Grand Theft Auto IV Easter Eggs

This could be an interesting set of links:
Grand Theft Auto IV Easter Egg Finds | Game | Life from Wired.com

Love the cheat URL www.whattheydonotwantyoutoknow.com :-)

I haven't come across anything that cool yet - how do these people find these things? More time on their hands than I've got, obviously. I'm only 17% through so far - been spending a bit of time playing Multiplayer tonight, which obviously doesnt get me anywhere further ahead (good to work on my aim, though).

My favourite things so far in GTA4:

• The Cybercafe (web interface is cool, SPAM email is funny)
• Ricky Gervais standup comedy on TV in the apartment
• The Police Car computer
• Flying through the window after a headon collision (ended up in a tree once!)
• The Mobile phone (dial 911 for a police car, SMS text message to restart mission)

I've signed up at the 'Social Club' but it hasn't really opened up anything interesting yet - the multiplayer stats tracking isn't online. So far I have:

• Walked 17,296 miles
• Driven 124,050 miles

So I've got my first couple of 'certificates' in the Liberty City Marathon :-)


Its definitely the only exercise I've done this week!

Xbox 360 Elite and TVersity

In preparation for the arrival of Grand Theft Auto 4 tomorrow night (GPStore is open for pickups at midnight) I bought myself another Xbox 360 - this time an Xbox 360 Elite. I dont really need the 120GB HDD, or particularly prefer black over white - I just want the HDMI connection. I'm installing the Elite in my bedroom, and so the HDMI connection means a single cable going across the wall rather than a much bulkier (and shorter) Xbox HDTV cable. I wish I had an Elite in the lounge instead of my original - the HDMI would mean I could get 1080p on the big TV, as opposed to the 1080i I have to put up with through Component connection.

So I got the new console all up and running, using the USB WiFi connection I already had (went wired on the other Xbox a while back). Got connected to my main PC (via TVersity) and was browsing around the music & videos and then tried the 'Internet Videos' link. Low and behold I found YouTube - sweet!, I thought. Stupidly I never realised that TVersity streams and recodes YouTube content too :-) And it works a charm.
So I had a play around with adding more Internet URLs -Video RSS feeds, and got Tekzilla, Mahalo Daily working, and also added the TWiT audio podcast.

Totally stoked. Even though I knew I'd be able to use the new 360 for DVDs and Streamed Videos I never clocked that I'd be able to use it for Podcasts and YouTube too, so thats definitely a big bonus. Now I only need one more thing to make me truly happy - Region 2 (+4) DVD playback!

I've also got to try and find a Black Xbox 360 controller battery pack somehow - it doesn't look like anyone sells the Black ones in NZ!

Wahoo - Stable Internet Again

OK, so I've got one less thing to whinge about now. Thanks to those lovely chaps at Orcon sorting out my repeated connect/disconnect issue my Broadband's humming again as normal with no interruptions.

It was quite funny actually - after I got Duncan's comment on my Blog on Thursday I dropped him an email, then went home from work. Pretty much as soon as I got home (about 7PM-ish ) the Internet died. Wasn't impressed. No Internet at all now! I thought: one of two things might be happening here, either Duncan's not happy with my Blog so Orcon's cut me off :-), or they're trying to resolve the issues that me and presumably other users were facing.

So I waited for an hour or so for it to come back on (but it didn't), then called the helpdesk (I _hate_ calling helpdesks!). I sat on hold for 15 minutes (listening to some rather amping techno music) and got through to a very well-meaning young lady. She said she tried to do a reset on my DSL port, but was unable to as there were people working in the Browns Bay exchange, but when they had finished she would get one of the L2 techs to check again to see if I still had a problem. I thought that was kind of funny, as there probably wouldn't be people in the exchange if there wasn't actually a problem. So she said it I'll probably have to wait until morning before I got reconnected. I turned my router off (first night it's ever been off since I got it I think) and waited till morning.

Come the morning and I switched the router back on, fingers crossed that my link would come back up. It did. Wahoo! I thought. Back online. So I went to work. I logged in from work to the Orcon system, which shows every connect & disconnect, a few times during the day and it looked pretty good. Got home last night & it was all good too. By this afternoon I was quite happy that the problem had gone away, and got a lovely email from Lee@Orcon confirming the fault had been resolved.

