You need a lot of patience. Make sure you have a speaker phone facility. Find something to read. Put the kettle on. Then, ring O2 Customer Service. From your iPhone for instance, you can just dial 202. You then punch in various combinations of 1s and 2s until you reach ‘If you are thinking of leaving O2, press 2’. Then you wait…..

If at 15 minutes someone answers, you are in luck. From that point onwards, it is easy. It seems this is part of O2’s customer retention initiative.

I think people are going crazy trying to talk down the iPad. People ask, smugly, ‘What does it do that _Netbooks _don’t do?’. Folks, it’s right there in the name of the overrated computing artefact Netbook - the thing was made to browse the internet and email on the go. Well, the iPad does it even better, in a more tactile, and involved way. They ask - ‘But the iPhone already does it - so what’s the fuss?’ Yes the iPhone does it, but the iPad does it better - in a more tactile, involved way.

‘It does not run OS X, or a FULL OS’ I hear you guys say. Reality is, it is about time that we reinvented the current operating systems. Folder, file, wastebasket (or recycling bin) algorithm is old. So old that I have seen intelligent people getting so confused trying to get into grips with it.

I do my Mac effectively, and be terribly creative with it. But can I expect others to do that? No. There are millions of people out there who take an iPhone and get on with out of the box. They don’t have to read the manuals, or ring the ‘helpline’ and speak to people who don’t seem to know who you are or where you are, they intuitively know what to do with the thing. So, let’s have a new computing framework where the masses don’t have to ‘learn’ to use the computer. Intuitively they would know how to do stuff. They don’t need to know about ‘hard discs’ or ‘software’. They just pick up a gorgeously designed piece of technology, and instinctively know what to do with it. As Steve says often (in the wrong context), isn’t it fantastic?

Stock traders who shape our World with their intellectual and creative paucity are exercising their misplaced ‘expertise’ to predict the future - but those of who you are able to Think Different, reflect. It is easy really. 1984, all over again!

My guess is, I will. Not because I am an Apple Fanboy. When Macbook Air came out, I wanted it for portability, but resisted buying it because my MacBook was more powerful and more functional. But then, the right approach would have been to have a big screen iMac at home, and have the MacBook Air on the road. But, that was too expensive a combination. So I stuck with it. So, I would, provided the price is right, go for the same configuration with the iPad for travel and iMac at home for heavier processing.

It is no accident. I have been listening and thinking hard about what the fictional Apple tablet computer might offer for me for the past few weeks. Then today I got the answer! Well, i did have some idea, but never really believed it until today.It could help me do two things I do pretty well on the iPhone extremely well - reading and painting.

The lion share of reading I do at present is either on a MacBook or on the iPhone. Medical articles, news, trivia - the list goes on. So it makes sense to do this on a gorgeous screen and have ability to interact with content better.

iPhone is a great drawing tool, as it is with me all the time - sketch book in my pocket. But I could do with a bigger screen.

So there you have it, I am now looking forward to Wednesday!

Poor customer service is thankfully not something I usually have to write about. In this case however, I am sufficiently outraged to mention this company’s operations in the UK.

You know I am very much into design - to the point that often sends me diving headlong into it when I see a good example. Well Maytag is a quintessential example of good design, led down by poor function. Their appliances break down. Quite suddenly - in my case, 3 months after purchase. Then you get to experience Truly Appalling Customer Service Ethos. After several calls and emails, they will send out engineers, who are largely a waste of time and space. You wonder why they call themselves engineers. After that they will send you documents to state that things are as good as new. But the fault will duly recur, and the cycle will repeat. By 2 years, the whole thing will fall apart.

It seems Maytag can’t build anything that will last more than 2 years. Hence the length of their warranty. So, in this case, form wins, but function lets you down. They should now hire better engineers - they have ample number of good designers.

And yes, the customer service just waits for your warranty period to expire, when they will gleefully point out that you are three minutes outside their warranty and are no longer obliged to take your calls. Brilliant!