Details are beginning to emerge about the construction of a new high-capacity submarine telecommunications cable to serve the African continent. Named the Wasace cable, it will be connecting Africa with South America, North America and Europe and will be project managed by the David Ross Group from the United States.

Ramon Gil-Roldan, CEO of the Wasace Cable Company Worldwide, a multinational development company, says that the new cable will be one of the largest in the world and the largest ever mounted in the Atlantic Ocean, that’s purpose is to link all the major markets of the four continents. While it is unknown when the cable will be ready for service, Wasace claims the system will be the first to employ next-generation 100Gbit/s fibre-optic technology, offering “ten times the capacity of previous systems”.

However, eFive Telecommunications CEO Lawrence Mulaudzi, who is leading a rival project that will connect Angola and South Africa to Brazil with a 2,8Tbit/s system called the South Atlantic Express (SAex), claims the SAex cable will be first along this route.

The Wasace cable will be funded by VIP Must and the African Development Bank as well as other unnamed investors from Brazil and other countries.

For five years the African continent was deprived of bandwidth and so billions of Dollars have gone into new submarine cables Seacom,Teams and Eassy to serve the continent on Aits east coast.  In the west, the 5,1Tbit/s Wacs and Ace projects are expected to go live in 2012.

source: Tech Central

In my previous post I described my hardware choices when building my new Home Server, something that I am handling as a weekend project. For the purposes of this article I am using a HP Proliant Microserver – a great compact little server with ample expandibility for home use. As a start I am using the built in 250GB Seagate drive as the boot drive, and then three Western Digital AV Green Power 2 Terabyte drives. You can choose whatever size drives you want, but look at things like power usage and reliability. This is a server after all.

There is a number of operating systems to choose from for home storage. We need an OS that is stable, has the ability to backup PC’s on your network, and also has drive redundancy to keep your data safe in case of drive failure (and yes, drives do fail). After looking at all the options, Windows Home Server version 1 is still your best bet. It is rock solid, and has a great community of add on developers. You can find it at most specialist computer shops for around $99.

When choosing hardware, it is beneficial to use two or more hard drives with Windows Home Server, but also a good idea to use the fastest drive you can for the system partition. WHS v1 uses a proprietary method to distribute storage instead of complicated RAID setups. However, the OS still uses the primary drive for its system installs and also as a first point to write files to when copied to the server, therefore a speedy drive is your friend. The “proprietary method” that WHS v1 uses is called Drive Extender, and it works very well. With traditional Redundant Array setups you needed a lot of technical skills, and drives that were the same size and speed to make it run efficiently. Drive Extender works in amuch more friendly fashion – you just keep on adding drives, and the system adds that drive to the data pool. For example, you might have three drives of different sizes, and they will all form one big “drive”.

Best part is, you can select a folder you deem important enough to have duplicated over two drives at any time. For example, this means you can have your photos always duplicated (in real time) over two drives. So if any drive fails in you Windows Home Server, that important folder will not be lost. Problem is, Microsoft only had this technology in Windows Home Server version 1.

Microsoft recently launched Windows Home Server 2011 – an “upgrade” which is a spectacular letdown. While the base server operating system has been upgraded to Windows Server 2008, Microsoft decided to let go of the Drive Extender technology. This is a huge mistake on Microsoft’s part. Drive Extender is the number one reason Windows Home Server had a fanbase. Windows Home Server without Drive Extender does not give it any significant edge over other solutions like FreeNAS, except for automated backups. Frankly Microsoft, there is not a lot to make us even look at WHS 2011 if you take out drive redundancy.

Setting up Windows Home Server v1 cannot be more easy – merely boot the install disc on your machine, and confirm most of the on screen tidbits. It will inform you that all the drives in the machine will be deleted – and you have to confirm this. Once again, it might be a good idea to use newer hardware where possible, which will lead to less chance of failure. The install is not exactly brisk – it takes about an hour, even with nice quick hardware. It reboots many times in the process as well, so be patient. If you are used to the quick installs that Windows 7 or Lion has these days, you are in for a surprise. WHS did not automatically install some of the drivers on my server, including the network card – no biggie, just install the Windows Server 2003 versions of the drivers that came with your hardware. To see which drivers did not install, just check the Device Manager.

Once all you drivers are installed, activate your copy of WHS, so that you can start installing software updates. Most shipping versions still ship with only Power Pack 1, and there is already a Power Pack 3 available. so I had a lot of updates – about 200MB’s worth. That again takes some time – patience is virtue. Its easy – just run Windows Update and use the express option. You will be rebooting quite a few times.

