I checked the camera thoroughly when I received it and there were definitely no dust traces inside the lens when it was new. The other day I was cleaning it with my trusty Lens Pen 2 and noticed there were some stubborn spots of dirt I couldn’t shift. On closer inspection I was shocked to find there is what I consider to be a large number of dust particles clinging to the inside of the front lens element and also to one of the inner lens elements.

It seems that this is quite a common problem with many other Fuji X10 users reporting the same. It is, however, reassuring to know that Fuji have been cleaning dust from inside the lens for other users free of charge under warranty. I will be getting this done but since Fuji have announced there is a new sensor replacement program on the horizon this month (May 2012) to combat the white orb sensor issue, I think I’ll wait until I send it off for the sensor swap and ask them to clean inside the lens at the same time.

Having always been a Canon shooter, my main workhorse is my 5D Mark II with a variety of L-series lenses and have never had any issues with dust inside them, but I guess they are nicely weather sealed against moisture and dust ingress. The Fuji X10 has replaced my Canon S90 and G10 as my main out-and-about carry everywhere camera though, but having just taken a long look my my G10, after nearly 3 years use it has absolutely no dust inside the lens. It probably helps that I always keep my 5D MkII in a clean DSLR camera bag and keep all my L-series lenses in a proper lens case, if I go to a dusty environment with them they get a thorough hoovering or even a wash afterwards.

It looks like the X10′s greatest feature, the manual lens zoom, might also be it’s achilles heel. Since you are able to manually zoom the lens so quickly it causes the lens to suck in or expel large volumes of air when you zoom in and out. If the lens is weather sealed too tightly, rapidly changing the internal lens volume (by zooming and extending the lens) would create a lower pressure inside the lens and cause it to be rebound back to it’s original position. Not exactly ideal. This issue doesn’t really affect the G10 or S90 or any other compact with a motorised zoom lens since the zooming action is motorised it is inherantly slow, meaning they can get away with some very tight air and weather seals. It seems Fuji have had to compromise with the X10 and reduce the sealing around the lens barrel to allow the lens to “breathe” easily as you zoom in and out.

There’s not much Fuji can do about this other than offer to keep cleaning dust from inside lenses under warranty and perhaps offer an extended lens cleaning program outside of warranty?

It is important to note that so far I have not noticed the dust particles inside the lens affecting any of my photos and lets face it, at the end of the day the quality of the photos is what matters most as a photographer. I’ve even used L-series lenses before which what I’d class as severe and deep scratches on the front element and not been able to notice it in the photos. My main concern is whether dust that is getting sucked into the lens barrel will eventually find its way onto the sensor, that’s when it becomes a real problem because that will be noticeable on photos.

There is a way to reduce the amount of dust that your Fuji X10 sucks into the lens and that is to quite simply zoom slowly. By zooming slowly you give the lens more time to expand it’s internal volume which in turn means air is sucked into the lens more slowly and dust is less likely to be ingested.

I’d also suggest giving your camera bags and camera cases a quick wash and hoover out if they are particularly dusty. Putting the X10 in and out of a dusty camera bag is more likely to get dust on the lens exterior which will increase the liklihood of dust getting sucked into the lens when zooming.

UPDATE: I called Fuji UK earlier today and was told they will clean the inside of the lens when they replace my sensor and since they are sending out pre-paid postage parcels to send the cameras in for the sensor replacement I wouldn’t even have to pay to ship it to them. Normally they would clean it FOC under warranty but I’d be liable for the cost of postage to the repair center.

I didn’t have my camera to hand at the time to give him the serial number, but they are taking details from those who want the replacement sensor now in preparation for the new sensor at the end of the month but they will want you to install the latest firmware first to see if that has reduced your “blooming” issues.

[Click images to see full size]

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Summary

This post details the step-by-step method required to extract a plist/OAuth token from a standard (non encrypted) iTunes backup of any iOS device (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) and then copy this onto another device to automatically log in using those creditials.

NOTE: The process outlined below will not work if you have iTunes set to encrypt your iOS backups. This method was confirmed as working as of 10th April 2012 using the latest iOS xxx and current Facebook (v.4110.0), Dropbox (v1.4.6) and LinkedIn (v35) iOS apps. You do not need to have a jailbroken iPhone or iPad for this to work. I do not condone using the methods below to gain access to anybody’s accounts without their prior permission, I hold no responsibility if using the information in this post lands you in trouble with your ex partner,  current partner, your boss, the police, your kids, etc.

