[NTLK] ipad

[Larry Yaeger]

FWIW, I am both disappointed by and excited about the iPad.  I'm 
disappointed that it doesn't support pen input, that it doesn't have 
a video camera to support video chat, and that it uses the iPhone OS 
instead of Mac OS.  But I'm excited that this is the e-reader I've 
always dreamed of and so much more.

I've heard people say they'd prefer to stick with their Kindle, and 
that's fine for them.  I loved my original Kindle, love my Kindle 2 
even more, and am ecstatic to have the Kindle app on my iPhone (that 
even syncs what page you're at between iPhone and Kindle).  I really 
respect and use Amazon all the time and absolutely love my Kindle.

That said, the new iPad is what I've been waiting for.  Color.  Large 
screen.  Will let me read PDF documents properly.  [The latest 
version of the Kindle OS *finally* handles PDF files natively, but 
the screen is too small to be usable (I've tried) unless you go to 
the DX version, and even that doesn't do color.]  Dockable to a 
keyboard or it can use a wireless blue-tooth keyboard.  (And you know 
it won't be long before enterprising 3rd parties provide more than 
one kind of portable keyboard for it.)  Video.  Web browser.  Email. 
Spreadsheets, text & image documents, electronic slides.  Games. 
Maps.  Directions.  The entire iPhone app catalog.  It really is a 
quite remarkable device *and* a great e-reader.

There's a good chance I will continue to use the Kindle app instead 
of or in addition to Apple's iBook, unless they are well integrated. 
Have to see.

I've heard people express concern about fingerprints on the touch 
screen, but I don't think this is really an issue.  I use the touch 
screen to read on my iPhone quite frequently, and it has never been a 
problem.

The only points people have made about the Kindle being better that I 
might slightly agree with are on reading in bright, direct sunlight, 
battery life, and weight.

But the iPad's display is LED-backlit, not fluorescent-backlit like 
all older and still most inexpensive modern displays.  Having lived 
with an LED-backlit display on my "unibody" MacBook Pro for a while 
now, I know it's a *lot* brighter than older LCD displays (and comes 
to full brightness instantly, unlike older displays), so I *think* 
the display will be fine, under whatever conditions I care to use it. 
(I don't lay on the beach and read, so that kind of long-period, 
extremely bright reading condition doesn't apply to me.)

And the month of standby battery life, coupled with 10 hours of 
battery life even when displaying videos, suggests that battery life 
will not be an issue for me either.  I will say I love the fact that 
as long as I leave my wireless connection off I can get my Kindle 2 
to last for a month of actual, frequent use (I read from it all the 
time).  I probably can't get the iPad to do that, no matter what I 
turn off, though I'm certainly going to try "airplane mode" and see 
what I see.  But if I turn on the Kindle's wireless, it doesn't last 
over a week anyway.  And I'll probably have a keyboard dock at home 
and office, and just drop it into that when it's not in my hands for 
reading or my backpack for travel, unless I decide to use it with a 
wireless blue-tooth keyboard, which would be awfully nice.  Anyway, I 
*think* I'll be okay on the battery life front.

Weight-wise, it's only a tiny bit heavier than the Kindle DX (.68 kg 
vs. .54 kg), though it is more than twice as heavy as my Kindle 2 
(.28 kg).  For the benefit of being able to read PDF files easily and 
well, the weight is worth it, to me, never mind all the other things 
of which the iPad is capable.

Bottom line, for me, I know I'm going to be getting an iPad, and I 
suspect my Kindle is going to be displaced.  But, only time and 
experimentation will tell.  (If they'd used a full Mac OS X, this 
would likely have displaced my MacBook Pro too.)  As always, YMMV.

- larryy