If you’re like me and are a complete sports nut, you will be obsessed with keeping up with the news and knowing the latest before anybody else. However at times this can be difficult. Many of us have busy lives, and while you really want to, you just don’t get around to catching up with your team’s results and eventually you lose track. Luckily there are a whole category of apps that attempt to deal with this problem, making it easier than ever to stay up to date with the latest sport happenings.

ESPN Goals (free, link)

If you son’t have Sky, you’ll have trouble watching the goals. However ESPN, who have partial rights to the Barclays Premier League have put together this neat little app, allowing you to watch all the goals whenever you want. Clearly it’s not live, but it’s much better than nothing and gives you a bit of freedom despite the Sky monopoly over Premier League rights.

Not only does it give the goals, it also gives you the news and tables, so you know exactly what your team is doing. The app is very nicely and intuitively laid out, with very nice graphics and design.

What’s more, in terms of content, you also get roundups of all the weekend’s action which is very handy if you just want all the goals in one video. However there are several downsides to this app. Firstly, it only has the Premier League, so no lower league action and no action from La Liga or Serie A either. I guess that the rights for those are a problem, even though the ESPN channel does have live coverage of foreign games.

iFooty (free, link)

This app was actually one of the first apps I ever downloaded. I came across it as one does when browsing through the App Store, and it works really well. It’s simple, always a positive for me, and gives you not only news but also allows you to follow the games live using the BBC’s feed. You can check out the tables, fixtures and results with one tap and it’s great for just quickly checking the scores if you’re on the move and don’t have much time. iFooty also offers coverage of all leagues, so even if you support Barcelona or Real Madrid, you’re covered.

While this doesn’t offer actual videos of the goals like ESPN goals does, I really like it and it’s incredibly useful as I alluded to if you’re out and want to quickly check the scores.

Verdict

Both of these apps are great ways to follow your Premier League team, and you really should download both as they are free. While one is more for the highlights, the other is more for the news and following it live, so you can use them accordingly. With that said, I’m off to watch the Manchester derby! Come on City!

We might be living in the advanced technological age of email and the Internet, but there was a time when the fax was one of the essential items of any office. Nowadays, it’s still sometimes necessary to send documents by fax, but the vast majority of people don’t have access to a fax machine unless it’s already built into your printer. And who wants to go out and find an Internet café when it’s pouring with rain?

The following apps (which are all available in the UK Mac App Store) can be used to send faxes easily and quickly from your computer.

1. FaxDocument

Links: Apple website, FaxDocument website

Price: Free

FaxDocument lets you send faxes conveniently from your Mac via a simple drag and drop interface. The app itself is free but in-app purchases are necessary to be able to send faxes. Fax credits can be bought for £13.99 or £20.99 for unlimited faxes for 25 or 50 different numbers respectively, and faxes can be sent to over 40 countries including the USA, Australia, much of Europe and the UK. The best bit is that the cost is a one off charge and not a subscription, so it represents quite good value for money if you intend to send lots of faxes to a small group of numbers.

Send unlimited faxes to 20 or 50 numbers with FaxDocument

2. FaxFresh

Links: Apple website, FaxFresh website

Price: Free

The FaxFresh app is almost identical to the web-based FaxFresh web service. The cost is identical, but it’s rather more convenient to have a dedicated application. Up to 8 pages costs just $1.99 and extra pages are just 25 US cents. More than 100 countries are supported such as Europe, Australia, Japan and the US. Both the website and the app allow you upload documents in PDF format only.

The service also includes email confirmation that lets you know whether the fax was received, and you won’t be charged for unsuccessful transactions. So what are you waiting for? Get faxing!

Use the Mac app or website to fax PDF files

3. Sipgate Faxprinter

Links: Apple website, Sipgate website

Price: Free

You can’t get much simpler than the sipgate Faxprinter. Just drag and drop any PDF document onto the main fax window, enter the number and hit the send button. You need to create an account on the sipgate website first, however. The nice thing about this utility is that it also appears as a printer, meaning that you can “print” to send a fax from any application’s Print menu. When you choose to print to the app, a pop-up window opens where you enter the desired fax number.

Create an account to send faxes anywhere

4. Instant Fax Cover

Links: Apple website, Instant Fax Cover website

Price: £2.99

As the name suggests, Instant Fax Cover is a utility to generate fax covers; it does not however let you send faxes. Nevertheless, it’s a handy little app that’s great if you want to produce good-looking fax covers.

