Hello Word massive,

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there to have taken the plunge, but I recently got my hands on an iPad imported from the US into the UK. I was doing some IT work with a company who were desperate to get hold of one - I managed to get hold of one and bought one for myself at the same time.

I'm also sure there are quite a few of Word's American readers who may also have one by now.

My first thoughts are that it's very good - not quite as instant as I'd hoped, but it's growing on me. A few quirks with using it in the UK as opposed to the US (lack of iBooks as an app) although i read this I'd probably down to copyright issues and it may well become available not long after the iPad launches here.

Typing is ok, again not quite as effortless ass they made out on the launch video, but they had probably had months of getting used to it and in landscape and portrait mode it's just a case of going for it and the auto-correct takes care of most mistakes.

iTunes is very nice and runs in the background as it does on the iPhone allowing you to start something going (the next word podcast !!) and start to browse or do something else.

Lack of Flash isn't too much of a pain, except when you get to something like the BBC news site, although I'm sure they'll start to offer HTML5 video at some point soon if Steve Jobs has his way and persuades everyone with his anti-Flash tirade!

YouTube works really well as an app and there's not much you can't view on there with weblinks and embedded YouTube clips linking and launching in the YouTube app.

On the third-party apps TweetDeck is excellent although could do with support for facebook as it's twitter only at the moment.

Safari and the overall browsing experience is fantastic (the Word website looks great btw). Assuming you have a good n wifi network and a decent downstream you're going to be very happy with the performance. It really is very intuitive and is nice and snappy.

I like the addition of the orientation lock switch as often if you're using the iPhone when lying on your side it can flip when you don't want it to so this is a welcome feature.

iPhoto is very nice too and you only need to sync what you really want to, so if like me you have more photos than space available you can use a smaller selection instead.

More thoughts as I get used to the device, but I think it's a grower and I'm very impressed so far

Cheers

Geoff

I was recently at a Blue Nile gig in the Glasgow Concert hall, and very good it was too.

I couldn't help but notice that some members of the audience were having a 'song recognition' competition. Now Blue Nile songs, as I'm sure you know can have quite subtle differences until they get into the first line. Needless to say, the audience were probably very familiar with the material and sometimes it was on the first whoosh of a chord or the first tittle-tattle of a pre-programmed drum pattern that someone would almost jump out of their seat clapping wildly, all in an attempt to show to everyone else in the audience that they could identify the song at this early stage.

I must admit that at gigs like this, I often like to 'compete' with said 'uberfans' and try and get in there first, even if I don't know the song. It's wicked I know, but my guess is that I'm not the only one.

The flipside of this particular coin is when the audience member saves their applause for the first line of the chorus, when they'd just as well get their coat.

Are you an uberfan? Have you spoiled the party for someone else on purpose, safe in the knowledge that you haven't a clue what the song is? Does 'getting in there first' make or break the gig, or does it drive you to distraction?

Why do some artists still insist on putting 'secret' tracks on their album? Teddy Thompson on his latest offering has one. Not at the end of the album - oh no, but on track 11. All 18 minutes 35 seconds of it. Granted, I have the bonus edition from iTunes, so track 11 is probably meant to be the last track, but even if I'd bought this in a shop - I'd rip it as wavs or aif files, edit it down and strip that silence out.

oh and don't say it's because I choose to buy from iTunes. You'll all do it eventually if you don't already, if not iTunes then some other online service.

Does anyone else have any albums they've bought in the last couple of years with the 'secret' track ruining what was otherwise a good album?