No, the iPad is not a device women will place between their legs once a month. It is, rather, the future of computing. While it just looks like a giant iPod Touch, it’s fair to say that it will be much more.

“What are you on about?”, you could be asking. Well, let’s put it this way; a doctor who spends most of his (or her) evenings sorting out their computer instead of writing their reports is a doctor who is going to be tired in the morning, and will possibly risk someone’s life. A builder who is too busy installing antivirus software on his computer instead of going over the blueprints for the house he’s building is a builder who is probably not going to have a very good idea of what he’s doing. A mother who is struggling to install a piece of software to get the photos off her digital camera is a mother who is going to be wasting time on the computer instead of spending time with her child. You get the idea. Wouldn’t it just be nice if these people had a computer that just got out of their way and did what they want without having to think about it? Say hello to iPad.

Sure, the name isn’t great and from looking at the home or lock screens, you’d just dismiss it as a poorly thought-out upscale of the iPhone (I know I initially did)… But all it takes is a glance at the Mail, Calendar or Contacts apps to realize that this thing is completely different – in a good way. The iPad is a weird mongoloid mash-up of the desktop and mobile computer. It’s like an iMac sexually abused an iPod Touch and this popped out nine months later. But can something so horrible be beautiful? Absolutely.

I’m not saying that every person who doesn’t need the current power of a ‘real’ computer (ie. someone who does lots of data processing) should go out and buy one. Absolutely not. Would I have suggested that everyone should have gone out and bought an iPhone back in 2007? Again, absolutely not. Would I suggest everyone buy an iPhone now, though? Of course I would. Over the past three years it’s developed and become more powerful; the bits that were missing are now there (MMS and Copy & Paste, for example). I fully expect the iPad to do the same. So while people will dismiss it now and call it useless and pointless compared to a ‘real’ computer, in three or four years time -or when people start upgrading their tech- I suspect that most people will opt for an iPad over a Windows machine, or a Mac. I know full well that when my Mum finally admits her computer is too old to be any use, I’ll be suggesting an iPad right away.

This just in from a very reliable source who works for Apple: There is no Apple Tablet. (SHOCK HORROR)

Well it’s no news that the iPhone 4.0 is just around the corner. Here’s my wishlist:

Third Party Data Sync Over USB
At the moment, apps are forced to use wifi as a means of transfering data between desktop and mobile apps. This is well and good but it’s cumbersome. Not only is it time consuming but it’s also easy to forget to sync- especially for those of us who keep WiFi turned off to preserve the battery. While many apps are resorting to the cloud as a work around, it’s quite an expense on behalf of the developer and sometimes you don’t want your data available online. Instead, wouldn’t it be nice if you could plug your iPhone in and just have your 1Password database sync during the iTunes sync?
My proposed solution is for iTunes to request permission for apps to sync to the desktop. It would either ask for an application to sync with or a folder (for example, a drawing application like Layers could sync with a folder named “Mobile Drawings”). It would work like Push Notifications and be disabled by default, with apps asking permission first, except on the desktop side rather than on the device.

Remaining Balance
At the moment, it’s easy to go over your pre-paid minutes, SMS and MMS as the iPhone doesn’t indicate how much you’re spending (not in the UK, anyway). In this respect, it’s true to say that the iPhone can do everything except make phone calls. I’m not sure if this is always the case on a contract phone -this is my first contract phone- but my old Pay As You Go phone used to tell me how much balance I had left after a call. At the moment I’m using the great “Mobile Allowance” app to tell me how much I have left, but I still have to check it manually and unfortunately the changes aren’t instant due to the way it accesses the data.

Notification History
After Apple introduced Push Notifications as a method of using apps while they’re not open, we now need an area to read received notifications after they’re pushed out of the way by the next one. While the number of notifications received shows up as a badge on the app’s icon, this doesn’t actually tell you what the notification was and it’s up to the app to further notify you. In some cases it doesn’t if you don’t activate the notification immediately. Personally, I am a fan of “Prowl” and like the way it keeps track of all the notifications it receives (it’s not really much of an app, otherwise!) but I believe that Apple could easily add a “History” section to the Push Notification preferences.