Even better though, later on this afternoon I got a call from Orcon explaining that the product/service I had received wasn't up to what they would expect so I'm going to get a full month's credit on my bill. Nice! :-) So thanks to Duncan and the rest of the Orcon crew. Customer happy on that account.

Now all we have to do is sort out this speed issue. Have to get my speed back up to where it should be - can't let my Facebook profile suffer!

Broadband Speed and 'Upgrades' to ADSL2

OK, so I think it's time for another rant. I'm mightily disappointed at the moment with my new 'Local Loop Unbundled' broadband service from Orcon. OK, so it's cheaper than Telecom/Xtra, and the boys are going to get good use out of unlimited national calling, but my Internet access is slower! Having paid for an 'ADSL2+' service (billed as 24Mb/s), and living about 250m up the road from the Telephone Exchange (one of the first to be 'freed') I wasn't that impressed when my link speed only came up at 13Mb/s. But that was just the start.

Not only did my link come up 'slow' but it went down again. And came up again. And went down again... more than a dozen times yesterday (more today)! (My old Xtra connection hardly ever went up/down - definitely nothing noticable like this). I've upgraded my Netgear DG834N DSL Router to version 1.02.08 - the first upgrade available for it in like 18months! Hopefully that will improve things somewhat (there's this in the release notes: "Enabled ITU G.992.5 Annex M which extends the capability of basic ADSL2 by doubling the number of upstream bits").

So I get into some downloading - to test the speed of the International bandwidth - all that I'm really interested in (local access speed is kind of meaningless really). And it's noticably slower than usual. Time for the 'Facebook Broadband Speed Challenge'. Yep definitely slower than my Xtra service.

Lucky I've been compiling some stats over time really. I was interested a while back when I noticed that my Xtra Broadband had increased in local access speed from 7ish Mb to over 10Mb - 'I must be on an ADSL2 access, I thought'.

I ran a few tests and sure enough, even the Facebook Broadband app constantly showed I had a good 10+Mb of Internet access. 'Nice' (I thought).

Then I noticed that my speed would drop down every now and then - back to ADSL speeds. Were Telecom messing with my connection, putting me back on the old gear? Hmmm. But anyway then I 'upgraded' to Orcon. The '10 Day' installation lead actually took 3 weeks. Over which time I never once had an email or a phonecall from them confirming my order (I rang them up and told them what I thought of their rubbish customer care). They said they had sent me a confirmation email (to my new Orcon email address! which of course I had no idea how to access). I logged in, but there was no mail there (rubbish! I thought). So I switched my router settings over anyway to the new username/password. And today I get the 'welcome' email. A bit late, I thought, I've already been using your service for a day!

So today - my second day as a new LLU'd conversion - I run my speed tests. And no matter how fast my access speed is, the Facebook app doesnt lie. I've never had such a low speed result before :-( Disaster. One of my Facebook friends is bound to catch me now! (There can be only one #1)


All I can say is that I hope things better. I hope Orcon's customer service improves. Their self service website is definitely nice (gives me great reporting functionality - like seeing how many times a day my link drops!). I hope their international bandwidth picks up. And I hope the boys enjoy their free calls. Cause I sure don't enjoy life in the slow lane :'-(

Where's my SP1?

OK, so I'm getting kind of anxious now. Windows Vista SP1 has been released. Like a really long time ago! And I still can't get it. Well OK, I can get it (manually), but I've read the reports, the horror stories, the incompatible drivers that will brick my machine (which I use all day every day). So I've patiently waited, installed everything that Windows Update has thrown at me (even Silverlight!) but still no SP1. Do I still have incompatible drivers? I've installed all the new drivers I could find on the Toshiba website (for my Portege M400) but still no SP1.

