My first reaction was that ‘iPad’ sounds like something I should get in the Feminine Hygiene aisle.
My second reaction was “what do we cut out of the budget to make room for two of these things?”
My third reaction was “Looks like I’m not getting rid of my Kindle any time soon.”
Don’t get me wrong. The iPad bookstore is a thing of beauty. You get what I always dreamed about–the ability to see your books virtually displayed on a shelf, beautiful colour covers and all. You touch and read and have a glorious reading experience.
That will give me a headache after a couple of hours. I know this because at night when my beloved husband is asleep I curl up under the covers with my Kindle for iPhone app. I’ve had a lot of experience reading on a backlit multi-touch glass screen device. And while the colour is beautiful and fun for those times when you browse your virtual shelf like a kid in a bookcandy store it is NOT the easiest thing on 40 year-old reader’s eyes.
If the hit to my eyes wasn’t bad enough, the hit to my wallet will be worse. At $14.99 per title, the store will sell most books at a 50% markup over the Kindle. And as much as I love colour cover art, it simply is NOT worth $5 to me. Not when I buy books at the volume (hah) I currently do.
I am a booklover. Am I a Kindle snob? Perhaps. An e-Ink snob? Definitely. Without question.
I will be getting an iPad; Lord willing and the Creek don’t rise. It is simply too beautiful to avoid. But will it become my primary e-Reader device? I just don’t see that happening.
UPDATE: Interesting discussion over at Tiny Cat Pants about how this device war will affect the publishing business.
Yeah, I was disappointed, I’d heard rumors that the iPad was going to have a screen that could switch between color LCD and B&W eInk on the fly.
But at $499, I’ll probably be getting one too (after TheBoyfriend™ is comfortably in a new job of course; two interviews so far and two offers, YAY), if for no other reason than to casually surf the web while relazing on the couch!
This is all exactly what I was thinking–it looks soooo pretty, I could really use one for travel, but I like my Kindle (especially the battery life) and don’t see myself giving it up.
This is interesting, Kat. You’ve described how the iPad probably isn’t a good choice, for you, as an eReader. As have I for pretty much the same reasons. But what would you do with this that a laptop, netbook, or even an iPod Touch couldn’t do? For the most part I’ve always pooh pooh’d Apple’s products at introduction, and then they end up selling a billion of them. Clearly I don’t know what I’m talking about, so maybe you can help me understand the appeal of this device.
The only appeal I can see is the sleekness. Because it is a beautiful piece of machinery.
But honestly, when we sat around during our evening key-down time and discussed it, I pretty much talked myself out of buying one. Husband’ll still get one and I might use it from time to time. But without a flash player the iPad is useless to me as a remote Web tool. Without a camera it’s useless to me compared to my iphone.
Now, if I were a business traveller who watched a lot of movies on planes or checked my email and read blogs and stuff this would be a great little tool. But right now, for me, there’s not a niche that this fills.
All that being said, if they put flash player in the next generation, I’ll buy one. Right now “playing Facebook games while I watch TV” is the niche I have standing empty.
The absence of Flash support and (perhaps more importantly to me) the absence of multi-tasking are issues for me, but the reason I’m still tempted is this: It’d be my casual computer.
I LOVE my iMac. I would not trade it for a MacBook. But, I do long for the portability of a laptop or other such device. But because I only want to use that device for casual web surfing or such low level activities, I’m hesitant to drop the money on a full laptop. Plus, I’d like something that I can just casually pick up, use for a moment (for instance to add a movie to my netflix instant queue) and then put back down, without having to go through a boot up process, or find a plug (the battery on my work-issued MacBook which I use for this now is shot so it won’t run more than a few minutes without being plugged in), etc.
I’d put some thought into an iPod Touch for this, and have several times come close to getting one. But I never carry an MP3 player around with me (and I have a mp3 player already should I decide to) so if I got an iPod Touch it’d be unnecessarily small. So why not go for the bigger screen?
For me, the appeal of the iPad is that it is essentially a netbook, but with an interface tailored to the portable computing experience. The reason all tablet pcs of old have been failures is because they tried to cram the desktop/laptop experience into a tablet format, and the netbooks I’ve used have given me the same feeling. It appears (obviously I’ve never used one) that the iPad actually approaches things with a UI that is better suited to casual portable use.
I actually just finished a review of Nook/Kindle iPad. The name doesn’t matter, the iPad is a really slick device. I am enjoying it a ton. I think for an ereader it is a little much but maybe you will check out my review and decide for yourself. http://bit.ly/c4EeGK
I wasn’t creeped out, per se. Irritated, but not creeped out. What did creep me out was that some jerk posted the link to it in a couple of my http://filmvediziizle.net/category/aksiyon Harry Potter literary discussion groups. Groups which are frequented by kids as young as 13.
For me, the appeal of the iPad is that it is essentially a netbook, but with an interface tailored to the portable computing experience.
I actually just finished a review of Nook/Kindle iPad. The name doesn’t matter, the iPad is a really slick device.
those generic mp3 players that are made in china are really cheap but i still prefer to use my ipod ‘`,
Hi I love turkey eda site is very nice
Good blog! I truly love how it is easy on my eyes and the data are well written. I am wondering how I could be notified when a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your RSS feed which must do the trick! Have a great day!
Isn’t it about time that the men of the world won a fashion day out… lets be honest we need it more and most of us love a bit of shopping on the sly, sssshhhh dont tell anyone though.