Once WHS is updated and running, it is time to start setting up shares and backups. To do this you start up WHS Connnector software on your client machines – you ought to get a disc in the box to install this, otherwise get it from the “Software” folder in your WHS install (Click on Start and go to \\SERVER\Software). Installing the connector software will enable you to administrate the server from your workstation, and also run the server “headless”, meaning it does not require anything but a powerplug and a network cable attached to your network. Once installed, just enter your server password and then you can start setting up your backups and shares.

Backups are pretty easy – using the connector software, WHS gives you the following tabs:

• Computers and Backup – use this to add computers on your network that needs to be backed up daily, or when they appear on the network.
• User Accounts – setup user profiles who are allowed to access your shared folders, including a Guest user account.
• Shared Folders – So what folders do you want to share on the network? Add them here. Also set which users can access what, and which folder must be duplicated.
• Server Storage – Give an overview of the current storage on the server. This also tells how much of your storage is dedicated to duplication / redundancy.
• Network Health – Will be green unless your Windows computers have not been backed up in a while, or any of your machines have outdated windows patches, antivirus definitions, etc. Very handy.

Backups are pretty easy to do from the connector software, but WHS is also smart in the way that it stores it. If a identical file is found on more than one of your workstations, it will only back that file up once, not a separate version for each machine. In other words, backing up 5 machines with 100GB storage each does not translate into 500GB storage needed. Far from it – in fact, if your machines run mostly the same operating systems, you will see that WHS does not use a lot of space at all. Backups are one of the major reasons to get WHS, so get started with your backups – their first run can take a lot of time, especially over wireless networks, so you might want to connect to ethernet with the notebooks for their first backup.

Shared folders are easy to set up – you can easily choose which folders can and cannot be accessed by certain users in your house, but you can also setup a Guest account so that new machines who connect to your network can easily use some of the resources without any complicated login rituals.

The other advantage of using Windows Home Server is has a DLNA server built in – this means media streaming devices can access your media “library” and also access the relevant metadata of the files. For example, stored movies might have the DVD cover attached it etc. Windows Home Server also has a vibrant developer community that is actively creating new add ons for your server. A few great examples include “My Movies” which enables you to instantly backup DVD movie discs. No, I am not promoting piracy – there are legitimate reasons you might want to do that. Another great add on is Lights Out, which enables you to set schedules when you want your server to go into sleep mode. If you are using an iOS device that you want to stream video to, look at a tool like AirVideo. The app will cost only $3 for your iPhone or iPad, and then you install the simple AirVideo Server app on your Windows Home Server, and point it to your videos folder.

Not a fan of Windows Home Server?

Of course you are free to use whatever operating system you want – there are some terrific free options out there if you do not need all of Windows Home Server’s functionality. You might lose some of the ease of use though, and you might need to familiarize yourself with new interfaces. If you are up to the challenge, I am not going stop you.

Some other great alternatives:

FreeNAS – FreeNAS is a super scaled down storage server OS. The whole OS can run off a flash disk, which is great for servers that have an internal USB port. It can run on very old hardware, and has some great features like running an iTunes media server.

Ubuntu Server Edition – If you have some technical ability, and you are up for a challenge, you might want to look at Ubuntu Server Edition. Sure, it will not be as easy to set up as WHS, but you will have some great features. It is also built on a rock solid foundation.

I have always been a great fan of Network Attached Storage in the home. With consumer’s ever increasing storage needs and the switchover to laptops, the need for a centralised storage area on your home network is becoming more relevant than ever. Sure, we can shift some of that storage to the cloud, but SA’s tragic state of broadband has made this more difficult than it should be.

Certain media just works better when stored locally. In the US you might have a great little AppleTV device that just streams you a HD movie quickly and easily, in SA we have to make do with other methods to get our media kicks on. If you store it locally, you also have a lot more freedom on what device you want to access your media from. Want to watch a movie that is stored on your home server on your iPad? Not a problem. But you first need the right hardware.

Luckily it is cheaper and easier than ever to build centralized storage on your home network. Sure, you can go buy dedicated NAS devices if you do not want the hassle of building something. And you can just connect a big external harddrive, but that loses most of the functionality of having a network attached device. There are some of us who like the thrill of DIY. And when it comes to WHS, your own efforts will in most cases lead to better results.

What hardware to get:

Many of us think of DIY home network attached storage as dusty old beige boxes that run clunky old hard drives. But for the purpose of this article, we are starting from scratch, and we try to stay away from old, slow and power hungry components. And of course, we want to do it as cheaply as possible.

You are free to use any case you can, but I recommend you look at dedicated server cases. Why? Because servers typically contain higher end components that are made to run 24/7, for years on end. When you want to trust your home server with all your backup duties, it makes sense to rather go for reliability than performance.
In some people’s minds “server” means expensive, but in the case of low-end servers that is not the case at all. In fact, it might be cheaper than buying a desktop and repurposing it as a server. When it comes to home servers, processor performance and lots of RAM is less important than things like power usage, reliability and steady disk performance.