Most people tend to scribble something by hand or open a word processor to produce fax cover sheets (note however that there are many templates that you can download for Pages on the Mac and Word on the PC). However, Instant Fax Cover does produce professional results and it saves previously printed covers so you can reuse them later on.

Produce good looking fax cover sheets in minutes

5. Simple-fax.de

Links: Apple website

Price: Free

Unfortunately, the Simple-fax.de app is in German (so we’re not sure why it appears in the UK App Store!). However, with a little patience and thanks to the magic of Google Translate, it’s actually quite easy to install and use this little app.

Just like most of the other apps mentioned, it lets you send faxes from your Mac and can be accessed from the Print menu in any application – it appears to Mac OS as a normal printer. The cost to send faxes is 6 Euro cents, and you need to sign up and create an account with Simple-fax. Thankfully, the user interface does contain English, so once it’s installed you should have no problem using it.

Once you've translated the German, it's easy to use!

Many Mac users who complain of slow speeds and poor performance don’t realise that they’re more than likely the ones causing the problem. If you don’t maintain your Mac and make sure everything is organised and clean, it will become very slow very quickly and getting good performance out of it can become a nightmare. Luckily, there are some very simple steps you can take on a regular basis to ensure that your Mac’s performance is up to scratch and that you’re not wasting its power on things you don’t use.

1. Only Run The Apps You Need

This may sound obvious to many, but for many others it isn’t, especially ex-Windows users and I’ll explain why. Unlike on Windows, simply hitting the x button does not quit the application. It’s still running, just with no windows open. You need to quit the app correctly in order for it to close. Otherwise, you’ll have all your apps running and you’ll be wondering why everything is so slow. It seems obvious, but only run what you need. No point having iMovie running when you’re working on a Pages document for example. Harness maximum power, don’t waste it.

2. Empty Your Trash

How many of you put stuff in the trash and just forget about it? I’m pretty OCD in that regard and like having it empty at all times, but many put up with having thousands of files at once in the trash. With that quantity of stuff, no wonder you’re Mac will run slow. And more importantly, this stuff accumulates fast. Trash a few HD photos and some video and you’ll probably already be at at least half a gigabyte. So not only will this speed up your machine, it will probably save a lot of space as well.

3. Delete any old application folders still on your computer

Many people delete applications, and that’s great, but not many uninstall them properly. If the app comes with an uninstaller, that’s great but many don’t. Simply dragging the app to the trash isn’t enough to ensure it is totally purged from the system. You need to access your Library to make sure all folders relating that app are gone. To access it, all you have to do is click ‘Go’ in in the menu bar and select ‘Go To Folder’ and type in this:

~/Library/

Hit enter and then look under ‘Application Support’. Then you can delete any folder you see that you don’t need anymore. A lot of these can be quite meaty, so you’ll save at least a gigabyte or so of data depending on the apps you have installed and you will probably improve the speed of your computer as well.

Conclusion

What all these things have in common is this message: if you don’t need it, don’t keep it. That’s the number one tip in improving your Mac’s performance. Of course, you can go further and organise your files into folders (which is what I do) so that no file is left uncategorized. That will make things easier organisation wise, even though that’s another topic for another day.

Ever since the iPhone came out back in 2007, there have been literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of different cases made for Apple’s smartphone. Some are pretty boring, some look drop dead gorgeous, but some are just plain crazy awesomeness. I’m talking about the cases that are so awesome and so different that they leave a huge imprint on your mind saying ‘Buy Me, Buy Me!’. I might be getting slightly carried away but regardless, here are our top five crazy awesome iPhone cases.

1) .50 Caliber Bullet Resistant iPhone Case

(link)

This case is the definition of bragging rights. Nobody will ever mess with you again when they see you rocking this bad boy. At 2.1 kilos, it’s also the mother of all iPhone cases, but that’s only the beginning. As you can tell from the title this case will protect your phone from a .50 caliber bullet. If it fits, put it in your shirt pocket and you will never be shot through the heart, increasing your life expectancy. You actually need tools to fit this on your iPhone, and it restricts camera use but who cares? It can resist .50 caliber bullets!

2) Intoxicase

(link)

This is not one case, you can actually get several models of the Intoxicase, and it’s easily the most practical of the five. It allows you to open beer bottles, and with the official app, you can keep a tally of how many bottles you’ve opened and how drunk (or not) you are. It looks pretty neat, and one of the models has a fold down bottle opener, so it won’t add much bulk to your iPhone.

