Today I was one of the many who queued to get into Apple’s newest – and largest – store at 1 The Piazza, Covent Garden, London. If you’re an apple fan, you’ll love this place. Huge and immense, yet spacious and respectful of the location and history of the building and Covent Garden.

I’ll post up my full thoughts later tonight, in the meantime I’d love to share some photos and a short video walkabout of the store and the warm welcome, including iHighFive’s, that apple give each and every customer on opening day.

In video:

In Photos:

(direct link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocktographer/sets/72157624672272756/)

Last week I trekked to the Royal Albert Hall with my sister and niece for a great time travelling adventure. Our destination was the Doctor Who prom, for which we had to day queue for arena tickets. We arrived at the venue just before 5am, almost starting the queue but beaten to that award by a mere 30 seconds. We were sold tickets at 9:30 and entered the arena at 10:30, when we took a spot right at the front. Whilst waiting we experienced several types of rain, played games, watched ‘The Pandorica Opens’ on my iPad, met Arthur Darvill (Rory), waved at Karen Gillan (Amy) and met some great individuals, all of whom made the day wonderful.

The show itself was out of this World. Stunning music, monsters walking amongst us, stars of the show presenting and Matt Smith popped up in the middle of the arena as the Doctor himself, doing a ten minute skit that involved a child assistant from the audience – something I’m sure that lad won’t be forgetting for a long time!

Below are the photos I took at the event of a day to remember…

(direct flickr.com link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocktographer/sets/72157624491153699/ )

…

Below is a video showing a few tests that I’ve recently done on the Three Mobile MiFi in the UK, with the new WiFi iPad. @ThreeMobileBuzz were kind enough to loan a unit out to me, which allowed my 3G-less iPad to be connected to the ‘cloud’ whilst out and about.

Before you even consider watching the video, a few notes:

• I filmed it before the iPad was out in the UK & before the app stores were fully launched, hence my using the USA store. It’s taken me a while to publish online due to personal goings-on, which I may go into at some point in my blogging’s.
• I’ve cut any element where I type in passwords (obviously).
• Where I leave the device to see how quickly it delivers content over the MiFi, I’ve sped up the video. However I’ve added a crude form of on-screen timer to indicate how long things have taken.
• Covered in the video are connecting to the MiFi’s WiFi, a speed test, browsing YouTube videos, downloading of a typical app and book from the relevant stores, web browsing and streaming of live TV via TVcatchup.com.
• Yep, I know its a boring video.. it’s not supposed to be entertaining or smart. Its just a simple demo that’ll hopefully be useful to anyone thinking of getting a MiFi for their iPad.

If you think a MiFi might be your thing, first thing that I’d do is check the data coverage in your area, which you can do on their website here: http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband/Coverage_speed The main niggle I did notice was that the speed with which I was connected varied quite dramatically on the move (FYI I live and travel mainly around East London), though it was always at a speed comfortable enough to do whatever I needed and was easily on a par with data on my O2 iPhone.

I was impressed enough with the device for me to say that I was going to purchase one. I still haven’t. What changed my mind – when I saw the prices that Three were charging for data on their iPad Micro Sim. To be short, offering 10GB for £15 on a monthly rolling contract is pretty darn incredible, so good in fact that it made me feel that I was about to be short changed on the MiFi data plan. I know that makes me seem a little, um, stubborn, but that’s the thought that struck me! So come on Three, reduce the cost of the unit or give me more data for my buck… *cheeky grin*.

Footnote: Aside from the content of the post. This is the first thing I’ve published anywhere for a number of months. As I’ve suggested above, there’s a reason for this that I’m not going into. This is my first baby step back towards what I’m hoping is normality for me, as a result if you’re somewhat inclined to leave any form of negative or derogatory comment (whether or not you think its deserved for this post), then please don’t! Thank you.

Last weekend (Saturday 27th February 2010), I witnessed the marriage some close friends. I also took photos for the bride and groom before, during and after the ceremony – I’m sure something that will probably go down as one of the final photography jobs I’ll ever do. I’m now sharing a few of my favourite shots from the day, not too many as I see these as their personal photos, however the few I’ve published are just lovely, joyful images.

It’s worth pointing out that I was fairly ill all day. Still weak from one bout of flu-like illness, the night before I suffered the sudden onslaught of a nice bout of stomach flu. Great timing. I couldn’t let my friends down so dosed up on pain killers and stomach settlers, somehow I made it through most of the photos. My temperature spiked, I metaphorically collapsed and went home during the meal. So I must thank Jeff for taking over the camera duties for the speeches and dance along with Andy and Paul for propping me up throughout the day and running me round, holding my not-in-use equipment, etc.

