So I was in JB-HiFi the other day. It is, rather sadly, the last local place one can see a wide selection of PC games. Naturally they sell other junk, their main gig being music. However, I was looking at the Macs and while I know oh so little about the actual use of them, I do appreciate their attractive external look.

Several friends of mine are excited about the iPad and I am curious myself. The iPhone so small and with my bad hearing was never going to be a go for me but the iPad may be. So I found myself looking at the keynote speech on the device and I must warn you. It is horribly long.

Apparently the main speaker Steve Jobs (the CEO/face of Apple) has had a liver transplant. I hope to look so good if I have my parts replaced one day.

No blog post on the iPad is complete without mentioning the iTampon thing. Really shows us how childish we are collectively ‘sophisticating’ and poo and pee style jokes. “Teabagging” is another one. Still the name is a marketing gaffe.

But let’s head into the actual device. Once you get past their self congratulations, they launch into the “third category” sandwiched between the small but ultra mobile devices like smartphones and the all growed up Laptops.

This “third category” most people know as netbooks. And right away he says no no this is not a netbook. In a way he’s right. It’s both far better and far worse than a netbook. But it will compete with netbooks, oh yes!

So onto the pros and the Apple team have obviously set certain minimum standards fairly high and stretched to reach them. The question is how much is broken on the way?

The sleek device is 9.7in and only ½ an inch thick. That’s ideal. It’s not as portable as a phone but still very readily moved around. A homewide/homeroam, bigpocket or knapsack device. The display looks “gorgeous” as they say. Crisp, clear, responsive. And it has the multitouch screen as well as the flip to landscape or portrait concept the iPhone uses. So far so good.

One of the most obvious touchy points is the ‘keyboard’. Really part of the screen space. They say it’s nearly as big as a netbook. One wonders what it’s like to type on.

It browses, it does movies and pictures and Google maps and email and ‘apps’ and books oh my! And it sells apps and music and videos and books oh yes! And they claim 10 hours battery life while on and a month while off. You can even run your iPhone apps on it.

And then we start hitting the snags. Far far too much of the speech was taken up by “gorgeous” and “great”, “terrific”, “exciting”, “amazing”, “tremendous” and “thrilled”. It doesn’t take Einstein to see quite quickly that they have more to offer in words than in product.

Apple is obviously a closed source type company and the dependence (can one run other apps etc?) and prominence I see in their selling portals makes this device look like a sales con. How difficult too, to share with friends and family? Will that be stifled?

Then there’s the technical problems. The first of which is no multitasking. So no music while you iWork. No browsing this while flipping to that. It’s a fairly serious weakness which may be solvable later depending on that A4 chip and the software side of things.

It doesn’t have a cam. So no photos, no videos, no Skype etc. Not quite a deal breaker but corner cost cutting taken too far in my opinion.

It doesn’t play any media you throw at it. It has too many quality and format limits which are too strict and worst of all it won’t do Adobe Flash. This is going to degrade it’s value especially in browsing.

And a few minor missing bits

• no USB/Memory card reader etc. Solved with adaptors. Thus too many clunky adapters.
• no GPS. Not exactly demanded but it would be more useful than mobile tower tracking.
• local issues for Aussies and maybe other internationals. Such as no iBooks here and the device’s heat tolerance is crappy.
• questions about using carriers besides AT&T

One more trouble might be that tech-addicts have less need for the device if they already have similar devices such as the iPhone or Kindle. Newer users have to face the learning curve of how to use the touch interface.

Now we come to price. It’s $US499 for the basic 16GB WiFi only version. Up to $US829 for the 64MB WiFi & 3G. I think this is very competitive. In a way this allows a badly delivered iTampon joke about just how messy this is going to get. Very bloody messy. Every corporate in the mobile devices market from Microsoft to Google to HP etc as well as suppliers to them such as ASUS are going to get busy offering this and that. I rather suspect it’s going to be good for consumers of regular netbooks once we find our way through the trash that will invariably be offered.

