However, movies presents a fresh challenge..

32GB has been fine for me for general day to day usage. The only time I have an issue is when travelling. You can easily put six or eight movies on the 32GB iPad, a mixture of SD or HD, but I always struggle with which movies to select. A new consideration with iPad 2 is the ability to create video content on the device. Even if you don't intend to use the built in camera of the iPad, with it having iMovie, you may well want to transfer iPhone movie footage onto it for editing. And when might you want to do this? When you're travelling and your iPad is full of movies to watch. Not going to happen often, but it may be worth looking to the future, when this scenario will happen.

64GB is very expensive! But may well get you out of a hole in the future.

My gut feel is that it would be more sensible to go with the 32GB but when it comes to the crunch, I may go with the 64GB.

Finally, WiFI or 3G

Of course, if you're an iPhone 4 user, the obvious answer may well be the WiFi model. iOS 4.3 now has a built in personal Hotspot allowing you to share the iPhones 3G signal. It comes at a extra cost from your service provider of course. But, if you use this infrequently, it may be the one for you.

However, I already pay for a separate data SIM, that gives me 3G data. I can use this both in my 3G iPad and my Mifi. It's actually provided by a different carrier than my iPhone (Virgin Media rather than O2) and it's great to have the choice. I've noticed considerable differences in performance between both carriers depending on the location, with the Virgin Mobile SIM getting a much better signal when O2 network let's me down.

The 3G iPad also has a full blown GPS chip in it. I'm not sure how significant or important this will be, but it's possible this may be advantageous when the next generation of augmented reality apps come out, taking full advantage of the iPad camera and gyroscope.

Of course, I'll have to go with the GSM (AT&T) version of the 3G iPad if I go down that route as only GSM is supported in the UK.

So, to sum up, I'll most likely be getting:

• A Black 32GB GSM 3G iPad 2

• Plus a Black Smart Cover

• Plus the special AV adaptor with HDMI out.

I just hope that I get in early enough, and they have the stock to match my requirements!

I'll let you know via Twitter.