Background apps
It’s been said since day one, but with the hardware capability of devices like the iPhone 3Gs it’s looking much more promising. I know, as a mere 3G owner, that I wouldn’t mind sacrificing this big addition to the platform in order for my device to run peachy – I don’t mind the current method that much – but it would shut up all the people who are asking for it and that would be more than brilliant. The only practical implement for background apps are things like online radios and tools like Pastebot, which would need to function in the background in order to make them more worthwhile. Other than those, there’s not much need for them as the screen is too small for you to do any multitasking. Maybe looking up walkthroughs for Rolando halfway through the game or something?

Finder / Global Data
One big problem I have with the iPhone at the moment is that there is no central data storage system. I can’t create documents on my phone and then use them in other apps; I have to do complex things with the cloud. While this sandboxing is all well and good, it does make things a little bit cumbersome – why do I have to register to random websites to do things I can do through a service I’m already signed up for? Instead of having to start using Google Docs, why can’t I just have Dropbox host my files? Unfortunately, with the way the app ecosystem works, this is a big problem. As of this moment, I currently don’t have a proper word processor on my iPhone (despite being available in the app store). I have note taking apps, of course, but sometimes I just want to make a few changes to my coursework when I have no access to a computer and am unable to do so. These note taking apps don’t save files – they just save text, let alone open things like “.doc” files. That’s not really of much use. So I’d like to see this happen (plus I’d like the Finder icon to appear on the iPhone – that would be superb). I agree with Daring Fireball’s John Gruber about the lack of a user-available filesystem being used on the iPhone being a good thing for usability, but I do think the sand-boxing of data between apps is no the best thing (even if Apple has to limit it to certain file types being available!).

Spotlight for 3rd parties
While I don’t use Spotlight on my Mac much (I use Quicksilver, which is like Spotlight on steroids), I could end up using it on my iPhone. The only problem is that it only throws up things I can find easily by going to the respective app, which is probably quicker and easier than going to spotlight and typing. Instead, Apple could make Spotlight more useful and allow third party developers to use the function. For example, I would love to be able to find Evernote notes in a search like that, or , I don’t know, To-Dos in “Things”. In fact, looking through my apps I can name almost name one thing I’d like Spotlight to reveal for each of them (even in some of Apple’s own apps, like Maps, where it’s bookmarks could be displayed). The Wordpress app could show drafts, FTP To Go could show me my servers, Amazon UK could show me my Wishlist, Ebay my bids, and so on. While people may think it would never happen in a lot of those apps because it doesn’t happen on the Mac, well, iPhone developers would do it because they can claim their app integrates with the features of iPhone OS 4.0. The App Store is a much more competitive playing field than Mac desktop development – plus there’s no major competitor (Windows) on the iPhone platform, meaning companies can spend time doing stuff like this on the iPhone.

Bluetooth File Exchange with normal devices (not just iDevices)

Sometimes I take an amazing picture and want to to share it with friends. Sometimes it’s the other way around. I know for a fact that most of my friends are useless and that most the pictures they take on the cell phone will never make it’s way off the device, but sometimes I want the pictures for the memories. One example, recently, is that I went to see Muse with my good friend -whom most of you know- Jimmi. Unfortunately, his computer doesn’t have much disk space (so little he couldn’t even find room for my new album) and he was unable to put the pictures from the concert on his computer in order to transfer them to me. If my phone had Bluetooth file exchange capabilities with his phone, I could have just transferred them over from his and all would have been good. As it did not, I am still yet to see the pictures. Now, I know, I could take pictures with my own phone’s camera (and I did!) but it lacks a lot of things that made it suitable for what it was doing (no flash, no manual focus, etc.). Jimmi’s phone, despite being only a “dumbphone”, did have these features and thus we opted to use his phone to take pictures of ourselves there. Now I’m just left broken hearted.

