Archive for April, 2010

Two weeks with the iPad

John / April 28, 2010 / Hardware, Photography, Reviews, Technology / 12 Comments

As I mentioned previously, iCaved during the iPad launch weekend and drove down to Seattle and picked up a 32gb wifi iPad.

My decision to drive across the line to get one was further justified (to me) by the fact that Apple then had to delay the international release of the iPad over a month longer than originally planned (pushing it out to almost 2 months from US launch to Canadian availability). This delay, combined with my demo of the device, prompted a number of friends and coworkers to make their own track to Seattle to get their own units.

I have to say, after having it for a number of weeks now, the device keeps surprising me. For starters, the battery life has been amazing. Apple suggests that it lasts for about 10 hours on a charge. I’ve heard of people getting better than 12 hours of life out of the battery. Personally, I’ve gone for 3-4 days of heavy usage before having to plug it in. I never do stupid battery tests (playing a video loop until the battery dies for example) with any of my gear as they aren’t reflective of my actual usage. I can honestly say that the battery performs better than expected and that is awesome for a device like this.

Of course, since the iPad isn’t currently available in Canada, I get asked about it all the time. It’s been fun to have people come up to me at Starbucks for example and say “Is that THE iPad?”. Pretty much everyone has been impressed by seeing one in person, including many naysayers that start off their questioning with “so is it really just a big iPhone?”. It’s also been interesting seeing people that don’t have an iPhone or even a Mac play with it and intuitively figure out how it works without any prompting from me.

So here’s a few app highlights of why it’s outperformed my expectations:

The Photos app, as expected, is a fantastic way to view photos synced from my laptop. It can support thousands of photos and you can scroll through them REALLY fast.

I particularly like the option at the lockscreen to enable the Photoframe mode which is a nice touch for when it’s just sitting there or while charging:

Like Photos, the Movies app is equalling compelling to view movies…I’ve loaded up a bunch of my portfolio videos along with a number of feature films and combined with the crazy battery life, it’s truly a great media player.

I’ve collected a few books to read over the next little while and love that the iBooks app supports ePub formatted books. Combined with the opensource Calibre app (cross platform) conversion tool, you can pretty much put anything text based into the iBooks app. It’s also a nice touch that the entire Amazon Kindle library of books is available via the free Kindle app that has been updated with iPad support.

While considering the purchase of a magazine in a grocery store, I realized that this could be better read on the iPad. A quick check of the Zinio app and for about the price of two issues of a magazine (in this case Shutterbug), I could get a 12 issue subscription. This was a no-brainer. The iPad version includes a number of benefits over the printed version including text transcripts, in-app url viewing (all the ads have clickable links to product pages) and fast navigation through the magazine. I also get an email when the next issue is available.

GoodReader is another ‘reading’ app that allows you to view any PDF document along with a number of other supported file types. It also allows you to create a webserver on the iPad to allow you to wirelessly share files between your iPad, your computer and even other iPads without syncing. I currently have a pile of manuals and documents stored in GoodReader that is incredibly handy. Pretty slick for a $0.99 app.

The Google Maps app is blazingly fast and truly excels at showing the power of the iPad off. Despite not having built in GPS, I’ve found it worked incredibly well at locating me via wifi triangulation in a number of different locations around the province. It truly feels like something out of Minority Report when your are pinching and zooming such a large screen around. Streetview even works amazingly well.

At this point, I’ve got over 4 screens of iPad specific apps. Every day, more apps come up on the App Store and impress me. I can’t get into all of them in this post but will do future posts on some of the more impressive ones.

Gaming on the iPad
I have a bunch of games on the iPhone and have been really impressed with the quality of the iPad games that have been released that really take advantage of the iPad’s big screen. In particular, Scrabble has blown me away with some innovative game play options:

Basically, the party mode supports the notion that players have an iPhone/Touch. They download a free ‘Tile Rack’ app (currently only available on the US App Store) that lets players using their personal devices as view screens of their own tiles. You can arrange your tiles on your iPhone then when it’s your turn, you simply flick them onto the iPad’s game board and place them. You can even flip the iPad’s board orientation around to face you if desired.

Other games like 10 Pin Shuffle feel like games you’d see on a Nintendo Wii (or better) with fast gameplay and beautiful graphics.

