F1: Vettel Condemns Karthikayan, Probably Unfairly

The Malaysian Grand Prix or more specifically the Malaysian weather produced a rollercoaster of a race on Sunday. One of those who was firmly on the losing side of things was double World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

The German punctured a rear tyre after colliding with HRT driver Narain Karthikayan when lapping the Indian towards the end of the race.

After the race Vettel accused Karthikayan of being a 'cucumber' in German interviews and an idiot in English.

Which seems a little harsh given that the Red Bull moved over on the HRT. Vettel needs to realise that he needs to get fully past his opponents before resuming his line, as this is not the first time this has happened to him.

Dirk Gently Another BBC Success

Its more than four decades since the triumphant BBC series The Hitch-hikers Guide to the  Galaxy burst onto our screens. This week we finally got the second of Douglas Adams' fabulous characters on our screens with the arrival of the BBC's dramatisation of Dirk Gently.

Whilst admitting that Stephen Mangan never crossed my mind as a potential candidate for playing the lead character, his performance in the role was perfect.

Whoever was responsible for weaving the themes from the book into a three part series has done a brilliant job.

If you haven't seen the series yet its available on iPlayer for a few more days I strongly urge you to catch it whilst you can.

Questions of Scale

Apple announced that it had achieved 3 million sales of the new iPad this weekend, its first on sale.

 

That's impressive by any measure and I'm willing to bet that in terms of market share that represents absolute market domination.

 

At the same time its fair to say that the competition has caught up and in some cases, surpassed the iPad's feature set.

  

As a piece of hardware its difficult to see how the iPad makes sense.

  

On the other hand, developers and accessory suppliers are vying to be first to market with the add-ons that make the iPad such a compellirg purchase.

 

Its interesting that there's only a £70 difference between the iPads - Suggesting Apple doesn't have the inventory problem that afflicted the original iPad when the second generation device launched.

 

Whilst apple hasn't done anything innovative with the new iPad it has shown the competition how big a task they face in overhauling it...

F1: Rivals Question Mercedes Aero tricks

During preseason testing the Mercedes team were very careful to keep the fear of the new 2012 car well covered and away from prying eyes. It seems that Ross Brawn and his team have got the jump on their rivals with a neat aerodynamic trick that should net them a smalI but tactically important straight line speed advantage.

The trick involves a small duct that is uncovered when the DRS system is activated. Air is channeled along the car and released into the front wing area to 'stall' the front wing.

Rival teams have claimed that the DRS is driver operated and therefore cannot be used for aerodynamic advantage. Which seems a highly suspect argument to me. And it would appear that FIA Technical Delegate Charlie Whiting agrees, having cleared the setup in its design phase.

Let's hope that an appeal isn't allowed to detract from the racing and the other teams choose the option to copy rather than protest.

F1 desperately needs some variety at the front of the field. lnnovation is the only way to guarantee that...

New iPad: Evolutionary, Whatever Apple Says

Tim Cook ended his keynote today by promising 'more of this kind of innovation' - after introducing the evolutionary iPad HD and Apple TV 2012.
 
Fair play, squeezing a 4G radio, bigger battery and high resolution screen into a shell only 22% thicker than it's predecessor is an achievement, but innovation? That's not what I call innovation.

The worry for Apple fans is that this is what will pass for innovation in the post-Jobs era... which would be bad news for the whole computer industry.

Sorry Tim, but the iPhone 5 needs to be something special to restore the momentum lost with the iPad 2, iPhone 4S and today's iPad HD...