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“Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it.“  – The Wall Street Journal

This week it was straight into it.  The ‘it’ in question being, the iPad. Duh, hello.

The endlessly hyped, and much rumoured Apple tablet, is out of vapourware, and has been released into the meatspace.  It’s hard to believe that anything this hyped, I mean, it was even mentioned on Radio 4 and they’ve only just come to terms with the loss of Empire, could live up to expectations, and so it proved.  Anyone who was expecting the ‘Jesus Tablet’, a miracle device with the potential to cure the worlds diseases, feed the hungry and reverse climate change were disappointed, and rightly so. Instead we got, I think, the tablet that everybody else has been trying to make, an integrated device, designed from the ground up to do a range of tasks, and do them well.

Whether it will be the success as the iPhone, it so closely apes UI-wise, only time will tell.  It’s already as polarising as the afore mentioned device, ‘It’s just a big iPod touch’, to ‘iPad 1.0 is still fantastic enough in its own right to be classed as a stunningly exciting object, one that you will want NOW’.

Either way, at least Dom Jolly can ditch his Nokia now.

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“It’s always darkest just before dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbours newspaper, that’s the time to do it.“  – Anonymous

My week in tech was pretty uneventful this week, whereas Gareth’s was pretty full. He purchased an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, which he has yet to unbox, though he does promise a review when he gets it plugged in.  But he was particularly stoked about his other endevour, he has jailbroken his Apple TV.  The superlatives came thick and fast, which I think indicated that he was quite pleased.

Then I kicked off the stories…

Bill Gates joins Twitter – The Uber-Geek has joined the eponymous micro-blogging site.  At the moment he’s using it, apart from following a few dubious Tweeters, to promote his new Gate’s Notes site. Which is keeping us all informed about his charitable works. That’s nice for him, but you’d think his ego would be stroked enough just looking at his bank balance.

$100,000 prototype laptop stolen from Apple’s campus in 2009 – It’s reported, on Zirana.com, that a prototype laptop, most likely the next Macbook Pro, was stolen from Infinite Loop. It’s since been recovered and investigations are ongoing. I know it was probably something really low rent, a pissed employee trying to score big after being shit-canned. But I keep seeing a Mission Impossible kind of thing. Complete with Tom Cruise and all the cool gear, and the theme tune, definitely the theme tune. And maybe Howard Stringer stroking a cat, and laughing diabolically. But I’m guessing that’s probably just me, time to up the dosage again.

Bing to be default iPhone search engine – Is it a negotiating ploy, to squeeze more money out of Mountain View? Or have relations between Google and Apple Become that strained. Either way Ballmer has sensed an opportunity to push MS’ search alternative. And given the dominance of the iPhone in mobile data, and hence mobile search, this move should buy Bing some extra share points. However, there is no need for panic as it turns out setting your default search engine, is just a visit to Settings.app away.

YouTube and Vimeo get HTML5 video – You can sign up for the beta’s right now, if you are using either Safari or Chrome. Firefox will undoubtably follow, although they’re betting on the Ogg Theora codec, rather then H264. Either way it’s a win win for Mac users, Adobe’s Flash and IE in it’s many flawed forms are bound to lose out.

Cisco successfully trials IP router in space – A point to point network in space, satellites bouncing data between each other, on route from ground station to ground station. Every day these boffins think up marvellous new way to improve the intelligence of the machines that they produce. The only thing wrong, in my opinion, is the name, IRIS or Internet Routing In Space, just doesn’t do it for me.  It’s just begging to be called SkyNet.

IBM and Fujifilm develop 35TB magnetic tape cartridges – Tape devices are the last bastion of the old guard in storage. Dull and old fashioned, but reliable and with ever growing capacity, the work horse for archiving in most data centres the world over. So another increase in capacity, this time to 35TB, is just what the IT geek ordered. It’s strange to think, that it’s going to get to the point where you could probably store the sum of human knowledge on a single tape. As opposed to Rob Enderle’s which could go on the back of postage stamp.

