iPhone 3.0

Apple will introduce the next version of its operating system for the hugely successful iPhone tomorrow. The announcement, mainly targeted at developers, is designed to showcase version 3.0 of the phone’s operating system and is rumoured to introduce new features such as copy & paste, push notifications and MMS.

I certainly expect Copy & Paste – a feature that was shockingly omitted from the OS at launch – and I can also see some form of push notification for apps or allowing certain apps to run in the background. Another rumour which I would hope is true is tethering, or basically using the phone as an internet modem for your laptop or computer via bluetooth or cable.

A lot of the rumour sites have been predicting an Apple netbook or tablet for some time, and have been buoyed by reports of Apple ordering 10″ screens from Taiwan touchscreen specialist Wintek, who currently supply the iPhone’s touchscreen. I don’t expect Apple to go down the netbook route, but rather introduce a whole new product which would basically resemble a large iPhone, and I think version 3.0 of the iPhone OS is key to this.

I just cannot see Apple making a computer that won’t be able to run iMovie, iPhoto or the full Mac OS X at usable speeds. Currently the raft of netbooks on the market would choke and die if you threw iMovie at them. Apple have consistently  stated they would not enter the netbook market and don’t want to make ‘inferior’ products. Tim Cook, the acting CEO whilst Steve Jobs is away, said: ”It’s a category we watch, we’ve got some ideas here, but right now we think the products are inferior and will not provide an experience to customers they’re happy with.”

Possible new Apple device

But a much larger iPhone-like device, with a more powerful processor and bigger screen, could do all of the things the netbooks are doing, but without the overhead of trying to run Windows. Most people use their netbooks for email and web browsing, something the iPhone does rather well, but also something that would benefit hugely from a big screen.

It would be a perfect product for education. Imagine a 10″ touchscreen device that can act as a book reader, such as the Amazon Kindle, allowing students to carry hundreds of text books in electronic, searchable format. A device that can record audio from lectures, whilst at the same time making notes with a much larger keyboard, and a device that can deliver web pages as fast and fluid as a laptop via WiFi and 3G.

Tomorrow we’ll certainly find out what Apple has in store for the iPhone over the next 12 months, but maybe they might surprise us all and announce  a whole new product. 24-hours to wait…

Manchester United 1-4 Liverpool

Not since 1992 have Manchester United suffered such a heavy defeat at home, and whilst the scoreline for Liverpool was emphatic, it wasn’t one of our better performances this season.

I’d anticipated this fixture with trepidation. After our 4-0 mauling of Real Madrid earlier in the week, I watched Man Utd beat Inter Milan with two fortuitously timed goals just after kick-off and half time. Internazionale hit the wood-work and left a bevy of gilt edged chances to a donkey called  Ibrahimovic. With a half-decent striker Inter would have put United to the sword. All I could think after that games was that this year United have the luck on their side.

Fernando Torres beats Vidic on his way to scoring the equaliser.

So, after the obligatory penalty, gifted by the referee, handed Ronaldo the opening the goal, I didn’t expect us to come back into this game. That was until Fernando Torres started to tear the United defence to shreds. When Martin Skrtel lofted a long ball forward Nemaja Vidic casually began to chase it back to his own goal, appearing to have all the time in the world. But Torres was on his shoulder in a second, won the ball as Vidic panicked, and went on to slot a Fowler-esque world class finish past Edwin Van der Sar.

We've won it five times... Torres celebrates at Old Trafford

The celebration matched the quality of the finish, El Niño running past the United fans holding up five fingers to remind the Old Trafford crowd of Liverpool’s European dominance.

The second goal arrived from a very unlikely source, a penalty for an away team! Steven Gerrard was hacked down by Patrice Eva on the corner of the penalty area. A nailed on, stone-wall penalty. But this being Old Trafford I immediately wondered what referee Alan Wiley’s excuse would be for not awarding the penalty. Instead he defied Fergie’s “rules for referee’s at Old Trafford” and pointed to the spot. Gerrard made no mistake and celebrated by giving the steady-cam a snog… for me that was the picture of the season, but none of the photographers in that corner, myself included, were able to capture it as lineman and TV assistant blocked our views.

Steven Gerrard celebrates scoring the second against Man Utd.

From that point on Liverpool were magnificent and didn’t let United into the game. United manager Alex Ferguson threw on Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, two of the most talented, decorated and experienced players of their generation, to little effect. In the second half Liverpool netted a third with a world-class free-kick from Fabio Aurelio before Andrea Dossena scored on the 90th minute. Old Trafford was already half-empty by this point. This was his second goal in successive matches, after netting the fourth against Real Madrid.

It was a very sweet victory, as any is at that ground, but to demolish them when they had seemed so untouchable for weeks, was extra special. This was a team unbeaten at home, unbeaten in 16 consecutive Premier League games, with the best defensive record in the League, who had just won the League Cup, knock-out the Italian champions, lifted the World Club Cup, and were reigning European and Premier League champions.

Needless to say the national newspapers and Murdoch’s Sky television downplayed Liverpool’s victory.

Liverpool are still four points off United in the race for the title, and United have a game in hand, so the advantage still lies at Old Trafford. If anything, this victory, and the fact we’ve done the double over United and Chelsea, yet are still third, highlights the fact that we have thrown the title challenge away ourselves with six home draws. We could quite easily have visited Old Trafford with a 10-point lead, the title practically in the bag. No-one can put their finger on the reason why we can thrash Real Madrid and Man Utd so convicingly, yet struggle with the likes of Stoke and Hull City at fortress Anfield. Liverpool are now the only English team unbeaten at home this season, yet we’ve dropped 12 points at L4, to teams that United and Chelsea whip without breaking a sweat. If United go on to win the Premier League this season, it is these games we will look back on with regret.