So check this out: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948343
And you get this list of reasons why:
Cause 1
You are already running Windows Vista SP1.
- Nope, not me!
Cause 2
Windows Vista SP1 has not been released for the language of the language pack that you have installed.
- Nope, speaka da English
Cause 3
Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool is used to block the delivery of Windows Vista SP1 from Automatic Updates or from Windows Update.
- What? The Service Pack Blocker Tool? Sacrilege! I'm not under the control of some crazy sysadmin who can stop me getting SP1! (quick check of HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate - just in case)
Cause 4
You tried to install Windows Vista SP1, and the installation failed with a known inconsistency in the file or registry structure.
- Nope, haven't even gotten that far.
Cause 5
A hardware device driver or device software was problematic when you updated to Windows Vista SP1.
- But I haven't updated yet, right?
The Windows Update service can detect the small set of device drivers and software that falls into this category. The Windows Update service will not offer Windows Vista SP1 until an update for the hardware device driver or the device software has been installed.
- Now how could I possibly know? How long am I going to have to wait for new drivers?
Cause 6
You have installed a prerelease version of Windows Vista SP1, and you must uninstall the prerelease version, or start with a new installation of Windows Vista.
- Nope. Not me. I'm legit.
Cause 7
You used the third-party program vLite to configure the system, and you may have removed required system components that have to be available for Windows Vista SP1 to be installed.
For more information, visit the following vLite Web site:
http://www.vlite.net (http://www.vlite.net/)
- Nope. Haven't come across that one before.
Cause 8
You see one or more updates for Windows Vista when you run Windows Update. However, you do not see Windows Vista SP1 listed.
- Nope. No updates at all.

So I guess I'm stuck with Cause #5. So what does that mean? A quick scan of the list, and a 'Search' of my system shows two likely candidates:
Method for Cause 5

To help ensure a positive update experience, Windows Update will temporarily not offer Windows Vista SP1 to systems that have the following device drivers. In some cases, these device drivers are problematic on Windows Vista-based computers when you update to Windows Vista SP1. By installing updated device drivers, you will resolve the issue and enable Windows Update to offer Windows Vista SP1.

Audio drivers
SigmaTel
• For x86-based computers: Sthda.sys - version 5.10.5762.0 or earlier
SigmaTel
• For x86-based computers: Stwrt.sys - version 6.10.5511.0 or earlier

Biometric (Fingerprint) Sensors
• UPEK Fingerprint Sensor with the Tcusb.sys driver file – version 1.9.2.99 or earlier

Bugger! The latest version available from Toshiba is:
12-20-2006 Toshiba Fingerprint Utility for Windows Vista/XP (v5.6.0 Build 3284; 12-15-2006; 12.65M)
And I've already installed what seems like a newer version of the audio driver:
01-10-2007 SigmaTel HD Audio Driver for Windows Vista (v6.10.0.5286; 01-05-2007; 8.17M)
But still my .DLL is version 5.10.4866.0 :-(

I think I'm going to be waiting a while yet for my SP1...


For reference:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_sp1_ga.asp

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/436CBFFE7DCD7B54CC25741000738ADE

Update: I'm glad I'm not the only one!

QIK! Watch my Video

So I finally got Qik going today, which is cool cause now I can stream live video onto the Internet straight from my phone, wherever I am! I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for, but it's very cool that it's even possible (and so easy).

After being 'invited' a while back, I couldnt get it going on my Nokia E61i due to a 'Certificate Error'. I tried a few things then gave up on it until today when I emailed Qik support. And whatd'ya know, the support was SUPER quick. I got an email response with the fix in like 1 minute or something (thanks, Jane). Here's the fix for installing an unsigned app onto a Symbian phone:
Go to Main Menu > Tools > App Manager
Select Options and then Settings and make sure the following is set correctly:
Software Installation = All
Online Cert Check = Off

So here's my first Qik 'Live' video stream (Driving home from Auckland City, over the Harbour Bridge, but mostly sitting in traffic - a nice sunny day though!):


The other cool thing with Qik is that while you're streaming the people watching can send you comments which come up on the Mobile's screen - so its fully interactive. You can also get it to update Twitter & Blogger when you stream (although when I selected this as an option it did neither today - for some reason). I had some technical difficulties with my first stream - firstly to mount my E61i on the dashboard. Luckily I had some Scotch tape in the glovebox (leftover from posting & wrapping my Xbox 360 back to MS for the Red Ring of Death - again), so I taped the phone to the side of the Windscreen mount for my TomTom GPS. The last one - which killed my stream before I actually got home - was a basic one: The phone ran out of batteries. It seems that Streaming live video over the Internet SUCKS the battery life out of your phone :-)

I can't get over how good the video & audio quality is though, considering the basic technologies involved. Live broadcasts with expensive equipment are soon becoming a thing of the past!

QIK | My Videos

All-a-Twitter?