Too bad it seems unlikely that Nintendo would ever port any games to the iPad…Zelda or Mario Kart would be amazing on a platform like this.

You’ll want the Apple Case (for now at least)
When I picked up my iPad, the Apple Store in Seattle had a wall of case options. I had already heard mixed reviews about the Apple branded one:

but opted to get it anyway since it was the only one that offered a cover over the screen along with a simple, yet innovative integrated stand that would work in either orientation as well as comfortable angle for typing on a lap or table surface:

Simply tucking the cover into the little flap on the backside quickly transforms the case into a sturdy stand. The only thing I don’t like about this case is the fact that it seems to pick up dirt/lint like crazy. Unavoidable I guess but it’s a pain to clean it constantly. Apparently this case has been wildly popular with it being sold out in all the Apple Stores and it has been spotted on ebay for more than twice the list price of $39.

Some things I don’t like or annoyed me

Like most people with an iPhone, the iPad could really benefit from over the air syncing. It would be great to be able to add some new movies on the fly without having to sync. I already have Mobile Me which works great but doesn’t allow me to add any kind of media over wifi sync.
I wish the VGA adaptor supported true video out…right now only a handful of apps support video out – I would have loved to been able to make a video demo of all the apps via the video out but it’s locked down unnecessarily
I keep finding myself reaching for the home button on the wrong side of the device since it’s orientation is always different depending on use. Only way around this would be a gesture system for getting home or putting a home button on all four sides of the bezel (not likely)

Like teenage vampires, the iPad apparently doesn’t like direct sunlight:

Using the iPad normally results in it never getting warm (unlike my iPhone or laptop)…it’s always cool. But take it outside and it starts to get warm when in direct sunlight and eventually will shut down after about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. I’m not planning on taking it to the beach but it’s kind of a disappointment.

What I’m looking forward to
I soon hope to get my hands on the Camera Connector as it should open up some interesting options for a much more portable photo upload tool with its support for RAW images, selective uploads and video support. It also sounds like the usb dongle that is included supports things other than photo downloads from cameras so it will be interesting to see what apps take advantage of this option.

Considering the iPad has only been out for a few weeks with the development kit only being in the hands of developers for little more than a month, the potential for this device is still largely untapped. It truly is a game changer in my opinion and not just a ‘big iPhone’.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the 3G enabled iPad is released as well…I’m still not convinced the mobile carriers will offer a compelling package for data users that already pay for a data plan on their iPhones (or other smartphones) which was one of the reasons why I opted to get the wifi version and tether my iPhone to the iPad via an app…although this method does require a jailbroken iPhone, there are similar apps for Android devices as well.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments if you’re curious about the iPad and I’ll try to answer them.

UPDATE (May 10, 2010): Rogers has announced (or rather, Apple has announced it for them) their pricing for the 3G iPad data plans. $15 for 250mb (per month) or $35 for 5gb. ~~If you already have an existing data plan, you can add the iPad to your plan for $20/month. That means that it would cost me $50/month for my 6gb data plan that I can use with my iPhone & iPad~~ (Looks like Apple/Rogers has removed this option – due to negative response?). Um, no thanks, I’ll stick with my tethering option.

UPDATE #2: Keep an eye on Roger’s official blog for more details about iPad pricing…there still seems to be some confusion about how the plans will work and whether there is an addon option.

Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival 2010

John / April 26, 2010 / Photography, Travel / 8 Comments

Over the past two weekends, I was invited up to Whistler to take in the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival. I had heard of the festival through friends that are avid snowboarders but had no idea that so many other things happen around the event.

The first weekend, as a guest of the fantastic Whistler/Blackcomb Media team, I got to stay in the amazing Dream House that lived up to it’s title. A fantastically appointed 5 bedroom ski in/out lodge right under the Blackcomb Gondola complete with hot tub on the deck which I spent a large amount of time in:

Shortly after arriving, we found out that the house was hosting a party with a huge list of who’s who in ski and snowboard media, gear makers and a number of world class athletes. Word quickly spread that I had my iPad with me and I gave a bunch of demos of it and had some great conversations with photographers and magazine people about the device and how it had the potential to transform their industries. I also learned a new trick that I have yet to master but I’ll keep practicing. It was a great way to get settled into my new home for the next couple of days.