3. Han Solo In Carbonite

(link)

Star Wars fans will realise just how awesome this is. It’s not just a photo on a case. From what I can tell, there’s actually the texture there as well so whenever you make a call you’re reminded of Star Wars Episode V. If you’re not a Star Wars geek, this probably won’t be of much interest to you, but in honour of Star Wars fans, I just had to list this. I reckon Jabba the Hutt will be the first to get one of these, after all, he will want a replacement for the original!

4. Etch-a-Sketch

(link)

Many have fond childhood memories of the Etch-a-Sketch. You could draw anything and erase it instantaneously, it really was like magic for many. Now you can have it on the back of your iPhone. While I am sure that there are many Etch-a-Sketch apps out there, nothing is as authentic as the real thing, and being able to show off your sketches on the back of your phone has got be one of the coolest things a case can offer.

5. iMeshi Sushi Cases

(link)

I love sushi, and when I saw this case I felt hungry. It looks so real, and if I had one I would probably end up swallowing my iPhone. Even better, you can choose between dozens of different sushi, so if you have a preference then no problem, as the iMeshi range has got it covered. A must for sushi lovers. It’s a shame it isn’t real.

If you’ve already closed your Instagram account and don’t know what to with the photos you’ve got, then this is the post for you. If you haven’t yet done that and want to, you can find out how to do that here. Instagram has long been one of the most popular photo sharing sites on the web, but it’s recent takeover by Facebook has been controversial to say the least, with privacy a key concern. Here is a rundown of the three best alternatives that you should consider: Flickr, Imgur and PhotoBucket.

Flickr

(link)

Flickr seems to be the most popular alternative to instagram that has emerged in recent days. It seems many are making the move over to the Yahoo-owned photo service which seems to offer a good selection of features. It allows you to do all the usual stuff: organise your photos into albums, and you even add tags and locations you can remember the location in the photo.

In addition, it couldn’t be easier to upload your pics to Flickr, with a plethora of apps for all devices. It doesn’t matter what smartphone platform you use: iPhone, Android, Windows 8, they’ve got your uploading needs covered and more.

Imgur

(link)

The main reason I love Imgur is its simplicity. It takes seconds to upload a photo, there are a whole host of options for sharing, everywhere from forums to Twitter, and you can edit your photos right on the spot in your browser.

That’s right. You can crop, rotate and scale as necessary and it really is a great feature made with so much simplicity. Imgur is my photo uploader of choice, and it comes highly recommended. What’s more, it has unlimited uploading something that the other candidates on this list (I believe) don’t have for free.

Photobucket

(link)

Like Flickr, Photobucket has been around for a while now, and it has many satisfied customers. Both sites are actually very similar, with sharing options aplenty and the option to tweak or recolour your photos as desired, much like Instagram. Photobucket’s app is also incredibly popular, even though it is offered on fewer platforms than Flickr’s.

However, photo bucket do have another app called Snapbucket which is dedicated to sharing your photos with friends and family, something which it makes easier than ever to do. AND, if you’re an iPhoto user, there is a plugin allowing you to directly manage and upload photos to Photobucket right from  the app, something which will greatly appeal to Mac users.

Verdict

Imgur is the definition of simplicity. If that’s what you’re after, then it will be perfect. However, if you love the Instagram style effects, then Flickr or Photobucket are probably your best bets. They make ti really easy to add all sorts of funky hues and colours to your photos, so if you like that sort of thing, you’ll have a lot of fun. My vote goes to Imgur, but that’s only because I like things that are simple and straightforward.

The iPhone produces quite reasonable sound, and when you’re on the go it can be a convenient option to be able to listen to your music collection through a pair of semi-decent speakers rather than headphones. For lazy summer days in the park, business trips away and many other situations, being able to crank up the volume enhances your listening pleasure.

These days, portable speakers needn’t cost the earth and can produce more than acceptable sound that really shows off the quality that’s possible – certainly good enough for most people. Portable speakers can be connected to your iPhone in a variety of ways such as with a 3.55 mm audio cable, or wirelessly using Bluetooth on the slightly more expensive systems (some high-end speakers even use AirPlay).

The portable speakers listed below are some of the best “budget” iPhone portable speakers, that cost anywhere up to around £150.

