When it was announced, I really didn’t think that I’d want one. Yes, it looked nice, but why would I need a device that was basically a glorified eBook reader, web browser and email reader?

The fact that it was running the iPhone Operating System, and not even a full version of OSX added to my scepticism, believing that Apple had produced this device quickly to cash in on the tablet market, which has been around for years but has yet to really take off.

So what happened?

As the UK release date came nearer, I began to read independent reviews, from people who I trust, such as J.C. Hutchins. Yes, the reviews are biased, as most Apple fan reviews are, but as Stephen Fry points out – Apple are a company that illicit a ‘marmite’ reaction. Much like the Ferrari Formula One team, you love ‘em, or hate ‘em, but you have to respect how they can turn grown adults into crazy fans.

Reading these reviews, I began to realise that while the iPad would not be able to replace my laptop or my iPhone, it would offer a kind of halfway house. Always ‘on’ like the iPhone, it is quick to pick up and surf the web or send an email, and with a larger screen than the iPhone it is easier to use. I’ve tended to take my laptop to meetings to take notes on (which is next to impossible on the iPhone) and after trying the full-blown mac version of the task manager ‘things’, I’ve found myself needing a good electronic ‘to do’ list.

For simple tasks like these, the iPad comes into its own. I can watch the Formula One on TV while having the live timing displayed on the iPad screen, meaning I don’t have the bulky laptop open. I have a simple interface to log actions for meetings instead of using a piece of paper that I am likely to lose. I am able to jump on the internet and check something quickly when I don’t have my laptop to hand.

All of the above can be accomplished with the iPhone, or even with a laptop, and the iPad really offers nothing new in that regard. What it does offer is a different interface to the above. After just 10 minutes with the iPad, you realise how much better the internet is to view on the larger screen size; typing an email is so much easier than on the iPhone.

I still maintain that the iPad doesn’t go far enough – many have bemoaned the lack of a camera (which I don’t see the point of), and I would have preferred the iPad to have a full-blown OSX on there to allow me to develop, but I can see three strong reasons why Apple would not go this far with the first iPad:

1. The iPad is not a game changer, or ‘kindle killer’, but its form factor actually does place it in competition with Apple’s own MacBook Air. Even Steve Jobs was critical of Netbooks in his iPad announcement. At the moment, the fact that the Air runs a full version of OSX Leopard is still a selling point for the device.
2. The App Store. Apple’s simple method for selling applications has been a huge hit for the iPhone. Developers can enjoy a relatively simple distribution method, while the iPad can claim over 200,000 applications are available at launch. The fact that the iPad can emulate the iPhone (and scale applications up to use the full screen) means that developers do not have to re-write their applications – but more on this in a bit.
3. Battery Life. The iPad boasts a 12 hour battery life – I cannot vouch for this myself, but with pretty heavy use over the weekend, I’ve only had to charge it up once so far, which is more than I can say for my iPhone. With a full version of OSX running, the battery life would probably be considerably shorter and the processor faster.

I mentioned the iPhone emulation on the iPad, and I’ve tried several applications. The apps open by default in the middle of the iPad, at the same screen resolution as the iPhone. In the bottom corner is a button that allows you to double the size of the application so that it fills the iPad screen. Some apps fare better than others, ironically the ones that look the worst zoomed in are those that use the standard iPhone controls. I think this is an area Apple should have addressed, as although rendered graphics can be excused for looking blocky, the standard iPhone controls such as the ‘Date Picker’ should really scale better.

I don’t regret purchasing the iPad (I went for the 32GB 3G version), but it really doesn’t offer anything new yet. Time will tell for the future of this device – will Apple take the plunge and discontinue the Macbook Air in favour of a premium iPad that runs full OSX? If the iPad forces the same wake up call to the rather staid tablet PC market then we may see Apple taking that direction. For now, I think that the 1st generation iPad is merely Apple dipping their toes into the market and seeing if this luxury device has any legs.

As with the iPhone, it will be the apps that make the iPad a success. It doesn’t offer anything new to the market, but it does offer an alternative way of doing it.

Ultimately, that conservatism almost cost him the title as two laps from the end he was passed by the very impressive Sebastian Vettel in a Toro Rosso and it all seemed over.