Background

In case you weren’t aware a security flaw was found by Gareth Wright earlier this week that allows your Facebook login key to be copied form one iOS device to another and essentially allow a 3rd party access to your account without needing to know your account email address or password. The same vulnerability has also been found in Dropbox, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Vimeo and 1Password. At the time of writing this post, Dropbox have said they are going to address the problem and 1Password have gone one step further and rewritten the way the user details are stored so this exploit cannot be used anymore and have submitted the update to Apple for approval before it’s released. Facebook appear to dismiss the security vulnerability saying it is only really an issue if your device is jailbroken or you use a 3rd party app to access the files on your iOS device. WRONG! If you have ever connected your iOS device to iTunes via USB and iTunes has taken a backup of your device then you are at risk (unless you tick the box to encrypt your backups, in which case rest easy and don’t worry about anything written below). The plist file that is the centre of this whole security flaw is copied to your computer via iTunes backup, no third party app here extracting files as Facebook suggests. Granted you need a third party app to access the file and place it onto another iOS device but crucially, the insecure file is copied to your computer during a normal iTunes backup.

What does this mean to most end users then? Probably not a lot to be honest. If you only ever connect your iPhone or iPad to your own personal computer then there’s nothing to worry about since the insecure file, locked away in the backup of your device, resides on your personal machine and nobody else can get to it easily. But in today’s modern and social society, the likelihood is that you have a computer you share with your wife, girlfriend, housemates, family or you have been at a friends house with a low battery and connected your iPhone to give it a little extra juice. This is where things become a little more vulnerable, if the computer you connected your device to made a backup of your device (remember a backup is always made when you are updating the iOS via iTunes) then the crucial plist file with your OAuth key in for apps such as Facebook, Dropbox, LinkedIn and more now reside on that computer in that backup.

So if you currently share a computer with your partner and want to log into Facebook as them, you can if you follow the steps below. Likewise, if your ex-partner used to connect their iPhone or iPad to your computer but left you several months ago for somebody hotter, then you too can dip into their old backup on your computer and log into Facebook and other apps as them. [Again I re-iterate the moral/legal implications of such actions]

Step by Step Guide

Ok so how can you hack into somebody else’s Facebook using a file from their iOS backup? You’ll need two pieces of sofware:
1 – to read the backup files an extract the plist file
2 – to allow you to drag and drop plist files onto your current iOS device

Let us pretend you want to gain access to your ex-girlfriend’s Facebook account and you know that she used to connect her iPhone or iPad to your computer. The first thing to do is open up iTunes and go to Preferences and select the Devices icon along the top which lists all device names that are backed up on your machine along with date of the backup.

Hopefully your ex-girlfriend changed the name of her device to make identification in the list easier, but if you just have several just named iPhone 4 or iPad then you may have to try with all of them one at a time. In my case I’ll be demonstrating it with my girlfriend’s backup (she’s not an ex and I have her permission), her name is Kim and you can see a backup of her iPhone and iPad from April 2012 but these could be considerably older depending on when the device was last connected.

Right so now you know you’ve got a backup from your exes phone what next? You need to install an app to be able to extract files from inside the backup files created by iTunes, there’s a lot of software around that can do this but the ones listed below are not only FREE they are easy to use:

• If you are on Windows you will need to download iPhone Backup Browser – http://code.google.com/p/iphonebackupbrowser/
• If you are on Apple OS X you will need to download iPhone Backup Extractor – http://supercrazyawesome.com/

I don’t have access to a Windows machine to get screen shots for the next step but I’m sure it’s pretty similar to the OS X method. Open up either iPhone Backup Browser or iPhone Backup Extract. When you open up iPhone Backup Extractor on OS X it automatically finds the default folder that iTunes backs the iOS devices into which is nice but in case you are using a different app or iPhone Backup Browser doesn’t find the folder automatically here is where you can normally find the backup files:

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Windows Vista& Windows 7
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

OS X
your_users_home_folder/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

Select the backup you want to extract files from, in this case Kim iPhone and then hit choose.

Now you will see a list of applications that were present on that device at the time the backup took place. Look for the one that belongs to the app you want to “hack”, in this case lets try Kim’s FaceBook app so I scroll down until I see com.facebook.Facebook and hot Extract.