1. Braven 600

Connectors / specs: 12 hours’ battery life, 3W power, USB charger, 3.5 mm audio input, Bluetooth

Price: $149.99. Website: Braven

The Braven Bluetooth speakers not only look and sound good, but have the added advantage that you can also charge your portable devices via USB – quite handy if you’re not near a power outlet. Furthermore, several speakers can be daisy-chained together for a better and beefier sound and the range is up to 33 feet. They’re made from tough aluminium and the battery lasts up to 12 hours. Not only that, they look great (they come in red and silver) and should make for a great addition to your iPhone (or iPad).

The stylish Braven 600 portable speakers

2. Jawbone JAMBOX

Connectors / specs: 10 hours’ battery life, 3.5 mm audio input, Bluetooth

Price: £159.99. Website: Jawbone

Even though it can only just be considered a budget model, the JAMBOX has been very highly rated as one of the best sounding portable speakers on the market. The design is funky retro (it comes in four colours – Black Diamond, Blue Wave, Grey Hex and Red Dot) and has a tactile rubber coating, but it’s the sound where the JAMBOX really excels. Like many of the other iPhone speakers, it can be connected by Bluetooth with a range of around 33 feet. There are also various apps and feature enhancements that can be downloaded when it’s plugged into your computer. Portable music has never been this much fun. The JAMBOX can be found in-store at some Apple Stores.

The funky-looking JAMBOX produces superb sound

3. iHome iHM79

Details: 3.5 mm audio input

Price: £39.95. Website: iHome Audio

These iHome speakers which are firmly in the budget price range are incredibly small (just 2.5″ x 2″ x 2.5″). They’re available in black and silver colours and generate a surprising amount of sound when you consider their compact size. They have a magnetic base so they can be attached to each other into a convenient pod shape when travelling, but with a simple twist can be extended to full size when in use. Connection to an iPhone is by the 3.5 mm jack (Bluetooth is not supported, unfortunately), and there’s a USB connector to charge them up. Considering the price, they’re pretty hard to beat and should satisfy all but the most critical of audiophiles.

The diminutive iHM79 speakers pack quite a punch

4. SoundMatters FoxL v2 Bluetooth

Connectors / specs: 12 hours’ battery life, 3.5 mm audio input, Bluetooth

Price: $199. Website: SoundMatters

The FoxL is one of the best speakers for the iPhone in terms of the sound quality and size – they’re well made and are easily one of the most compact options in our list at just 5.6 x 2.2 x 1.4 inches . The sound quality from the FoxL is extremely rich and detailed, with a surprising amount of bass wen you consider the tiny size of the speaker. Connection to your phone is via Bluetooth (though there’s also a wired version available which retails for just $169), and it comes with a wall charger, USB charging cable, wrist strap and travel pouch.

If you want even better sound quality, spend an extra $30 for the PLATINUM edition which has superior audio quality. Apparently, the unique sound and technologies were developed by Dr. Godehard Guenther – a physicist and former NASA engineer!

The FoxL v2 Bluetooth speakers' sound defies their size

5. WOWee ONE Classic

Connectors / specs: 20 hours’ battery life, 3.5 mm audio input

Price: £49.99. Website: WOWee ONE

Most portable speakers don’t tend to produce very good bass due to their small size, but the WOWee ONE uses some quite clever technology to turn any surface into a speaker for improved bass. It does this by vibrating and passing those low frequencies to any flat surface that it’s placed on. It has a built in rechargeable battery that provides up to 20 hours of playback. It can be connected to an iPhone or any other device that has a 3.5 mm audio jack. The WOWee can be placed on virtually any surface as it has a very grippy rubber pad on the underside which lets you place it on vertical surfaces such as windows or walls!

The only downside is that when the volume is turned right up the sound suffers quite noticeably, so you’re better off using it at lower levels. For the price however, the WOWee ONE Classic is a great piece of kit which comes in many colours, and there’s also a newer slim model at £79.99.

The innovative WOWee ONE speakers

If you like number crunching and have an iPad or iOS device, I imagine that one of your biggest disappointments is the lack of Microsoft Office and Excel on the device. The latter is the mother of all spreadsheet and number crunching programs, and is used by people the world over either for some serious calculations or reasonably simple uses such as household expenditure, and if you’re a business, calculation profit. It remains a mystery why Excel isn’t on the iPad yet (presumably something to do with the Microsoft/Apple rivalry), however there are some good alternatives to Excel that already exist on iOS and that you should know about. And all of them run natively on all iOS devices.