One of the more interesting things (to me) that happens at the festival is a number of different photo & video contests that happen. There is a 72 hour film showdown where teams have 72 hours to make a video that is then screened and judged. There are also a couple other photo contests including the Pro Photo Showdown where some of the best ski & snow photographers compete. Unfortunately, these events happened mid week so I missed them but I’m thinking they are a great reason to come back next year and get more involved in them. Getting to meet a lot of the people competing in these competitions also made me envious of what they were doing as it seemed to be an absolutely fun way to compete, doing something they love.

The next day started off with a new experience for me: a visit to the spa!

I had already spent a fair bit of time in the house hot tub (hey, it was there and somebody had to use it) so the idea of going somewhere for more hydro therapy was very appealing. I’d never been to a spa of any kind before and apparently the Scandinave Spa was a pretty special place. It’s a huge outdoor facility with pools scattered amongst other buildings which housed different types of wet and dry saunas, including the amazing Eucalyptus steam room (the red building in the photo above) – it felt like you were inside a Halls lozenge…in a good way. Then it was suggested that you jump into the cold pool for full effect…it was actually quite exhilarating.

Being a first timer at a place like this, which is really an adult playground, I kind of felt like I was in a James Bond movie…expecting Sean Connery to come out of the steam room and then ninjas would jump out of the bushes and attack. I know that may not sound relaxing but it was still a pretty cool place to visit. We were all very mellow afterwards so clearly the spa experience is relaxing.

Next up was a visit to Sushi Village for dinner. Now I’m not a seafood eater so I was a little nervous about going for sushi but my hosts assured me they would help me navigate the choices. Worse case, I could order some chicken ‘KFC rolls’ if the fish didn’t work for me.

I figured I was already trying new things and might as well try new foods while I’m at it. I had tried sushi in the past was never compelled to try more than one or two pieces before being turned off. Thanks to everyone’s help, I eased into it and eventually found myself quite enjoying it all…It would appear that fresh & quality seafood really makes the difference. Or perhaps it was the Saki Margaritas. In any case, it was fun experience with great company.

The buildings in the village were a fantastic backdrop/screen for some awesome video projections during the opening kick off party later that night…including these retro videogame visuals:

It was pretty cool to hear the Donkey Kong theme blasting throughout the village while being projected on the side of a hotel.

Before we headed home the first weekend, we spent a fantastic afternoon sitting on a patio in the Village watching the Whistler Chef Challenge in front of Araxi:

It was a frenetic cookoff with lots of chefs competing Iron Chef style in timed challenges then judged on the spot to see who would advance to the next level:

Heading home that day was tough – the festival was just getting underway and we had to head home. But a few of us were coming back the following weekend so we had that to look forward to.

Fast forward to the following Friday, John, Rebecca & I met up again to participate in the Chevy Road Trip to WSSF along with some other media folks (Chevy is one of the sponsors of WSSF). We were loaned a brand new Chevrolet Equinox to drive up to Whistler and take in the rest of the festival (although this photo was taken at the Squamish Spit):

One thing we tried to do the previous weekend but didn’t make it before they closed was to visit the Grilled Fromage in Squamish. Rebecca had gushed about this place and I’m a big fan of grilled cheese sandwhiches so we convinced the rest of the Road Trippers to stop off and get our cheese on:

It’s a fun little diner that features over 60 different kinds of grilled cheese sandwhiches with a cheesy decor that includes a ton of cheesy things that I could spend all day browsing around the shop:

I opted for a smoked gouda, bacon & pickle sandwich which goes by the name of the ‘Polyester & Pickle’ which was amazing:

Once checked into our hotel in Whistler, we headed to the Fashion Exposed show to see the latest in ski and snowboard fashions all the while, a couple of great bands (The Zolas and We Are the City) performed in the middle of the runway.

We spent Saturday checking out the many WSSF events around the Village including getting to test drive a bunch of different vehicles including a Camaro and a few hybrid trucks which were on hand for anyone at the festival to take for a spin:

So much going on and I didn’t even set foot on the mountain where there was a whole other set of ski & snowboard events happening. As I said earlier, next year, I’ll have to plan to spend more time up there for the full festival. It was still an amazing couple of weekends in Whistler.

A huge thank you to Amber, Michelle, Tabetha & Stephanie for hosting me the first weekend and George, Janice, and Fred for hosting the second weekend.