You will now be prompted for somewhere to extract the data to. I just created a temporary folder called Test in my Documents and pointed it at that.

This then extracts the com.facebook.Facebook plist file to your local computer. Now go and open the folder where you just extract the com.facebook.Facebook file to.

If you look in com.facebook.Facebook/Library/Preferences you should hopefully see a com.facebook.Facebook.plist. This is the file that has the key to get into their Facebook profile on any iOS device.

You are now done with the iPhone Backup Explorer/Extractor application and can close it.

Important step: You need to completely exit Facebook app on your iOS device before proceeding, logging out of Facebook via the app is not enough. You actually need to properly quit the app. Simple way? Restart your iOS device. Method two, press the home button to show the home screen. Now double tap the home button to launch the recent apps bar and tap and hold on the Facebook icon in the bottom bar until they all wobble, click the delete icon on the top left to quit Facebook background app.

The next step is to copy the extracted plist file onto your current device. The following steps are the same whether you are using Windows or OS X.

Download iExplorer for Windows, Linux and OS X here http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/ it’s FREE and a very handy app to have on your computer.

Once you have downloaded iExplorer connect your current iPhone/iPad to your computer via USB and quit iTunes if it automatically pops up and launch iExplorer. Your iPhone/iPad should show up in iExplorer and allow you to browse the contents of your device.

Navigate to the same folder on your device that you just extracted the plist file from. In the case of Facebook this is Apps/Facebook/Library/Preferences and you should see your plist file in there. For good measure you want to take a backup of your plist just so you can replace it when you are done. I copied my plist to my downloads folder temporarily.

Next open up the folder where you saved the extracted plist from (Documents/Test in my example) and drag and drop the plist file onto the iExplorer window so it drops into the Preferences folder right on top of your existing com.facebook.Facebook.plist.

You should be prompted to replace an existing file. Click OK.

That’s it, done! Now go to your iPhone or iPad and relaunch Facebook and basque in your evilness as you are automatically logged in as your ex girlfriend, wife, brother, sister, boss etc  to do as you please.

Disclaimer: This post is purely for informational purposes for those who want to see how the process works and how vulnerable apps such as Facebook are due to sloppy programming. If you want to protect yourself from having this happen to you then make sure you tick the option in iTunes to encrypt your iOS backups and avoid connecting your iOS device to any computers other than your own until the app developers re-write their apps to use keychain stores.

Notes:

• You might be able to remove the access token via Facebook web page but the easiest way to ensure that your account cannot be accessed using this method is to simply change your facebook password. This will instantly render all old plist files useless.
• Normally when you install Facebook iOS app and log in for the first time from a new device you get sent an email saying somebody has accessed your account which would obviously alert the person who you are logging in as to your actions, however, this alert is not sent when you access an account using a copied plist file so nothing to worry about there then. Here is an email I get if I log into my Facebook account on a new iOS device I’ve not logged in from before
• Once again note that the unsuspecting person who’s plist file you are extracting from the backup knew nothing about this. They did not have a jailbroken iOS device nor did they use a 3rd party app they simply connected their iOS devices to a computer and iTunes made a backup of that device.

Thanks to  Gareth Wright for finding the plist vulnerabilities and Satish B for his guide outlining how to extract files from iTunes iOS backups.

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It’s pretty simple, all you do is unwrap the vibration head from the main battery unit and stick it to a large surface. The other end goes into the headphone socket on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or any other generic MP3 player or device with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

If you turn the PocketBoom on without it being attached to any surface you will still hear your music being played but it will sound very quiet and tinny. If you touch the white sticky pad on the vibration head you’ll feel it moving up and down much like any normal speaker cone would do. The fun begins when you stick it to a random surface like a cardboard box or plastic tub….suddenly the music is massively amplified and you effectively turn the random item into a speaker!

It doesn’t matter how old you are, you’ll run around the house like a little girl with her first Barbie frantically sticking the PocketBoom to every and any surface you can trying to find out what is the loudest, what is the crispest, what gives the best bass etc

From my experiments it seems that anything too large or with too thick a surface doesn’t work well as the vibrations are simply dissipated over the massive area of the thick surface resists the vibrations. So a 50″ flat screen TV doesn’t work too well, the front glass is too ridged and the overall surface area too large and things with surfaces that a material/leather like iPad 3 cases don’t work very well either.

