Flower Markets in Causeway Bay

Well being Chinese New Year here in Hong Kong the place is thriving with activity. Last night I accompanied my wife and a group of her friends to the famous flower markets, a tradition for folks here in Hong Kong around this time of year. It was an altogether interesting experience, the place was insanely jam packed with people, and for a flower market by and large there weren’t all that many flowers for sale, although I did see everything ranging from SD cards all the way to digital photo frames and various cleaning products (think TV shopping network style).

Still despite the crowds and somewhat oppressive heat I had quite an enjoyable evening and think I managed to take a few decent shots along the way. Now I just have to find that camera cabinet so my camera doesn’t die on me from the humidity in the next week.

New iMac

Well after what feels like a long time (although it was only two weeks) my new iMac has arrived!! and damn if it isn’t huge. I opted for the 27 inch version and yeah… its massive, I love it. I remember a time when a 21 inch monitor was considered massive and only the lucky few ever got one.

Having just taken possession of this beast however I am happy those days are long past. I was worried it might end up being too big, but the experience of sitting at a desk and actually using it is somewhat immersive, kinda like watching a movie on the IMAX screen after a while you forget there is a screen because you can’t see anything else. Same thing, but well on my desk.

My thoughts on the iPad

Well been a few days now since the iPad was announced, and I guess this has given me enough time to mull it over thoroughly. When they first made the announcement, I think I like most people felt somewhat underwhelmed by what I saw. Perhaps the reason for this was the insane level of hype that surrounded the launch, but for whatever the reason when Steve got up on stage and presented exactly what I was expecting I was a little disappointed.

However,  after sitting back and looking at all the videos again, I’ve started to become excited (although I still hate the name). For a long time I have wanted a “laptop” like computer that I can simply throw in my bad and carry with me anywhere, and for the most part I was surprised at how well the iPhone performs that role, what the iPad will bring is more real estate and its surprising that most people are so quick to discredit the device simply over things like no flash support… well most people use ad blockers anyway… runs iPhone OS… well sure but what is wrong with that? Here is the thing, I don’t actually need a full blown PC in something the size and form factor of an iPad, I just want something I can use for browsing the internet on the couch, or watching videos on a plane, or looking though maybe even editing the photos I take while on holiday. I’m not planning on sitting down and coding on the thing, although I would be interested in using this thing for tasks like UI design or mockups… I think it would perform those kind of tasks better than a traditional PC.

As a developer I also see huge potential in this platform, the iPhone always limited you in the kind of apps you could build, firstly because of the resources available and secondly because of the screen real estate available. Now those limitations are gone. Think of the kind of photo editing or document composition apps you can build. I really think there will be some amazing apps built for this platform . I guess most people are disappointed that you don’t get full blown OSX. I can understand, I also had hoped that this would be what we would get, but I also suspect that an OS designed for a desktop / laptop style PC would not translate to the tablet. Surely this lesson has been learnt from the tablet versions of windows. Given the iPhone OS works as a touch OS I can see why Apple used this as the basis for the tablet. It makes sense.

So what don’t I like about it…. price… nope good there… battery….nope good there… storage… nope good there too… no flash, sure that sucks but I’ve made bigger compromises before. When I really sit down and think about it, there really isn’t much about the device not to like, I can see the point about not having a USB port (without the adapter) and I actually agree, I think this will be the devices biggest shortcoming. Hopefully the Bluetooth allows connectivity to as many things as possible. and the dock has inbuilt USB ports.

So will I buy one, I’m fairly sure the answer will be yes. I’m still waiting to get my hands on one, but I suspect that will only seal the deal. I’ve always been a sucker for Apple’s  design anyway.