You can view my full WSSF 2010 photoset on Flickr.

Update: I figured I could probably do a separate post just about all the food photos I took at Whistler but because she mentioned it and did suggest an awesome place for breakfast, I give you VanCity Allie’s ‘Meat Pile’ from our breakfast at Elements in the Village:

Figaro, Bloggers, and the Vancouver Opera [Guest Post]

John / April 26, 2010 / Photography / Comments Off

I was in Whistler this past weekend so I sent my good friend, Peter Andersen in my place to The Marriage of Figaro at the Vancouver Opera. Here’s his guest post & photos (a first for my site) of the event:

What’s the recipe for a Blogger Night at the Opera? A table of laptops, black coffee and a Twitter photo booth at the ready. Mix in eager blogger participants (myself, Tris Hussey, Gus Fosarolli and Kelsey Dundon) and you get the clicking of keys on laptops before the show and – even more frantically – during the intermission.

Thanks to Ling Chan and John Biehler, my wife Marilyn and I were able to attend this Blogger Night At the Opera, which turned out to be a very enjoyable experience for both of us. Sitting at the table in the lobby pre-show for the opening night of The Marriage of Figaro at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre felt a little like “bloggers on parade”, but it was very social as well. Plenty of friendly people dropping by to see what we were up to, with lots of questions about both the blogging world and that thing called the iPad that I happened to be working with (thx for the insight, Tris :p).

Having no opera experience whatsoever, I had no idea what I was in for. I did the usual Wikipedia lookup beforehand, and at least understood that I was going to see a comedic opera by Mozart. After we were settled in at the table, Terry Harper (Director of Production) came around and introduced himself before taking us on our backstage tour. It was a treat to be able to go behind the curtain and see the sets up close. An amazing amount of detail is visible everywhere, from props to backdrops. We learned a few interesting bits as well, like the fact that the complete set – costumes and all – was rented from Alberta. We also learned sticky floors are preferred by the actors, and are achieved with a mop and mixture of Coca-Cola and water.

Backstage

So for those of you that are opera-unaware like me, there are a few things to know. First, don’t worry about not knowing the language the opera is performed in. Thanks to “surtitles“, which are displayed above the stage, an English interpretation lets you follow what’s going on. Second, while being up close to the performers is a treat, if you sit very close (as we were fortunate enough to do) the surtitles end up being miles above your head. It’s critical that you get very skilled very quickly at looking up, looking back at the stage, looking up, looking back at the stage. I’m sure this is secretly done to amuse the performers as they play ’spot the newbies’ when looking out at us.

While I normally would prefer sitting up close like this during a live concert, I would recommend sitting further back in this case. I think for those of us that haven’t been to an opera before, or haven’t been much, sitting back far enough to see both the entire stage and the surtitles at once without taking your eyes completely off the performance would be beneficial. Fight the urge to buy the best, and give the close seats to those that know the language or the opera well and can take it in seamlessly.

I was told The Marriage Of Figaro is a great “first opera” and I for one am glad I was initiated by it. It was very enjoyable from start to finish. The story was well written and well accompanied, but the best entertainment came from the performers themselves. All of the players were very skilled vocally, as expected, but they also seemed right at home doing physical comedy. It was a great combination overall, and the 3+ hour length went by surprisingly quickly. It was also great to see the Vancouver area so well represented, with many of the cast members hailing from the Lower Mainland (including the Count, Countess and Marcellina). I also noticed that the packed house was full of all ages – good to see the variety and the interest for opera being so high.

The night ended with an after-party behind the stage where we got to mix & mingle with the cast & crew. It gave us another opportunity to show our appreciation for a great night. Thanks again to Ling and John for this opportunity, and I’m sure that another opera is in my future. Madama Butterfly…let’s see… a Japanese tragedy by Puccini, performed in Italian with English surtitles. Sounds perfect.

Thanks to Peter for filling in and the guest post of his experience at the Opera. Also check out my previous post about my first time at the Opera – John

Android and me

John / April 21, 2010 / Mobile, Technology / 1 Comment

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been lucky enough to have a few different Android handsets for review. This started late last year with the LG Eve handset (running an older version of Android)

followed by the Motorola Milestone (aka Droid) running 2.0.1 version of Android:

I’ve made a few serious attempts at using these handsets as my primary phone for a few days here and there, followed by a few full weekends and while I was in Austin for SXSW, I used the Milestone full time for a week. For a diehard iPhone user like me, at first it was tough but I figured it was the only way to give these devices a true test. Austin was probably the best test since I had no choice but to use it since turning on my Rogers iPhone would have killed me thanks to their expensive roaming/data plans.