An empty tissue box works very well, thin cardboard that can vibrate easily coupled with the opening (where the tissues used to come out of) to allow sound to come out. The following are also quite good (note all empty):

• plastic milk bottle
• the box the PocketBoom came in
• beer can
• baked bean tin
• plastic Tupperware container
• mess tin (the type you take camping)
• cereal box

and the best of all

• a Pringles tube

The Pringles tube is the outright winner, placing the PocketBoom on the metal base and removing the plastic lid makes an excellent portable speaker. You might wonder why anybody would find this useful, but I for one will be taking my PocketBoom on all future camping trips and holidays. Small, light and compact but with the simple addition of a Pringles tube, beer can or any other item you’ve probably already got to hand it gives you some great portable speakers.

And the following were not so good:

• TV screen
• iPad 3 covers
• fridge door
• cupboard door
• my cheek
• iPad screen
• my cat
• Canon S90 camera screen

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Using a free app (in this case iExplorer) to browse the contents of your iPhone if you navigate to Apps/LinkedIn/Library/Preferences you will find a file named com.linkedin.LinkedIn.plist and this is the file in question.

Simply copying the com.linkedin.LinkedIn.plist file from one device to another and then relaunching the LinkedIn app will automatically log the user is using the account details from the cloned plist file.

I “nabbed” a copy of Gareth Wright’s LinkedIn plist (he emailed it to me) and dropped it onto my own non-jailbroken iPhone and relaunched LinkedIn.

I was instantly into Gareth’s LinkedIn Profile, I could browse all his personal messages, invitations, contacts, edit his profile and even sent myself an invite to join his network!

Here was my LinkedIn screen prior to copying the plist file over

and here it was after copying the plist and relaunching the app. At no point did it prompt me to re-enter my password or authenticate

I was able to navigate his LinkedIn profile without any issues, view all his messages, invitations, connections and even created an invitation and sent it to myself.

and here is the invitation I received

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Whilst this review relates to my iPad 2 paired to a bluetooth keyboard case, the majority of the benefits I discuss in this article would equally apply to a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 case with built in bluetooth keyboard or a Kindle Fire case with built in keyboard (if such a thing exists).

I’ve never had a problem using the iPad or iPad 2 onscreen keyboard, it’s fast and responsive and the keys are a decent size (in landscape mode at least) but I would never dream of using the iPad on screen keyboard for anything other than quick email replies, form filling, brief note taking etc. For anything that needed more than 5 minutes of keyboard time I’d bring out the MacBook Air which is far easier to speed touch type on and get a lengthy email, proposal, blog post or report typed up.

That all changed when I received the KayCase Folio Deluxe for Christmas though. I’ll be honest, the thought of a bulky iPad case with a keyboard built in used to make me cringe, it just didn’t seem right and the keyboard case remained unused for the whole of January. However, come February I actually made a concious decision to try the case for a week and if I didn’t like it I’d just sell it on eBay or gift it to my Dad to use with his iPad. It’s now the middle of March and I’ve fallen slightly in love with this case.

You can see a short video of me showing off some of the features of the case in the following video, including pouring a glass of water over the keys.

The rubberised keys aren’t as good as solid plastic keys but they do still allow you to touch type and I’d say 90% of the speed I can typed on a full size Apple keyboard. Being made from one sheet of rubber they have an added bonus of being spill and splash proof, so no problems using the case out in the rain or knocking your designer coffee shop  mocha-frappa-chino all over the keys.

The keyboard connects to the iPad via bluetooth and there is a rechargeable battery built into the keyboard that you charge via micro USB, a lead is included with the case. I’ve had to charge the keyboard once in a month of heavy use which was pleasantly surprising and probably helped by the fact the keyboard automatically enters standby mode after 10-15 minutes. To wake from standby you simply press any key, the keyboard bluetooth light flashes and 2 seconds later the iPad has found and automatically paired to the keyboard and is ready for use.

The biggest benefit, that I never even thought about before I tried the case, is that the on screen keyboard no longer shows on the iPad screen when an external bluetooth keyboard is connected. Since the standard on screen keyboard, in landscape orientation, used to take up nearly 50% of the screen, having all the screen back when filling in online web forms or writing long bodies of text is much easier and there’s less scrolling up and down to see what’s already been written or hidden beneath the on screen keyboard.