Case:

You are free to use any case you would like, but seeing as it is a server, you might want to take a few things into account. It will be running 24/7, so things like noise and reliability is a must. That old PC case you have might do the job, but ideally you want a compact case which can handle plenty of drives, and you also want fresh new components like fans, which over time become less efficient. There are some cases out there which are made for this exact use. My advice – look at the current HP Microserver.  The best part is the price – it is currently on sale for R1299 at Digital Planet. And no, I am not payed to say this. It is just a plain good deal. It is a very compact case design, with loads of expandibility options.  If you are building yourself, look at similiar type case designs. You want a quick and easy way to add and remove hard drives, and a way to lock the device if you feel it is necessary. You do not want to unscrew the entire case to change drives.
Processor:

Using a low power AMD Neo processor, the Microserver runs its two cores run at 1.3GHz. Yes, I know your smartphone is almost that fast already, but believe me, it is more than enough for the purposes of a home server. That massive 3GHz+ Core i7 is just going to be wasted, and more importantly, chowing a lot of power. It is all about wattage.   Look at the TDP wattage of any chip you will be using. You also ideally want a dual core processor if you want to ever do slightly more processor intensive things with your server, like transcoding of video files. Something like an Intel Atom (provided it is a dual core one) will do a good job as well.
Memory:

In terms of RAM – look at around 2GB of RAM, preferably the ECC kind (provided the motherboard can handle it). ECC stands for Error Correcting Code memory – it is a little bit slower than normal memory, but it contains circuitry that is made to prevent data corruption. If you want to run software that transcodes video files, you might want to up it to 4GB RAM. Video performance is not important on a server, so the Microserver’s built in ATI Radeon Mobility 4200 should be more than adequeate. If you are building yourself, don’t worry about the graphics. Integrated graphics would do the job.
Hard Drives:

Then we get to the most important part of any storage server – yes, the storage! These days harddrives are not built to last. In fact, any standard hard drive that runs 24/7 might only last about three years on average. Ignore the manufacturer’s reliability claims – believe me, you have to look at higher grade drives. A good choice is drives that are made for video surveilence equipment, like the Seagate SV35 and the Western Digital AV-GP ranges. These are made to run all day and night, and to use as little power as possible, and also do it quietly. You also do not need higher end 7200 rpm drives – the slower 5400 and 5900 rpm drives will do the job just fine, and it will save a bit of power and be quieter. While you might not find them at your run of the mill Incredible Connection, you can find them online on sites like Sybaritic.

Also be smart about the sizes you use – while it will be great to use 3TB drives that can handle that massive movie collection of yours, my recommendation is to stick with 2TB drives, which are the maximum size before the drives switch to something called Advanced Format. If you ever want to recover that 3TB drive, you will need to use a machine with the latest versions of Windows. Also, if you plan on using Windows Home Server as your server operating system, it is best you stick with 2TB max per drive. Not that 2TB is anything to sneeze at – If you max out the little Microserver you will be sitting with 8TB of storage…

My recommendation is to look at at least 2 hard drives for your server. That way you can set up some redundancy in your server. That means that if one of the hard drives fail, you will have a backup of all that data on another drive as well. The more drives, the better. Of course, with every drive the power consumption of the server will go up slightly, and be slightly more noisy.

Then we get to another sore point of storage – right now the floods in Thailand have caused massive hard drive shortages, and a result, the prices have shot through the roof. Compared to just 3 months ago, the average hard drive has at least doubled in price, and almost tripled in certain cases. So if you are particularly price sensitive you might want to use some old SATA hard drives that are lying around. But you are giving up some reliability and power efficiency in the process.

Right now you are looking at around R1700 for a 2TB Seagate SV35 drive that runs at 5900rpm. That price is quite high, but the 1TB version is only R200 less, so it might be worth it. Remember to try and split your storage among different drives – if you are running WHS v1, they do not have to be the same size.

The Rest of the Guts:

You will not specifically need a optical drive, but it will make installing your operating system of choice easier. There are also a few apps out there that can use that optical drive – the My Movies is a great example. Have a DVD movie you want to store on your Home Server? Just pop in the disc, and the process will start off, and also compress the video to something a bit more compact. DVD drives are cheap – you should not spend more than R300 for an optical drive.

If you are using an old case for your server, check that it has a network card, obviously. All the latest motherboards typically ship with 1Gbps network cards, which are great for streaming media. You will also use Ethernet cabling with a direct connection to your router – the connection to the server must be physical, not wireless. Of course wireless clients can still access the server contents using WiFi.