I have to say after giving them the ‘college’ try, I’m actually rather impressed. There are plenty of shortcomings when compared to my beloved iPhone but at the same time, a lot of positives that I wish the iPhone had. Like Homer Simpson designing his own car, I realize that a hybrid phone that incorporates the features of both types of devices would be a frankenphone but some of the differences are undeniably attractive.

Take for instance the Android notifications. While nothing new as I had similar notifications on my old Treo, but this implementation is quite possibly one of the biggest time savers and single most useful thing I noticed while using the Milestone daily. Without even having to touch the device, I can see via a single LED light that I have new email, a new mention/direct message on Twitter or both – possibly more types of notifications if I installed more apps. In contrast, on the iPhone, I’d have to unlock the phone, launch the applicable app in order to see if there is anything new (assuming you have inbox:zero and/or only one email account, this may not be as big of an issue). Even when using multiple email accounts though, the notifications keep me updated on which account has new mail. I liked being able to pull down the notifications tab and get a preview of the updates from within any app. I could then choose to got back to the app I was using or click on the appropriate notification and be taken to that app for the full story.

One thing that I thought was behind us is the useless error messages like this that tend to pop up while launching an app:

The iPhone has app related crashes as well, it just seems to handle things better than this – especially for less tech savy users. Either the app will work or it won’t…a simple reboot usually fixes things. On the Android devices, there were a few apps that I could never get running no matter what I tried. This could be due to a number of variables but I’m leaning towards blaming the issues on the fragmented Android Marketplace where there are lots of apps with little or no quality control not to mention confusing requirements for usage based on the handset, carrier and version of Android you happen to be running. I’m also pretty sure the fact that I tried a few of these apps from Canada (via two different carriers) also caused some strange behaviour.

Performance
The LG Eve was running Android version 1.5 and it seemed a little sluggish to me. The Milestone on the other hand, running 2.0.1 of Android, seemed just as fast or faster than my iPhone 3GS. Apps loaded quickly and using various internet related functions were very fast. I also think Telus’ network contributed to the spryness of the device since it was running at 3.5G speeds. Even in my notoriously bad living room where one end of my couch is typically a Rogers deadzone (the other end is fine), Telus gave me full bars throughout the room.

The Camera
The Milestone has, on paper, a better camera than the iPhone (5 vs 3 megapixels). It also has a flash and an autofocus lens. I’m a camera geek and was flat out frustrated by the camera on the Milestone. So much so that I stopped bothering to try to take a decent photo with it. It was slow, had brutal shutter lag and inconsistent flash performance. It had a number of scene modes for things like macro and portrait (like a point and shoot) but simply navigating these options was slow enough to ‘ruin the moment’. Often the photos I’d take would end up looking like webcam stills, complete with raster lines. The iPhone camera may be lesser appointed, but at least it works. I also tried a number of the 3rd party apps and was still disappointed.

Battery life
The Milestone appeared to be pretty comparable to my 3GS. I had pretty much everything turned on for both devices (GPS, notifications, etc) and both devices would last a typical day after my moderate usage.

Keyboards
Both of the Android devices I used had a slide out keyboard. I still find these to be useless to me. Both the Milestone and the Eve had solid keyboards but both took up a fair amount of space and using the keyboard was still just awkward no matter how much I tried to get used to them. I actually preferred the Milestone’s onscreen portrait keyboard with its type ahead spellchecker function that would display all the possible words as you were typing. Like the iPhones spellcheck function, the Android system had some interesting replacement words that weren’t what I was trying to type…but at least I could see it on screen (along with other spellings and suggested words) and click directly on the correct one. It’s pretty unobtrusive but I did find a few times that I typed a long passage and realized that I had been auto-corrected incorrectly a few words ago. Correcting these was more clunky as being able to target a specific letter in a word was often an exercise in frustration trying to tap on it but not so hard that the useless context menu would pop up.

