Not Enough Time.

It would be fascinating to line up every book, comic, film, newspaper, article, magazine, internet source and television programme that you wanted to watch and actually see how much time it would take to get through them all. Obviously this would be a counter productive process and would only include those items you knew existed at the time (and of course there are many of the above medium in the years to come that we will want to consume that we don't yet know about). This is a long way round of saying that there is far too much information and entertainment to consume and not enough time. Most of us have full time jobs. We have social lives. We have partners and friends. How the hell do you get through everything?

Those of us out there who don't find it a problem would simply say, it comes down to 'choice'. You simply chose what you want to consume and accept that you will never be able to access everything. Companies like Google make the process easier. They allow you to narrow searches down. But for many that is not enough. The fact that they crave information is too strong - they will spend a lifetime trying to read all of it.

Recently I found that in my daily routine there was probably close to 30 websites that I visited on a regular basis. These comprised my usual favourite topics of gadgets, tech, comics, movies, sport, general news and recruitment/ legal for work. On top of this there were the various apps that I use on both my iPhone and iPad - the likes of Zite and Flipboard - which attempt to break info down in to easy to swallow bites. The point is that in any given day, it isn't possible to really get through that much information and still work and sleep.

In my effort to try and control what I consume and when, I decided to pick a handful of sites that are 'daily' reads. That is a site that updates daily and has enough substantive information to make it worthwhile visiting 5 times a week (I get the weekend off). I have used Google bookmarks for a while now (means you can access your bookmarks from any computer) so I have thousands of favourite sites all categorised. I simply went through the key categories and picked those that would give me the broadest overview - the Guardian and International Herald Tribune for news. Comicbookresources and Aintitcool for geeky stuff. CNET, Mashable and Wired for techy stuff. BBC for sport, twitter trends for well twitter and theotherside which is a nice London-centric site, handy for letting you know things going on in the capital.

One page of bookmarks - accessible on every gadget I own - takes me 20- 30 minutes to get through it and at the end I feel like I have covered everything I need. Add in a quick view of Flipboard and all is good in the world of info-jocking. Of course this doesn't help me catch up with 17 different seasons of my favourite tv shows!

Of course, the other option is to use an aggregator. Try popurls.com. This site pulls anything of importance on the Internet into one page - and breaks it down into categories. You could spend years on this site - it has articles, videos, pictures - everything. It's definitely worth a visit every now and then.

Due 20 April 2011

Avengers #12
Batman #709Gotham City Sirens #22
Green Lantern #65
Green Lantern Corps #59Haunt #15Zatanna #12

I have actually enjoyed the new Avengers run - historically I never really collected the Avengers but Romita and his art has really worked for me and the story is definitely an interesting premise within the Marvel world. Haunt is still excellent and the War of the Green Lanterns is a must read.

Due 6 April 2011

Brightest Day #23

Fear Itself #1 (Of 7)

Ultimate Comics Captain America #4 (Of 4)

Due 13 April

Batgirl #20

Batman And Robin #22

Birds Of Prey #11

Black Panther Man Without Fear #517

Carnage #4 (Of 5)

Flash #10

Justice League Generation Lost #23

Red Robin #22

Ultimate Avengers Vs New Ultimates #3 (Of 6)

Due 30th March

Avengers #11Black Panther Man Without Fear #516Captain America And Secret Avengers #1 (maybe)Deadpool Corps #12Detective Comics #875Gotham City Sirens #21
Green Arrow #10
Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #8Secret Avengers #11Ultimate Comics X #4Zatanna #11

The Captain America trailer looks pretty good. The Wonder Woman costume - not sure it is gonna work for TV. Death of Spider-Man Ultimate story is so far pretty good. Oh and War of the Green Lanterns is definitely heating up.

Due 23 March 2011

Batman Incorporated #4
Batman Odyssey #7 (Of 13)
Batman Streets Of Gotham #21
Batman The Dark Knight #2
Daredevil Reborn #3 (Of 4)
Green Lantern #64
Green Lantern Corps #58
Justice League Generation Lost #22
X-Men #9

Due 16 March 2011

Batman #708
Brightest Day #22DC Universe Legacies #10 (Of 10)Green Lantern #64Ultimate Avengers Vs New Ultimates #2 (Of 6)

The iPad 2?

So, a new iPad. Cunningly called iPad 2. I haven't had the pleasure of playing with one yet, but from what I can see they look nice. I like the thinness. I like the faster speed. I like the camera, although I have a camera in every other gadget I own. What megapixel is it? They didn't really go into that, did they? I like the alternative colour choice. White and... White is good.

I read a very good article (and wish I could remember where) where the writer was describing how he didn't want his existing iPad to find out that he might be considering upgrading to the new iPad (this was pre iPad 2 announcement). The article listed all the things that he wished it would have. The camera x 2 was in there. No mention of colour or indeed speed (although no one is going to argue with double the speed). Size and weight were mentioned in passing.

For anyone who already owns an iPad however, the original is a very good gadget. The first time I played with one I wasn't impressed, but retrospectively, I didn't really investigate the apps (and the apps really make the iPad). After a few further plays, I was hooked and I have to say I have no regrets in purchasing one. I use it all the time and find its usability hugely refreshing.

The tablet is not yet a replacement for a laptop... it's nearly there, but not quite. In my opinion, currently Apple are best placed to push the tablet to its limits (although the alternatives are putting in a very good fight), but Apple have missed a few tricks. For me to upgrade at this point... I'd expect an SD card slot, USB and a higher spec camera x 2. For now I am going to wait to see what the iPad 3 has in store. I certainly wouldn't upgrade a laptop after 6 or 7 months and as I treat my iPad like a laptop (even though it isn't quite the full replacement) I'm going to stick with a gadget that does not need upgrading.