(This is the home of Catboy’s iPad fawning. Check-in daily for updates. New stories at the top. Scroll down for older stuff)

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MONDAY 3 MAY 2010 – FINALLY, A PRACTICAL USE FOR THE iPAD!

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MONDAY 3 MAY 2010 – STAR-TRACKING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

I’ve been waiting for the app that I like to call “the crowd pleaser”. You know… The one you show your slightly less technical mates to persuade them that they need the iPad (as their wives give you the daggers from across the dinner table). The one that has the same effect on people as the first time they saw a Sony Walkman or heard a voice synthesiser on a computer. The one my Dad would look at and then spend weeks telling his workmates about.

Last night I think I found it.

GoSkyWatch Planetarium is a free app that uses your position and the iPad’s directional sensor doo-hickey to turn the screen into a live, interactive map of the night sky you’re pointing it at. See a constellation? Point the iPad at it and see what it’s called. Want to know more about the individual stars that make up the constellation? Centre it in the on-screen cross-hairs and Bob’s your uncle.

It’s a tremendous piece of kit and I’m amazed it’s free. I just wish I’d had it a few months ago as me, my friend, the vet, and my friend (the chiropractor), stared at the night sky and argued about which stars were which.

More info on the app HERE.

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THURSDAY 29 APRIL 2010 – ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Sorry. No iPad update today because I was moving house yesterday and never looked at it all day. Bumper weekend update on the way though, so keep checking back!

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WEDNESDAY 28 APRIL 2010 – GEORDIEBIRD HUMILIATION & GÉANT COMEUPPANCE

Let me start with a bit of quality people-power. After reading about my Géant experience with the iPad on this very blog, the guys at Shufflegazine got on the case and wrote a piece about it. Read all about it HERE.

Moving on…

As you may have heard on yesterday’s show, Geordiebird was whining about me getting a second iPad. Now, you may be reading that and asking why I need another, right? Well, I’m fed up on my iPad getting fingered by everybody, so I want a duplicate iPad that people can mess about with and have an exclusive one just for me. I know, I know… A bit much. What can I say? I’m a gadget freak and I’ve got a minor case of OCD. Plus, that’s what they do with the FIFA World Cup when they’re touring it. They don’t let the hoi polloi mess about with the real thing. They have three replicas and the proper one stays behind closed doors.

Anyway, we were both heading down to Jack’s in Dubai Mall for a roadshow and to give away an iPad. Jacky’s had been doing a competition on their facebook group, where people had to say what they’d do for a free iPad.

One thing lead to another and before we knew it, Jacky’s were offering Geordiebird a free iPad for a bit of humiliation. Initially we wanted her to eat raw eggs in the Jacky’s store but she was having none of it, so instead we got her to sing LIVE in Jacky’s. Here’s the evidence…

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TUESDAY 27 APRIL 2010 – ACCESS AMERICA

Okay, I promised this little tip a while ago and I’ve started getting earache from people for not posting it, so here goes. Basically when you purchase your iPad, you’ll be able to download apps from the app store in the same way you do for the iPhone or Touch. However, one of the main selling points of the iPad is iBook, the brilliant ‘reader’ application. For the uninitiated, a reader is something you use on the screen instead of going to the bookshop and buying books. Some say it’s going to be the death of conventional publishing. I’m not sure I agree… But it could save a heck of a lot of trees.

Here’s the problem… iBooks is currently only available on the American iTunes store, so unless you’ve got an American iTunes account, you’ve not much chance of getting it. or at least you wouldn’t have had much chance until I found the loophole. It’s very simple. I’m not sure how naughty it is. I mean, it’s not like you’re committing credit card fraud or anything but you’ll have to go with your morals on this one. If you’ve bought an iPad in a country where they’re not actually released yet, I think you’ll be pretty okay about this.

Follow these instructions and you’ll be sorted…

1. If you’ve got an iTunes account from any other country other than the US, log out of it in iTunes.
2. Click the little flag at the bottom of the screen and select United States of America.
3. Once into the American iTunes store, click any free app (it must be free) and click ‘Install’.
4. You’ll be prompted to log into the iTunes store or set up a new account… Set one up!
5. In the method of payment section, there are credit card choices and at the end there is a button for ‘none’. Choose that one.
6. For address, you’ll need a valid US street and ZIP code. I got one from Google by just searching ZIP CODE.
7. If you’ve done everything right, you should now be able to download apps from the iTunes store as well as using the App Store on the actual iPad (remember you’ll have to change the iTunes account settings with your new US details in the iPad’s settings).
8. Get iBooks, then get some of the free books, so you can have a gander at how it works, then let me know what you think! Any problems, let me know.

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MONDAY 26 APRIL 2010 – SHOPPING WITH MY iPAD

Obviously you wouldn’t be expecting the run-of-the-mill review of the iPad from me, right? Good! Because that’s not what you’re getting. I’m trying to integrate the beautiful machine into my day-to-day life as much as possible. So here’s what I did yesterday… Instead of writing my shopping list on a scrap of paper, or in ‘Notes’ on the iPhone (don’t laugh, that’s what I usually do), I went to the considerable trouble of finding an app that makes shopping lists. I wanted a free one, so I opted for iShop which is nothing more than a list building application with cute little ticks next to everything, so that stupid people like me know what they’ve got in the trolley without looking.

