If you thought I was trying to keep my love for moviepegs and iPads a secret, you must not follow me on twitter. You should follow me on twitter, I’m pretty funny sometimes. Not on purpose.

Anyway, I got this moviepeg for iPhone a little while ago. It’s a really good idea – stands the phone up at a nice angle so you can watch things on the bus or train or in the car (don’t do it in the car) without having to hold it the whole time. First world problems, right?

Fast forward a number of months. Let’s say seven. The iPad was released and, big iPod Touch though it is, it’s great methadone to the heroin that is my addiction to the internet. The large, responsive touchscreen is great for simple tasks, but the width in any orientation is a pain in the ass. Holding in your hands and typing with your thumbs doesn’t work. Lying the iPad on your lap and craning your back over it and typing that way works, but it’s annoying. It’s actually a fundamental problem with all tablet computers. First world problems, right?

The good people at magneticNorth share my dislike for small annoyances and decided to redesign the moviepeg for iPad. It took them a while, but then the good things do. When it was finally announced, I was pretty gleeful. There are a lot of stands, but you either have to sacrifice portability or aesthetics and I don’t like doing either of those things, so I waited.

When it arrived the other day, it was exactly what I was hoping for. It’s versatile enough to hold at a good level for watching things and typing in any orientation. I was pretty skeptical of how things would work whilst seated, but as long as you’ve got two points on a relatively flat plane it works perfectly. So there, I’m happy. Isn’t it wonderful? It’s so wonderful that you should go and get one for yourself. Even if you don’t have an iPad.

MEGAPIXELS! At last, we’ve got some megapixels. Anyone who’s anyone knows that if your camera doesn’t have megapixels coming out the wazoo, it’s not worth your precious time. So, now that the iPhone is rockin’ 5 whole megapixels, it’s automatically good. Because, a shitty, blurred, noisy photo is automatically better when it’s bigger.

I’m super-impressed with the quality of images coming out of the new iPhone. Yeah, there are probably better cameras you can put into a phone, but there aren’t better phones so that argument becomes kinda moot from my point of view. The way I like to test a decent quality camera is to take low-light photos with it. You’ll find that you can get a decent result with basically any camera if there’s abundant light, but how often do you get perfect light? Never, that’s how often.

So, on my sobering-up, American-Dad-watching journey home from Hove last night, I thought I’d see what sort of results I could get from the updated iPhone camera. I am pleasantly surprised with the results:

The first thing I noticed to my tastes is how noise is handled. Yes, the images got quite noisy, but the deviation from the true colour is much improved with this new camera. By contrast, by iPhone 3G would always throw purples into noise, making it look quite terrible. A lot of cameras do this; I don’t know why.

The image also appears quite stable. The (not always correct/intended) focal points are in focus, even with my rubbish trembling hand, which is another marked improvement on the previous phone.

The iPhone camera is now much quicker to respond. This is a huge advantage over even quite expensive point-and-shoots that I’ve had the displeasure of using. When I hit the shutter release, that’s when I want the photo taken – not in a few seconds. Charlotte’s Canon G9 is a huge offender for this, and phones I’ve used previously have been as well. One of the main reasons for my preference of SLRs over more consumer-aimed cameras (I know, who hasn’t got an SLR) is that the shutter responds instantly. This is the first (admittedly, not of many) non-SLR that has an acceptably immediate shutter release.

Whilst I could go further into the clarity of images compared with previous iterations, you can see all that from the photos. These points are the main, non-immediately-obvious reasons that the iPhone camera has vastly improved with iPhone 4. I even went out yesterday for the first time in nearly two years without taking my main camera with me.

I should point out that these images aren’t intended to be an exercise in “look at this beautiful photo I’m proud of”, more, “look at how well this performs in these conditions”.

Just got back from seeing Up. Greatest animated movie I’ve ever seen. Bar none. I have no idea how Pixar always excel themselves, but they do. They’re just the most amazing, cute, imaginative, heart-warming movies I think you could want. Screw Dreamworks and their lame-ass tripe. Pixar til I die (hardcore’s overrated).

Oddly, though – these glasses fit my double-wide head perfectly. These kids don’t stand a chance.

I was always going to watch this movie. Against my better judgement, I had to. The first was one of the most astoundingly ambiguous and engrossing movies that basically anything namesaking it is work a look-in. I read essay upon essay, I did the website treasure hunt, everything I could find. I came to my own conclusions, not about how time travelling “works”, but about why Donnie was given the powers that he was given. However wrong my conclusions were, they totally made sense to me.

The original being so open to interpretation, and that you could make any interpretation work are why you can’t just give some hack free reign to do whatever he wants with it!

As much as it may tempt you, seriously don’t be taken in by S. Darko. It’s a waste of your life that you don’t have the commodity of time travel to undo.

We love The Boxer Rebellion in this house. They don’t play the around here often enough – we’re used to being in Birmingham where they play pretty frequently. They’re one of the best-produced live bands I’ve ever seen so when I get wind that they’re playing, I make effort to get there. It’s difficult to make an associative recommendation of TBR because you should just like them. They don’t write catchy pop tunes, but each of their songs sticks in your head. They aren’t terribly brash or offensive, they’re just a great-sounding band who clearly love what they do. This is the important factor for me.

All this being said, whoever picks their support acts needs to lay off whatever it is they’re laying on. There’s no need to book shitty indie-by-numbers bands to make TBR sound better because they are always great. Nevertheless, tonight was a douzie.

First “act” took the form of Red Drapes (I’m not linking to their myspace as that will cement an association with them and I don’t want that), who were utterly awful. The whole band seemed totally bewildered by their surroundings and instruments in a way that didn’t work at all. I’ve seen live acts fight with their instruments before and it can be a really effective show, but the key is to have good songs as a contrast. It becomes ironic, which you can appreciate in context. Red Drapes play safe, boring songs which seem to be trying to piggyback the latent Kaiser Chiefs success of over-anunciated narrative and little discernible musical talent. The less said about it, the better (though I’ll probably say the most about them – it’s so much easier to belittle than to give praise!).

Next up were female-fronted Kaputt. Don’t think badly of me for making a deal out of the female member, because it’s unavoidable. It’s not very often I come across girl musicians who I would listen to more than once (I am personally obliged to mention the awesome Made out of Babies each time I talk about women in music) so I make a deal out of it. Kaputt will certainly not be everyone’s cup of tea; simple-concept songs with very few lyrics, chanted rather than sung with the occasional 80s-sounding keys and a guitarist who’s really just taking up space. A welcome swill of mouthwash to clear the nasty taste of Red Drapes (there’s a crude metaphor in there – watch me sidestep it gracefully).

Onto the raison d’être. I won’t ever be someone to say that anything is perfect, but TBR do their best to make that difficult for me. Because of their true indie upbringing, their live sound isn’t far removed from that of the studio. However, to watch them is to truly appreciate just how much they enjoy doing what they do and this is the reason to go. A band that is inexplicably always the bridesmaid (once supported by the now-far-too-successful Editors) has never seemed disheartened and continue to lose themselves on stage – the minutes of their set just disappears. Playing a great range of tracks from both of their studio albums and their great rapport with the crowd makes you forget that the air conditioning is leaking on you and you’re sweating horribly. It’s not often I will tell someone to listen to a band but, The Boxer Rebellion, you should. Go to their shows (they will be near you at some point, I almost guarantee it), buy their CDs and enjoy them.

(Sorry, Piers. One day I’ll come to a show and take only pictures of your dark-corner-hiding self!)

More photos of The Boxer Rebellion at The Joiners on May 15th 2009