When the iPad was first announced, I really didn’t see the point. Like a lot of people, I was hoping for a tablet-style version of a MacBook; surely it wouldn’t be too hard to take a MacBook Air, put a touchscreen where the keyboard is, and sell that? But Apple had other ideas; iPhones have been so successful largely because they are so easy to use, so they decided to build on that instead.
So is the iPad simply “a large iPod touch”? After my first day of use, I’ve got to say that yes, it is-and yet, it isn’t… It’s all the good stuff we’re used to (apps, touchscreen, browser, email, ease of use) plus some extra good stuff (speed, larger screen area, better keyboard, increased battery life). There is a small amount of added bad stuff: it’s a bit heavier than I’d like; I can’t hold it in one hand for as long as I can hold my E-reader, for example. It only has one speaker, despite it being billed as an ideal way to watch movies on the go. And the dock connector is in the wrong place for using the iPad as a video player or photo frame- would it have killed them to put a second connector on the side so it could be docked in landscape mode? The last bad thing I can think of is the price- I know first versions of products do tend to be more pricey, so hopefully we’ll see the price drop by £100-£150 or so in the future.
All that aside, though, I’m pleasantly surprised by the iPad. It’s a fantastic way of surfing the web, doing email and updating a blog whilst on the sofa. I’m not convinced that it will make a good ereader- I’ve tried some sample books and as I expected, the screen is nowhere as good as the one on my Sony ereader. Add in the increase in size and weight and the dedicated ereaders have nothing to worry about.
I’ll post another blog once I’ve had some more use out of it, but so far, I’m impressed. And yes, this was written on the iPad, using the Wordpress app.
Since I had a new car, I figured I might as well get a new Satnav to go with it, and I’ve always been a TomTom fan so it was the obvious choice. It’s a lovely bit of kit, as Satnavs go, and has done a great job so far – although it does have a couple of drawbacks.
and indeed the 
are cheeky little teases! They go on about how you get traffic information and petrol prices and whatnot, but it’s only if you dig a little deeper that you find out that these services only work in the country where you bought the device. Now this might sound fairly obvious – it’s using a GSM connection which has a fixed monthly subscription and would therefore be hard to allow for roaming charges – but the main selling point of the Go 740 Live and Go 940 Live are that they include maps of Europe, and even America in the case of the 940. So, you can drive all over Europe, but you can forget about getting traffic info as soon as you leave Blighty! So, on the one hand, you’ve got a great Traffic info service; on the other, it’s only available on a small percentage of the maps the device includes.
for the Go x40 which plugs into the USB socket, but it’s an extra £28 (on Amazon) on top of the Go itself. Plus, they don’t include the remote control any more, so you’ll need to buy the 
So, in order to match the 930 I have to spend at least another £50 on the 940, and that’s on top of the fact it costs around £50 more than the 930. And then you’ve got the monthly sub for the Traffic service which you won’t always be able to use if you’re not in the country.
