Apple iPad Delayed until late May for the UK

Too much success? Well, that can't be a bad thing surely. Unless you live in the UK and are wanting an iPad that is! Seems like Apple have sold over half a million of their new iPad to US customers, leaving very little stock for anywhere else in the world. The UK were meant to be getting hold of the iPad toward the end of April. I personally thought that something was amiss when today arrived and we still had no pricing or pre-order date.

Well, today we learn that pre-orders will start on the 10th May for the UK, with late May shipping. This is very annoying to learn, as it leaves UK Apple fans either waiting or searching on eBay. With prices on eBay rising, be careful that you buy from a trusted seller who actually has stock and don't get too carried away with the price. Some have been selling for nearly £1,500 which is pretty high, even though the device is amazing!

New MacBook Pros launched today

Apple just re-opened its online store to reveal a new revised lineup of its MacBook Pro range. You get 4GB RAM as standard across all of the range and varying sizes of screen. The main difference comes with the processor and graphics chipset.

13-inch models stay with the Core2Duo running at either 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz, graphics come in the shape of the NVidia GeForce 320M. There are three 15-inch models, ranging in speeds with Intel Core i5 2.4GHz, i5 2.53GHz and in the top of the range an i7 2.66GHz. This range also get slightly better graphics with and NVidia GeForce 330M with either 256MB or 512MB of dedicated VRAM.

The 17-inch MacBook Pro gets an Intel Core i5 2.53GHz processor as standard with the NVidia GeForce 330M 512MB VRAM GPU. You can upgrade the processor to an i7 2.66GHz for an additional £160.

Apple are also claiming 8-9 hours of battery life on the 15 & 17-inch models, with up to 10 hours on the 13-inch. Some specifications are showing as shipping within 24 hours, with the rest showing at 5 business days.

Apple Store is down - Worldwide

The Apple Store is down for updates. We all new that updates were coming and today marks what should be the revised MacBook Pro lineup. I just hope that Apple include the Mac Mini in the refresh, as I have a need for one and wanted to wait for an i3 or i5 processor to be included and possibly 4GB of RAM too. That is unlikely, but we should at least see some new, faster 13, 15 and 17-inch laptops from Apple today.

EazyDraw Release 3.4 - SVG, Cisco icons & Venn diagrams

Dekorra releases EazyDraw version 3.4, a free update to its easy-to-use vector drawing application for Mac OS X.

SVG
This release introduces full support (vector import, editing, and export) for the Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) format. SVG is becoming very important as now most browsers support this open (W3C) standard for vector quality graphics. This release includes new features, enhanced performance, and improved stability on Snow Leopard.  Learn more here.

Contributions Pack
A new free download, the Contributions Pack, is included with this release. This package of content includes libraries, templates, and example drawings. Of interest to many, the Contributions Pack has native EazyDraw vector masters for over 300 Cisco standard icons for use with Network Diagrams. The download includes new comic characters and scenes contributed by the Finnish cartoonist Esa Holopainen.

Venn Diagrams
The EazyDraw Additions pack has been expanded and updated with a new full compliment of Venn diagram templates.

Go to the What's New page for more information.

This is a free upgrade for licensed owners of EazyDraw version 3.x license and a $35 upgrade for owners of EazyDraw version 2.x.

Geekanoids April 2010 Competition - Win iSkin ProTouch Keyboard Protector

This month there are two of these up for grabs. Superb quality keyboard protector, no more worries about dust or drink spills onto your keyboard.

Simply send me a private YouTube message and tell me which country iSkin are based in?

You can enter from anywhere in the world, any age. Closing date is midnight GMT on 30th April 2010. Please no multiple entries. Also, please do not put the answer in the comments, it will be deleted. Two randomly selected winners will win one prize each.


Competition Sponsor: http://www.iskin.com/

Geekanoids March 2010 Competition Result

Geekanoids March 2010 Competition Result. In this video I draw the result for last month's competition. The randomly selected winner will get a Verbatim 250GB Pocket Hard Drive.


**UPDATE** It seems that I miscounted the winner list on this video. As such the winner that has already been announced still stands. The user of the 8th comment up has also been offered a prize to put this right.

Competition Sponsor: http://www.verbatim-europe.co.uk/

Apple Aperture 3.0.2 adds iPad Support

Apple have released an update to Aperture 3. This new update (available here) brings in a host of improvements and fixes. However, if you scroll down to the very end of the changes it states that the new version adds "iPad Compatibility" and I quote "Enables support for importing photos from iPad to the Aperture Library, as well as syncing of photos to iPad."