If you are going to be watching movies that are stored on the server on a wifi device, make sure your network is 802.11n compliant. Anything older will not do an adequate job of streaming video, especially HD video files.
Next: The Operating System

All in all building your perfect home server is easier to do than you might expect. Provided you choose your components correctly, you will have a great storage area for all your movies, series, photos, videos and important documents. After you have built the server, you have to start looking at the operating system you will choose.

In part 2 we will be looking at Windows Home Server, which will be our preferred operating system.

Looks like the tablet wars is about to get another combatant. However – this one will come from a company who actually understands user experience better than most. Amazon.

Right now the tablet market is a little one sided. It is pretty much iPad versus the rest. Those of us who follow tech news everyday have grown a little tired of “JAAT” (Just Another Android Tablet). Every day we read about another company jumping into the tablet game with no clear differentiation in their products. All of them share similiar form factors and run the same OS, so we just do not care anymore. But Amazon’s latest Kindle might be different. The rumour mill has now kicked off with an article by MG Siegler -Techcrunch apparently has some sources which told them a lot about the device.

The Kindle has always been a pretty simple device – a e-book reader with some small additional features. But its success relied on its content back-end. It had Amazon’s giant e-book library at its disposal. Now with the Kindle “Fire”, Amazon is going to sell a tablet class device firstly as e-book reader, but this time it gains a lot of multimedia power. For example – it will be able to connect to Amazon Prime for music. What should be pointed out however is that the Fire will probably rather focus on content consumption than personal information management. Think movie player, not exchange.  So do not bet on a email client – but we might be surprised. It is Android after all.

So what about the hardware design? No photos are yet available but current sources suggest a similiar form factor to the Blackberry Playbook. So you are looking at a 7 inch backlit display, hopefully with not as thick as bezel as the Playbook. Current rumours point to the fact that the Kindle Fire is also made by the same designers as the Playbook. Internals will apparently be a dual core 1.2 GHz processor, but that is about all that is known. Also – it will not run Honeycomb (Android 3.x). It will be running Android 2.1, with a custom Amazon interface. Risky move, but it does focus the device more on the current Kindle user, instead of techies who want Honeycomb. Those techies can of course just download the Kindle App on their device of choice.

The other differentiator of Kindle Fire might be its price. Kindle’s recent price drops have done wonders for its sales. If Amazon can somehow make it land under $250, they can expect massive uptake. Also, time will tell whether people are willing to give up their e-ink displays on their Kindles…

Luckily we do not have to wait too long to see it – Jeff Bezos will be showing off the Kindle Fire tomorrow.

Source: TechCrunch

Paper beats rock, rock beats scissors and scissors beats paper. But  Thunderbolt beats USB 3.0 everytime! Not in the way that USB 3.0 would soon become obsolete because I believe that the “universality” of the Universal Serial Bus would remain for many years to come but one has to admit that the new buzz surrounding this latest quantum leap in serial I/O port seems to be growing.

I suppose I should start with a disclaimer in an effort to reduce the number of comments that would reduce this post to merely a “Mac vs PC” debate, which is pretty much what one would find on most posts that discuss this technology. The reality is that all new Mac notebooks and computers (except the Mac Pro) are equipped with Thunderbolt, as Apple have opted to be an early adopter with this technology, which is incidentally, owned completely by the Intel Corporation. Since Thunderbolt uses the same Mini DisplayPort connector that was already present on most Apple Computers the only thing to tell the ports apart would be the Thunderbolt symbol above the port, as opposed to the DisplayPort symbol. Intel however have plans to roll out Thunderbolt I/O technology on Windows laptops as early as the first half of 2012, as announced last week by the Vice President of Intel, Mooly Eden, making this less and less a debate of proprietary.

Thunderbolt essentially combines the PCI Express bus and the DisplayPort into a new serial data cable that is capable of transferring data at a data speeds of 10 Gb/sec. In simpler terms, it is a data cable that is capable of extremely fast data speeds with compatible devices. Although more than double the data transfer speed of USB 3.0, I believe that it’s true brilliance lies not merely in the high transfer rate that is achievable but in it’s ability to daisy-chain up to 5 devices, one (or even two) of which includes a high definition monitor.

Is this for everyone? Should we all rush out and buy Thunderbolt compatible devices? Luckily manufacturers have made that decision much simpler as the number of Thunderbolt compatible devices remain in short supply. Lacie have led the pack with the announcement of the Thunderbolt enabled “Little Big Disk” which is essentially a 320GB Solid State drive. The fact that it is a solid state drive is significant since it is the only external storage that would be able to utilise the speed of Thunderbolt since most hard drives are comparatively limited in speed. Many more Thunderbolt enabled products were on display at this years Intel Developer’s Forum but the award for most striking (and possibly most expensive at $999) Thunderbolt enabled device would have to go to the new 27 inch Apple LED Cinema Display.