Overall I think the iPad will do well enough despite the issues but be whinged about fairly heavily. It may also widen Apple’s market.

We must not forget good people of the nations of Iraq, Afghanistan,Iran and others similar struggling for their freedom so that they can be happy, healthy and wealthy. We must do what we can to help them lift themselves up.

We must not forget that those that choose religion as a conduit for murder, fear and control are not the friends of good people and must be opposed without cease or uncertainty.

We must not forget to protect and nurture our own; ourselves, our family, friends, neighbours, countrymen, and allies. The key to our survival, happiness and strength is our thriving no matter which way the winds blow.

We must not forget the good people, like those in the military forces, who chose difficult paths to safeguard our future, some of whom pay in health, or happiness or even life to bring about this result.

Let us appreciate what we have and yearn to do even better.

SecondLife is one of the most remarkable Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games I’ve ever played. I’ve played quite a few too. In many ways it’s like what the Sims Online should have been only better.

Better because it’s more freedom oriented and not nearly so slow and also better because anyone can contribute to creation in the game world. Therefore it has a plethora of objects, clothes, houses etc and if you’re not happy with it you can make your own.

To some people calling it a game is unwarranted and they take the idea of it being a true second life quite seriously but most people are more casual participants. To those that desire this rebirth into a new digital life there’s an escapism experience that is relatively rich compared to anything I’ve seen before, the closest being Project Entropia. In a sense this is a bit like the Matrix and in many ways even more insane. For the severe escapism naturally attracts people with issues who want to leave them behind to be happy.

There are actually quite a few things to do in SecondLife (SL) and I’ve given a few of them a whirl myself. Anybody who is at least slightly aware of this MMO knows that the optional sexual element is very strong in it. Let’s face it, it’s a risk-free way to explore any fantasy you like, even ones which are simply not physically possible on this planet. But you know once you pass 18 or so sex can’t really fill the whole day any more, can it?

To alarmists it would seem sex is all there is on SecondLife but actually the main activity is social networking. It’s like a 3d Facebook really letting you connect and chat and share with other people online either anonymously or matching the real you.

Another thing many do is shopping. Both sides of the coin. Which means buying the stuff other people make as well as selling the stuff you make and actually creating it and the shops you flog it off in. In case you didn’t know already everything bought in game is done so with ‘Lindens’ which are currency exchange matched with real US dollars. The shopping is truly extensive. In some ways even more than the real deal on Planet Earth. The marketing ideas I’ve seen are really rather advanced.

There’s also exploring which I enjoy thoroughly because I like to see the clever, flashy or beautiful things people can create in such a medium. And I have indeed seen some wonders. Holodecks, theme parks, a model of a computer, hypnotism balls and a remarkable project showing you how a schizophrenic experiences life. These are just a few.

There’s a strong presence of education here and even some real employment. I haven’t delved into that such. So far it seems to me the education aspect is too quiet and they are building it up in the hope of bigger things to come. A kind of online classes experience where you can become educated anytime anywhere.

During my time I’ve also delved into religion which has long been of interest to me. Many are represented. Universal Unitarianism, Paganism, Wicca, Christianity in various forms, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism for example. These are seriously spiritual places where people attend services, pray, preach, meditate and connect to others of their religion, especially where the religion is not locally popular enough for real life interaction. Some of the places of worship are spectacular.

There’s also quite a strong presence of dances and DJs. The dancing is naturally clever animations, no sweat broken but the DJ activity is real, streamed live via the internet.

However for me it’s true like the Sims there’s a point where it gets too shallow and boring and real life beckons. I have no idea where things will go for me in SecondLife but I can say without doubt that it’s been one of my most fascinating experiences.

Update: This review was originally done before the move to positive entertainment.  Not all of these games are positive entertainment.

Game : 3½/5   Positive:

The only misgivings I have on such a high postive rating is the intense commercial nature of the game and the repetition it can be.  However, proactive exploring greatly helps in this regard.