The other thing I love is the ability to use standard keyboard shortcuts that you take for granted on a full size keyboard such as cut and paste, multiple line select by holding down shift and using the arrow keys, multiple word select or jump using the ctrl key. I know you can still use some of these on the on screen keyboard but it’s just not as natural in my opinion pressing multiple key combinations on an on screen keyboard.

There are also other dedicated keys which prove very useful, the home key acts the same as the home button on the iPad so a single press takes you to the home screen and a double press launches the quick launch bar. The dedicated search key is also a welcome addition and takes you straight to the search screen on the iPad. I was also glad to find that they have integrated magnets into the case to keep the folio flap shut once closed and also put magnets in to mimic the smart cover feature that turns the iPad on and off when you open and close it.

There are some things I’m not a fan of though, first and foremost is the screen angle. If you place the screen in the default slot the screen angle is just too steep for my liking and I end up rest the screen on the horizontal grip lines at the top of the keyboard but I’d still like it at an even shallower angler if possible. Unfortunately this does make typing on the bluetooth keyboard rather tricky if you are sat down with the case resting on your lap. The lowest angle you can achieve is just not enough for me to comfortably view the screen, my girlfriend seems to find the angle ok but I’m 6ft and she’s only 5ft 4″ so that could have something to do with it.

I also think the power toggle switch to turn the keyboard on/off is an incredibly poor design, it’s litterally a little plastic dip switch that you have to awkwardly flick with your fingernail and feels like it could be prone to snapping soon. Whilst I’m moaning about built quality, the case I have is a cheap faux-leather case which for now looks ok, it doesn’t feel great, but it looks fine. Give it a few months heavy use and like all faux-leather items it’ll start to look tatty, worn and cheap but that is to be expected. I can’t complain though because this was a gift and looking on some online sites it does seem you can pick up this case for as little as £28 which is a bargain for what it is.

In fact that leads me on to another observation about the other bluetooth keyboard cases out there. Many of the other bluetooth iPad cases out there all seem to use the exact same rubberised keyboard unit found in this case so they are obviously all sourcing the keyboards from the same supplier. What shocked me is how much these cases with the exact same keyboard as this cheap £28 case actually go up to in price. There is a Belkin one for £100+ and I’m very surprised that Belkin have outsourced the keyboard supply and also put their name on a product with such a poorly designed on/off switch.

Now that I know I like using the iPad with a keyboard case I’ve looked around to see if there are any better cases out there with hard keyboard keys, which there are, but as other reviewers have pointed out these hard keys have a tendency to close in a folio case against the iPad screen and could ultimately lead to scratches on the screen which you don’t need to worry about with a rubber keyboard.

In summary, if you think you’d use your iPad more if you were able to type on a physical keyboard then do not hesitate to buy the KeyCase iPad 2 Folio Deluxe or any other iPad keyboard case. Do not expect luxury leather and individual hard plastic keys from the cheaper keyboard cases and don’t expect faux leather cases to look pristine after several months daily use.

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I’ve never found a good compromise between size, comfort and useability, until I came across the Case Logic SLR Sling bag (aka the SLRC-205) which is perfect for any full frame SLR (excluding ones with additional battery grips fitted and the pro-series ones with large battery grips). Here’s a quick snap of the SLRC-205 alongside my Canon 5D Mark II with Canon 24 -70 F2.8L lens.

The SLRC-205 is designed to be worn using a single strap, diagonally across your shoulder to the hip/waist on the opposite side to the shoulder it is slung over. The strap is nice and large, well padded and even when fully loaded the bag is extremely comfortable. There is an additional waist strap should you wist to have a 3-point restraint system, this can come in handy if you are planning to run or carry out any exercise or extreme sports whilst wearing the bag.

The bag has a novel suspension hammock inside that you pass your lens through which is meant to suspend the camera and lens inside the bag to minimise knocks and bangs to the SLR. This system works surprisingly well even with large Canon L-series lenses.

Main main lens, the Canon 24-70 F2.8L fits snuggly through the suspension opening without the lens hood on but with the lens hood stored in reverse on the lens it won’t fit. However, the suspension hammock is optional and simply retained on one side by velcro so for big lenses or lens hoods you can simply remove the velcro and make use of the full opening of the case.

The suspension system, whilst nice, is not my favourite part of the SLRC-205 though, by far the best bit is the ease at which you can access your SLR without having to remove the bag from your back. You can simply rotate/swing the main compratment around so it sits in front of your chest and access all the compartments with ease.

