Right,

Only a few hours to go, when someone from Apple will take the stage, and talk about what 2011 will be the year of.

Now it's painfully obvious that this is the new iPad announcment, but what will the new iPad entail? 

I have discussed this before but I have a few more things to add before it's show time, so it's the last chance to read the tea leaves, and toss around the chicken bones.

Voice

I think voice control is going to be something Apple are going to try and get right. Since there purchase of Siri last year, it's been assumed that they were going to use this talent to incorporate some of Siri's functionality, and this may finally show it's face tomorrow, if not in june with the iPhone 5, which may be more reliant on voice control. You can already, while your phone is in your pocket, press and hold the headphone button to invoke voice controls, say "What time is it?" and the phone will speak it back to you. I expect this to be expanded. Same with Text-to-Speech (TTS) voices will be improved. Apple have worked on over 50+ voices for Mac OS X lion, I expect these far more pleasing voices to make it to iOS too.

Notifications

The blue bouncing boxes of death are horrible, no real functionality, no history or tracking. You have to respond to them now or never. This has to change, Apple know it, they just like giving them selves time to get it right, but I think it's been long enough. Revamp imminent. 

MobileMe

I have MobileMe, I have had to since about 2008 couldn't use multiple macs and an iPhone without it. It keeps your "Info" (Address Book, Calendars & Mail Etc) all in sync accross all devices (iPad included) all the time with minimal conflicts, if any. This is part of what has made a lot of people (Including me) lazy with physical, over a cable, syncing. I rarely do it anymore, because it takes too long and who wants to do it? Now, MobileMe will be going free, I'm assuming for all users of iDevices. (I'm pre-paid for the next coulple of years, hopefully they'll sweeten current users with some extra features but anyway.) MobileMe is going free, but not just for syncing. The iDisk feature will see a revamp with a new cloud storage for iTunes Backup. Eliminating the need for syncing via USB. You'll be able to move music and video over the air directly to your device.

iOS 4.3 & 5

The 4.3 beta has been around a while and is ready for showtime. Main features of this update are access to subscriptions, AirPlay APIs for more streamy goodness and improvments to HTTP live streaming, and a few more tweaks. But the preview of 5 is what we're really after, and this should give us a good insight in to what the next iPhone will shape up to look like in the way of features.

Lock Screen

This might tie in with the notifications system but a new lock screen would be a nice addion. It's been the same since day one and it a waste of a space that could be better used for storing 'At a glance' info. Such as iCal appointments, New Emails, Notifications etc. 

We'll only know for sure, when it happens.

Some of these are certain, like the MobileMe update, other are wishes and wants. So let's see which happen.

You can probably watch the announcment live on Apple.com at 10am PST (6pm GMT)

 Bingo

Two Steve Balmers....88!

I've made up one of these bingo cards to mark up how right or worng I am, print it off and play along at home!

Download Here

With the arrival of the Verizon iPhone the old stories of the "Death Grip" are coming back.

The phone, just like the GSM iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS before it, have the same issue when tightly held in a particular way with both hands or as much as possible with one hand.

Here is want it boils down too:

Radio waves are waves, just like light waves (debatable) and sound waves.

When you cover your phone, any phone as much as possible with two hands.

IT'S GOING TO STOP THE WAVES OF ENERGY HITTING THE PHONE.

Why?

BECAUSE YOU HAVE A MEATY HAND SHIELD IN THE WAY.

Try this little experement at home.

Carefully, read the entire proceedre, you may end up permanently blind if only followed half way!

1. Take a few seconds to observe the world around you.

2. Place both hands over your face, taking great care to ensure that both eyes are covered entirely by hand.

3. Attrempt to observe the world around you again. 

4. Remove your hands from your face.

Notice how it's much harder for the waves of light to reach your eye when your hand is in the way.

Now i'm sure that medical science is aware of the problem and are striving forward, trying to reach a solution for this terrible afflicting issue just as Apple are working on preventing a little thing like the laws of nature from getting in their way to.

Luckily I have a solution, and I think it's explained best with an old "Doctor, Doctor" joke.

Man: Doctor, Doctor! It hurts when I do this! (The man hops on his toes while kicking himself in the arse)

Doctor: Don't do it then.