It’s Apple’s latest and greatest, the iPad.  It’s a large touchscreen handheld device, shown here held by none other than Apple’s Steve Jobs:

The Apple iPad

But notice that I fail to call it a portable computer, or a tablet PC, or anything of the likes.  Why not?  Is Apple too awesome to use that same tired old mold?

Well, yes and no.  Mostly … no.

You see, when push comes to shove, all that the iPad really is is an iPod Touch, just really really not pocket-sized.  Like the oversized buttons on the Jitterbug cellphone targeted at senior citizens, so is the iPad just an oversized iPod Touch.

The Jitterbug cellphone, was this Apple's inspiration for the iPad?

I don’t get it.  On a number of levels.

Okay, one thing I do get.  And I’m sure Apple fanatics the world over will be happy to rip me a new one for pointing out this trite fact, but Apple does not innovate.  Apple is always late to the party with whatever they do.  The only reason they succeed where others fail?  They have the Apple brand name.  Some would try to claim that the reason is because Apple has style, but let’s face it, that’s not even really often the case.  Gaudy multicolored computers?  “Trendy” metallic techy cases?  iBricks?  Apple has a long standing history of making some pretty horrendous aesthetic decisions, and the ones that aren’t so bad are almost always a copy of something else that someone else has done earlier.  Just like the ideas of the products themselves.  Oh, sure, Apple tends to get it right when they copy someone, fixing all of those niggling little details that weren’t perfect in the original.  But then, when you’re always second (or later) to market, shouldn’t that really be expected?  Someone else has done the prototyping of your product for you.  Mostly the Asian markets.  So with this bold lack of innovation, it comes as no surprise that Apple now pretends to have invented the tablet PC.

Only … all they’ve actually invented is a tablet PDA.

Because, you see, the internals really are lacking in processing power.  It really is just an overgrown iPod.  With the same lack of processing prowess, and an equal shortcoming in software compatibility.

Oh, Apple will try to fool you on this.  Oh look at the glorious iPad and all of its apps.  Yes.  Right.  Apps. As in short for “applications”, and a really apt abbreviation as these apps are really aptly abbreviated in functionality.  You won’t find Adobe Photoshop in app form.  You won’t find Microsoft Office in app form.  Those are real applications, with substance, with meat, with purpose, with pride, and most importantly with use.  The iPad will not run those.  Oh no.  It cannot.  It supposedly can’t even run Adobe’s Flash.  And multitasking?  Nope.  It really is just an oversized iPod Touch folks.  A tablet PC without the actual computer part.  It’s just a gimmicky toy.

In fact, it’s not even an iPhone.  You won’t find calling features here.

I can do infinitely more with my Viliv S5 than I can ever do with an iPad.  And more and better UMPCs, tablets, netbooks, and the likes of the new face of portable computing are all on their way, boldly forward, all doing far more for their owners than the Apple iPad.

So then, what is the point?  I just don’t get it.  To sell more apps?  To gimmick us to death?

Or is Steve Jobs simply growing too old to lead Apple forward in innovation?

Is Steve Jobs so aged that he sees the Jitterbug as inspiration for the iPad?

It just seems rather odd to me that a company renowned for its computers would be selling something that so clearly should be a computer, but isn’t.  And it rather makes me wonder, just what exactly was the inspiration behind the iPad then?  Well, I guess it Depends…

Though it pretty much goes without saying that a company like Google with a motto of “don’t be evil” will inevitably be caught being just that, it’s still entertaining when it happens, as irony is a dish best served whenever possible.  So it should come as no surprise that the Google Toolbar (versions 6.3.911.1819 through 6.4.1311.42 for Internet Explorer confirmed) has been caught with its pants down by the notable critic of Google, Ben Edelmen.

Specifically, the Google Toolbar was found to continue merrily tracking URLs even after users select the “Disable Google Toolbar only for this window” option.  Which is, of course, quite evil.  It’s a clear invasion of privacy.

Google, of course, claims that it was just a bug that somehow managed to slip past testing all this time.  A likely story.

Either way, whether alleged evil feature or improbably advantageous bug, now that Google can’t claim ignorance with its implied plausible deniability, Google has fixed it.  Updates are available as per normal Google Toolbar means that should correct this issue so that disabling the Google Toolbar actually and honestly keeps it from tracking your web browsing habits instead of secretly continuing to collect and transmit information even when it shouldn’t.

It’s the stuff of science fiction, to plug a living person into a computer and have it write directly to their brain, giving them memories and skills that they never learned by traditional means.  But now scientists are saying that they’re doing just that…

Sort of.