At least the remainder of the season is guaranteed to be exciting…

Over 240 images from this match are now on our editorial archive and also the official Liverpool FC web site have posted a selection; Photo special: United 1-4 LFC, whilst your there don’t forget to read Paul Tomkins’ excellent column; Four Days in Heaven.

Liverpool Reserves 2-2 Man Utd Reserves

Two days before Liverpool’s biggest League game of the season at Old Trafford the two team’s reserves met at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

This was Philipp Degen’s come-back match. The Swiss international has been hampered by injuries since his summer switch from Borussia Dortmund and this was his first game after a lengthy absence. It wasn’t to be his night. Despite opening the scoring after four minutes, although he could hardly miss a wide open goal after United’s goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak kicked the air rather than the ball.

That was Degen’s first goal in English football, but after 26 minutes the return came to an abrupt end as he limped off with a groin injury. It’s just not happening for the lad at Anfield this season.

Philipp Degen limps off injured.... again

United, who fielded a strong line-up featuring League Cup winners Kuszczak and Daniel Welbeck, as well as twin brother of Rafael, Fabio Da Silva, over-came the early set-back to take a 2-1 lead. Welbeck and Da Silva scoring. Then there was more injury woe for the Reds as Brazilian Vitor Flora limped out a minute before half-time.

The second half improved for Liverpool, with Jay Spearing, one of my favourites, helping to engineer the equaliser from Daniel Pacheco. His short performance against Real Madrid earlier in the week earned him a lot of attention, but it’s here in the reserve league where he has to show manager Rafael Benitez he is ready for the Premiership.

The match finished 2-2, with absolutely no bearing on the big clash to come on Saturday.

The floodlights at the Halliwell Jones stadium are not the best, but this match was particularly difficult to photograph as half of the lights weren’t switched on. Floodlights at English stadiums are notoriously poor. Especially when compared with other European countries. I don’t understand why clubs in the UK, especially Premier League teams, don’t have the best floodlights in the world. They are happy to shout about having the best players, the most exciting league, and the most money, but when it comes to lighting their ground they are bottom of the league.

Warrington's floodlights partially on... credit crunch?

The clubs just don’t get it. They cannot see that a small investment in their floodlights can produce vastly superior still images, and no doubt television also. I’m sure High-Definition, Super Slow-Mo and the new 3D technology would benefit from more light.

I look at images I’ve shot from places such as Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu and PSV’s Phillips Stadium and the quality is amazing. The only grounds in the UK that come close is Arsenal’s Emirates and Manchester City’s City of Manchester Stadium.

With players on £150,000 a week, transfer fees of £30m, TV rights totalling over £1 billion and packed houses each week, there is a lot of money floating around, certainly at the top of the game. It wouldn’t take much to improve the club’s floodlights and the benefits would be immediately apparent in the press, magazines and broadcast TV. I long for the day when Liverpool, where I work almost every week, has the floodlights to match the club’s amazing success. However, photographers probably won’t see any improvement until a new stadium is built, and that could be almost a decade away.

Liverpool 4-0 Real Madrid

Gerrard & Torres celebrate against Real Madrid.

What a night at Anfield! Liverpool demolished Real Madrid 4-0 to storm into the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Champions League, and they could have scored even more.

Leading 1-0 from the first leg, thanks to Yossi Benayoun’s late strike in the Santiago Bernabeu, many pundits and fans expected a cautious start from the Reds. But right from the kick-off Liverpool tore into the nine-time European Champions, lead by Fernando Torres who was as pumped up for this match as I’d ever seen.

The Real goalkeeper was kept busy saving from Torres and Javier Mascherano before El Nino opening the scoring after 16 minutes. Soon after Gabriel Heinze was adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area, wrongly in my view, and captain Steven Gerrard, playing his 100th European match for Liverpool, blasted the second goal past Iker Casillas from the spot. Game over for the Spanish Champions.

Gerrard and substitute Andrea Dossena scored in the second half to inflict Real’s worst defeat in the re-branded Champions League. The icing on the cake came on 73 minutes when Birkenhead-born Jay Spearing replaced Huyton’s Gerrard to make his home debut. Spearing gave the Real midfield problems immediately, and not even the impressive Lassana Diarra could get the ball off him!

Seeing a local lad come through the youth system and take the to the Anfield stage against such illustrious opposition, during an emphatic mauling, was great to see. But even better was to hear the Spion Kop sing; “There’s only one Jay Spearing!” No doubt young Jay would be made up with that!

It’s always special to see a Liverpool lad make it to the first team. We’ve been spoilt in the recent past with Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Steven Gerrard all going on to become some of the greatest players in the world. I only hope in 10-years time I can add Spearing to that list.

Jay Spearing

I also hope that Rafa Benitez gives some of the other youngsters, such as Stephen Darby and Martin Kelly, a chance in the remainder of the season.

A fantastic night at Anfield and now we’re into the Quarter-Finals. I only hope that we can draw a European team in the next round. However, with all four English side making it through, the cynic in me expects us to meet English opposition all the way to the final. What is the point of the European Cup if you end up playing domestic opposition three times?

Personally I’d like to see the country protection rule scrapped. UFEA rules state that teams from the same country cannot meet each other until the Quarter-Final stage. I see no problem with English sides meeting early on in the competition, even if all four teams were drawn together in the opening group. In fact, if that did happen, it would make for a very exciting group stage!

I’m hoping for Bayern Munich in the next round.

You can see some of our images on the Liverpoolfc.tv web site here. And the full coverage of the match on our editorial archive here.