tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29159518477643863532012-02-17T04:12:42.394ZA thoughtful look at life on the bleeding edge of Apple consumer technology.<br>Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-32704349099472042322010-08-06T09:58:00.000+01:002010-08-06T09:58:11.448+01:00

Another week and another guest writer! Games Developer Leigh White muses on a few points regarding the iPad, Games & handshakes.-------------------------------------------------------------------------Hardware Handshake: Some thoughts on iPad Game Development A blue tinged eyeball bounces quickly around the screen. It collides suddenly with another eyeball sending it spinning off to explode

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-59651307553457481052010-07-29T09:03:00.000+01:002010-07-29T09:03:40.083+01:00

I'm back from holiday (again)! Thanks to Frans-Jozef Rutjes & Sharon Ritchey for holding down the fort while I've been away. There'll be some more guest blogs in the future, but for now, it's back to me! So, I took a holiday without the iPad. A couple of weeks before I left I thought about taking it, but my mum really didn’t want to part with it and I did buy it for her after all. The thing is,

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-15954331749457155072010-06-15T16:25:00.000+01:002010-06-15T16:25:42.152+01:00

Interlude - $125 a Pound Continuing with the guest blog theme, Sharon Ritchey muses on how the iPad came into her life and how she has been using it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I just bought an iPad and I lost 6 pounds. The machine was so expensive I can’t afford to buy food.  O.k., seriously it’s all true, except I can still afford to buy food.

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-87672055163595786582010-06-01T17:28:00.001+01:002010-06-01T17:31:10.922+01:00

Now that the iPad is available in the UK and other countries, and has been around in the USA for a couple of months, It's  time for some other users to have their say and tell us what they think... First up in a series of guest pieces is Frans-Jozef Rutjes with a look at how the iPad has been accepted by his family. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-23236090963847367582010-05-26T19:11:00.001+01:002010-05-26T19:15:37.205+01:00

Now I'm back in the UK, and the iPad is no longer in my possession. I had it for about 3 weeks total. Of course, I still have access to it, but I really meant it when I said it was for my mum. I've also made a point of saying that I'm not an Apple Fanboy, yet so far I've had very little negative to say about the iPad. That's mostly because the experience has been overwhelmingly good. But

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-15340677900708574202010-05-18T08:23:00.000+01:002010-05-18T14:41:13.263+01:00

As I told you all very early on, one of my prime reasons for buying an iPad was my mum. When I returned from living in Japan, I showed her my iPod touch and she was clearly taken by it. She loved the simplicity of the interface, and in particular the photo browser, but thought it was too small - both for her eyesight and her not-so-dexterous hands. She's 70, suffers from rheumatoid

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-76748303415401450912010-05-12T11:47:00.000+01:002010-05-17T13:21:18.376+01:00

I keep saying that the iPlatform - my pet term for the Apple mobile device OS - is all about 'user experience.' But what does that mean, exactly? Shouldn't everything be about 'user experience?' Of course, the answer to that question is, yes. But in some cases the user experience isn't relevant. For instance, if you want to find the square root of 269, pretty much any calculator will do,

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-18930679090692387692010-05-06T20:53:00.000+01:002010-05-06T20:56:19.933+01:00

It never ceases to amaze me how people can get emotional - to the point of rage - over a piece of technology. I don't mean, "I just spent $XX on this thing and it doesn't $#%%^ work!" That reaction would make complete sense. What doesn't make sense is when people hurl abuse and get upset because someone else spent $XX on a piece of technology. It also doesn't make sense when people proclaim

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-91710105038947878232010-04-29T23:46:00.000+01:002010-04-29T23:49:59.432+01:00

In an earlier piece I covered the stuff that comes with the device out of the box. So here I'm just gonna run down the apps that I've bought/loaded and what we (me and my hosts) think of them. This is after just a few days of use, so by no means is it a definitive viewpoint, nor is it a definitive list of what's out there. Where possible, I am using an iPad version of the app, but some of

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-25730583980745021972010-04-28T21:15:00.000+01:002010-04-30T18:44:49.385+01:00

I wasn't going to do this just yet, but seeing as I'm stuck at Orlando airport with 4 hours to wait for my flight (thanks to check-in incompetence by Jet Blue, I missed my scheduled flight to DC), I'm going to write and post this blog entry directly on the iPad. "Wait a second", I hear you ask, "you mean all those other blog entries weren't done on the iPad?" No, they weren't. Until now, I've had

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-73892902260220275392010-04-23T15:28:00.000+01:002010-04-23T17:19:27.249+01:00

OK, so I've bored you all to tears with the personal stuff. By now, if you're still with me, you are wondering about the truth of the matter. The details. The technical porn. OK, even though you can probably get this information anywhere, here comes my version. As far as I'm aware, this is accurate based on what I have in my possession (the actual device) and, of course, the official blurb

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-79133430650823219212010-04-23T04:48:00.000+01:002010-04-23T15:37:22.234+01:00

If first impressions count, then it counts double for technology. Like real-world human relationships, when you see or use a gadget for the first time, that initial first contact can be make or break your perception of the device forever. Sitting down in an armchair or sofa with an iPad for the first time felt very natural. Much like holding a hardback book or thick magazine, and a lot more

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-29091256624535361262010-04-21T21:56:00.001+01:002010-04-21T23:09:50.811+01:00

Way back in the last century, back when I was still waving an Apple flag and believing the hype, my current host - Ron - who back then was definitely not an Apple supporter, conceded that the one area where Apple products were superior to all other companies was in what he called The Out Of The Box Experience. (Interestingly, over the years, he has become a total Apple convert and now owns

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-84171266732406520622010-04-21T20:34:00.000+01:002010-04-21T23:09:03.748+01:00

When I arrived in the USA on 8th April, buying an iPad wasn't on my mind. I came here to see old friends, do some research for the comic-book project I'm working on and get some medical advice. Although this would be my umpteenth visit to Washington DC area, the previous one was 3 years ago, so I was really looking forward to it. I'm a bit of a yank-o-file at heart. The friends who I visit

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-44202267906517541222010-04-21T07:34:00.000+01:002010-04-21T22:12:32.098+01:00

Given what I've said previously you may ask yourself, why on earth would I want an Apple iPad? A very valid question and one I have been asking myself repeatedly. The truth is, I want a tablet and the only thing out there that ticks all the boxes is the iPad. Right now, the main focus of my creative life is writing. In particular, comic books, but other mediums as well. I've spent the last

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-69995511720732501962010-04-21T06:29:00.000+01:002010-04-21T22:13:00.972+01:00

A long time ago, in a country far, far away, I made a significant investment in Apple hardware. At the time, as a technical illustrator, typographer and editor of an online Apple journal called eZone, it was the required thing to do. It was also an expensive and somewhat risky thing to do. It was 1995, and as far as the world at large was concerned, Apple was in its death-throes -

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-35006775712465141082010-04-19T16:24:00.000+01:002010-04-21T22:13:34.670+01:00

It was the comments on Facebook that made me do it in the end. A few days into my holiday, I posted that I'd tried to buy an Apple iPad but had failed. My Facebook friends responded with a surprising amount of comments and mail. They were remarkably polarized: Some thought the device was cool & wished me luck, others queried the financial and/or technical rationalizations behind my quest and

Denis-Jose Francoishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885517942313313849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2915951847764386353.post-37117341643983241782010-04-01T17:36:00.000+01:002010-04-29T17:38:19.652+01:00

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