Half an hour after coming up with the idea (yep, that’s how long it took to download it, type items into it, delete them all, put them in aisle-order, call my therapist about my OCD, then wash my hands eight times) I was ready to go and off to Geant I went. Now, here’s the thing about carrying an iPad around… Part of you feels like you’re holding THE FUTURE but a bigger part of you feels like a show-offy prat. Ideally you want to get into the supermarket and get on with your shopping with as little fuss as possible. So I was over the moon to be halted at the entrance to the supermarket by an ever-so-slightly jobsworth security guard, who informed me that iPads were not allowed inside the store.

(As he said this, three kids shot past in Heelys, which seemed a little unfair)

I tried to explain to him that my entire shopping list was on there and that without it I would simply be wandering around aimlessly, putting any old rubbish in the trolley and staring at the massive plasma TVs for three hours and not getting anywhere but somewhere between my pleading Yorkshire accent and his Indian ears, the message was lost.

As I continued to beg, he passed the iPad to his sidekick on the big machine, who said he was going to seal it in plastic. I started getting palpitations as this expensive yet fragile little machine disappeared into something resembling a freezer bag with 80% opacity. Down came the handle, there was a hiss and my iPad was hermetically-sealed in a vaccuum.

Unfortunately the lad on the machine had left the wrapping quite loose and there was absolutely no chance of me reading it. I thanked the Laurel and Hardy of the security world before going on my way, waiting exactly ten yards before tearing the plastic open and discarding it.

I left the iPad on for the duration of the ‘big shop’ (probably 45mins) and the battery life barely shifted. That is one thing that no-one can complain about. The way this thing retains power (certainly compared to other Mac products) is remarkable. Anyway, I carried on along my way, throwing in perishables, ticking them of my virtual list and trying to act as though it was the most natural thing in the world. I noticed several sly glances, some outright stares and the occasional nudge and whisper from men to their other halves as they no doubt spotted an opportunity as a bit of arm-twisting (“if I buy one I can use it when I do the shopping for you”).

As I left the store, another over-zealous security guard appeared, spotted the unwrapped iPad and did the funniest bit of spying I’ve seen in a long time. He looked like the bloke from ‘Allo Allo’ who used to say “piss me the butter”.

I got to the car without getting my collar felt and loaded it up. In all I had about eight huge, heavy bags. After the drive home, I got out, knowing full well that I wouldn’t be able to manage to carry all the bags in one hand whilst dedicating my other extremity solely to the iPad, so I slipped it into the top of one of the grocery bags, loaded up both arms and waddled to the house. It was quite the trauma. As I got through the front door, the handles on the bag containing the iPad gave way and the bag dropped. I watched in slo-motion as it fell through the air, hit the floor and up-ended. At the same time this was happening, I was dropping everything else (eggs, fine porcelain antiques, baby pandas, etc) and diving towards the floor.

Needless to say, I made it in time. Had I not, you wouldn’t be reading this right now and I wouldn’t have been on the radio this morning, as I’d have been sulking at home with the phone switched off.

So, to surmise, if your ‘big shop’ is pretty much the same every week, iShop is a pretty decent app. You’ll have to put up with most if not all of the above hazards but a little bit of you will feel like a cross between Tron & a domesticated Terminator… And that can’t be a bad thing, right?!

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SUNDAY 25 APRIL 2010 – HELLO & THE REALLY OLD LADY VIDEO

Hello all. Been AFK (Away From Keyboard, for the non-geeks) for a couple of weeks. Or should I say I’ve been away from a conventional keyboard. My life has been taken over by a small, rectangular piece of glass, steel and chips.

The iPad hasn’t really had an ‘official’ launch in the UAE but, as with everything else, grey imports have made it overseas from the States to the UAE and thanks to the guys at nahel.com, I got my hands on a 64Gb model on the same morning the iPad arrived in the Middle East.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I am the world’s biggest Mac Fanboy. Three iPhones, eleven iPods, five iMacs, eight MacBook Pros, iBooks, Powerbooks, etc. The list goes on. If you’re expecting a comparison between the Apple iPad and anything that runs on a Windows or PC-based system, I can’t help you… Because for well over a decade I have avoided all contact with PCs. Haven’t had any computer problems since… Just a slightly lighter wallet, that’s all.

I should also point out that I didn’t want an iPhone when they were launch as I hated the idea of touchscreen and I had similar reservations about the iPad. Several things changed my mind about the iPhone. My biggest gripe is I’m always wanting the newest phone-du-jour but am constantly having to re-enter phone numbers and details, which takes forever. Now all that stuff is stored safely on the Mac and easily transferrable to new iPhones, I’ve decided to stick with them.

But the iPad is not a phone, right? So what’s the point? Isn’t it basically like carry round an oversized iPod Touch? I’ll admit that when I got it out of the box on that first morning, apart from knowing it was a thing of beauty (and it is) with a fantastic screen and knowing I’d never be bored on a long-haul flight again, I had no idea what I was going to use it for.

So on this blog post, I’m going to tell you what I do with it, what it’s good for, any tips n tricks I’ve learned and whatever else springs to mind. Feel free to ask any questions or leave your tips, hints and comments below. Be great to hear from you. I’m also going to include any content that I find that is iPad related. Again, if you find anything good, let me know.

Let’s start with this… Virginia Campbell, a 100-year-old Lake Oswego resident, uses her iPad at the Mary’s Woods Retirement Community. Campbell has never owned a computer before. Let’s see how she gets on…

Tomorrow I’ll be giving you the lowdown on getting that iTunes account in the US, which you’ll need or you wont be able to utilise iBooks, Apple’s awesome reader for the iPad. See you then!