Fredrik was driven out of bed by deep huuungerrr ...

I did some carefully planned shopping today. Most important was this:

My very first moka coffee pot. If you have never seen one, I recommend the external to wikipedia.

Every time I have knowingly had moka brewed coffee, it has been excellent. Sort of like espresso, but with its own full and round feel. I also suspect that the uniformly excellent coffee I had each morning during a wonderful week in Verona a couple of year back may have been moka brewed, but I have no proof of this.

In any case, from time to time I have missed the ability to produce small amounts of stronger coffee at home. I do like the coffee produced by my humble press very much (I dare say the quality is consistently above that of most other machines I have tried, home as well as office/hi-volume ones), but it requires a certain minimum amount to do a good job, and you simply never get anything truly espresso-like out of it. A real espresso machine still feels like vast overkill to me, but as soon as I started to learn more about moka pots I felt an immediate appeal. The whole concept is no nice and simple, and ones made for just a few cups seemed common.

Thus, I began checking prizes and sizes, and, as is so often the case, real life filtered down the options quite a bit. To start off, brand-name moka pots just felt too expensive to a beginner like me. So, off they went. The limited selection of pots in stores provided another great filter One sunny Saturday in July, I went around to some stores and had a look at their options. It turned out that many had a very sparse selection of moka pots, and when they had one, it was often either expensive, for more cups than I needed, or both. I primarily wanted my pot for personal use, so I figured one sized for two or three cups would be about right. Having checked on Prisjakt (a Swedish price comparison site) I knew what one might be found for. The large stores I checked had a few pots with neither felt too appealing, nor were cheap enough to make up for the lack of appeal.

However, there was no need to despair. From Prisjakt, I knew that there was a store right next to where I live which had moka pots at good prices. That was where I made my way after a fun but fruitless excursion to many other stores. The name of the store is Kaffelunden, and as soon as I stepped inside the cosy store I found some nice looking moka pots at just the right price and size. Prefect. Deciding on one of three colours seemed to be the only problem.

But I had not counted on the great service I would receive. After exchanging a few words with the nice woman manning the store, she pointed out that they had a special offer on pots of two different colours right now. So, if I chose one of those colours, I would get a pot at half the price I had even seen anywhere else. While thinking, I also got a quick but thorough introduction to using a moka pot as well as a demonstration of a coffee grinder. Finally, I settled on the nice red pot pictured above. Yes, it was one of the colours covered by the special offer. That did not matter for the service level though, the packaging was opened, carefully checked for defects and switched for a different one when some colour scratches were noticed. I left Kaffelunden very happy with my purchase and certain I will come back many more times. They also have a shop online, so if you live in Sweden and need some coffee related items I highly recommend you check Kaffelunden out.

See, this is what providing good service gets you.

Once home, it was high time for lunch, and then of course for the maiden brew.

My brother had told me that it took some experience to get the hang of moka brewing. With that in mind, I think the first brew went splendidly. (I did of course follow the Kaffelunden woman's adivice to the letter.) My pot rated for three (espresso sized) cups produced about one standard cup's worth of coffee just as strong, black and well-rounded as I had hoped for.

All is well that ends well. My moka brewing life is just beginning, but it certainly has begun very well indeed.

What I am talking about when I talk about running is a book by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It has a sort of diary or refined diary form, as the chapters are in chronological order and written on given dates. The binding theme is the author's relation to and thoughts about running.

To condense my experience: after finishing the book I went out for a 20 kilometer run (my longest in over two months), and every step and breath was thoroughly enjoyable.

I think I have found the energy and fun in running again after a sort of slow period. It is, of course, not all because of the book. There are a whole series of circumstances and events which together make up this pleasant situation. But having the book right at the end of the chain seems completely right.

There are many things i recognize, from thoughts about life, how running connects and relates to the rest of it, to certain types of feelings while running. All filtered through and clarified by the humble mind of a writer with much more experience. It is a great joy to be able to relate to someone like this, to feel that you can connect with someone higher up a ladder of some type of experience.

I got the book as a birthday present, a fantastically right present to give a runner who is becoming one year older. So right that I can think of several people who , in turn,I might give it to, spreading it like a positive virus.