Form factor
I really liked the size/shape of the LG Eve…even with the unneeded keyboard, it was comfortable in my hand and slightly more comfortable than the iPhone. The Milestone on the otherhand, is bigger, thicker and heavier than the others. It’s also quite boxy. It’s not very comfortable in the hand due to its odd placement of the micro usb port and square lines. This is really too bad because it is a stunning device to look at, it’s just not great to hold onto for long periods of time. I’ve (briefly) played with a Google Nexus One and it seems to hit the sweet spot in Android land as far as form factor goes.

Conclusion
So like I said at the beginning of this post, I am impressed with what Google has done with Android, even more than I was expecting to be. There are still a number of rough edges but it has come a far ways in even the last couple of iterations. First time smartphone buyers owe it to themselves to at least check out devices like the Milestone before deciding on the iPhone.

Tonight I updated the Milestone to version 2.1 of Android and will be exploring those changes soon. Its also been interesting to see what the different manufacturers have done with their handsets running Android. Unlike Apple, there are a number of different form factors for people to choose from so while none have won me over like the iPhone, at least there are options out there that will only get better in time.

Unfortunately, Canada still gets the shaft as far as the delayed timing of the handset and firmware releases (and even the device names across the border) but perhaps that will change with the advent of Google selling the Nexus One handset directly (and factory unlocked) – others like Motorola and LG will hopefully follow suit. Nokia has been selling unlocked handsets directly for awhile now so it’s a trend I hope grows.

I’m also glad that Android is truly becoming a competitor for Apple…competition is great and only makes these devices better for consumers.

Gold Medal Sledge Hockey: 2200 Stills

John / April 19, 2010 / Photography, Video / Comments Off

During the Gold Medal Sledge Hockey game between Japan and USA, I shot just over 2200 still photos. I posted a number of them on Flickr but thought stringed together, they all made a pretty neat video:

To make this video, I used a very similar process to how I make my still photo based timelapse movies although instead of my point and shoot, I was using a Nikon D3. I simply exported all the photos in the appropriate size and imported them as an image sequence in Quicktime. I think the resulting video pretty turned out pretty cool.

The Big Hair Photoshoot

John / April 13, 2010 / Photography / 2 Comments

Earlier this week, I spent the day out near UBC doing a photoshoot that Barbara and I had been planning for a few months now. It was the first day when our schedules were open and she had managed to line up some fantastic people to help us out.

Makeup by Alecia Repp
Hair by Aaron Brousseau
Models: Claire & Barbara

Here’s a behind the scenes timelapse video that I put together of the process everyone went through:

I shot a LOT of photos for such a compressed period of time…it made it hard to narrow down my favorites so I uploaded one of the largest batches of photos from a single photoshoot. You can view the whole set on Flickr including a bunch of behind the scenes photos.

iCaved

John / April 5, 2010 / Photography, Technology / 12 Comments

Yes, I decided to head down to the Apple Store in the Alderwood Mall today and get my own 32gb Wifi iPad (for realz):

My original plan was to wait for the 3G model but then I realized that it’s highly unlikely that the cellular carriers in Canada will offer a compelling data option…specifically I want to be able to access the 6gb data plan I’m already paying for on Rogers. Tethering is the only real option as I’m not likely willing to pay $15-30 more a month for data for that device in addition to my iPhone. So I decided to drive down today after reading about an app (on Cydia for jailbroken iPhones) called MyWi that allows you to create a wireless network from your iPhone that the iPad can access. Like the early days of iPhone to laptop tethering, I’m sure this will only get better, if not fully supported by Apple, in the near future.

As you can see, it renders this site beautifully. So far, my ‘played with it for about two hours’ review is that it lives up to the hype…yes, it’s iPhone XL (or maybe even XXL) but that doesn’t make it any less useful.

It’s still really early days for the iPad App Store (which still only works with US iTunes Accounts) but some apps are already blowing me away like Korg’s $9.99 iElectribe:

(you can take screenshots just like on the iPhone by pressing the power + menu buttons)

Stay tuned for future posts once I’ve had a chance to play with it a little longer…assuming I can get it away from my Flight Control playing wife who has taken it…she now thinks it’s too small to play on her iPhone.

Oh and in case you were wondering, I named my iPad “Don’t Panic”.

Update: MyWi tethering successfully setup and working flawlessly via my iPhone 3GS: