Touched by Apple

Weeks of speculation have come to an end with Apple's announcement that the entire range of it's iconic iPod are to be revamped.

More interestingly, the Apple CEO also unveiled a completely new model which will be called the 'iPod touch'. Essentially the brand new model looks and operates identically to the new iPhone which has proved to be a phenomenal success since its launch a few months ago. The new iPod features many of the same functions and is operated in an identical fashion.

Apples latest 'must have' gadget also features an inbuilt web browser and WiFi connection which will allow users to access the internet on their iPod and also make purchases from iTunes.

The device looks very promising indeed and the huge display and battery life improvements will also make video playback both practical and realistic, something which had previously eluded the 5th generation players.

The new 'iPod touch' will be available by the end of the month and will come in 8gb and 16gb sizes.

To date, Apple have sold in excess of 110,000,000 iPods and iTunes has been downloaded over 600,000,000 times. Todays announcement will only go to increase the rate at which Apple is taking over the music distribution industry.

Top twenty UK photographs... and mines in!

One of my photographs has made it into the top-twenty photographs which will form an exhibition at the National Museum of Media and Photography in Bradford.

The photograph was taken on the road to Buxton in Derbyshire and was taken after two previous visits to the same location.

The twenty images which will be exhibited were originally uploaded to flickr and then included in a 'britain in pictures' group. The exhibition itself runs at the museum until January 2008.

It goes without saying that I'm honoured that my picture has been chosen, especially given the quality of some of the other photographs in the group.

'Jollies'

Well, it's that time of year and this year its of to Cornwall for nine days of sun (?), sand and surfing!

I'll be having a break from the blog too but I will be maintaining my photoblog so you can still see what I'm up to.

The link for my photoblog is here.

New golf clubs

Ok with a slight improvement in the weather, I finally got hold of some new golf clubs.

Its amazing how much 'tat' you come across on the internet too. I was doing my research but aside from some excellent instructional videos on videojug, I was amazed how difficult is was to find useful information that wasn't trying to sell me something.

I couldn't finish my post here without including the best example. Basically US presenter, Kenny Mayne decided to tackle the issue of 'wuss golf'. Men not playing as 'men' on the golf course. Any golfer is used to it, half hearted club selection and blokes playing from ladies tees.

Anyway take a look at this video . It may not have been useful, but it was funny!

Bomb scare in Biddulph?

A local Staffordshire town has been disrupted with road closures and police cordons after a bomb disposal unit was called in to take a closer look at one or possibly two suspect items.

The team were called in to Biddulph near Congleton at around 5pm today and although details are still sketchy, the authorities were clearly not taking any chances as they blocked off roads and and called in army experts to take a closer look.

In this day and age, this obviously goes to show how city-wide fears of bomb attacks have now moved into the suburbs. Nothing can be left to chance, no matter how trivial an incident may seem.

Fortunately occurrences like this are rare and although the exact details are not known by myself at this time, it is still reassuring to see that there is obviously a high degree of vigilance here in the UK at the moment.

As some people may know, I don't live in Biddulph but as soon as my girlfriend notified me of the police cordon and rumours of two suspect devices in a loft, I was quick to advise her to take pictures of the scene and also video footage too.

The photographs and video footage where taken by Emma Barlow who lives in Biddulph and via this blog, they have also been passed onto the BBC local news teams for Staffordshire.

Not often that this blog is first for breaking news, however as more and more people become 'citizen journalists', the headlines will increasingly hit the RSS feeds before they hit the more traditional forms of broadcast media.



Bomb scare in Biddulph? from pthurst and Vimeo.