On a recent trip to the beach with my dog I stuffed my Canon 5D Mark II with Canon 24-70 F2.8L into the main compartment, my Canon 8-15mm F4L fisheye, 580EX II flash and Canon remote trigger TC90-N3 into the side pocket. Add to that my Manfrotto 190MF3 magfiber tripod under the tripod strap on the back and that’s pretty much all you need for a day and evening out and about in Wales. It all felt very safe and secure and you barely notice you’re carrying so much kit with you.

If you opt to not use the additional waist strap, it doesn’t simply dangle and get in your way, Case Logic have fitted some nifty little velcro flaps to the base of the straps so you simply roll or fold the excess strap up and secure it with the velcro to keep it out of your way. Small touches like this make this bag a dream to use on a daily basis.

As well as the main SLR compartment there is a generously sized side pocket which amazingly can swallow my Canon 24-70 F2.8L with lens hood fitted (ie not reversed) and there is still room along side it for other goodies, batteries, remote triggers, etc.

There is also a discreet pocket on the other end of the strap that you could fit several memory cards or spare batteries in and a zip flap on hte outside underneath the tripod flaps that you could put cleaning cloths, lens caps, money, small maps, pens, pads, etc

I think my continual search for the “holly grail” of daily use dslr camera bags has finally come to an end and the Case Logic SLR Sling SLRC-205 is now my one and only camera bag for most of my outings/projects and I’ll revert back to the Dakine Mission if I need to take all my kit with me just in case.

You can get a better feel for the size and versatility of the case from the following YouTube videos:

and as always I’ve put a small gallery of photos showing the different compartments of the bag, the bag with my Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70 F2.8L lens in the main body, the same lens with lens hood fitted in the side pocket, and more.

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If you click Show Details to expand this error, on line 23 you can see the following “Library not loaded: /Library/Frameworks/iLifePageLayout.framework/Versions/A/iLifePageLayout” which seems to be the root of the problem.

I am running iPhoto 9.2.1 under OS X 10.6.8 but users of Lion also seem to be reporting similar problems. I have left my MacPro running Disk Utility to check and repair any errors/permissions on the drive(s) and will see if that helps. Failing that, the next step will be to remove and re-install iPhoto, this post will be updated later once a fix has been found.

UPDATE 01 : Disk utility did not find any errors but I have noticed after a restart that software update is now prompting me to install the latest iPhoto update (v9.2.2) released 7th March 2012. I suppose I should have checked software update straight away before trying anything else. I am currently downloading the 9.2.2 update which will hopefully resolve the issue.

UPDATE 02: iPhoto 9.2.2 update installed successfully and has fixed the issue. I am now able to launch iPhoto without any errors.

Recent queries:

• iphoto cannot be opened because of a problem
• Library not loaded: /Library/Frameworks/iLifePageLayout framework/Versions/A/iLifePageLayout
• /library/frameworks/ilifepagelayout framework/versions/a/ilifepagelayout
• dyld error message: library not loaded: /library/frameworks/ilifepagelayout framework/versions/a/ilifepagelayout referenced from: /applications/iphoto app/contents/macos/iphoto reason: image not found
• library not loaded: /library/frameworks/ilifepagelayout framework/versions/a/ilifepagelayout referenced from: /applications/iphoto app/contents/macos/iphoto reason: image not found
• ilifepagelayout

It seems this years model has been the worst kept secret in Apples history. The only swerve ball coming from this iPad announcement invite photo which hinted at no home screen button (yes, that iPad is in portrait mode as the drips on the wallpaper only appear in that pattern in portrait and would appear above the 5th icon in a 5 icon dock) so while this picture shows it, the parts have confirmed this not to be the case. In fact it would appear the front of the iPad will be exactly the same as the iPad 2, available in white and black, with the same home button and of course the same 9.7″ screen (we’re also 90% sure it’ll be offered in 16gb, 32gb and 64gb sizes again)

Of course what will be different about the screen is the 100% nailed on upgrade of the “Retina Display”. If Apple refer to it as that, is anyones guess. Jobs did claim that the term “Retina Display” could only be used for screens pushing 300dpi+ the new iPad screen will be closer to 270dpi however when held at a distance will probably give a similar appearances to the 326dpi iPhone 4/4S. This would still give you a screen that is well beyond 1080p video in only a 9.7 inches, which is insane! To be honest we can’t wait until these higher DPI’s start moving into TV panels as I think 1080p is still not enough, although 4k and 8k screens are another story. It begs the question will 1080p material now look pixelated on the iPad 3 screen or not?