1. Numbers

($9.99, App Store Link)

I know what you Excel fanboys out there are going to say: Numbers sucks. Well, if you haven’t tried it, I wouldn’t speak to soon. Granted, it is more limited, but you also have to remember that we’re on iOS, and so technically everything is. I would say that Numbers is targeted more at the consumer who uses Excel than the professional. If you’re the latter, I admit that this probably isn’t the best choice, but if you’re the former, Numbers should be perfect for you.

Not only can you calculate and create elaborate tables of numbers, you can also make them more interesting and add photos and nice text to make your figures presentable, something that Excel doesn’t allow you to do. So in many ways, it actually has more possibilities than Microsoft’s program.

2. Free Spreadsheet

(free, App Store Link)

For all of you that like free stuff, this is the right Excel alternative for you. It’s much less glamorous than numbers, and the user interface seems to be less welcoming, however if you like number crunching this really shouldn’t be a problem. It will give you everything you need in terms of Excel functions and graph making, and it being free you can’t really argue with it.

While understandably some might want to pay for something more smooth and without ads, this a great way to experience something similar to Excel on a budget for your iOS device.

3. iSpreadsheet

($2.99, App Store Link)

I would classify iSpreadsheet as the halfway mark between Numbers and Free Spreadsheet. It’s UI is slightly more appealing than the latter, and it is a lot cheaper than Numbers is. Again, this one offers all the standard Excel functionalities (as I mentioned at the start though, they will obviously be slightly more limited), and seems like a good, solid alternative to Microsoft’s number crunching software.

Ultimately I would say this. If you can afford it go for Numbers as it is the best Excel alternative on iOS until Microsoft themselves come out with an official version. It’s made by Apple and you know that it’s going work and perform well.

However, if you think $9.99 is too much, then go with one of the other two, and they are also decent. If you don’t mind ads, Free Spreadsheet is the ideal candidate, otherwise go for iSpreadsheet.

Apple’s limited storage options on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can often be problematic for some, who like to have the amount they need rather than the amount that’s given to them. It also just simply might not be enough. The number one reason for new iPad returns was people regretting they had bought the 16GB model instead of the 32GB or the 64GB (I’m not one of them).

Luckily, cloud storage is now an ever-present feature of today’s connected world, and so it is easy to find a solution to the above problem. While there are physical wifi hard drives you could use, storing your data in the cloud is much cheaper and can even be free. Here are two of the best services with dedicated iOS apps, Pogoplug and Dropbox, compared.

Pogoplug

(free, App Store link)

While I have a Dropbox account, I almost never use it as Pogoplug does everything it does and more. There are several price plans available, from free for 5GB to $60 a month for 1TB, so it is completely flexible. But the great thing about Pogoplug, and this is what in my opinion makes it better than Dropbox, is that it actually streams your content.

You can play your music and movies directly from the cloud with the in-built media player. It is just like using the Music app, but instead nothing is stored on your device. Same with photos and files, they are super simple to view and if you want, download.

As for the app itself, it’s clear and easy to use with no frills. Everything works as it says on the tin, an it couldn’t really be much better. It makes you wonder why you need an iPad with more storage.

Dropbox

 (free, App Store Link)

Dropbox is one of the pioneers of cloud storage. They were the company who really popularised it and made it a widespread phenomenon, have they have kept on going, expanding their ever popular service. While the storage you get for free is limited, just like with Pogoplug you can easily expand if you need more gigabytes.

The app is very straightforward, and it is easy to view your documents and photos as well as play music, even though the later is less advanced than Pogoplug. There is no real media player functionality and you only play inidivudal songs instead of having them in a playlist.

Verdict

Well, I think it’s pretty clear. I would say that Dropbox is a simplified version of Pogoplug. If you don’t need more than Dropbox, it does what it does very well. There is absolutely no problem with it. However if like me you want to stream all your music and media you will definitely want Pogoplug. It saves you huge amounts of space on your iPad which you can then use for apps and other things you can’t store elsewhere, so it is incredibly useful. Pogoplug for the win!

So the new iPad has landed, and many are now starting to get their hands on one and discovering the brilliance of the Retina display. However, that’s only half the story. While all apps will look better by default on the new screen, you really need an app designed for Retina to get the full effect. Here are my top five in particular order.

