Well regardless of the name this product is certainly a game changer and can’t wait to get my hands on one. The reason I think it will be a game changer despite some fairly rough initial reviews is the fact the pricing model is low enough to make this a main stream product.

Think about it, if you only browse the net, use email, listen to music and go on Facebook what more do you need and with the addition of Office style applications for basic wordprocessing and spreadsheets it will fit the needs of 90% of users – I think being part of the tech community we forget that 90% maybe even 95% of people do not have such high requirements of their hardware and only use a fraction of their devices power and feature set.

The big thing I think it will change is how we digest our media, there is something to be siad for flicking through the paper, reading articles that grab your attention – well online news sites arent really like this – however with the iPad can see traditional publishing styles coming to this device and I would expect to be able to subscribe to most mainstream newpapers and magazines through this channel.

I also think that it will take a big chunk out of the handheld gaming market, particullarly the Nintendo DS. Whilst the graphics are not amazing on the iPad it is certainly a step in that direction from Apple and after the success of Game Apps on the iPhone they will be sure to be looking to capitalise, the presentation from the guys from EA on Need for Speed in the Keynote Video was amazing.

So what does this all mean for iPad App Developers?

Well there is a new SDK available which I have downloaded, I would love to tell you about it but developers have had to sign up to an online NDA in order to get the SDK, personally I think this is wishful thinking on the part of Apple as stuff is bound to be tweeted over the next 2 months before the devices ship.

I think there are now countless opportunities foriPad App developers to really create killer apps particularly given the larger screen resolution at 1024×768 and the mass market adoption I believe that device will recieve.

Microgeneration is all about generating your own heat and power at home using various new technologies such as Biomass Boilers, Micro CHP Units, Ground Source Heat Pumps and Solar PV units.

The website is due to launch in the coming weeks and there is currently a blog containing lots of informations about Microgeneration. Once the site is launched it will be a great resource for the consumer to simplify the process of understanding micro generation particularly with the goverment launching it’s Feed in Tariff in April this year which will mean home owners will be paid for every unit of electricity they generate.

Some say he sleeps for just 2 hours a night

Some say he has been out with one of the Spice Girls

All we know is he’s the STIG.

Well unfortunately this is no the longer the case after the mysterious driving legend from the BBC’s Topgear was revealed to be Ben Collins a racing and stunt driver.

Apparently Collins was in an art shop in Bristol looking for a Stig picture, when he let slip – rather self indulgent!

So inspred by the classic World War poster “Your Country Needs You” I have now posted my own version around the office to remind people that time needs tracking.

Titled Your Company Needs You – Time Sheets – Dont be a tit about it.

You can see the poster below and if you have Tickspot trouble then why not download it and put it around your offiice.

So how can you protect your personal reputation?

#1 Start a Blog and buy some domains

Starting a blog is easy and can be done completely free with no experience what so ever. Visit www.wordpress.com and register your blog name. Make sure you try and use your real name as your login and hyphenate or come up with a sensible alternative if it is not available, something like firstname-surname.wordpress.com is perfect.

If you do have a small budget and a little bit of technical expertise then it can pay dividends to buy your own personal domain name and host a blog there.

Search engines particularly Yahoo and Live will rank your personal domain name with almost no effort at all.

#2 Use you real name

Too many people comment on blogs with there online pseudonym bigballs6 and BoyRacer, why?

Unless you have something to hide use your real name, that way any time you comment on a blog, post to a forum, or get tagged in picture, that page is likely to be returned in Googles results when someone searches on your name.

There is a great post from Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz on the subject of personal branding

#3 Setup Profiles on Popular Professional Networking sites

The last 2 years has seen an explosion in social networking sites, with many of these sites now ranking well for Name searches. A good profile on these sites coupled with a blog and a few other little tricks can see you owning the front page of Google for any name searches particularly if you have a more unique name like Dave Carruthers

We would recommend setting up accounts on the following sites as a priority

1. Ecademy
2. LinkedIn
3. Xing.com
4. Naymz.com
5. LookupPage.com (They will even bid on your name with Google Adwords and by a personal domain name for $65 per year)

All of these sites contain alert systems so you know exactly when your profile has been viewed.

Once you have profiles on all these sites make sure you link them all together by adding links to your other profiles on each profile page, this well help them rank well in the search engines.

#4 Protect your Facebook/MySpace/Bebo/etc…account

People always say never mix business with pleasure and Facebook and My Space could not be better proof of that.

Make sure you make sure your account is locked down so only people you accept as friends can see your profile.

Do you really want your next employer or business partner to see pictures of what you and your mates got up to on Nobby’s stag doo – definitely not.

Lock it down and think about who you accept as a friend, as it may come back to haunt you.

#5 Its Twitter time

Twitter.com is a relatively new  concept  to many of microblogging but again choosing the right user name here is essential, choose your real name and that page will start to rank for name searches on Google.

To visit my twitter page checkout http://www.twitter.com/DaveCarruthers

Twitter is a great way to connect with like minded individuals in your industry, for ease of use I use TwitterFox to update my Twitter status.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger fame has got a great blog with lots of tips on how to get started with Twitter

So that concludes my 5 killer tips to protecting you personal reputation online, if you have any questions or comments please do get in touch.

Simply add your twitter username and password (the tool does not store this, but change your password after if worried) then paste the list of people you want to follow.

This nifty little tool allows you to add a whole bunch of influential people in your industy really easily. I would recommend that you fill in your bio and make 20-30 useful posts before attempting a bulk follow as you are more likely to get people following you in return if you look like a valuable member of the community.

To help get you started check out the links below.

Internet Marketers on Twitter
UK PRs on Twitter
UK Journalists on Twitter

Please feel free to add any other lists you find.

Each search result now has a up and down arrow next to it allowing you to personalise your search results for any search term. Really taking search to a brand new level.

Even more powerful than that is the fact that you can now add any web page into the search results simply by going to the footer and clicking Add a result – see the screen shot below for an example where Audi now appear above BMW -  I am sure you could play a couple of tricks on Corporate marketing departments with this one.

More importantly than all this is you can also see what other users have suggested or bumped up the search rankings for the search term you are looking at just by click See all notes for this SearchWiki.

It is going to be very interesting to see on where Google takes this technology and how much it will affect the natural search listings over time. In the same way sites like Digg and Sphinn take user votes and authority into consideration when ranking search results, is Google handing some of this power back to the Users is Google search going social?

What impact will this have one SEO as industry probably not much short term but long term it does pose some interesting questions.

Check out the SearchWiki demo by Google Engineer Amay below

Its quite old now but still woth a look – checkout the guys who made it at http://www.idiotsofants.com

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

Check it out at www.evernote.com or watch the video below.

This has got me thinking lots about how to best use twitter for me and my clients, so I have set a challenge to try and get 100 followers in 7 days.

Its Twittering time