Unboxing photos – yep, yawn… but it has to be done.

So I’m selling off the majority of my photography equipment. Why? I’m not doing as much (if any) photography work these days, and when I am, it’s not requiring the quality or speed of lenses that I mainly own through ten years of working as a gig photographer.

I’m listing these on my website as I’d much rather do a private sale. eBay fees are crippling and I’m not a fan of their ‘must offer one free p&p option’ – the majority of these items will need to be sent out being well padded and recorded/insured, so p&p will be quite pricey. Here’s a list of what I’m getting rid of, I’ve not got a set price in mind, please email or tweet (DM) me any offers. That said, I’m not going to give these away, so please don’t send anything other than a serious offer around the value they’re worth.

• Compact Flash cards (could be sold as a job lot or individually)
  - Jessops 2GB
  - Kingston 1024 MB (1GB)
  - Lexar 1GB Professional Grade
  - Kingston 16GB Elite Pro 133X
  - SanDisk 8GB Extreme III
• Nikon EN-EL3e Li-ion Battery 1500mAh
• Nikon 50mm 1.4D Lens AF NIKKOR
• Nikon 28mm 2.8D Lens AF NIKKOR
• Nikon 80-200mm 2.8D ED AF NIKKOR Zoom lens in Nikon CL-43A shoulder case
• Tamron 28-300mm 3.5-6.3D AF XR Di LD (IF)   (For Nikon body)

Lenses are all in pretty good condition, no scratches that I can see. All used as recently as last week, no problems. Email me offers on ian@rocktographer.co.uk or via twitter @ianmilleruk

Tonight I’m really loving this song.. no real reason why, it’s just really suiting my mood at the moment.

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Cradle me
I’ll cradle you
I’ll win your heart
With a woop-a-woo
Pulling shapes just for your eyes
So with toothpaste kisses and lines
I’ll be yours and you’ll be

Lay with me, I’ll lay with you
We’ll do the things that lovers do
Put the stars in our eyes
And with heart shaped bruises
And late night kisses
Devine

So you may have noticed that 3Mobile released the first MiFi product in the UK this week. I was lucky enough to have had a trial unit on loan a couple of weeks back… here’s a brief rundown of what I did and thought of it. If you’re un-inititated in what MiFi is, think of a mobile broadband dongle, but instead of using the USB and software to provide your laptop with an internet connection, this standalone device will connect to multiple devices – laptop, phone, games unit… anything that has wifi built in.

Unboxing

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The device charges an inbuilt battery via USB or mains to give you usage on the go. There are many leaflets in the box, each with a clear bit of simple info about the device on.

Connection

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First usage

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After the initial use
I rarely take my laptop out and about in London, so decided to do most of my playing from that point on with my iPhone. I turned data roaming off and used the MiFi to give me a data connection.  I noticed no difference in times that pages took to load, or videos, or data for apps. The killer for me was being able to use Skype on the go. Those who use iPhones know that its Skype app has quashed the ability to make Skype Calls over 3G, it will only allow it on wifi. Well, now my iPhone had wifi, albeit mobile connection from inside my bag, but crucially, its still wifi. So I was able to walk around making Skype calls. OK. So I’m not going to buy a MiFi just to do this – the extra cost isn’t justifiable… but if I had one for other purposes, I’d sure find it a great added bonus.

Another notable test, I took it round to a friends one evening and hooked three phones and two laptops upto it simultaneously. Obviously, it was useless for media related streaming, but we were all able to do basic browsing. Sadly I neglected to film this experiment!

This is a product I wouldn’t buy for myself unless I was going on a substantial holiday, it’s just too expensive to justify for casual use – HOWEVER – I am considering reccomending the school I work at invests in one to allow groups to use offsite on trips, so that updates can be communicated back to base and students with wifi devices can get a few free minutes to catch up.

What I really really prefer about MiFi over the USB sticks we’re so accustomed too, is the lack of software I have to install in order to manage my connection. Every stick I’ve previously tried has completely screwed up and wanted to dominate my internet settings, causing me countless headaches. MIFI has no software, just a wifi, which makes it a product that’s instantly a thousand times more preferable.

…and thats about all I’ve got to say. If 3Mobile make the device cheaper, I’ll certainly consider getting one.

Random post. This entry, especially the video will only make sense to the person that it’s intended for. Anyone else, well, you’ll probably find it an example of how silly and borderline crazy I am???

Happy Birthday to you. You’ve made this year far more bearable and worth getting through. Thank you.

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