Before I have my little rant about the wide-spread disappointment of the Apple iPad, you can click here, to read someone with a little more authority (Stephen Fry) saying pretty much the same thing.

So, Wednesday 27 January saw the unveiling of the much talked about, iPad. Pretty much everyone knew that Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) would, in his usual black roll-neck attire reveal a touch screen device, however, the negative responses to the iPad has been rather amusing.

I'm not too sure what people were expecting but the iPad is an amazing mobile device. I think people have forgetten that Apple already produce a brilliant range of powerful laptops for serious work (MacBook, MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air), so it's obvious the iPad is designed to be a mobile multi-media device, and the fact people keep saying it's just an over-sized iPhone couldn't be more wrong either, if anything it's more akin to that of an iPod Touch. 

The way I see it, it's a device that you will use mainly at home; as an organiser, address book, photo album, something to watch TV and films on in bed, or read news and books on. This is why the cheapest of the range ($499) is wi-fi only, yes there are merits of having 3G so you can use it on the move, but to be honest, the way things are going, (Guardian App for the iPhone is a great example) you will download all the news content, magazines, books, music and videos at home, using wi-fi and your computer via USB, before you go on your journey which means you'll have access to everything you need without needing to connect to the internet. Plus it has a 10 hour battery life, which again is a great break-through in battery technology, so I'm sure we'll see this having some kind of positive affect on iPhones in the near future.

And finally, it looks stunning, no one can surely deny that, the amount of other devices out there that are desperately trying to look as good as Apple simply just don't cut it, why? Because they have to alter their design just enough to avoid copyright infringements and in doing so create something lacking in any grace or desirability.

You'll all see, the start of great things to come!

I have a sweet tooth, I admit it, and when I returned home to an unusually empty house after a long day in the agency my eyes fell on one of my childhood favourites, a Sherbet Fountain.  I assumed it must have belonged to one of my children, carelessly left lying about which, to my reckoning, meant it was fair play to be eaten. 

Sherbet Fountain                                     Magic Marker

When I picked up the sweet talcum like delicacy I was crest-fallen, "this is not a Sherbet Fountain" I screamed to myself "this is a Magic Marker dressed up to look like a Sherbet Fountain". The soft paper-wrapped cardboard outer that I had loved as a child was now a hard plastic exterior housing and what I could only imagine to be of non-edible ink-based matter more akin to a felt pen than a childhood memory. The licorice head too was plastic and capped shaped, again leading me to believe it was indeed a Sherbet Fountain facsimile of a Magic Marker.  My mouth had been watering at the prospect of tasting the beautifully sweet and light white powder dusting my tongue with the licorice stick of pleasure.  But no, my mind screamed, this is a Magic Marker of the inedible variety.  Deeply disappointed, I sulkily pulled at the 'magic-markeresque cap with the reluctant intention of sniffing the inky-based solution as a poor substitute for the taste of sugar.  And, low and behold, my confused mind became even more befuddled. 

The Sherbet Fountain masquerading as a Magic Marker was indeed a Magic Marker masquerading as a Sherbet Fountain.  If I was disappointed before I was totally pissed off now. As a soft supporter of the save our planet party I was appalled at the disgusting use of hard plastic packaging, which would take a millennium to decompose and which undoubtedly the recycling blokes would turf out of my black box of plastic bottles, wine bottles, tin cans and cardboard discards. A plastic tube designed and engineered to accommodate one stick of licorice and a mere few grams of sherbet, of which the costs of the content must have been severely out classed by the cost of the packaging, left a bitter taste in my mouth.  And, if I had spent my own money on the offending article, rather than nick it from one of my children, I would have been even more offended.

Such was my distaste that I didn't even eat it.  Which upset me even more.  String the packaging department up, shoot the product designer, sack the production controller.  And bring back my soft paper-wrapped childhood memory of a Sherbet Fountain.  Please.    

2010 is not just the start of a new year, it is the start of a new decade

A decade that will be defining for this country

A decade that will be defining for each of us

This film, in a small way, has set out to reflect this moment in time
in a way that is personal to us as individuals

We are sure it will reflect some of your own personal goals too

Everyone at Fox Kalomaski wishes you a very successful decade

We'd love to hear about your ambitions for the new decade too. What have you set your sights on and what will you achieve?

Share it with us in the comment box below.