This came as a surprise as the Apple iPad wasn’t due to launch until tomorrow (28/05/2010). Not that I was complaining of course.

I looked on Twitter and there were posts of people getting their iPads… I had to sit and wait.. and wait.. as more and more people got their hands on this much talked about device from Apple.

Early afternoon and there was a knock on my door from a friendly UPS man with my iPad. Yeah.

The box was very light.

I opened it to find a find a sexy new iPad inside. After connecting it to iTunes as requested to activate the device I was ready to try out some of the apps that I had already downloaded ready.

The first thing that you notice is the amazing screen. You have to see it to appreciate how awesome it really is.

I’ve been having a good play with the device and have to say that I am VERY happy with my decision to ditch my netbook in favour of it.

I think that I have gotten used to it’s size already as going to use my iPhone afterwards is a really weird experience, as for the first time the iPhone just feels so oddly small!

The keyboard on the iPad is far better than I was expecting, in-fact this post was written entirely from the iPad without much issue at all, with some pretty quick typing speeds..

I can’t believe that people are queuing outside shops this evening to get their hands on one. I’m so glad that I pre-ordered.

I bought the Mac Mini in March 2005 not long after the ground breaking piece of hardware from Apple was announced. This was my first venture into being a Mac owner, and my very first Apple product.

Equipped with an Apple wireless Keyboard and mouse, the Mac Mini was perfect for watching movies, playing music via iTunes and surfing the Internet on a large LCD TV connected to a surround sound system.

Having found the joys of using a Mac so pleasurable, it then led me on to purchase numerous iPods over the years and eventually to the iMac that I have today.

Sadly the original G4 Mac Mini was starting to show its age, and creak under the demands of today’s software.  It just was not up to the job of playing HD content, as it would stutter it’s way through films.

Also as more and more software was being developed primiraly for Intel based Mac’s my G4 Mac Mini was starting to get left in the dark.  And with Snow Leopard just launched last week, the Mac Mini’s days are well and truly numbered.

Luckily the Mac Mini has found himself a new owner and a new home.

For those of you in the UK, you’ll probably be aware that o2, who exclusively have the iPhone, slashed £100 off the price of the 8GB iPhone to £169 as it would appear that the handset is going ‘end of line’.

I have been toying with the idea of just getting an iPod Touch since that first appeared, but now that the 8GB iPhone is cheaper than an iPod Touch, I just had to do it..

Of course I didn’t want to sign up to an expensive o2 tarrif for 18 months, so promplty Jailboke the handset within minutes of getting it home..

I’ll keep you posted about my experiences with the handset and how, it compares to the market leaders Nokia and their Nseries handsets.

So what did people make of the announcements by Nokia?

The N96 - lovely as it is, is really just a refined N95 with some extra bells and whistles.. mainly DVB-H which isn’t even available in most countries  yet.  I understand that when you have a pretty good product in the N95 – you don’t need to re-invent the wheel, just make it better  and I think that they (hopefully) have done that.

Again the same can be said for the N78 – which is the N73 replacement.. Again – its taken the best of its sibling and enhanced on it..

Overall have we heard anything groundbreaking?  Well actually I think not..  Nokia Maps – lovely as it is.. its a Beta, again its just an update (ok a major improvement on the original) but not really anything new.

So what happened to Touch?  This is the one thing that I was really hoping to see.  Sadly it was a no-show (in handset terms at least).

As much as I like the look of the new handsets and the improvements to the software – I did come a way a little underwhelmed..  Thankfully the whole experience of being at WMC and having access to the Nokia Product Managers while there more than made up for it.

Being an Apple fan – we love the big bang announcements and the Steve Jobs Key Note – you really do get that wow factor.  I know that nobody can match Apple for this. The problem is that they raise the bar and I just expect others to follow..

That being said – I really cannot wait to get my hands on the N96 when it comes out – it rocks!

[Note:  I've been a little slow on the blogging front recently, this was drafted shortly after my trip to WMC, I thought I just as well post it, even if it is a bit late in the day..]

From meeting the WOM World Attendees, to Nokia Product Managers and finally getting down at the S60 Party.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Itvt0wzLDM

On arrival we had to go pick up our Nokia Exhibition Passes. As you can imagine there were a few other people trying to do the same.

When we finally get our passes we made our way over to the Nokia Hospitality Suite (our base during our time at WMC) to watch a live webcast of the Keynote Speech.

Unfortunately we were running a little behind because of traffic and registration, so we missed the first part. As the news was coming out we all had our laptops at the ready to blog on our respective sites – but unfortunately the WiFi just wasn’t up to the job.

Shortly after the announcements we were able to meet the Product Manager for the N96 and then the Product Manager for the N78 [more details soon].

After a few hours of free time to take in more of MWC, the afternoon brought us a Q&A Session with the OVI Product Manager [more details soon].

All-in-all it was a very busy day and having access to the Nokia Product Managers just hours after all the days announcements was just amazing. It certainly was a bloggers dream come true!

Sunday Morning

I was up bright and early on Sunday morning to catch the 8.58 train from Taunton to Gatwick Airport. As you can see it was a rather bleak morning waiting on the platform.

After a quick change at Reading, I arrived at Gatwick with 30 minutes to spare before check-in closed! Here I met Donna and Robbie from WOM World for the first time, where we all headed of to Mc D’s for food before arriving at the Departure Lounge. We were surprised to see that everybody had already boarded and we proceeded to find the last remaining empty seats (easyjet don’t allocate seats). Much to my surprise I ended up sitting next to James Whatley (whatleydude) on the flight out as he was going to MWC to be on the SpinVox Stand there.

Arrival in Barcelona

After arriving at Barcelona Airport, we headed off to the Le Meridien RA Hotel (some 45 minutes from Barcelona). My jaw dropped as we made our way inside this 5 star hotel and on to our rooms – mine being a Duplex Suite with stunning sea views!

That evening we meet with the other bloggers over a meal and drinks back in the Lounge Bar.

There were 9 bloggers brought together by WOM World; James from Nokia Creative, Mark from The Nokia Blog, Vaibhav from The Symbian blog, Matthew from Darla Mack, Amir from Phone Rush, Stefanos from Pestaola, Jeremiah from Nokia User and the youngster of the pack 17 year old Norman from Symbian World.

It was great to actually meet some faces you recognize and also some new ones that you didn’t!

Hopefully, I haven’t forgotten anything!

For those of you who don’t know the Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM) is the worlds largest mobile exhibition which runs from the 11th-14th February in Barcelona, Spain.

The Mobile World Congress features the very latest in technology, services, and developments, bringing to life the promise of mobile broadband for all and defining the industry’s path to continued growth. The Congress brings together the eminent leaders and personalities from mobile operators and equipment vendors, as well as those from the Internet and the world of entertainment.

Hopefully I’ll be able to post live from the floor of this amazing mobile event and bring you details of all the latest announcements and mobile news.

For those of you who Jaiku, I have set-up a MWC Group (see right panel for live feed) for anybody who wants to join in the conversation.

If you are going to be at MWC, drop me a line to let me know..

Watch this space for more details, and live coverage from 11th Feb of the world’s largest phone show!

I’d like to thank the guys from WOMWorld for making this trip possible.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XHtoFjnv4U