The back of the iPad will have a slightly different look, appearing to be just a little thicker. This seems partly due to the higher resolution screen and partly to do with the rear camera. All early reports seem to suggest the it will feature the same camera that is on the iPhone 4S. We’d imagine battery life to be more or less the same even with the improved screen and of course uprated processor. Many are guessing at an A6 chip although pictures of an “A5.5″ have been spotted. So expect the processor to maybe be a minor upgrade rather than a full generation leap. Apple may chose not to announce the processor name if its just an uprated A5 chip and instead quote numbers on how many times faster it is. Perhaps of course the device performs largely the same as the iPad 2, with the “.5″ of the uprated chip there just to drive the extra pixels to the screen. I would imagine ram would need to be increased for the extra image data moving around too – Apple has never mentioned ram quantity during an iPad announcement though.

Which brings us to the name, many are saying iPad 3, we’re going to stick our necks on the line and say it’ll be called the iPad HD. Based on no more than on a hunch. If you’re tempted by the device you’ll be able to get prices on a cheap iPad HD (or cheap iPad 3!) at http://cheapcheapipad3.com – it searches eBay for buy it now, filters the junk and presents the cheapest items at the top, one of the bookmarks!

Software wise we’d guess the new iPad will ship with iOS5.1 as internet logs have seen (Although some logs have been showing up with a “retina displayed” iPad running iOS6 we assume this is Apple engineers testing for an Autumn/Fall update of iOS.)

Another thing we’re certain will be added to the new iPad and carried across from the iPhone 4S is support for Siri. What we’d also like to see is Apple announce UK/International support for location information in Siri and perhaps even pull her/it out of beta? We think eventually when Siri is officially out of beta Apple will open up the API’s to developers for app control, although I suppose they would all need to register their specific phrases as part of app submission to stop clashes with other apps, which could get messy. We’ll leave that up to Apple.

The least confident prediction would be for 4G LTE support, in the UK I honestly believe this will be useless with many networks struggling to give adequate 3G coverage. Still a major 4G LTE upgrade would be a fantastic especially if they chose to cover data across all our motorways so we could access internet radio whilst driving (which would counter the impending analog radio switch off which the majority of cars on the road today are not equipped to deal with)

That would pretty much conclude the iPad upgrade, we can’t really see any major surprises to be honest, which is a shame, but the retina display alone will be enough to drive high sales and demand as usual. Apple are also expected to release a new Apple TV tomorrow supporting 1080p properly to accompany the high resolution iPad. It would be nice if Apple added an App marketplace to the Apple TV too although we can’t see that happening tomorrow (or anytime soon unfortunately).

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The larger spare SATA drives are soon to be put to good use in my new DROBO S which I just received and will review shortly but the older IDE drives were the ones that were really mounting up and beginning to gather dust.

I have a generic IDE/SATA to USB adapter for testing the drives and securely erasing them but it’s a clunky bit of kit that lives in a drawer by my desk. I decided the smaller form factor 2.5″ IDE drives taken out of old laptops would be handy in an enclosure to add to my portable USB drive collection. I already have 3 USB Freecom Toughdrive (320GB, 500GB and 750GB) which in my opinion are the best portable drive that size, they don’t require power but most important for me is they have nicely integrated USB cables.

So I don’t need a fancy enclosure for these old 2.5″ IDE drives, one 40GB and one 60GB, they’re just going to be spares so I set about finding the cheapest 2.5″ enclosures that I could on eBay and came up with a winner.

These Pluscom 2.5″ USB 2.0 Aluminium enclosures couldn’t get much cheaper at £3.80 including delivery! I opted for one  silver and one red just so I can tell them apart easily. I ordered them from the same seller and both were delivered the next day and I am pleasantly surprised with them.

I was expecting white label boxes with nothing in but a shoddy enclosure but they came in a properly branded cardboard box and even came with a USB lead, hard drive pouches (faux leather) and mini CD-rom should anybody still be using Windows 98 (all other OS’s detect the enclosures natively)….all that and postage for £3.80?!