NY court revives antitrust against the major music labels – It’s amazing that with all the competition in the music industry, the price of music downloads just sort of ended up at 70 cents. Now the antitrust investigators in NY have successfully appealed against an earlier ruling, the big four labels have a case to answer. On just how, with no collusion, that price, a price higher then the cost of physical media, came to be set. The major labels have nothing to fear though, they can always count on Bono to ride to the rescue of these poor oppressed corporations.

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“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.“  – Edmund Burke

This week we began with the usual chat about our personal week in tech. My Time Capsule and Gareth’s Drobo are, I’m happy to report, both performing flawlessly. Then I was reminded to tell Gareth of the ’12 days of Christmas’ app, a gift a day from Apple. A film, several TV shows, some music videos and some very good iPhone games, all for free, and you can’t beat free. Then we talked a little about the imminent arrival of the Tablet, on the 26th, or 27th depending on the rumour site, of January Apple will host an event to unveil this mythical beast. At least they might, maybe, almost definitely will announce it.

Anyway on to the stories…

Psystar have another tilt at the same windmill – Who is paying these guys legal bills? Unwilling to take defeat, Psystar have launched an appeal against being laughed out of court the last time. This time they’d like people to recognise that they, indeed we all, have the right to take software, and use it anywhere we want. It’s a noble ideal, and I think if they really believed in what they say, and weren’t just trying to make a fast buck off Apple’s back. These guys would realise where they are going wrong. The word is copyright. If they took a look around, they would see that some people agree with them, and have indeed, set up a movement to allow them to take software and use it anywhere they want. It’s called Open Source, you dummies.

Google to China “We’re taking our ball home” – Unwilling to play by the Chinese government’s rules any longer. Google have decided, after much soul searching, and not an insignificant amount of hacking, to stop censoring search results in China. They have said that they will discuss with the Chinese whether this will be allowed, and if not, have stated that Google will pull out of China altogether. Larry, Curly and Moe, I mean Larry, Eric and Sergey, must have tripped over their corporate motto, ‘Don’t be evil’, and had an epiphany.

iPhone OS 4.0 delayed by the fabled tablet – As much as I’m looking forward to the Tablet / iSlate / eReader (delete as applicable). I really hope that it’s development hasn’t been holding back any software updates, for my beloved iPhone. Because if it has I won’t be best pleased. I want Apple to concentrate on making the best smartphone, even better. It makes sense to me, they have a huge installed base of enthusiastic customers for the platform, and the competition breathing down their necks. Plus there’s no way I’ll be able to afford a Tablet this soon after Christmas.

Apple and Nokia play patent lawsuit ‘tennis’ – Thwack, Nokia serve up a patent lawsuit, ostensibly to get Apple to cross-licence their technology. Thwack, Apple return with a counter-suit, to stop Nokia in their tracks. Thwack, Nokia attack with a complaint to the ITC, to stop Apple selling ‘infringing’ devices. Thwack, Apple counter with their own complaint to the ITC, to ban the import of Nokia phones into the US. And there we leave it for the moment, with the lawyers earning a fortune. And me with a really, really laboured analogy.

Verizon start a new skirmish in the mobile wars – A little price cut goes a long way in these straightened times. And Verizon has launched a salvo, across the bows of the other mobile operators. AT&T have responded immediately matching the cuts, and the other networks will surely follow suit. There is a catch, a there always is with mobile phone providers. It is now next to impossible to get a phone with out a data contract. They give with one hand and gouge with the other.

Italian class action against ‘pre-installed’ Windows – In a bizzare case of winning the war but losing the peace. Italian consumer groups are to launch another class action to recover the cost of the windows licence, that comes with a new PC. Having already won this case before you could be confused as to why they’re going to fight it all again.  Well it seems the PC manufacturers are demanding that customers return their computers to prove they’re not running windows on them. Costing the customers more then double the 30 – 40 euros they might get back. Strange, I’ve never felt the need to delete Windows off the computers I buy. Oh, that’s right, I don’t have to.