So, thank you for sharing, mister Murakami! I am looking forward to reading some of your other books as well.  

Fredrik har så äntligen skaffat mokabryggare. Kaffelunden är en butik som gör en glad! Efter maten blir det premiärbrygg, alla är välkomna.

Fredrik är lite imponerad över hurpass snabbt och exakt Ipaden hittar min GPS-position, även inne i min välavskärmade bostad.

Fredrik har sett två filmer ordentligt de senaste dagarna, i motsats till att bara titta på dem. Fokus, inga avbrott, inlevelse.

Fredrik noterar att jag fick simkortet för min Ipad inom tre arbetsdagar och att det funkar perfekt. Hur lång tid tog det nu för mina kollegor ...

Fredrik tittade just på en filmsnutt med min Ipad balanserande på en hushållspappershållare. Jag skulle nog använda ett ställ om jag hade ett ...

Fredrik firar lång cykeltur och plötslig löprunda med mat och storfika.

Fredrik undrar om jag helt tappat förmågan att ta sovmorgon, eller om den återkommer efter lite mer ledighet.

Other people may be more difficult to convince, but I am on my third day of Ipad ownership and already just as sold on it as I expected to be. Even though the Ipad experience can be quite correctly characterized as that of a larger Iphone, that simple scaling at the same time makes everything completely different. In a way, I find the Ipad experience more exciting and full of unexplored possibilities than the Iphone ever was. This is the first time someone has created an excellent device of this size and has got so many great developers on board to explore and define the experience. While Iphone apps often and naturally tend to end up sharing many paradigms (most importantly "navigation by drilling down lists") the screen and power of the Ipad provides the room for a lot more individual and focused designs. I hope for and expect a lot of fantastic designs moving forward, designs which we would never see on the Iphone or any other device.

Is there a case for a case?

Friends of mine did the actual purchase of my Ipad, and from their own experience  they bought me Apple's Ipad case as well. I would not have bought a case myself, at least not right away, but now that I have one I have already used it. The feel with and without a case is pretty different. Putting the Ipad in the case, or removing it, takes a bit of work (and a measured amount of force), so it it not something you feel like doing very often. I have only inserted and removed the Ipad from the case once so far, and both times I started wondering how resistant the case might be to careless pushing and pulling. Although nice and rubbery, it somehow does not give that Apple feel of luxury and build quality that, for example, the Ipad itself does. Update: the case eases up with use, subsequent insertions and removals are noticeably easier.

My main use of the case so far is for its functionality as a stand. Getting a little bit of height and angle while typing in bed like this is very convenient, plus the case provides more grip and friction whether you hold it or rest it on some surface. I can see a case making me feel a lot better about setting the pad down anywhere and everywhere while out and about, but in a way it feels like a created need and point. That is, would I ever have worried about that if I did not have a case? I have gone happily case-less for all my Ipods as well as my Iphone (and previous phones for that matter). Then again, all those are held the vast majority of the time, while a Ipad is definitely put down or propped up against something much more often.

I will probably keep using the case, or at least a case, whenever I pack the Ipad into a bag. Yesterday it got to travel, inside the case, in my backpack together with a whole lot of groceries, and that would not have felt quite as good without a little extra cover over the screen. Perhaps transportation mode is the deciding factor - if something will travel in shirt or pants pockets I feel no need for a case, but for something which is likely to go inside a backpack or bag I do.

Connectivity

I have already had the time to miss 3G connectivity a few times. My SIM card will hopefully arrive in the next few days, and this just removes any last hesitation about whether I would actually find the extra cost worth it. It is of course no guarantee that I will use it all the time, but having felt limited by its lack already me and that I will definitely appreciate having the persistent connection.

Random application notes

Yes, everything is just so much smoother and faster than on the Iphone (but I should note that I have yet to try an Iphone 4). Safari is a dream to use.

Using Flipboard, a just released news reader-ish app, really feels like living in the future. Smooth, stylish, all laid out for you. There is no telling how amazing it might end up being if they keep improving it along the lines already in place.

I have yet to decide on an app for RSS reading, as the free options seem a bit limited and I want to research properly before purchasing an app. Currently, though, Reeder seems like an attractive option.