Quick Alarms

I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I need to remind myself of something happening shortly. At work, I’m often told I’ll have to do this or that in ten or fifteen minutes and it’s quite easy to forget. Unfortunately, at the moment, the only way you can set alarms is by setting them up through the alarm app, where you have to scroll through each number to set a time. In fact, it takes up so much time that it’s just not worth doing for anything other than for alarms to wake you up. Even then the alarm is permanently added to your list, which isn’t very useful in the long run. I’d like to see a way to quickly add an alarm for 5 minutes, 10 minutes or 15 minutes. It would just be useful. (Picture: Fantastic Mac application “Tiny Alarm”)

Assign colour to contacts
At the moment SMS is confusing and it’s easy to sent the wrong message to the wrong person because each conversation looks the same. Colour coding would help to stop that and would make the app much more usable. From the address book, Apple could add a field that asks for a colour to represent the person, which would then become the colour of their chat bubble in Messages (and iChat on the Mac, if they desire to add such further integration). In addition, third parties would be able to access this data in order to do the same thing automatically for other apps, such as an IM app like Beejive.

So that’s my iPhone OS 4.0 wish list. While it doesn’t cover every possible thing that I could want in the next iPhone (if I let my imagination run away from me, I would ask for things like tablet support, etc.) it’s a compilation of a couple of things I believe could make the iPhone better. What would you like to see?

Citing remarks from TUAW, Gizmodo, and AppleInsider, it seems apparent that the new iTunes LP format is only for the big publishers, not us indie folks. Colour me pessimistic, but I was aware of this from the moment they announced the format. With my new album coming out soon, the first question I asked myself was “How can I get a piece of this?”, just to be answered with “Don’t be stupid. There is no way that will happen.” There is just no way that it was going to be available for folks like me, and others.

If Apple was going to open this technology up for Indie developers they would have announced it on the day. They would have released a specification list and a large amount of documentation, just like for iPhone web apps, Safari web apps and iPhone native apps. In all honesty, the mere fact that there is no way for Indie artists to release their own music on the iTunes store through Apple itself (I use 3rd party service TuneCore) is enough to warrant the assumption that iTunes LP was limited to artists with labels who are willing to bend Apple’s arms backwards to let them have a sweet piece of their pie – the ones who actually fuel the iTunes store… not us crappy indie bands. We’re indie for a reason (read: no-one cares about us).

So what can we do? Well, maybe we’ll find a way to fool iTunes into accepting our homebrew LPs. Maybe we’ll just suffice with having our music on there. Maybe we’ll create substitutes online by hosting our own imitations, for example –  it could be easily done… But what we won’t be doing is creating iTunes LPs, and I’m sure most of us are perfectly happy with that – we don’t get upset because our CDs aren’t distributed internationally in high street retail outlets. I’m sure we can live.

Update: I’ve partially cracked this issue. iTunes LPs work just like Mac applications and are just bundles. Importing an .itlp file (a folder renamed with the extension) into iTunes will create your iTunes LP just like the ones from the iTunes Store. No word on monetizing it, but you can still have an LP – as long as you get all the components right (like metadata files, XML files, etc.) It doesn’t help that I don’t actually own an iTunes LP at the moment, but I’m sure that opening one up and copying and pasting bits and pieces will be a breeze; they’re literally just web files. Here’s a shot of my iTunes LP where I just copied and pasted the index page for my site as a default html file:

I was quite perplexed this morning as iTunes popped up a dialogue box stating that I had “New Carrier Settings” to be downloaded. At first I thought it would be something moderately exciting, like a new graphic for O2’s carrier icon at the top, or something, but it wasn’t (or so it seems).
After a bit of thought, I realized that it may actually be Apple adding support for more UK carriers (Such as Orange, T-Mobile and Vodaphone) rather than something like above. I don’t have any proof of this but with the rumors going round, it seems like a fairly safe bet.
I’m sure the blogs will pick up on it later and reveal more. For now, I’m going to try and look for the bundle and search around inside for any clues.