iHaveYouNow

So, I went into Best Buy and dropped £600 on a brand new iPad.

First Impressions : this is definitely Version One, and there are a few kinks to work out. There’s a general issue with apps not recalling their state when you quit or change context – the app store, for instance, loses its place in the app list when you touch an app icon to find out more about it, and the ipod app loses its search filter when you quit out. Browser compliance isn’t great – for instance, I failed to edit this post fully on the iPad (and have to do it on my macbook). Lack of a camera is real disappointment because skype would rule on this thing.

Typing : I thought the big keyboard would be a super win, and it is – sort of. It’s a win if you place the machine flat on a desk, so you can use both hands – excellent for taking notes during meetings, also much quieter than a keyboard because there’s no clicking. When you’re holding it up, though, as you are when you’re sitting with the machine on your lap, typing becomes very slow. A small iphone-sized overlay keyboard that could be navigated quickly with one hand (while the other holds the machine) would be faster in that situation.

Standout experiences : youtube is amazing, google maps is stunning; autodesk sketchpad pro is fantastic and very useful; and the korg iElectribe is mind-bendingly addictive if you don’t mind flashing back to your twentysomething fantasies of being Richie Hawtin (and I don’t). This is clearly the controller system for live performance software – if I was still into DJing I’d be rewriting hummingbird on it for sure, as there seem to be no good DJing apps for it yet.

In summary – everyone is going to own one of these sooner or later, whether iOS or Android. The next version will be the one to own if you’re agnostic or unmoved by this one – a camera and a retina display would turn this into the perfect piece of tech. From my point of view, I bought this version because I want to learn how to code on it.

Next step : hello world, I guess…

The Vice Of Vanity

In NYC, being in this.

If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Paris

To Paris to visit La Gaite Lyrique; from the rooftop of which you can see the whole of Paris. That’s the Eiffel Tower in the background, honest.

Never Get Off The Boat

To Ölüdeniz, a charming fishing village that has been turned into Margate; where we chartered a massive pleasure boat all to ourselves (just the five of us) and embarked on a blissful day of island hopping, swimming and eating (and drinking beer), chased by another boat crewed by a contingent of amorous cougars and their long-suffering Turkish masseur.

Kalkan

To Kalkan, a charming fishing village that has been totally occupied by British people of, how can I put it, a certain social standing. Resulting in legions of restaurants serving detuned Turkish/international food at hugely inflated prices, playing Norah Jones and the World Cup as the sun sets behind the grieving hills.

Life’s a Beach

And there it was : Kapıtaş beach, nestled under a coastal road bridge traversing a gorge on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

Aïïïïïïïïïï

To a Roman-era amphitheatre in Aspendos, southern Turkey, to watch a four hour production of Aïda by the Turkish National Opera. Thanks to the iPhone, we were able to call up a description of the opera and roughly follow the action of each scene. Weren’t those Egyptians drama queens !

Antalya

So, me and The Bear arrive in southern Turkey (note to self : remember not to hold hands in the street) for a holiday avec les parents – the next stage in our continuing experiments balancing military-conquest-style completism with dipsomaniac horizontality.

First stop Antalya (above), which turns out to be a charming fishing village surrounded by skyscrapers, where we walk around the town a bit waiting for people to wake up and serve us breakfast.

Then a bus to Sidé, which turns out to be a charming fishing village that has been comprehensively sodomised by massive German package hotels (the kind that prevent you from sitting down on ‘their’ beach if you don’t have the right-coloured armband), cheap jewellery shops and pizza-and-burger-restaurant touts. You can’t stop progress !