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JOSEPH O'CONNOR PUBLIC READINGS

Drivetime's Diarist Joseph O'Connor will be giving a series of public readings with music from Philip King over the coming weeks.

They will perform at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow on Thursday 18th March. www.mermaidartscentre.ie

And you'll find them at the Glor Theatre, Ennis, Co Clare on Thursday 25th March. www.glor.ie

Full details can be found at venue websites.

FOLLOW THE CAMINO COMPETITION

Well if the testimonials available on this holiday are any judge…. this is an opportunity for peace, calmness, fresh air and countryside. And, let's face it, we could all do with any - or all of those!

The prize for our new competition is a walking holiday for two on the last 100km of the Camino de Santiago - St James' Way - in Northern Spain.

The prize includes flights, transfers, taxes, half board for one week staying on traditional farm stays along the Camino and it is sponsored by followthecamino.com which is part of the One Foot Abroad travel group.

Now we know this series of walks is very popular with Irish people so we're expecting a great response to this competition.

Get your pens and fingers out and start the daily walking routine so you avoid the blisters when you win the prize.

So what do we want you to do: Well as some of you know, these walks are a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in North-Western Spain - where legend has it that the remains of the apostle - Saint James the Great are buried.

We would like you to tell us - in no more than 25 words - which two Irish public figures should take this walk together and why.

As usual, we enjoy a clever twist or something to make us laugh!

The closing date is Friday the 26th of MARCH

and you can enter by email drivetime@rte.ie

text 51-551 or by post to me here on Drivetime with Mary Wilson, RTE Radio 1, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

We are about to be invaded by more news of the launch of the iPad if not the actual devices themselves, as that seems to be delayed in this country for a few months.

What if you want to get your hands on a similar device right now?

In our Consumer Technology Review Ciaran O'Byrne is looking at Tablet PCs...

What I have with me is the Archos 9 Tablet PC which is available from Peats World of Electronics for €499.

Physically they look like you have removed the keyboard from a small net book and are just left with the screen.

It is marketed as a "companion PC" to your main desktop or laptop, something that falls into the Ultra Mobile PC category, so it can be used for work, with so word processors, web access and email etc, and as a portable entertainment netbook with music and video player.

The brand "Archos" is a French company that has been making MP3 players and multi media players since before the iPod cracked the world apart.

So describe this "tablet PC" to us...

You have a 9 inch colourscreen that can be used via a touch, via stylus or via a "trackpoint" on the right hand side of the screen and two mouse buttons on the left hand side of the screen.

It weighs 1.8 lbs, which is slightly more than the iPad at 1.5 lbs, but otherwise has similar dimensions, at 16 mm thick.

It runs on a Windows 7 Starter Edition which is not the full version of Windows 7 but a striped down version for Netbooks and devices like this.

This is good news if you are already on Windows 7, although the processor in the device could be more powerful to help it run more quickly.

It has no keyboard, so how do you navigate around it?

There are two types of touchscreen used for phones and computers - resistive, which rely on you pressing against the screen to activate programmes and move the cursor, and capacitive, which use the body's electrostatic field to determine where on the screen your finger is. The Archos 9 has a resistive screen, I would prefer a capacitive screen as they are more sensitive, but the tablet comes with a plastic stylus that is hidden in the back of the unit.

The "trackpoint" on the right hand side is a small square visual device that tracks the movement of your thumb and moves the cursor across the screen in a corresponding way, and this is very responsive and positively makes the arrow point fly around the screen easily, from there it's just a case of getting used to using two thumbs instead of a mouse or touchpad, as you would have on a laptop.

You can also hit a button on the left of the screen which calls us a keyboard on screen.

How do the prices compare to what we know of the iPad?

Whereas the likes of the iPad have various different versions, some with a capacity as little as 16GB at a price that seems likely to be in the region of Stg £417 (€558), the Archos 9 comes with a capacity of 60GB, WiFi, Bluetooth (so you can sync your mobile with it fairly easily), and a 1.3 megapixel camera (small enough, but still something that the iPad doesn't have), at €499 at Peats World of Electronics.

It has a proper Flash Player on it so you can experience the web as it would appear on your laptop, and you can call up an on screen keyboard as well.

Speculative prices then for the iPad are Stg £417 for a 16 GB WiFi version iPad (that's approx €558) and up to Stg £705 or €788 for the 64GB version with 3G.

Overall, it has great build quality, as you would expect with Archos, could operate faster, but will come with more bells and whistles than the comparable iPad model.

Also, a brief mention of Irish made Eco Friendly iPhone Case...

The market for iPhone accesories is massive, and sometimes it seems there are more iPhone cases available than stars in the heavens, so it's notable to see that the "Jivo Leaf" is designed here and made in Sligo, and can protect both your iPhone 3G and the environment.

It's a matt black finish case that has a particular resin which can break down much more quickly than normal silicone - the difference being this case could biodegrade in 5 years once it is put into a landfill, as opposed to standard silicone cases which could take 4 or 5 decades to degrade.

The price for the Jivo Leaf is €15 from O2 stores...

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