The Daily is an iPad-only digital newspaper, conceived and put together by Rupert Murdoch. With the dwindling consumption of physical newspapers, the iPad was seen as a beacon of hope. This is the first large-scale application of it’s nature and it’ll be interesting to watch it’s success (or lack thereof) with it’s exclusivity to Apple’s device. Video after the break!

In the early days of the internet, I remember first coming across Napster and the epiphany I experienced on the realisation that I could find and download music to my hearts content. Of course back then, downloading a song on dial-up connections would take forever. We all know of course what happened to Napster and that seemed to be that.

My second epiphany occurred when I first came across Spotify, a completely free and legal music service that’s supported with advertisements. It’s shocking to think that the music industry who consistently failed to adapt to the way music fans want to enjoy music finally did something right. It’s as simple as searching for a song or an artist and pressing play, you can share your playlists and if you pay for the premium service you can sync your music to your portable devices.

How could they make this already brilliant application better? Well they’ve just introduced an update which allows you to import your own music collection from iTunes into Spotify and Facebook integration to share music more directly with your friends. The video below explains it far better than I can, so watch it.

UPDATE: If you don’t want to wait around for the latest update, you can be a little sneaky and download it directly from here!

The latest news is that the international release of the iPad will be delayed until May. In the meantime then, Alice for iPad is another fantastic and innovative demonstration of what the device is capable of and how that might revolutionise the way we interact with media.

Rather than try and explain what makes it so special, watch the video below to see for yourself. Although I have been sceptical I’m convinced that the third-party applications for the device are going to turn it into a must buy piece of technology.

What you see above is Cooliris Express, it’s a nifty little tool to display a photo gallery, in this case a collection of my photos taken from my trip to Tokyo a few years ago. It’s something kinda awesome!

Much like the iPhone, I wasn’t quite convinced with Apple’s first attempt although I would still have described it as a ‘game-changer‘. It wasn’t until subsequent iterations and more importantly the App Store that the iPhone really blossomed. Similarly then, although I’m not convinced by the iPad, the promise of unique applications with innovative interfaces certainly appeals to me.

One such application is Panelfly, a digital comic book reader, I’ve already succumbed to reading comic books using my computer but have always found this to be a clunky half-measure interface. I have acquired the seminal Manga series Akira. I love the movie but have been told several times that the original comic book source material expands and clarifies some of the sketchier moments of the film. An iPad running this software to read Akira seems like an awesome way to get through the thousands of pages it spans.

Before I leave you, I’ll leave you some recommendations based on what I’ve enjoyed, Katsuhiro Otomo’s earlier work on Domu is fantastic as is Monster by Naoki Urusawa. I thought Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata was awesome along with The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and finally if you haven’t already The Watchmen by Alan Moore which Time includes in it’s list of 100 greatest works of fiction ever created.

Holding some reserve knowing how outlandish the hype for new Apple announcements can be. I found myself feeling rather indifferent about their latest product the iPad. Typing that feels dumb but I’m sure it’ll quickly find its place in the cultural lexicon in the same vain as the Nintendo Wii.

The only thing I can take away to be somewhat excited about is the prospect of it’s use as an eBook Reader. I know Amazon has had it’s flagship Kindle product employing the use of e-ink which is less straining than a typical computer display but until they can improve the technology to incorporate colour and a faster refresh rate and resolution, I don’t think I’ll quite be sold. It’d be interesting to see how magazines might innovate to take advantage of this new product.

This is only meant to be a very quick post to recommend the very capable and useful iPhone Twitter App, Tweetie 2 which now integrates both Lists and the newly implemented RT (retweet) functionality.

So if you’re in the market for a Twitter client, this is the one I’d go for.

You can say what you like about Apple but you must agree that the most brilliant thing that they ever did was to unleash the iPhone unto an unsuspecting world. It was a huge kick to the backside of the industry and encouraged manufacturers to either innovate rapidly or to perish much to the benefit of mobile phone users across the world.

It’s been almost three years since the launch of the iPhone and with the inception of the App store, it’s managed to stay relevant and useful. However at this this juncture others are finally starting to catch up and perhaps overtake Apple with new phones that really manage to demonstrate beautiful user interfaces or employ captivating new technology. Of all the recent developments, Google’s Android — not strictly a phone per se but platform — operating system looks the one with the most promising potential, particularly after the demonstration of the recent addition of turn-by-turn navigation on the Motorola Droid.

Sony have unveiled their first Android based mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 which manages to combine Sony’s renowned industrial design with the cleverness of Android. I’ve never been very interested in mobile phone technology but as they progressively change from simple mobile devices into always connected smart portable computers I find that I’m ever so excited about what the future has in store. Anyway apologies all round for my geekiness!

I’ve just discovered Facebook Lite, which alleviates a lot of bloat seen in the regular version of the website. You can visit it via http://lite.facebook.com it’s a hell of a lot speedier!