The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) is holding an unspecified press event on Wednesday March 2^nd at 6pm GMT, which coincides exactly to the Apple iPad 2 launch event.

Now this could be pure coincidence, but throw into the mix that the BBC event will be hosted by none other than self confessed Apple fan Stephen Fry and this sets alarm bells ringing. Mr Fry was one of the first people to get their hands on the original iPad last year so it all starts to make sense, well a little anyway!

Another point to note, prior to the launch of the BBC’s iPlayer app for iPad earlier this month, an engineer working on the project for the BBC tweeted that the BBC app “Will take advantage of the higher-res screen that the iPad 2 has got.” “HD content will look good.”

Now we have since heard rumor after rumor that the iPad 2 will have the same display as the current version, but this may throw a spanner into the works. Will there be a live link between the two events? Are they connected? Is this just a coincidence? On Wednesday we will find out for sure!

[Electronista]

The White iPhone 4 has been spotted in the hands of Stephen Fry at the T3 Gadget Awards 2010. According to T3, Fry was talking about the Windows Phone 7 launch that he had attended earlier that day. When he reached for the new Windows Phone 7 that Microsoft had given him, however, Fry inadvertently pulled out his White iPhone 4.

Fry proceeded to taunt the audience and claimed that it was “The only white iPhone 4 currently in Europe”.

With the white iPhone 4 still unavailable to order from Apple, people are speculating how Stephen got his hands on the device. Was it an aftermarket job or is he in possession of one of the ‘ready-to-go’ white iPhone units? If the latter, could we see the white iPhone 4 before the holiday season?

[Gaj-it.com]

by George Lim

Time Magazine has given their April 12, 2010 cover to Steve Jobs, and features a massive interview of Apple’s CEO alongside design SVP Jonathan Ive, marketing SVP Phil Schiller, and internet (iTunes, MobileMe, App Store) SVP Eddy Cue by none other than Stephen Fry. (He also talks to publishers, educators, developers, and more).

Fry meeting with Steve Jobs:

His pleasure in showing me the Winnie the Pooh iBook bundled with every iPad is unaffected and engaging. He demonstrates how the case can be used as a lectern and as a stand. “I think the experience of using an iPad is going to be profound for many people,” he says. “I really do. Genuinely profound.” That rings a bell. “I’ve heard it said that this is the device for you,” I reply. “The one that will change everything.” “When people see how immersive the experience is,” Jobs says, “how directly you engage with it … the only word is magical.”

Jonathan Ive on the missing features:

“In many ways, it’s the things that are not there that we are most proud of,” he tells me. “For us, it is all about refining and refining until it seems like there’s nothing between the user and the content they are interacting with.”

And Fry’s final thoughts:

It is possible that the public will not fall on the iPad, as I did, like lions on an antelope. Perhaps they will find the apps and the iBooks too expensive. Maybe they will wait for more fully featured later models. But for me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist’s rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands. One melancholy thought occurs as my fingers glide and flow over the surface of this astonishing object: Douglas Adams is not alive to see the closest thing to his Hitchhiker’s Guide that humankind has yet devised.

Read the full article, it’s well worth it, and let us know how you think Fry did with his thus-far unmatched time and access to Apple’s iPad brain trust.

[via Apple Insider, thanks pcdsim for the tip!]

The first reviews are in, and now we’ve got a real live iPad unboxing vidoes courtesy of British national treasure, Stephen Fry and Mac luminary Andy Ihnatko.

Enjoy them after the break!

[via Macworld and TWiTLive.tv]

YouTube link

YouTube link

The continuing evolution of Twitter as a mainstream celebrity interactive communication platform powered by Apple’s revolutionary internet device, the iPhone 3G, and awesome client side apps Twitterfon and Tweetie, or the end of all things geeky-fringe and techno-pure? Or just a cheap excuse for us to link-bait some celebrities (who are not Stephen Fry) using iPhone’s and tweeting on Superbowl Sunday?

Yes!

Does it matter to us if celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore use the iPhone? Do we care if they increasingly make their presence felt on Twitter? And does their choice of iPhone Twitter client influence our own preference? And either way, what does it tell us about the iPhone, Twitter, and the celebrities who choose to use them? (You can answer below, or on Twitter from your favorite iPhone client for extra irony points!)

Stephen Fry, the British comedian and technology commentator who was once partner to TV’s Dr. House, Hugh Laurie, recently annihilated RIM’s BlackBerry Storm on Twitter, and now is back to give an even grander beat down to the mobile industry in general, a 4 star Bold review, a 1 star Storm review, and an iPhone OS 3.0 wish… er… demand list. Daring Fireball, however, points us a couple paragraphs of particular interest:

Apple have shown that there is a huge demand for exciting, innovative, lovable and imaginative consumer devices. All the rivals have to do is to … is to what? To produce cut price lookalikes or truly to pioneer and innovate? Well, the latter is what they should do, but the former is what most of them will do of course, because these dumb firms never ever learn. They are afraid to be good. They will blame stockholders, consumers, anyone but themselves.

Don’t you sometimes long to be CEO of a company like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia or Microsoft? So that you can say to your coders, your designers, your development teams and your software architects: “Not [redacted] Good Enough. I haven’t said ‘Wow’ yet. I haven’t gasped with pleasure, amusement or admiration once. Start again. Not [redacted] Good Enough.”

Can’t say I’d do any different were I blessed/cursed with being such a CEO. How about you? Any advice for our iCompetitors?