The best part of Thunderbolt is that it is essentially daisy chained version of PCI Express (with massive bandwidth) – so one Thunderbolt connector can branch out into many different connectors. Apple’s Thunderbolt display is a good example of this. Using one Thunderbolt connector, it hosts a massive resolution display which then also hosts USB ports, a Firewire 800 port and Gigabit ethernet port. And of course the obligatory Thunderbolt passthrough port to add even more goodies to that diasy chain. This is great for users of notebooks like the Macbook Air – which have extremely limited connectivity options. Now with one plug a Macbook Air user is instantly connected to all their external devices and gigabit networking. Apple has basically taken the idea of a dock, and put into their display.

The emergence of Thunderbolt is still in it’s infancy but the technological gains are too significant to be ignored. Who would have thought that there would have been a market for Blu-ray considering the storage potential of Dual Layer DVD? Thunderbolt enabled devices would currently cater for a niche market and hence be quite expensive but as with all things in this industry, the prices will come down. When it does, you would want to have a motherboard that is Thunderbolt enabled and USB 3.0 compatible.

Nobody nowadays would want to be seen at a computer with a stiffy drive, it just archaic – Thunderbolt may spell a similar fate for its predecessors.

For the rest of us it is either a purchase made after careful consideration of various factors which include price and availability vs functionality gains or, a purchase based on the advice of an “Early Adopter”.

Most of the readers of this blog need no introduction to the improvements made with USB 3, also known as Super Speed USB. They range from faster data transfer rates (realistic transfer rates of 3.2 Gbits/sec although the theoretical maximum is 4.8 Gbits/sec), full duplex data transfer and device polling is replaced by interrupt driven protocol which results in a considerable reduction to the power drain often associated with leaving idle devices connected to your notebook. I was most excited about the feature that allowed up to an 80% improvement in USB power delivery which essentially meant that it would take a shorter time to charge my iPad, that was if Apple supported USB 3, which they currently do not. Apple have done another ‘Firewire’ and shipped the new line of MacBook Pro’s with Thunderbolt, a new I/O peripheral protocol developed by both Intel and Apple. Although Thunderbolt is capable of much faster data speeds than USB 3 (10 Gbits/sec) and has the ability to daisychain devices, I suspect that it will only be utilised by a niche market. I suspect however that Apple will eventually support USB 3 on it’s newer devices much the same way in which the older Mac’s were equipped with both a Firewire and USB 2 port. In any event I plan to do a review of Thunderbolt in an upcoming post as there are already devices on the market that support this protocol.

Returning to the discussion on USB 3, I strongly doubt that the prices of USB 3 and USB 2 devices will remain similar for much longer. With companies advertising USB 3 drives as being ten times faster than USB 2 devices, neglecting to inform the customer that those comparisons are only relevant if you have a Motherboard or PCI card that supports USB 3, I expect more and more consumers opting to purchase USB 3 devices. Furthermore, due to the backward compatibility of USB 3 to USB 2, I predict that manufacturers will shortly only manufacture devices that are USB 3 compatible. This would result in USB 2 devices, especially storage devices, being sold at a considerable discount. I am certain there would be a market for these devices amongst those who are happy with the current data transfer rate of USB 2 and see these prices as great value for money.

If you are the type of person that has one or two peripheral devices,  you should consider getting future devices that are compatible with USB 3 provided you are not paying too much of a premium for it. If you are an early adopter and have already purchased your USB 3 docking station and PCI Card then you may want to consider getting the discounted USB 2 drives because the discs contained within may be a very cost effective way to augment your storage capacity. Because you can never have too many, Right?

OK, so Apple released its new version of the iMac yesterday, finally heading to quad core processors accross the range and much better graphics cards as well. Thunderbolt was the major reason people might have hessitated to get the iMac, but now its finally part of the deal. The 27 inch model even gets two Thunderbolt ports.

In terms of physical design it is unchanged, with the same great all-screen design. The 21 inch keeps the same 1920 x 1080 IPS LED display, and the 27 inch keeps the same huge 2560 x 1440 pixels display. Under the hood all the iMacs get quad core Core i5 or Core i7 processors, and much faster AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU with 512MB of GDDR5 memory, with high end models getting AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. Brisk.