As Ferrari and Brazil were celebrating their first World Drivers Champion since Ayrton Senna, no-one was watching the pace of the two Toyota cars who had elected not to switch to the intermediate wet tyres. Both Toyotas had gone through the second, twisty section of the racetrack 10 seconds slower than the rest of the field. At the start of the previous lap, Timo Glock, running in 4th position was only 12-14 seconds ahead of Hamilton and Vettel.

As Felipe Massa crossed the line, the Toyota, Toro Rosso and McLaren had only just passed through the second split timing beam, and Massa was effectively World Drivers Champion 2008.

The TV pictures were focussed on the celebrations of the Ferrari team and so didn’t show the fact that Vettel and Hamilton had actually caught the Toyota at turn XX, the penultimate corner before the long, sweeping, uphill turn XX. The Toyota simply didn’t have any grip in the last corner, so the two drivers on Intermediates flew past Glock and Ferrari were denied the opportunity of having two World Drivers Champions in their team in 2009.

There was a surreal moment, as both the Ferrari and McLaren team were both celebrating winning the World Driver’s championship as someone pointed out the timing screen to Massa Sr. and he was visibly crushed.

I don’t think words can express how he must have felt at that moment, but he can hold his head high. His boy did all that was asked of him – he led from pole position for the whole race – pitstops notwithstanding, was in control and gave a very dignified press conference.

Massa has come on in leaps and bounds this year. Speaking as someone who was wondering if Massa would manage a double-hat trick of spins in the Silverstone rain, I have a new respect for him. Hopefully he will take heart from this year and come back stronger in 2009.

So what does 2009 hold? well, with new rule changes and the return to slick tyres, the hope amongst fans, sponsors and organisers is that we will have closer racing and more overtaking.

We also have the exciting prospect that the BMW’s that have been looking lacklustre towards the end of the season have done so because they froze development of their 2008 car long before anyone else in order to concentrate on 2009.

Robert Kubica has shown how fast he can be this year, and with the right car under him he can be a race winner and possible World Driver’s Champion. Hopefully the extra development time for the 2009 BMW will give him just that.

Vettel, the man who so nearly broke millions of British hearts has wrung the neck of the Toro Rosso ‘Junior’ Red Bull team and is now ‘promoted’ to Red Bull Racing. The Toro Rosso has outshone the larger outfit this year and Vettel may question his decision to move. He will take the place of the retiring David Coulthard, so will hope that the magnets that seem to attract trouble are removed from that car.

Then we have Fernando Alonso. Consistently the best driver of 2008, with back-to-back magical wins in an uncompetitive car Alonso has really shone this year. I doubt he will move to Honda during the closed season, as the Renault has been improving all year, whereas the Honda has seemed to drop back every weekend. Let’s just hope that the Renault form in 2008 does not mean they have neglected their 2009 development.

So for the first time since 2001, we will have three former world champions in the field. 2009 looks to be a very promising season.

One last word on Lewis Hamilton’s championship: He’s not the most popular driver in the field, and often comes across as arrogant in interviews but he thoroughly deserved this championship. Yes, he made some very silly mistakes this year, but when you consider that had he finished in 6th, he would have been level with Massa on points. Massa would have been declared champion because he had more wins in the season. One of those wins was gifted to him by a very dubious FIA decision.

In Formula One, Luck plays a very strong role. Massa was lucky that the stewards decided to punish Hamilton in Belgium, Lewis was lucky that Toyota made the wrong decision on tyres.

And to all those theories that Glock deliberately slowed to let Hamilton pass, the following is the final lap times of all the drivers. Neither Toyota changed tyres, and both did similar laptimes. Trulli had no reason to back off, so we can only summise that they were both still pushing as hard as they could in the conditions.

The final word of the 2008 world championship should surely go to Bernie Ecclestone in an interview with Martin Brundle. As Brundle asked how there seems to be a lot of championship battles that go down to the wire:

“I know… It gets harder every year!”

Lewis Hamilton picture copyright twobigpaws, via flickr

Today, they claim that Bruce Willis is set to play commentating legend Murray Walker in a film about the life of Michael Schumacher – inventively titled “The Michael Schumacher Story”.

