Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, and a tweet from @yuccatree, I found this wonderful video clip from 1964. The clip, filmed the year before I was born, shows Arthur C Clarke predicting a future which would have seemed incredible, even preposterous, for most people then. His predictions have, however, come true in many ways - 1:32 into the film and things get spooky.

Watch and enjoy:

Anybody care to predict what the World will be like 50 years from now?

After today's Apple Keynote, a few thoughts struck me and I had to get them down in writing. Not just notes, but a script...

(pardon the rather traditional and totally politically-incorrect role models... it just seemed to fit with the picture...)

scene 1:

Enter the Husband, stage left...

Husband: "Honey, I'm home!"
Wife: "Darling! How was your day?"
Husband (falling, tired, into the soft leather of the sofa): "Tiring, but look: I saw some really cool shoes that I just know you'll love.."

He takes out his iPhone from his pocket and turns on the small and almost unnoticeable Apple TV, cleverly hung on it's "iTVHook" from the widescreen TV on the wall, with the "Remote™" App. Flipping effortlessly through his photo collection, he arrives at the video of the shoes taken only minutes ago...

Husband: "Well, what do you think".

Wife: "Ooooh, they're lovely! I just HAVE to have them."

She reaches excitedly for the iPad lying on the sofa next to her and, lo and behold, her doting Husband has already sent her the link to the shoe website in her email!

Two clicks and she's bought the shoes! (wow - they had "one-click"™ buying...)

Husband: "Now you've got those sexy new shoes, what's for dinner?"

Wife: "Well, I tried out a recipe from that fantastic new Jamie Oliver™ iPad™ recipe App you bought me - and that new kitchen iPad stand you bought is just great! "

He sits at the table... she disappears into the kitchen and emerges carrying a fabulous roast butternut squash and thyme bake (well, what did you expect?)

fade to black...

fade to next scene:

It's after dinner, the kids are in bed listening to their favourite stories being streamed to their AirPlay™ speakers from Daddy's iPhone™.

(OK, enough of the "™" already.. assume it's there form now on.... Ed)

Husband: "Darling, would you like to watch that movie you were talking about yesterday? I hear it's available for rent on iTunes."

Wife: "No, I don't really feel like it tonight... why don't we just get comfy on the sofa and surf a bit of YouTube?"

Husband: "Hm, ok (hoping she'll fall asleep so that he can try that new iPad multiplayer Project Sword game he's heard so much about)"

They settle down to zap their way through YouTube on the Apple TV, jumping from clip to clip with Remote on the iPad...

Wife: "Hey, are you asleep?"

Husband: "zzzzzzzzz"

Wife (smiling, satisfied with herself for winning some "me" time!): "Great! Now I can get some serious FaceTime™ (oops, there it is again) with that dishy guy I met in the cafe today. At least HIS life isn't ruled by geeky gadgets!"

...

Domestic bliss, made possible by Apple™ Come on - you know you want it...

So. I'd like you all to start off with this previous post, if you don't mind...

Read it? Good. Now close that browser window/tab and continue:

The title of this post is a big clue: I now have an iPad.

"But you said you weren't going to buy one because it doesn't support Flash!" I hear you cry out. I did say that, yes. I also said that the screen gets messy and that I couldn't see enough use cases for myself.

Well, now I've changed my mind. I have found some excellent use cases, have tired of the Adobe vs. Apple ego-bashing that I've witnessed all over the web and am indeed very pleased with the user experience that the iPad offers me.

There's the key concept: USER EXPERIENCE

Apple "do" User Experience like no other company. I am sitting here, writing this on my MacBook Pro, next to me are my iPhone (still only 3G ) and my iPad. Why? Because they are devices that I love to use. They work and are a joy to use.

I have replaced my morning iPhone routine (see that last post) with a morning iPad routine - a larger display and that much bigger interactive surface DO make a difference - and find Twitter, Things (my to-do manager of choice), Facebook (with the exception of those wonderful app I've written ), BBC News and even the weather so much more usable on the iPad for my morning eyes.

Thanks to Air Display, I can even use the iPad as an additional monitor when working in Mac OSX (which I'm doing more and more, as I now need only wait a few more hours for my Adobe Web Premium CS5 Mac license to arrive before I kiss Windows goodbye for my daily work life).

Now. What about that "Flash thing"? I am still not happy that Steve Jobs and his merry men have this, frankly, very arrogant and childish attitude towards Flash. My opinion here hasn't changed. I haven't "accepted" this "Apple way". I do know that, in time, others will find a way for some Flash content to be visible on the iPad and even the iPhone. I also know that it doesn't really matter that much. There are ways and means of achieving anything.

I'm also, however, not impressed by a lot of the knee-jerk responses from the pro-Adobe camp and the sudden evangelical focus on Android. Android will not make it and will not pose a threat in the mainstream market. Have you seen the designs of the Android-based tablets coming out? I rest my case.

What I have done is made my choice based upon how a device fits my life and fits my appreciation of good design, attention to the User Experience and how it feels - something we should all think about constantly.

In addition to that, and to answer some of my previous criticisms:

- the volume is loud
- the video quality is excellent
- zero boot-time web browsing is fantastic
- the weight is really not so bad and the simple Apple iPad case is an excellent add-on and well worth the money, allowing the iPad to be held at a angle on your lap for easy viewing
- the usability and interface failings I mentioned really do seem to be issues with the Apps I was trying out. The Apps I have installed seem to be well developed and really do offer a great experience (with the exception of the BBC News App which shows me a green screen every so often instead of the matrix of thumbnails for articles)

Oh - and the screen does get messy and is far too reflective. In it's defense, however, the colours are fantastic!

I wrote:

The iPad is not magic. It's not a netbook challenger and it's not really revolutionary.

Well. It's not magic, but it is an excellent tool which has no doubt redefined many people's experience of information consumption. In that sense, it is revolutionary.

I stand by everything I wrote before (as always) and can only say that I stand corrected on some points and am happy that I purchased the iPad - not only because I will be developing Apps for it!

Sorry about the sensationalist title but, yes, this is what the BP Oil Spill currently drifting in the Gulf of Mexico would look like if it was laid over London, effectively covering an area from Norfolk down to Brighton and across west to Swansea and Northampton in the North:

Kind of puts the sheer size of the catastrophe in perspective, doesn't it?

Take a look at IfItWasMyHome.com, the source of this image. You can move the spill to any location thanks to the clever code within the site and the use of Google Maps.

It's a shame we can't just REmove the spill...

Here's an interesting little video by ITO on Vimeo:

Airspace Rebooted from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

Kind of makes you think. Putting aside for one moment the fact that so much disruption was caused to people's lives during the recent flight cancellations and delays, the airspace during the flight ban looks much more peaceful than it does normally!

When you see a visualisation such as this you release just how much air traffic there is up there.