Apple is also pushing its Magic Trackpad, which makes sense with its upcoming Mac OS X Lion release, which will gain a lot of iOS like finger swiping functionality. So what do the South African prices look like?

iMac 27-inch: 2.7GHz NEW

R16999

2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
2560 x 1440 resolution
4GB (two 2GB) memory
1TB hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512MB

iMac 27-inch: 3.1GHz NEW

R19999

3.1GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
2560 x 1440 resolution
4GB (two 2GB) memory
1TB hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 1GB

Overall the prices look OK, especially the “low-end” version. Prices have dropped somewhat from the previous version (around R500 per machine), and Digicape is also selling the previous versions at a discount as well. So if you can live without the Quad Core goodness, it might be a good deal… you will have to be quick though.

One thing I should point out though is that these new iMacs can handle two internal storage drives, so they can handle SSD + HDD storage, which can give immense speed increases. More and more professional users of Macs tend to use iMac instead of Mac Pro, so this is a welcome change. Seeing as hard drives upgrades are not that easy with the iMac, it might make sense to look at the SSD specific order which iStore can arrange for you. It will cost you though, and delivery can take around 6 weeks. But if you need the ultimate iMac, it might be worth it…

Update: Since this review post went live, Core has announced that iPad 2 will reach SA on 29 April. And the pricing is not half bad! Yeah, we are happy as well.

In March we were lucky enough to show you of what it was like to wait in line at the Apple store in Austin, Texas and get hold of the iPad 2. While we focussed on the entire purchasing experience, we wanted to spend some more time with the device before we gave our full opinion. For the past few weeks we have been dealing with the iPad 2 enough to get a much more informed account if it really deserves our hard earned cash, or if it maybe warrants an update from the iPad 1. So lets dive in…

Physical Features

If you have handled the original iPad, and liked it, you will like the iPad 2. Apple did not steer too much away from it, instead only refining elements of the design. A typical example of evolution, not revolution, the iPad 2 is slightly thinner. While you do not necessarily notice the thinner chassis, you definately notice the new flat back, instead of the rounded back of the original iPad. The iPad 2 also now has tapered edges, instead of the corners previously used. This, combined with the flat back really does make the device more comfortable to hold. The rear sports a new speaker design that had me worried if the sound will be muffled if placed flat on a table, but that is luckily not the case. The only other difference on the back of the device is the new camera – but we will get there.

One of the criticisms of the previous iPad was that the device was too heavy. While it was still very light compared to laptops, it was rather uncomfortable to read with for extended periods of time. The iPad 2 is a little bit lighter, and a person can really feel the difference. It is still not as comfortable to read as with the Amazon Kindle though.

Buttons are still in the same spot as before, and the front of the device looks almost exactly the same, bar for the small camera hole on the front. The iPad 2 is available in a new white colour this time round – and luckily Apple is shipping it from day one. While it does bring back some old iPod nostalgia, I personally believe the black border suits the display better, but this is only my own opinion. I suspect a lot of people will simply buy the white one just to be able to say “Yes, it is the iPad 2…“.

Display

Exact. Same. Display. Not that that is a bad thing. The display is just as good as before – colour is vibrant and viewing angles from the IPS panel is brilliant. It really does allow you to share on screen content with people around you, without compromising viewing quality when viewed from the side. As for the criticism that it should have gotten the Retina display resolution – I really doubt I would appreciate it right now. Seeing as the iPad is typically at least 40 cms away from your eyes, I really think it might be a waste. Oh and by the way – it is still the same ol’ fingerprint magnet. Still do not know why Apple will not offer a matte screen option.

Sensors

iPad 2 has the same sensor array as with the iPad 1 – light sensor, accelerometer, compass, and GPS (in the 3G model). But the iPad 2 now sports a 3 axis gyrometer as well, which enables the device to track its position in three dimensions. Where does this get used? Ask someone with an iPhone 4 to show you the Star Walk app, and then see how it functions on a iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4′s gyrometer really does improve these types of augmented reality apps a lot.

Perfomance

This is the one area where Apple really tried to improve on with iPad 2. iPad 1 was no slouch, but the you could notice some skipped frames on more complex 3D games and more graphically rich apps. Apple is pushing for the iPad 2 to be a more games orientated device, and that is where you will see the biggest improvement with iPad 2. Problem is that not many developers have already harnessed this new processing power, but we reckon this is about to change very quickly. The first to market is Real Racing 2, which enables you to connect the iPad 2 to a 1080p TV, and use the iPad as a steering wheel. If it goes on like this games consoles might become a slightly threatened market…

While not processor performance related, we are happy to report that iPad 2 works fine with both Vodacom and MTN MicroSIM cards. I did not try it with Cell C yet, but iPad 2 now supports 900MHz UMTS, which is the technology on which Cell C builds their high speed network. So if anyone has tried the iPad 2 with Cell C, can you let us know in the comments?