So, you can sync photos to the iPad, great news! More exciting though is being able to import into Aperture from the iPad, so that could mean that a camera may well feature. Surely not! At this late stage it is very unlikely a camera will appear, but this is interesting wording on their update page for sure.

Amazon Kindle App coming to the iPad

Well, I didn't see that one coming. Amazon have posted a page dedicated to the Kindle App coming to various tablet based computers and in the first graphic it specifically mentions the Apple iPad. Read further down the page and it reads "Read Kindle Books on Your Tablet Computer Including the iPad".

This is great news as it will open up a whole world of great eBooks from Amazon. I personally think this news comes in combination with those rumours that Apple have been struggling to seal some deals with various publishers. Maybe this is their saving grace, that the iPad Kindle App means they have a tonne of content for the April 3rd launch. Whether this is the case or not, the Kindle App will certainly find its way onto my iPad for certain.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 £30,000 Amazon Price Blunder

No sooner did Panasonic announce their new Lumix DMC-G2 a host of online retailers put the new micro four third camera up for pre-order. Seems like Amazon think they can get away with charging £30,000 for it though. No, really it is bound to be a typo or holding price, but someone might just push the button :)

Commonwealth Games - We Are England Photo Competition

 

Get your photo gear out... Commonwealth Games England have today officially launched ‘We Are England’; a photography competition aimed at finding the ultimate photographs that best represent England in all of its glory.  The competition is to celebrate everything about England and ‘Englishness’ ahead of the Commonwealth Games that take place later this year in Delhi. The winners will be exhibited at a top London ArtGallery.

Photographs can be of anything at all that represents England – from a historic English landmark, to a traditional English game taking place in a park, or even photographs taken live at an English sporting event. All it needs to do is encompass the spirit of England to those entering.

There are some amazing prizes on offer to win, including;

  • A lunch hosted double Olympic Gold Medalist Dame Kelly Holmes
  • Centre Court Wimbledon tickets

The ‘We Are England’ competition coincides with St. George’s day, and winners will also be invited to attend a champagne breakfast at the launch of the exhibition at the SW1 Gallery on Wednesday, April 21st, and will be joined by some of the top Commonwealth Games England athletes and representatives as well as members of the media.  The exhibition of the winning photographs will run until Sunday, April 25th. Entrance will be free of charge to the public.

The competition will be split into three categories - a professional photographer category, an amateur photographer category for the 16 and under age group, and an amateur photographer category for the 17 and over age group. Entries are to be emailed toweareengland@threepipe.co.uk, and although there should only be one photograph per email, there is no limit to the number of entries that can be submitted.

The England team will be showcasing their new ‘We Are England’ brand logo at the Commonwealth Games in October – a rallying call for the nation to get behind the team - and the photography competition provides a great opportunity for the public to show what England means to them.

HOW TO ENTER

1. Choose your photograph you’d like to enter. It can be a new shot or a photo you have already taken as long as it hasn't previously been published. The photograph needs to be at least 4800 x 3600 pixels [16inches x 11 inches] at 300 dpi resolution, supplied in jpeg format compressed to a maximum file size of 5MB. No other formats will be accepted.

2. Attach it to an email with 'We are England photo competition' as the subject line. The email must contain your full name, the category you are entering in and the title of your photograph. 

3. We ask you not to attach more than one photograph to any one email or your entry will not be valid. You may enter more than one photograph but each must be sent attached to its own email. 

4. Send the email to weareengland@threepipe.co.uk before 5pm on Friday April 9th 2010.

5. Please read and ensure you understand the full competition rules before you enter.

 

Geekanoids March 2010 Competition - Win a 250GB Verbatim Pocket Drive

Geekanoids March 2010 Competition - Win a 250GB Verbatim Pocket Drive. Yes this is your chance to win a 250GB Pocket Drive, simply copy & tweet the message below, paste it into your Twitter account and tweet it out to all you know. Once you have tweeted, copy the link to your status update and post it in the comments on this video. That's it. Good luck!

Tweet this message: @Verbatim_UK @Geekanoids The Pocket Drive is superb for file backup on the go #Verbatim


***EXTRA INFO: YouTube does not allow you to post links, so when posting your status update, edit it so that it looks something like this: twitter [.]com/geekanoids/status/9818130595

This video is open to all, any age, any country. Only one entry per person. No swearing please. Closing date is midnight on 31st March 2010. Winner will be randomly chosen from all entries. No correspondence will be entered into. Geekanoids decision is final.

Sponsor: http://www.verbatim-europe.co.uk/