If by person, you mean a fly.  And if by memory you mean a theoretical memory of an undefinable but unpleasant event.

Scientists from Oxford and Virginia were able to narrow down the cells of the (fly’s) brain necessary for forming memories based on a procedure they have termed “optogenetics”, in which “a simple flash of light is used to release caged-molecules present in selective neurons that then stimulate the activity of those neurons.”  They got it down to just a mere twelve brain cells used to record memories.

Then using those same flashes of light they proceeded in “writing directly to memory”, allegedly giving the fly a memory of an unhappy event which never actually occurred.

Okay, okay, so it’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for making The Matrix real.  Still, it’s a step in the right direction in understanding the brain.  One day this research could lead to something useful.

Now, I love a good positive PR for gaming as much as the next gamer.  And I hate a stupidly blown-out-of-proportion PR story where video games are blamed for all sorts of random acts of violence that frankly are just the results of bad people being bad people.  However, this story has a moral, even though it does put a slightly negative connotation on gaming.  The moral?  That all life needs balance, and anything in excess, taken to an extreme, is not healthy.

Over in Britain they’re seeing a rather shocking rise in the number of cases of Rickets.  Rickets being the disease generally caused by a deficiency in Vitamin D, that results in bone malformation like bowed legs.  It was common in old times because of poor diet, especially amongst the impoverished, of which there were many in the Victorian Era and earlier.

Now days however, it is rather surprising to see such a simply avoided malady on the rise.

It is suggested, and as a result young gamers are being focused upon, that the cause is not necessarily bad diet, but in the gaming youth not leaving their homes, causing a lack of sunlight which is necessary for the body’s absorption of Vitamin D.  So if you are a gamer with pasty skin that recoils like a vampire from the dreaded light of our sun, it may be suggested then that you perhaps put down the Xbox controller for a moment and get out a little more.  Or at least get a lamp which more accurately mimics sunlight.  And try taking some extra Vitamin D.  If you don’t, your bones may suffer and you may never walk right again.

Now, another interesting factor in this particular case however is not just a lack of sunlight, but in one factor different in Britain than, well, a lot of other countries like the United States of America.  Britain doesn’t add Vitamin D to their milk.  Over in the US where all manner of vitamins are added to foodstuffs like they were pellets for Pac Man, Vitamin D is plentiful so even with poor absorption rates due from a lack of sunlight, you’re still more likely than not to be absorbing enough to avoid having Rickets.  But in Blighty, where vitamin additives are strongly frowned upon, it’s becoming a problem.

But, as noted, it is a problem very easily remedied.  Get some damn sun.  Or if you refuse to do that much for yourself, take some freaking vitamins.  Problem solved.

All that said, I’d like to address one misconception.  It is suggested that it is video gaming itself causing the lack of ultra violet exposure.  However, I propose that this is in fact not specifically the case.  The rise in domicile extremis is more likely the result of the rise of social networking.  With more and more activities of friendship partaken in virtual and/or remote environments instead of literal physical ones, there’s less “going out” and more “staying in” to do things together.  And “together” is even itself becoming more a virtual reality than actuality.  While it is true that a lot of gaming is used as a social networking environment, it is by no means the only such source.

So, regardless of your antisolar proclivities, the point remains strikingly the same.  If you don’t get enough sun, and you don’t take your Vitamin D, for whatever reason, Rickets may be in your future.  It’s incredibly easy to avoid.  Forewarned is forearmed.

Go forth and be healthy.

As noted before, Internet Explorer has been plagued by a very dangerous exploit allowing remote execution of code that has caused attacks on several major technology companies, most notably Google.  It has caused entire countries to issue warnings to use any web browser but IE.

Microsoft continues to claim that it affects IE6 only.  Yet the bug is clearly present in IE7 and IE8 as well.  The only possible explanation is that one of Microsoft’s security features introduced in IE7 renders the attacks against the vulnerability impotent.  But this is not necessarily true nor confirmed.

Worse, it has now been shown that Microsoft has actually known about this security hole in Internet Explorer for over three months.

But all is not bad news.  No, in fact, we have some good news now.  There is a patch.  Microsoft has rushed to deliver February’s update to Internet Explorer and it not only closes this security hole, but also fixes several other vulnerabilities in IE.  It has already been pushed down through the usual Microsoft Update channel, so if you have your automatic updates turned on, you should have already gotten it.  And if not, you can navigate to this link using Internet Explorer to acquire the patch manually.

Happy patching!