The cases are very basic, quite literally two pieces of cut and pressed aluminium with a tiny circuit board and IDE connection inside and mini USB and LED on the exterior. I was a little concerned that they were pressure fit and no screws hold the two halves together at all but if this became an issue I’d simply superglue the two halves together.

Installing the drive couldn’t really be any easier, open the case, slide the drive in at an angle, lining the pins on the drive up with the holes on the circuit board connector. One of the pin holes is blanked off to ensure drives are inserted the correct way round so be careful of this and make sure you don’t put your drive in upside down, as a general rule the label with all the drive information on should be facing up towards you.

Once the pins are lined up just apply some pressure and push the drive pins all the way into the connector and the drive should then drop down flush into the case. I was impressed with how tight the fit was, I was prepared to get some rubber spaces out if the drive was going to be a loose fit and rattle around inside the case but it’s nice and tight and no spacers are needed.

The lid closes a little more snugly now there is some bulk inside the case pressing the sides out a little bit I still think I’m going to place a few tiny dabs of superglue along the edges just to make sure it doesn’t pop open in my bag.

Using the USB lead included I plugged it into my MacPro and OS X instantly detected it, the external LED lit up green but as the drive was from a Windows laptop it was formatted as NTFS and read only (unless you install NTFS3G on OS X). Instead I opened disk utility and formatted the disk for use with OS X, although I could have chosen FAT32 to make it both Windows and Mac compatible. During read/write operations the green LED on the hard drive case flashes red.

I then ran a speed test on the disk using DiskSpeedTest from the OS X App Store, this is a great little program that lets you benchmark your drives read and write speeds in a very simplistic GUI. The disks were reading and writing at around 30MB/s which is close to the theoretical max speed of a USB 2 device anyway so I was happy with the results. In comparison to my dual SSD drives in a RAID 0 array which give me nearly 1000MB/s they’re very slow but I wasn’t expecting much from old drives, old USB 2 and a cheap case.

I should point out that I don’t really like the white text on the red anodised hard drive case but on the silver one the text and logo were all black and starting to wear off already. I simply rubbed my nail over the text and it scratched off like a lottery scratch card without any effort at all. I’m not sure that was meant to happen, perhaps the print hadn’t fused properly to the case but after scratching it all off and removing the stick it left quite a nice looking blank aluminium hard drive case.

I should also point out that there are better hard drive enclosures out there, some even house the drives in shock resistant mounts (like the Freecom ToughDrive) but if you need a rugged drive I’d suggest the Freecom Tough drive and also invest in a decent hard drive cases for it too. These cheap Pluscom enclosures may well die after a few weeks use but for £3.80 they’ve given me a little extra portable storage should I need it and cost less than a large coffee in some of these swanky coffee shops.

I’m going to investigate and see if I can find a way to safely remove the white print from the red case without damaging or scratching the red anodising, if I find out an easy way I’ll be sure to update this post.

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I’ve never found it very natural to write or draw with my finger on any touch screen device, throughout my entire life I’ve always used something in my hand to draw/write be it a pen, pencil, paintbrush, etc. Using a stylus to draw or scribble notes on the iPad is much more comfortable than using your finger and I find it gives me greater control and accuracy over what I’m drawing.

I opted for the big chunky aluminium AluPen from Just|Mobile®, I’ve not got massive hands but some of the smaller and thinner iPad stylus models felt like I was going to snap them.

There’s not much to say about the stylus really, it’s made from a large chunk of aluminium, it’s incredible solid and there’s no chance it’ll get bent just throwing it in your bag. It does come with a small faux leather pouch which I keep mine in just to keep the rubber nib/tip clean.

The tip of the stylus itself is quite bulbous and hollow, you can press it and it seems to deflate against the screen but instantly bounces back to it’s original shape. This big hollow tip lets you use the stylus with both gentle pressure or firm pressure depending on your preference and also helps stop any screen scratches should you have grit on the tip.

Even though it’s made from a solid piece of  aluminium the centre of the stylus has been cored out and a rubber cap placed in the rear end, this helps keep the weight of the stylus down and avoid fatigue if you are holding it for long periods of time.

I knocked up a quick film of me using the stylus with two different iPad apps (Adobe Ideas and Penultimate). This shows the responsiveness of the stylus and towards the end of the video I draw lines as fast as possible to show that there is very little lag between swiping the stylus on the screen and the digital line being drawn. [this was on an iPad 2, the iPad has a slower processor so may not be as quick in rendering the lines with fast drawings]

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