I’ve spent a day playing around with my iPad now, and I still think I’ve only barely scratched the surface of what it can do.
I’d like to write a quick blog post here on all of the things that went through my head as I was opening the box and cranking it up; all of my first initial impressions of using my iPad for the first time.

When I pulled it out of the box, I immediately thought it felt heavier than the other iPads I’d held before. Granted all of the other iPads were WiFi only models, and the Apple site does say that the 3G version is 0.05kg heavier, but I didn’t think I’d actually notice (Or maybe I’m just crazy ). Upon picking it up and holding it in my hand, it felt really nice. The brushed metal back and the sapphire glass front are really smooth and they both felt really nice to the touch.

(more…)

I thought I’d just fire off a little post on what happened today.

I went and bought an iPad 3G 64GB.

While I’m extremely happy to have an iPad now, what I had to go through to actually get one as of today miffed me a little bit.

I originally ordered my iPad from the Apple website, however I was told I wouldn’t receive it until June 7 (Still more than a week away!). When I jumped online today, I found that most electronic consumer shops in Perth were fully stocked to the brim with iPads, ready to purchase right then and there. So I immediately jumped up, ran over to my nearest JB Hi Fi and bought my iPad from there. I then returned to my desk and instantly canceled my June 7 pre-ordered one.

(more…)

A pretty interesting thing has been happening in the geeks’ gadget world this week. Since I have a blog, I thought I’d offer my $0.02.

For those of you not in the know, here’s a quick re-hash. An Apple employee named Gray Powell took a prototype model of an as-of-yet unannounced iPhone to a bar, unto which he lost it. It was later found by another patron of the bar, from where it made its way into the hands of Gizmodo, who promptly ran a story on it. In what pretty much solidified the device’s authenticity, Apple sent a formal request to Gizmodo, asking for their ‘device’ to be returned.

Now, first and foremost…. this phone looks friggin’ awesome. Just on Gizmodo’s testimony alone, I really really want one now; way moreso than I ever wanted an iPad. Pretty much all of the issues I have with my 3G (Uh, which I guess is really just the camera lol) have been fixed with this model. In addition, you can never go wrong with a higher resolution screen.

(more…)

Whew… would you believe I’ve been so busy that this is the earliest I could get around to doing this was now…?

Anyway, the second day of Wai-Con was really interesting too. A lot more panels were being held on Sunday, and I think for this reason, the place seemed slightly more crowded than before. I spent most of the morning keeping watch in the game room, venturing out every now and then to just wander around and see what was happening.

Come the afternoon, it was time for the Japanese 101 panel. @jetha, @deathwombat, and myself had volunteered to be the panelists with @sonictail hosting it. The point of the panel was to introduce some facets of studying Japanese as well as some points of Japan itself, and answering any questions. Overall, I think the panel was a resounding success. We were going head-to-head with the Eminence panel so I was reeally expecting the room to be empty. But that was not the case, with a very impressive turnout. Overall reaction to the panel seemed quite positive with a few people coming up afterwards and telling us what they thought.

To follow up on the panel for anyone who still had questions or for people who missed it, I also created this continuation thread on the Wai-Con forums:
http://www.panic-wa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3803

Finally, at the end of the day, as we were all packing up, I was pretty sad to see all of it go hehe. I caught the last few minutes of the closing ceremony and it was really cool to see all of the main committee members get recognition for all of their hard work.

After everything was finished, all of the volunteers and committee members went and had dinner together. It was all a great deal of fun, and I was even lucky to get a photo together with Yasunori Mitsuda from the Eminence table. He was a really cool guy and he said he was loving Perth very much.

So overall, Wai-Con was great fun. It takes a ridiculous amount of passion and dedication to pull off an event this huge and it was definitely cool to help out in some small way.
In the aftermath, I made a few new friends on Facebook, a few new friends on Twitter and have been having fun hanging out on the Wai-Con forums.

Can’t wait until next time.

Whew! Just got home 30 minutes ago… really tired, but I thought I’d try and crank out a blog.

So for the unfamiliar ones, Wai-Con is Perth’s premiere anime themed convention that’s usually held in January each year. Aside from a host of stalls selling all kinds of anime/manga/Japanese merch, there are also a lot of cool events such as drawing panels and such, a dedicated video games room and a freakin huge cosplay competition.
For the past few years, I’ve usually just picked a panel or two I liked the look of, just went to them, and then nicked off after… not this time.

I got a message from a friend who is one of the co-ordinators last week, saying that there is a slight shortage of volunteers and asked if I’d like to help out. I was already considering volunteering from before, but after hearing there was a shortage, I knew I had to jump in.
So, this year around, I was an official volunteer for Wai-Con, mainly helping out in the games room, but also a few odds and ends elsewhere too. And I must say, it was a pretty awesome experience.

(more…)