1. Real Racing 2 HD

($6.99, link)

The best racing game the iPad has to offer has just got even better. The graphics were awesome enough on the previous non-Retina version, but with the update, they are absolutely mind boggling. Things that in the distance you couldn’t clearly see before are now crystal clear, something not possible without the Retina screen. The cars are more crisp than ever, and all this combined creates a hugely immersive experience.

2. Facebook

(link, free)

The mother of all social networks has long been criticised for its lack of iPad support, but it has recently released an app and an updated Retina version to answer the critics. It features all the things you would expect in Retina display quality, so you can view all the photos, videos and posts you friends put up in the best possible fashion. You can also access all your apps, which is no less than you would expect.

3. Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy

($4.99, link)

This was one of the games demoed at the actual iPad launch and for good reason. Remember the old Ace Combat games you used to play on your PS2? Sky Gamblers takes the whole thing into another dimension. This is the ultimate dogfight in Retina quality, and like Real Racing 2 HD, is a completely immersive experience. It gets great reviews, and if you’re a fan of flying games, you CANNOT get by without this!

4. Angry Birds Space HD

($2.99, link)

How could we forget the most popular mobile game series ever? With Angry Birds Space HD, you get to play the game in space, and in Retina quality. Rovio have hit two birds with one stone or rather two pigs with one bird with their latest release, and it has really made for a great version of the game. You can use gravity to launch your bird in all sorts of ways, as well as get past tricky obstacles to destroy the pigs. If you haven’t already, this is worth buying.

5. All of Apple’s Apps

(link)

I could have filled out this list just with these, but to give the other apps a chance, I thought I would bundle them under one umbrella. While all of these are Retina enabled and look amazing, I would have to give special recognition to iPhoto and iBooks. The former makes editing photos on the go a doodle and one touch experience, while the latter has essentially removed the only reason you have to buy a Kindle. With the new Retina display, reading with the iPad is exactly the same experience as reading off a Kindle or paper. It was absolutely mind-blowing. Why use two devices when you only need one?

Having used the new iPad for a couple of weeks, and having owned an iPad 2, now would be a good time to sum up my top five reasons for upgrading to the new iPad. These features have probably been dissected a gazillion times already, but it’s worth looking at them against the iPad 2 to clearly see the improvement.

Retina Display

This is the most talked about feature on the new iPad and rightly so. While some people might dismiss it, and so claim to not even notice it, for the vast majority the screen is mind-blowing. Featuring a higher resolution than the best HD TV, and packing almost as many pixels per inch as the iPhone 4S, it makes everything, from reading your books to playing games more vivid. I would really focus on the former, as reading with iBooks on the new iPad is like reading off paper. It brings the Kindle reading experience to the iPad, which is a feature in itself.

4G LTE

Wait, I hear you cry, that’s not a feature in Europe! Yes and no. No, in that it’s not 4G, but yes, in that the new iPad allows you to access the much faster HSPA+ speeds previously unavailable on the iPad 2. Of course, in countries with 4G, this is huge, allowing you up to 72 Mbps, which is faster than a lot of Wifi connections. It’s a great feature, for me just as good as the Retina display, and was something that the iPad really needed to continue moving forward.

A5X Chip

This is a new feature that goes hand in hand with the Retina display, and you can’t really have one without the other. In addition to supporting the huge resolution of the new display, the A5X chip also improves the iPad in areas such as gaming and other heavy duty apps. These now run as smooth as ever, and some games have already been created/updated just for the chip, such as Sky Gamblers by Namco, which was shown off at the keynote. While the average user probably won’t notice this feature, he/she would notice if it wasn’t there, as the Retina display would not be nearly as good.

Siri Dictation

Siri is on the iPad! Sort of. While the dictation function isn’t the whole package, it’s definitely awesome and works very well. It’s worth reminding that Siri is still in beta, probably one of the reasons Apple chose not to roll the full version out on other devices just yet, but the dictation function is still great. You can use it anywhere with a keyboard input (a part from email and password forms), and while sometimes it might not be super accurate, it can save time if you’re writing a long essay or dissertation!

Improved Camera

While this isn’t the bees knees just yet, it’s a considerable improvement over the previous rear facing camera in the iPad. Granted, I would probably still take my 12MP point and shoot camera over this any day of the week, and it looks plain weird taking pictures with a big tablet, however it does give you another option for good looking photos.