I was listening to the latest TWiT podcast today and they spent so much time talking about Twitter (and they've mentioned it quite a bit in the past) so I thought I had to go check it out. They were of course talking about the SXSW Zuckerberg Interview, and how the Twitterers revolted against Sarah Lacy. It intrigued me to say the least.

So I signed up to Twitter today, and duly went looking for friends to follow. But unfortunately none of my friends were there :-( Quite funny really. Hopefully at least a couple of those I've invited will sign up and give it a try.

I just want to see whether it'll be useful or not. I'm hoping it'll be better/more interesting than plain old IM. I've almost given up on Facebook for regular use. Its good to check in every now & then but I can't say I'm that into the Apps and stuff. Maybe the movie app, but the others haven't really grabbed me.

New MediaCenter/HTPC Setup

I've been thinking about a new MediaCenter setup for quite a while now, and have been going through the options. What I'm after (at a minimum):

• Small + quiet form factor
• Instant/Very Fast startup
  
• DVD Playback (Region Free)
• DivX/Xvid Playback (Local or over network)
• WiFi Connection (minimum 802.11G, N=even better)
• HDMI output

What I'd like to have (but not critical):

• You Tube Playback (Web Browser/Flash)
  
• DVR/TV Recording Functionality
• BluRay Playback

The options I've come down to:

• XBox 360 Elite (+ TVersity on main PC) = $790
• - No region free DVD
• + Xbox360 Games
  
• Apple Mac Mini = $1850
• - Maybe no region free DVD
• + MacOS Leopard
  
• Custom HTPC Linux-based PC = $1600
• + TV Tuner & PVR capability
  

I also thought about, but discounted lots of others (including Xbox MediaCenter, Playstation3, AppleTV), for one reason or another.

I think either a Mac Mini, or a LinuxMCE box would suit me the best. Mainly because I'd love to have a Mac, just to play with, and I kind of like the idea of trying to setup a really nice Linux box, just to see how well it would work. The custom box is also a good challenge too, as it requires lots of comparison shopping for cases, components etc. My mate Pete suggested it, to see how much I could build one for, originally thinking about $1000, but I think the budget's probably going to get blown out a bit more than that.

So far, on the custom LinuxMCE front, I've got a list of components like this:

• Case + PSU:
• Silverstone ML02B-MXR - $350.56
• or Silverstone LC11M - $291
  
• Motherboard:
• ASUS P5K-VM - $187
  
• CPU:
• Intel Core-2 Duo E4600 2.4GHz Allendale - $218
  
• RAM:
• Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2-800 RAM - $104
  
• Graphics Card:
• MSI nVidia 8600GTS HDMI - $278
  
• TV Tuner Card:
• Hauppauge HVR4000 HD TV Tuner - $209
  
• IR Receiver + Remote:
• Microsoft Remote + IR Receiver - $56
  
• Hard Disk Drive:
• 500GB SATA2 HDD - $184
  
• DVD Drive:
• SATA DVD Writer - $55
• SATA BluRay Player + DVD Writer - $523
• SATA BluRay + HDDVD Player + DVD Writer - $510
  

Unfortunately that's clocking up to $1641 :-| OK its a better spec than the Mac Mini, but that's still without a keyboard & mouse - not to mention an OS. Could probably save some money on the TV card and/or the case.

Farewell HD DVD, Congrats Blu-Ray

Well this news article says it all really: Toshiba to exit HD DVD, end format war

The war is over! All I can say is: thank goodness I never bought an HD-DVD player, even when Microsoft tried to suck me into buying one for the Xbox 360 for $120. Moral of the story: if it sounds to good to be true...

So the countdown begins for:

1. Blu-Ray for Xbox 360 (how long till MS announce one + ship one) - I'm picking 1 month, and 12 months after that.
2. Really cheap, mass market Blu-Ray players (& Blu-Ray HDD recorders) - I'm picking 12months to 2 years (but of course hoping for less)
3. Massive HD-DVD title sales @The Warehouse and JB Hifi etc. - Maybe 1 month spreading all the way to Xmas?

What I really want (right now) is a Blu-Ray burner for my PC (for the backup data storage capacity). A player for movies is kind of secondary. But at least now, when I look around for toys, I know there's only one flavour to shop for. HD-DVD is so last year...