So iPad 2 now sports a dual core 1GHz “A5″ chip which really does have very impressive benchmarks, but this system on a chip’s biggest improvement is in graphics. But does all this processing power not eat up a lot of energy?

Battery Life

Clearly not. In our very informal testing we could not find any difference in battery life from the previous iPad, which is great. Even a year after being released the original iPad still has class leading battery life, with over 10 hours of continuous video playback. While that stat is not really relevant to everyone, its the standby time that is phenomenal. Left unused in your bag, the iPad 2 will easily last more than a week with push email activated over a 3G signal. This type of battery life actually does make you hate charging your laptop computer. You know that anxiety you get when your laptop tells you it only has 15% left? With the iPad 2 you can relax because you can easily still use it for more than a hour.

Camera

The camera is one of the new “features” of iPad 2. A rear facing camera does photo and video duty, while the front facing camera is typically used for video conferencing such as Facetime. But I am not going to beat around the bush here – the quality is not great. I will not use this camera for anything more than taking the occasional photo of a whiteboard or a document. But perhaps that is Apple’s idea? After all, why would you use such a large device to take photos? You get the feeling that the rear facing camera was put there just to shut critics up.

The front facing camera might be a bit more useful. Propping the iPad up in the smart cover really does make the iPad a great device for video conferencing. Facetime works well, but I did have some poor video quality, but I think I can blame that on the 384kbps ADSL line I am using.

In a previous post I said I do not really need a camera on a tablet, be it front facing or rear facing. To be honest, the iPad 2 does not change this behviour. It makes much more sense on a compact device like a smartphone.

Software

iPad 2 ships with the same software that currently runs on the original iPad, except for two new apps that use the new camera hardware. First off is Camera – who would have thunk? This is exactly the same as on the iPhone – in fact there is almost no change. Apple is clearly trying to keep it is dumbed down as possible, but I would have loved to see some better use of that large screen with maybe some additional controls. Maybe if the iPad 3 gets a better camera Apple will do it…

The other new app is Photobooth which is almost exactly the same as the version shipped with every Mac. Using the front facing camera the user can apply effects and filters on live images currently seen through the lens. This is really a very “cool” demo app, but I doubt it will be used a lot once the novelty wears off. Might lead to some more creative Facebook profile photos though…

In the past we have not always been to happy with iOS, and we still believe it has a few gaping holes which it needs to fix (here is our top 5). Hopefully Apple will get to it in iOS5.

Smart Cover

I realize that this falls under a physical feature, but the Smart Cover is an optional flip cover ($39 for polymer, $59 for leather) which attaches using magnets to the iPad. The “hinge” of the cover attaches also with magnets, and is remarkably strong. When the cover is placed on the iPad it gets pulled into the exact right position to cover the screen. The effect is quite eery – the edges of the screen are perfectly covered without repositioning anything.

It might sound strange, but the Smartcover might just be the part I liked most about the iPad 2. I had the opportunity to use the black leather version, which feels classy, but does pick up a few scratches and marks, just like any leather would I guess. So far the cover that looks the best in person is the red leather version, but that is just my opinion. The inside felt lining also does seem to help to keep the screen clean.

As a bonus the magnets inside the cover can switch the device screen on and off. Simply lift the edge of the cover, and the screen unlocks, and close it to lock. Easy. The cover also rolls up into a triangular shape that allows the device to placed upright for movies/facetime, and also at a slight angle for easy typing.

The only criticism of the Smart Cover is that it leaves the rear of the device uncovered. Hopefully a few accessory companies will see this market gap and perhaps bring out rear covers that have spacing to fit the Smart Cover.

If you are planning on getting the iPad 2, I would recommend the Smart Cover. If want to see a great little video to show how the Smart Cover works, see here.

Conclusion

Overall I felt somewhat underwhelmed by the iPad 2. Sure, it is still the best tablet on the market, and I really think the other manufacturers can take a look at it as an example of brilliant hardware design. But my issue is rather that iPad 2 does not significantly improve from its predecessor. Apple does use a more evolutionary approach when it comes to hardware, but I expected more, seeing as the original iPad was the first tablet on the market. But this perhaps what makes the iPad and iPad 2 so great.

You kind of expect first generation devices to be poorly designed, with significant elements missing (remember how iPhone 1 did not have 3G or GPS?). But the iPad does fall into that category. Clearly the iPad was designed so well that Apple could not really improve too much on it – maybe all it needs a few cameras and faster processors, right?

If you are someone who hesitated to get into the tablet market I would easily recommend the iPad 2. Its software base is still way ahead of any other tablet devices, and its hardware is first rate (except for the cameras). You really cannot buy a better tablet right now (No, I do not think Android’s Honeycomb is fully baked yet, even though it looks amazing).

