iPad now available in the UK, but do you REALLY want one?

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I saw a comment in a newspaper the other day that suggested that far from Apple being now being the supplier of "good times" gadgets to people who want to shun the shirt and tie image of all things Microsoft related, they are now in fact beginning to acquire something of a "snotty nose" brigade image themselves!. Why? Well after several years being being touted as the supplier of ipods and iphones to a (perceived) younger,more street wise clientèle, they have now released the ipad, a device which, from what i have seen of it so far, seems to have taken several steps backwards as regards being a portable, unobtrusive personal device!.

Apparently the ipad has NO disk drive(DVD/CD) and NO USB ports, combine this with NO Web-cam and NO support for Flash Player and you start to realise that far from being the jack of all trades, it appears to be more of a master of none!

I have now come to the conclusion that when people buy something such as the ipad just to be able to say "I have one", they have crossed the line and have then become something of a "techno lemming", who's main concern is to own the latest gadget simply because they want to show off to their friends!......more money than sense as some would say!.

P.S the picture at the top of this post is REAL!...people really do want to integrate their ipad with their clothing...just hope that they remember to take it out before they stick their clothes in the wash...then again it is not exactly small in size is it ?

Nexus or iPhone ? Why bother with either of these white elephants is my answer !

Flicking through the pages of the daily newspaper the other day I came across an article which compared the new Google Nexus mobile with the current "King of the hill", the iPhone.
After reading the comparison I came to this conclusion.Neither are worth the £300+ price tag, and if you buy one of them it is purely for showing off to your mates and proves that you are indeed an individual that has "More money than sense" as my gran used to say!.
I have a cheap and cheerful Sony W395 slide phone,it has a camera,MP3,video player etc...but only cost me £49.I have dropped it more times than i can remember,sat on it,dropped it in the sink and even one time put it in the oven by mistake (don't ask...it's a long story!).The point is, it still works fine, and when it eventually does give up the ghost I can replace it for under £50 quid.
If I had an iPhone I would not honestly feel confident that it would have survived all of the mishaps i just mentioned, and if it did, i would not feel at all safe walking around with it stuck to my ear in public in case some guttersnipe decided to have it from me.
As an engineer by trade i have witnessed many failures of technology within the aviation and medical industries, and have come to the conclusion that the more of our lives we give over and trust into technology, the greater the chaos when our gadgets fail.We are fitting more and more of our daily lives into smaller and more advanced personal devices, but ask yourself these questions "If my Iphone/Nexus fails/breaks/gets lost...how much will it impact upon my life? How much do I rely on this device, and can I live without it?"

I will stick to my humble Sony for now, and try not to put to much of me into a gadget and try to not put the gadget in the oven...again !