This wired article does have a good point though - has it taken too long for one of these two to die off, so they've effectively missed the boat and no-one's going to buy Blu-Ray movies either now? I don't know. I'd love to have HD movies on my big TV in the lounge (don't care about the PC/Laptop), but I'm not stumping up to Xtra for the massive amounts of extra cash it would take to allow me to download lots of good HD movies. Maybe when a 100GB/month data plan arrives for $100 then I'll be more inclined.

Phone Stuff

Well I finally decided, and went out an bought my Nokia E61i today. Love the catch-phrase on the box "Enhanced solution; For an easier life" :-) I'll have an easier life for sure, thanks very much Nokia. Waited long enough for it to charge to capacity then got straight into figuring out what had changed, what was better & different than my old one. I have to say, its very nice. It even has a nice feel to it, in your palm. Positives so far then:

• Keyboard - great tactile feel, like the @ and / buttons
  
• Camera - takes OK pictures (in the limited tests I have performed so far - the one above was taken in low light), and sends easily via email.
  
• Speed - seems pretty quick
  
• Case - nice shiny metal :-)
• Email client - so far no crashes reading emails
• Memory card - 256MB in the box with lots of little apps installed
• Contacts Button

Negatives:

• I think the browser is the same :-(

So now I've got a phone with a Camera, I'm looking forward to all the photos & video I can take.

I heard some cool stuff on the TWiT podcast about the live broadcasting from QIK.com, so I've signed up for the alpha - hopefully they'll let me play. It sounds very cool, and quite pleased to see it supports my E61i (as well as the N95 8GB). Could be fun to use while I'm at the Motor Racing this weekend. The invite's going to come to my phone via SMS message, as you use your Mobile phone number to signup and confirm the request. With any luck they'll look kindly on a request from a tester in New Zealand. Could be a nice complement to the Results Blog.

TWiT Books

The guys on my favourite Podcast, TWiT, usually recommend audiobooks for download from Audible.com, and I always forget the names of the recommendations. I've listened (read) a number of books they've recommended and enjoyed them, so thought it was cool to find this guy's site: http://www.willhallmusic.com/audibleTWiT.html

Its an archive/list of all the recommendations from the TWiT Podcast. Something that might come in handy one day...

Phone Shopping

I'm looking into replacing my phone. Currently I have a Nokia E61, which I really like, love the QWERTY keyboard, but don't like the bulk. Don't like the browser. Don't like the email client (HTML email comes up garbled). Miss having a camera. Like the Gmail client and Google Maps app.

Current contenders:

• Nokia E61i - like that it's thinner, nice screen, and has a camera.
  
• Nokia N95 8GB - love that it has almost everything, really nice screen, don't like that its thick and has no QWERTY keyboard.
  
• HTC TyTN II - don't like that its thick, not sure about going back to Windows Mobile (stability, performance etc), like that I could get my old Smartphone Apps running again.

I need to do some investigation, I think before I choose. There's quite a price difference too (e61i=$700, n95=$1000, TYTNII=$1400).

Its just too hard to decide!

iPod Touch Apps Update

Sorry Dicky (http://lifeofstaff.blogspot.com/2008/01/legitimate-apps-on-my-ipod-touch.html) but I think my iPod Touch January Update experience was far more seemless, pain-free and cheaper than yours. Ready to move to NZ yet? ;-)

I simply performed the software update (when prompted in iTunes), followed the upgrade link (after the reboot) paid my NZ$27.99 (GBP10.87) and wahey - all up and running. I must admit I haven't checked the 'manually manage' button - I just sync based on a Playlist and checked Photos/Videos.

I'm very happy with the new software though. Google Maps is very cool. The email client is great - stoked that the gmail IMAP/SSL functionality is already in there. Its nice when a new mail comes in that the music volume is reduced - a cool 'ping' noise plays - then the volume returns to normal. Still don't like the onscreen keyboard though - fat thumbs. Haven't used the stocks application (don't care about that). But the weather app is really nice.

I've already recommended the update to two other iPod touch users today :-)

In car GPS navigation...again

I finally gave in today, and picked up a TomTom One XL in-car satellite navigation system. I used to use the TomTom Navigator software when I lived in the UK, but when I got back to NZ I couldn't get hold of any decent software for my iPaq, so I've gone without. Until today.

