I’ve had the iPad since the day before it came out, and opening weekend is almost over, so what are my first thoughts?

To start with, I don’t need to tell anyone that it is a beautiful device. Apparently it is causing the Japanese electronics industry to do some soul-searching about how an American company beat them to the tablet crown (I can’t find the link), and I can see why. The industrial design is superb.

It is also surprisingly heavy. Having heard so much about how light it is and how it will replace books, I am beginning to wonder. It might be lighter than a thick hardback – but I can’t see it replacing the novel. I’ve tried reading some e-books on it and I find the screen to be a bit tiring. I particularly like reading Google Reader (one of the big reasons I bought it was to browse in bed), and while scrolling with a finger beats the mouse wheel hands down, I’ve not yet found a suitable app for reading feeds. That said, I’m quite fussy when it comes to reading feeds, I want the font to be just the right size, I want everything available offline, I want to be able to sort what I read any which-way. Hopefully I’ll not have to wait for long for something better than the micro-font-sized Google Reader, or the rather average News Rack app.

Needless to say, as soon as it was out of the box, I was downloading apps: Good Reader is a nice PDF reader; the Guardian Eyewitness app is a beautiful demonstration of how eye-poppingly beautiful photos look on the screen; the Marvel app is great – it has a storyboard feature which walks you through the frames, though the resolution could be better; and I really like the Korg Electribe grovebox app which lets you design some seriously crunchy beats.

There is also the not so good – many apps feel rushed out, and I’m sure they’ll improve, for instance the Right Move property search app is pretty but annoying and much less useful than the website. And this leads to one big problem I have with the ecosystem. At times I was reminded of the frustrating experience of loading up a BBC micro game and then spending ages trying to work out which keys to use. On the iPad, I’m not the first person to notice there’s little consistency between apps, and I found myself pecking around the screen with my finger trying to work out which bits of the screen were ‘active’, and what they did.

However, the built in apps are amazing. The maps app is lightening fast, the Youtube app is much better than the website, and the photos app is a vision of the future. I’m looking forward to seeing how things develop.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a flawless Operating System upgrade. Windows 7 was no exception. After endless reboots and failures, I gave up in the early hours of Saturday night (yes, I was having that much fun). In the morning with a clear head, I found the right google search, enabled SATA AHCI, disabled USB at during one of the reboots, and hey presto – success.

Why did I install Windows 7? Well, not just to get the shiney window borders, it was mainly to try and help my PC come out of sleep. Fail. Still doesn’t work. As a last resort, I grit my teeth, pull on the rubber gloves, and upgrade the BIOS. Yup, that was the problem <groan>.

First impressions? Shiney, a bit more usable, and wierdly, everything seems bigger; I think that’s because of the chunkey borders. Now, on with the install… <deep breath>.

I can’t describe the Live Art Speed Date better than the name itself. Just for the record, though, here’s the program and my thumb after then evening…

So now you know.

Mayfest started off with a bang, some splashes and lots of screaming last night with the Forest Fringe Microfestival at the Bristol Old Vic. We arrived in time to see Little Bulb Theatre performing Formality, a musical in which the camera guy gets hit by lightning. I’m not sure that he was expecting that treatment.

Nigel Barrett also did a bizarre musical piece called Mussolini and Walter Raleigh.

I first saw Search Party a few years ago at Pilot in Birmingham, so it’s good to see they’re still going, giving audiences a chance to see them getting very wet and covered in salt. There must be some reason.

We got to be inverted in a very big chair and fly into space thanks to Tinned Fingers. I’m not sure that chosing Walking on the Moon by The Police was such a good idea, though.

Katie got to hug a hoodie thanks to Swansea based Shellshock. She even got to keep the hoodie (though I think the poor reception staff at the Old Vic are now wondering what to do with it).

Action Hero wrapped up by continuing their examination of alpha male performers with a work in progress of their new show, Frontman.

And here’s Light Bulb’s last song:

I don’t generally get excited about arts centres. They are either shabby or just a bit too grand, like the person behind it was trying to prove something. An extreme example would be the Barbican, which to me feels intimidatingly big.
Which is one of the reasons I’m so excited by the new mac (Midlands Arts Centre) which we just visited on its (re-)opening weekend. Everything about it is so thoughtfully designed for the people who use it – workshop users, families having a day in the park, gallery visitors, theatre audiences, everyone.