However, i may well be able to live without dedicated apps for some purposes (RSS and Facebook come to mind) as Safari on thee Ipad is such a wonderful experience.

That said, well made native apps with innovative functionality should blow web alternatives out of the water. But using Facebook or Google reader in Safari on the Ipad is a world of difference to doing the same thing on the Iphone. Smooth and quick and of course with a whole different resolution and screen size. So I am not in any desperate hurry.

Notes app annoyance: while typing in landscape mode, it is not hard to accidentally tap the list of notes while aiming for the top left keys (q, w, e, r), suddenly throwing yourself out of editing and into a whole different note. It does not lose you any data, but it sure breaks your stride.

Lost apps

To my surprise, and, I have to say, more of delight than disappointment, the Ipad ships without some of Apple's default applications. There is no stocks app to hide away as far as you can anymore, neither is there a weather app. Nor, for less clear reasons, is there a calculator any more. Voice memos are gone too. Perhaps Apple removed everything for which there are plenty of options in the app store? In any case, I doubt the apps will be missed by many, and the certainly are not missed by me.

Typing

I am currently trying to get into something approaching touch typing on the landscape keyboard. It seems to be coming along rather well. Portrait actually sort of works for this too, but there I am more likely to be holding the Ipad in both hands and use classic thumb typing. That is a bit slower due to the larger movements required compared to the Iphone, but it works just fine.

There is no support for a Swedish keyboard or dictionary yet, which makes typing in my mother tongue rather like a constant fight with the whole system. But I knew that from the start, and know support will come, and until then I am happy to do most of my writing in English. I am curious, though, if the occasional outbreaks of Swedish will wreak any havoc on the dictionary ...

One thing I notice is that English corrections and dictionary seems quite a bit better than the Swedish ones on the Iphone. I feel like I can trust them more here and type faster. But of course the larger keys alone probably play a big part in this.

Orientation aspects

On the whole, I am using the Ipad in landscape mode a whole lot more than I ever have with the Iphone. The combination of a keyboard large enough for both hands, plenty of space left to see where you are typing and many well-designed landscape modes combine to make landscape mode a whole lot more useful on the Ipad. I dare say supporting landscape mode well is a lot more important for an app on the Ipad than it was on the Iphone.

Battery life

In short: yes, absolutely. My Ipad indicated 75% charge when I first turned it on. It turned out my Imac does not supply enough power through USB for charging, so all the initial syncing was done on battery power. After that, I let it charge to full power (both using it and letting it just charge). Then I unplugged it, and it has been running on that one charge ever since. The charge was finished on Friday evening. I am now well into Sunday afternoon, and the indicator, while getting low, has yet to turn red or otherwise announce that it is running dry. Once again, the difference from the Iphone (or the laptops I have used) under similar usage is just amazing. Even more so when I consider the fact that the Ipad has this enormous screen and other hungrier hardware under the hood compared to my Iphone (3G).

Closing notes, for now

The Ipad does not charge at all from USB on my Imac. Low power, as games of old would have put it.

This text was entirely written and edited on the Ipad, in the Notes application.

Yes, including the HTML markup. That, I will certainly not be doing regularly in the Notes app ...

Fredrik just tried the special edition of Monkey island 2 for the Ipad: oh yes! It and Brushes are the evening's purchases.

Fredrik am wondering which Twitter app I should use for the Ipad.

Fredrik am wondering how I could fail to notice until now that the Ipad ships without stocks, weather, calculator and some more little apps?

Fredrik lade mig i 20-någonting kvalmiga grader. Vaknade pigg till 17 grader och ösregn. Hur skönt som helst!

Fredrik slightly dehydrated and with Sparks buzzing around my head.

Fredrik drabbad av oerhörda problem med bussen - sen ankomst, slö luftkonditionering och VIP-loungen på hållplatsen var stängd.

Fredrik hade rätt: http://bit.ly/aObfPD

Fredrik antar att någon redan tänkt på att det borde finnas ett Ipadställ som ser ut som en solros-Imac.

Fredrik äter billig glass med hemlagad chokladsås och inleder en första lyssning på Kents senaste.