But if you were one of the eager beavers who got the original iPads, I do not really recommend an upgrade to iPad 2 – I will personally be hanging onto my trusty original iPad until Apple surprises us with iPad 3.

Build Quality: 10/10
Performance and Responsiveness: 9/10
Aesthetics: 9/10
Display: 8/10
Camera: 5/10

Score: 8/10

All review post photos done using Olympus Micro Four Thirds

Image from Engadget

I have to be honest – I have become quite numb in reading about all the new tablets coming out, especially the Android ones. They all seem similiar, yet only one or two stand out, like the Motorola Xoom. I am much more interested to see what HP is working on. See, HP bought out Palm (one of the great names in PDAs) a while back, primarily for their beautiful operating system called WebOS. In South Africa we are not used to WebOS, seeing as the Palm Pre cellphone never officially arrived here.

You might remember a while HP announced the “slate” with Windows 7, but apparently it was not the greatest device to use. Windows 7 is not a tablet friendly operating system – for stylus use, sure. But we are all moving to finger input, and Microsoft just does not seem to get it yet, despite their “touch packs”. In fact, the “slate” was such a disaster that HP focussed the device only to its enterprise customers, and as you might have noticed, it is not available in SA.

But lets see what we can expect from the HP WebOS tablet (codenamed “Topaz”):

• 9.7 inch screen (same as iPad), XGA (1024 x 768) resolution
• 1.2 GHz Qualcomm processor
• Adreno 220 GPU
• 512MB RAM
• Dual Camera
• 16, 32 or 64 GB storage
• And of course – WebOS

And here is the leaked image if you want some more details (from Pre Central):

Cannot wait to get my hands on this. Lets hope it does better than the Palm Pre phones…

Perhaps more importantly, Intel has released the latest version of it’s processor lineup, running on a new chipset, called “Sandy Bridge”. While the same basic model structure is followed as before, the new model names make even less sense. Initial benchmarks look promising, but the jump in performance isnt as game changing as the leap from Core 2 to the Core i3/i5/i7.

Changes are more evolutionary, and Intel seems to have focussed more on graphics and better power efficiency. With Intel’s renewed focus on graphics, they do make some very strange choices. In the latest Sandy Bridge chips, Intel integrates the graphics on the chip, but this time actually integrates the graphics on the same die as the CPU.

Currently Intel is putting two different classes of its graphics processor on the chip – a “2000″ series and “3000″ series. Essentially the biggest difference is the frequencies at which these integrated GPU’s run, but the 3000 GPU does offer much better performance. One problem – currently Intel will only put the 3000 GPU on the top 2 processors, and the people who buy those level of processors will most definately skip the integrated GPU and fit a discrete graphics card. Do not quite know what Intel’s thinking was with this…

The big performance changes with Sandy Bridge comes down to better Turbo Boost functionality and a new video decode/encode accelaration language called “Quick Sync” which fixes Intel graphics apparent lack in this field up until now. So if you have been holding out on a new PC recently, you might want to wait just a little while for the Sandy Bridge chips to arrive on our shores…

Find Intel’s press release below:

Smart Performance, Energy Efficiency and Intelligence Merge The Intel® Core™ i3, i5 and i7 processors also include the enhanced Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0. This feature automatically reallocates processor core and processor graphics resources to accelerate performance, giving users an immediate performance boost when and where it’s needed.

Other new chip features include Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), Intel® InTru™ 3-D, and Intel® Clear Video Technology HD. Intel InTru 3-D enables immersive stereoscopic 3-D to 3-D-capable HDTVs or monitors via HDMI 1.4, making movie excitement almost come out of the screen.

Intel® AVX increases performance for such demanding visual applications as audio processing and professional video image editing such as stitching together multiple photographs. Intel® Clear Video improves the visual quality and color fidelity during video playback for a spectacular screen experience. To make it easy for users to find a 2nd Generation Intel® Core™-based system that is just right for their particular needs, Intel is also announcing a wide array of SKUs including Intel vPro™-enabled processors.

The chips are made on Intel’s 32nm manufacturing process on the company’s second-generation high-k metal gate transistors. These unique advantages further boost performance; reduce power consumption for better battery life and smaller designs, and lower overall manufacturing costs. Intel announced more than 20 processors, wireless adapters and chipsets, including new Intel® Core™ i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel® 6 Series Chipsets, and Intel® Centrino® WiFi and WiMAX adapters. More than 500 laptop and desktop PC platform designs are expected from all major computer makers worldwide based on these products. The quad-core-based systems (four processors inside one chip) will be available on Jan. 9 with additional dual-core versions in February. Video, benchmarks, photos and more details are available at www.intel.com/newsroom/CES.