I don’t know what is more laughable – the thought of Bruce Willis donning spectacles and getting overexcited everytime a puff of smoke appears at the rear of a car (even if it is tyre smoke)… or the prospect of a film about the life of Michael Schumacher.

While Schumacher is without doubt one of the greatest drivers F1 has known, his career wasn’t always the most exciting – and given the fact that Schumacher is purported to be involved, it is unlikely that the more controversial aspects of his career will be highlighted.

Schumacher drove in a period in F1 where his superiority was rarely challenged. If you were to make a true life film about “modern” F1, you’d probably make it during the 1980′s, where you had Senna, Prost, Mansell, Rosberg (Sr), and Piquet (Sr) all fighting for wins, and some of the real characters such as Gerhard Berger.

None of this will come to fruition, except possibly as a made for TV film, and while Murray did comment for the whole of Schumacher’s career, he was not always the greatest supporter of the German.

The main reason Willis has been linked to the role, is simply that he is probably the most famous aging bald actor in Hollywood. Apparently “an insider” claims that in glasses, Willis looks very much like a young Murray Walker. This is forgetting the fact that Walker was not a young man during the Schumacher period.

The ITV theme tunes have been mixed to say the least. The theme for the first couple of seasons was written by Jay Kay, better known as ‘Jamiroquai’. As a huge motorsport fan, I’m sure he jumped at the chance – however his theme tunes did not have the excitement of the bass riff from ‘The Chain’. The tune they’ve been using in more recent years, a kind of tribal chanting theme was an improvement, but still doesn’t have the build-up that ‘The Chain’ has – from the opening Bass Riff to the guitars.

Another strong debate is why F1 should even be shown on the BBC, when they have lost the majority of football, and the cricket. Given Bernie Ecclestone’s notorious business strategies, Formula One would not come cheap.

F1 is not as popular in the UK as football, cricket, and at the moment, possibly even rugby, but I do wonder if the fact that we now have a British driver who is a consistent winner, and probable future champion has influenced the BBC’s decision to get back into the F1 game…

My only hopes are that:

1. They do actually use ‘The Chain’ as the theme tune
2. They keep Steve Ryder as the anchor (Jim ‘The Football’s on in a minute’ Rosenthal really showed how much better Steve Ryder actually was!)
3. They manage to keep Martin Brundle (The best pundit in F1)
4. THEY LEAVE JAMES ALLEN AT ITV!

Bernie Ecclestone often makes threats like this – the British Grand Prix at Silverstone is regularly under the axe, but FOM have only once actually carried out one of its threats, dropping the Belgian Grand Prix from the 2003 calendar. However, this was more to do with commercial rights for tobacco advertisers than any indication that the circuit (one of the best in the world) was not up to par.

Night races are an unknown commodity in F1 – this year sees the first one in history, held at Singapore. The biggest concern is of course, safety. In an enclosed arena where it can be easily floodlight, safety is not so much of a problem – for example, NASCAR often have been holding night races since 1978, despite the fact that like F1 cars, NASCAR don’t have headlights. However – it would simply not be practical at a circuit like the old Hockenheim to place floodlights, as 80% of that circuit was out in the woods.

The old Hockenheim is a prime example of why you shouldn’t do night races – in 2000, it saw a protester marching down the side of the track after scaling the surrounding fences – a job that would no doubt be easier in the dark.

The idea of holding night races is so that they can be screened during prime-time television in Europe. My interest in F1 has waned over the last few years so I no longer wake up at 4am to watch the ‘flyaway’ races in Australia, Japan and now China (and Singapore this year).

This year’s Australian Grand Prix start was also delayed by 90 minutes so that it started at a better time for the Asian market. However, I doubt that an hour and a half would make a noticeable difference to the Formula One fan – only to the TV schedules – delaying the start means that the race falls into a more lucrative TV slot, meaning FOM can charge the advertisers more.

Despite being a global sport, the focus of F1 is still in Europe. The majority of the teams are based in England (even ‘Team Force India’), the majority of the drivers are European and the majority of the races are also held in Europe.

FOM have tried to address that balance, by introducing more ‘flyaway’ races, but I don’t think we’re in any danger of seeing a switch to holding night races in Europe any time soon to provide more convenient TV scheduling for the Asian market. The problem with any global sport, is that it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere, so F1 races will always be held when there is maximum revenue to be made.