thirtydegree

It’s the Easter bank holiday weekend, so I’ve taken a few moments to scour the App Store for new and popular iOS apps.

I found that Groupon have finally released their app for the UK market, so I’ll give them another chance. Hopefully this time around their offers will be more interesting than my prior experience last year.

What really caught my attention was a new app by Microsoft called Photosynth. What particularly caught my eye on this app was the fact that it takes 360° pictures in all directions, creating spectacular images of views. This app is going to be loads of fun making it extremely simple to create full wraparounds of landmarks and other places of interest. Even capturing a moment in time for someone the other side of the world to experience is a simple process. The ability to post your image direct to Facebook or Bing gives the added benefit of being instantly available to others.

I’m going to take the opportunity of the extended Easter break to try this app out and post some of the images I take online. In the meantime, have a look at photosynth.net for some images other people have taken. Keep you posted!

I Popped over to Niketown early lunchtime to try the Nike+ SportWatch GPS out. I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit recently, as the weather has been improving and I’ve had a few runs in shorts again with my iPhone in my running shorts crackpocket. Worried that the phone will eventually fall out and I’ll end up with a shattered screen, alternatives have been the (now released) SportWatch or iPod Nano with Nike+ SportKit.

The overriding factor for getting the Nike+ SportWatch ended up being the fact that it has GPS technology, as well as being compatable with the Polar WearLink+, as I want to be able to track my pace, location and heart rate. The iPhone isn’t currently WearLink+ compatable.

After work I took it out for its first run around Hyde Park. I haven’t bought the Polar WearLink+ yet, so this run was only to check its functionality and ease of use.

As the instructions said, all you need to do is press and hold the Select button for three seconds to link the sensors. My run was solely using the GPS signal as my shoes aren’t designed for Nike+ and I don’t have a sensor pouch to attach to my shoes yet.

I took my normal 6km run route, as I’ve run it many times using my iPhone, so know the 1km markers and end to end is 6km with reasonable accuracy.

It was my first experience seeing my pace realtime as my phone has always been kept tucked away in my running shorts/tights bum pocket. What was unusually nice was to have the freedom to “just run”. Not having the Nike+ GPS iPhone app technology telling you your stats at certain milestones leaves you to get on with running. It’s a positive experience!

The run itself went well, with the SportWatch clocking 6.03km with a pace of 5’10″/km and 450cal burned.

Synching the watch is as easy as setting off to run. All you need to do, once the Nike+ Connect software has been installed, is plug in the SportWatch to your computers USB port and it syncs automatically and updates your run to nikerunning.com automatically. My run data is pretty spot on, however the elevation data is not as accurate as I’d like. This said, it is still more accurate than my phone’s. I like the split information posted below the visual run detail.

My only reservation at this point is tapping the screen to activate the backlight or mark laps. It requires quick, strong taps, as it isn’t a touch screen, so needs to be treated different to an iOS screen.

To sum up the experience, running without an iPhone in your crackpocket is a positive experience!

Friday saw the official launch of the iPad in the UK and a few other international places locations. Those of us who pre-ordered and lucky enough to secure a 28 May delivery date were surprised by having our iPads delivered a day early. Productivity dived after delivery was taken, iPads were connected to iTunes, apps were installed and there was much cooing going on in the office.

Besides the obligatory iWork and iBook apps, things like Popular Science, Wired, Time and The Elements were downloaded from the iTunes store. The latter apps are really setting the benchmark by which all other magazine will be judged. One thing is certain, magazine apps , the likes of Men’s Health, which only reproduce their magazine content as glorified PDF files, are going to lose the respect of their readership base quite quickly. All magazine publishers should be looking at the Popular Science and Wired apps with the aim of trying launch their own apps to even higher standards.

I attempted to show my father the new toy in my life via Skype over the weekend. He’s been very helpful in sending various articles like the top ten apps for your iPad and others. He seemed suitably impressed at the potential which the iPad has and how it can change the print industry. The only issue end users are currently experiencing is that the magazine on the shelf is currently the same price as the one which is being downloaded, whilst some media companies are saving printing costs and not investing in their new product. My fathers viewpoint on this seems to be one of having the ability of being freed from having to spend time sitting in front of a computer reading articles on the Internet and being able to read in comfort and leisure. It’s something I believe all early adopters of Apple’s new device have come to realise.

When I ordered the iPad on 10 May, I also ordered the Apple iPad Case, as all reviews at the initial US launch advised that this was one essential accessory. Over the weekend I also bought the Apple Camera Connection Kit, which is a useful accessory for anyone who takes pictures on the fly and would like the ability to view and/or import them into the iPhoto library on the iPad. Whilst it doesn’t replace any desktop program in any way, if you want to get an image uploaded to the web quickly from a compact or DSLR, it’s the easiest way to do so. Now to get out and about photographing.

Whilst the iPad itself is a polished device which just works, the iTunes and iBook store could do with some more thought. Searching apps and books on these two apps are not easy, unless you know exactly what you’re looking for. Random scrolling through lists is not as easy as the iTunes desktop or iPhone version. This is even more prevalent with the iBook store, which does not currently have many titles in the UK or a desktop presence within the iTunes store. These are things which will probably be ironed out in the next versions of iTunes and the iPhone OS.

The question is, will the iPad revolutionise the media industry? Only time will tell. One thing is certain, all other entrants into the market are going to be compared against it.