I have been dribbling over the idea of a kindle since it was first announced. It seemed like the perfect device for me. When I actually picked one up, it felt nasty and plasticky. If only, I could read blogs on this, I thought, I could get over the plastickiness - but it doesn’t and I didn’t. I waited and waited for someone to announce something better.
I got very excited about the Nook when it was announced but when I finally held one, I was repelled. It’s seemed a little worse than the Kindle.
When the iPad was announced I was overjoyed (there is a pattern here). I speculated (like those idiot pundits) that iPad would be good enough for reading but better for RSS (and SDMB). I was dreadfully disappointed by the “no multitasking” restriction but have persuaded myself that I can live with that. All the things that I would likely want to multi-task are either dealt with already (phone, music, notifications etc) or can be dealt with using two devices (ipad + iphone).
To compound my recklessness further, I fully expect to stop using my laptop too. I promised to give it to my wife when the iPad arrives.
Uh, dude - do you think your wife will let you borrow her “new” laptop? Because the iPad can’t replace a full-sized laptop entirely. Even if you get a bluetooth keyboard for it, it just isn’t a serious word processing machine.
I agree with VogueVixen. We are comparing apples and oranges here. (Well, I don’t agree with everything VV said. Similar sized Kindles and Ipads ARE at a similar price. Yes, the Kindle has a smaller cheaper version. But, that isn’t the one people are talking about when they compare the two.) The Kindle does one thing and it does it really well. It mimics the reading of books. eInk works fine in direct sunlight. The Kindle even has a book sized feel to it.
The iPad can do everything the Kindle does as far as documents go. Amazon has created a Kindle app for the iPad that will let you read electronic books you have purchased from Amazon. What it cannot replicate is the book feel. Reading it in sunlight is not easy like it is with the Kindle.
All in all. If you want a device that lets you read books on the beach in July get a Kindle. if you want one that will let you read charts and graphs and do other non book stuff go with the iPad.
I think the iPad might eat into some of Kindle’s business. But, it’s not going to be the Kindle killer some are talking about.
Really? I certainly think of the smaller version of the Kindle as the “default” version and the one that I’ve been comparing to the iPad. The larger version was released later than the standard size, and my impression is that unless there’s some overwhelming need to have a big screen size, the smaller was the way to go. I want my books to be purse-sized at the largest; the big Kindle is far too large for that.
I have tried a Kindle and ended up buying a Sony reader. To me this kind of device is nothing at all like an iPad and it’s kind of silly to compare them. Sure, you can read books in an iPad badly as you can browse the web badly in a Kindle, but a Kindle is meant for reading only, not for all the other stuff. In fact, the reason I ended up going for the Sony model was precisely because all the thing did was to allow me to read e-books really well without all the other useless stuff like wifi and touchscreens and note taking.
My problem with both is the limitations. I’m really a one-device-for-everything type person. With either of these, I’d have to carry another device if I want to do something they can’t handle.
It’s simple: The iPad is a universal media device, and a Kindle is a device optimized for non-graphical text reading. If I’m reading a novel, I want to read it on the Kindle.
However… The iPad supports more formats, because the iPad also has a Kindle reader app, so you can read all your Kindle books on it, plus the formats used by almost every reader on the market.
My wife has a Kindle, and I really like it. I’m getting an iPad, so we can read books at the same time and share the library. But if she wants to subscribe to a newspaper or magazine, for that kind of content the iPad is far superior to the Kindle. Most of my reading is not fiction - it’s trade journals, magazines like The Economist, Car and Driver, that kind of stuff. Two different devices, both of which do different reading tasks exceedingly well. There’s some overlap, but not that much. You just have to decide what matters most.
Well Americans have shown time and time again they will take less than perfect as long as it’s acceptable and more convenient.
CDs sound better than mp3, landlines are better than cell phones, and so forth. But they are not THAT much better. Cell phones and land lines are good enough for most people and the slightly better performace leads to a smaller niche market.
If the iPad produced an acceptable way to read books people will go for it.
I recall in the Internet’s early days I worked with computers and the last thing I wanted to do was go home and sit in front of a computer. So I got WebTV. This this was great for about two years. As long as computers were stuck at dial up speeds and hard drives were small and websites were simple it was great fun to sit back in an easy chair with my wireless keyboard and surf the web on my TV.
Of course with laptops and netbooks reasonably priced now a days, you can do that.
The point is, unless the iPad is truly terrible at producing a readable page, Kindle is going to be in for a rough time. Proprietary formats are either cracked or not used so that isn’t much of an issue as a whole. Look at WMA and Apple when they tried to DRM their lossy music files. People refused to buy them.
What are the chances the iPad’s next gen could use e-ink? Having never seen it, I don’t know about it. Is it the way the Kindle is manufactured, so there’s no way it could be adapted too the iPad?
I’ve been looking at both, I suppose, but like BigT, above, I want ONE machine to carry. And the technological limitations of the iPad seem pointless. A 64GB limit on the hard drive? Urf.
I think the only logical choice at this point is to wait for the development of a gen or two down the road so there’s a pad, whether iPad, Kindle, or third party, which can truly replace my laptop. Toss me a pad that can do what it can and has a high-powered process and a 500GB or higher storage capacity and we can talk.
JC - the reason for the 64GB memory is that they’re commited to SSD for the no-moving-parts aspect along with the blazing fast speed. I imagine the failure rate would really bump up if you put in a laptop HD.
It’s very unlikely - the iPad is meant to be useable for video and gaming as well as ebooks. That requires very very fast screen refresh rates, which e-ink can’t do, and probably won’t be able to do for a while. It also requires color, which e-ink will probably be able to do very soon, but can’t yet.
My information on the Kindle is obviously incorrect. When they first came I was excited by the concept, but on my reading of the info provided by Amazon, it seemed that I would be dependent on them for content. The Sony would read more formats and I had control over my content so that was the way I went.
That being said, I love my Sony reader and do not plan on replacing it with a device that is back lit, difficult to read in direct sunlight and has a short battery life.
Borders has the smaller Sony on sale for $169, I might get one. They say google has a lot of free books - are those mostly old books that are out of copright?
There is an emerging technology that could bring the best of both eInk and LCD worlds to a future iPad.
A company called Pixel Qi has an interesting approach (read the founder’s blog), but from what I have read, the color saturation is not quite as good as LCD. It was developed by the person who did the OLPC screen and may appear this year in a tablet from Notion Ink.
Care to talk about the Nook? I’m thinking of buying one but I’m still hung up some of the complaints I’ve heard about it. That being said, the one I played with at the store was pretty freakin’ sweet.