I thought I'd done a pretty good job shopping around and finding the cheapest price, but then I walked into J B Hifi and found they had them for $120 lower than RRP ($488). If only I'd have waited a couple of hours longer :-(

I have to say that the new little boxes are very nice. Still have all the features of the old Nav Software, but are quick to startup, use, and easy to update (both the software and the maps can be updated online through PC-USB connection).

Now all I need to find is some decent New Zealand Points of Interest. I wonder whether my old POI creation software will work with the One XL...

iPod Touch Video and MediaCoder

I've been looking for a decent Video converter, to get Videos onto my iPod Touch. I tried 3GP Converter , but had some issues with it particularly in getting Widescreen videos converted properly. But I found MediaCoder, and have converted a number of videos now and it works great. Its even got an iPod Touch/iPhone specific version, which is very cool.

The Facebook Social

I thought I'd try out some more social networking lately, so got signed up for Facebook, and went searching for anyone I knew. The first thing that surprised me was just how many people I knew were already on there. Even my Mum was already there! Crazy. The next thing I noticed was just how much time people seem to spend on there. There's all sorts of mad applications people are using.

I thought this video was quite funny. Kind of sums up nicely how bizarre Facebook can be - the fact that you're browsing through peoples lives - sometimes people you hardly know.



Of course I found that video because someone in my family posted it on my 'wall' :-)

It'll be interesting to see how long Facebook's popularity lasts. 'My Space' is so last year. What strange social things is 2008 going to bring?

Home Server

Microsoft have had some strange marketing campaigns in the past, but this just tops if off for me: Stay At Home Servers - The 'book' advertising the new Windows Home Server product. Its just bizarre. Surely the market that you're aiming at to sell dedicated servers in a home environment is going to be pretty IT-literate. So why market it using a children's book? Seems mad to me.

The product itself looks pretty cool though. Remote Access to many machines in the house would be nice, but I dont like the idea of opening up TCP/80 and 443 for all and sundry. You're just going to get attacked morning, noon & night. And as for registering for a DNS name in the namespace http://myfamily.homeserver.com! Hello? Want to advertise 'come & get me' to hackers everywhere - what a great idea! :-

I'd like to run one up at home and have a play. I wonder whether you can run VMware Server on it too...

Reviewers Guide

Some of these add-ins look handy too:
http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/windows-home-server-add-ins/

There goes t'Internet

Oh dear, just got this email this morning from Telecom regarding their Global Internet Gateway:
"Tropical Storm hit the Oregon coast in the USA that damaged the southern cross fibre cables. It is expected to take some time to recover the damaged cables due to the severe weather condition.

You are likely to experience some congestion of your international service until this problem is resolved."

But searching for news about it hasn't revealed much. This is about all I could find: Qwest reports broad outages along north coast - OregonLive.com But that's just talking about phone lines.

I suppose if the major Internet links out of New Zealand are down/degraded then maybe the news can't get through :-)

Update:
"The area continues to experience high winds and heavy rain which have affected landline along the Oregon Coast. The stormy weather condition still prevents technicians from access to the damaged area."

Bummer eh, even the Internet is dependent on good weather!

Update:
Finally some news articles about this today:
"Storm downs Aussie ISP links"
"Blog: If the cable breaks"

This is quite interesting too: New Zealand ISP Topological Map shows the interconnects between the different New Zealand ISPs.

Halo 3 Service Record

I've been playing a bit of Halo 3 lately - completed the campaign first, then started multiplayer over XBOX Live. Just discovered the online stats - Bungie Online : Halo 3 Service Record. Its really nicely presented, just like everything in Halo 3 really.

The game history function and stats are cool - even has details of all the local multiplayer games I have vs Scott & Gareth. Very cool.

Now I've just got to get some good screenshots and maybe an action video to upload....

Apple Tablet PC

Now this: Apple Tablet PC is real, says Asus - would be really cool! I love my Tablet PC, and would be very keen to see a Leopard-based alternative. I thought about getting a Mac about 18 months back, when the Intel MacBook Pros began shipping, but now that I've been using a Tablet for so long I doubt I'd be able to go back to a standard Notebook/Laptop ever again. Its just too handy to be able to write, draw, make notes in meetings without a tap-tap-tapping noise distracting everyone.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for any more news on this. It could be an Apple New Year (if the tablet and a decent 3G iPhone comes out).

More:
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/06/1327230
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/11/06/apple-working-on-a-tablet-mac/