iPad buyer's remorse

(retracted)

Apple's iPad is for pure consumption in an age where everyone can broadcast over the tubes anything and everything. A bluetooth keyboard would be awkward with a tablet because you could not easily adjust the viewing angle. With the Edge you can. Although mine currently is strictly used for navigating journals, newsfeeds and the occasional short email. I could not ever imagine not taking my laptop to school if I had a paper or project due, but the Edge is with me now on the bus, train and in between every class. Before that all I had was Moleskin journals and an Mp3 player so I can feel my brain growing.

And to think at the same time the iPad devotees were standing in lines in the cold overnight to have $500+ emptied from their wallets in exchange for glitz, I was monitoring the mayhem on the engadget site using the edge I received that morning.

Seriously, without the ability to write accurately the only practical use for a tablet is watching movies or less-than-ideal, semi-interactive web surfing.

I responded to this at length on the eDGefan google group, but to add something here, a lot of people really do love their iphones, so it's reasonable to assume that people would love the iPad. Speaking from someone who hasn't always been wise with her purchases in the past, I can say that there's less remorse the more carefully you make sure the device actually has a use and fills a need. But, that's often an acquired skill.

But if I *were* to be snarky, I'd say that I do think it's funny that one "complaint" making the rounds is that the iPad is too heavy (because that's why we were all supposed to buy an iPad instead of an eDGe, right?!)

I'd love an iPad - to watch movies and play some cool games! I can't afford it (nor an iPhone, iTouch, etc) because I spent most of my money on the eDGe. I could *not* believe that the iPad is being touted as an eReader. The eye strain must be terrific. Oh sure, for emails or web browsing, fine. But a novel? I'm also not going to use my HDTV for reading - for the same reason.

I had to think very long and hard about what to get. Currently, the eDGe is the only one out that will soon (I hope) do what I want to do. Perhaps the Adam will, too. But, there's no real release date yet or updates to the obviously outdated ones. And, I'm not positive that the screen will be as easy on the eyes as eInk. It may or may not, no idea. I'm rather hoping so, and that they actually get into large scale production. Because a color eInk would be wonderful :-)

First of all, after reading more than 700 pages of novels on an iPad, forget the fairy tales about eye strain. Its a great reading experience.

I have an iPad, an iPhone plus two eDGe devices. They are all great! Buyers remorse??? Ha!!!!!!!! Gotta pick the right tool for the job. Can't beat watching an HD movie or tv on my iPad. But for getting work done, for studying and annotating a text, for taking notes.... can't beat the eDGe.

I just hope that enTourage can make headway in the educational market!

Originally Posted by alefor

First of all, after reading more than 700 pages of novels on an iPad, forget the fairy tales about eye strain. Its a great reading experience.

I have an iPad, an iPhone plus two eDGe devices. They are all great! Buyers remorse??? Ha!!!!!!!! Gotta pick the right tool for the job. Can't beat watching an HD movie or tv on my iPad. But for getting work done, for studying and annotating a text, for taking notes.... can't beat the eDGe.

I just hope that enTourage can make headway in the educational market!

A great reading experience?
I'm not so sure about that.
Of course you can read on iPad (or iPhone, i've read a lot of my iPhone) but it's definitely NOT a great reading experience.

I bet movies and TV look great on the iPad! For me, reading would be a less than good experience. But then, I also can not read paper books with a CFL comfortably, either. At least not longer than 10-15 minutes.

To those who question reading on the iPad I would only ask how many pages they have actually read on an iPad. For me it is over 700 pages in the last week (novels) and to me, it's great for reading (both iBooks and kindle for the iPad)

700 pages on an iPAD? Congratulations, you do not need a Eink device. But a lot of us greatly prefer it to a backlit LCD screen. I find that I can't read as fast on a LCD screen. And I can't read as long. Several years ago, I canceled my paper WSJ and Barrons thinking that I can read everything on my new Sony laptop. Big mistake. I just couldn't do it. Since then I have been looking for that perfect display that I can read for hours on. So far, Eink is it. I have also tried reading on the iPAD. It's a nice screen but same problems. There is a reason why so many of us are willing to pay big bucks for a display with slow refresh rate and no color. It simply offers the best readability. There are some promising new technologies coming out such as Liquavista. Mirasol, and OLED, but until then Eink will serve you well. I am not sold on Pixel Qi. And Sipix is similar to Eink, although it will be easier to add color to Sipix than Eink.

As long as the text is on something 200 or higher I have no problems.

Originally Posted by rakista

As long as the text is on something 200 or higher I have no problems.

Eyestrain due to computer screens is a rather complicated topic. Everyone is different. With CRT monitors, I could tell you the exact refresh rate that a monitor was set to (up to 85hz). This is because I could see it flicker up to 85hz. A lot of people I know simply couldn't see any flicker, even at 60hz. And even though many people claimed that LCD monitors are better for your eyes, that was not the case for me. And a lot of people are having trouble with the new LED backlight as well, even though it is a stable source of light unlike CCFL. And it is well documented that people blink considerably less when staring at computer screens. You just have no idea what Eink has done for people like me. No backlight. Bistable screen. Just like paper. That's a beautiful thing.

I would put in another strong vote for Eink - I have tried long-term sustained reading with backlit devices and even the old Palm-like non-backlit LCD and also ended up with eyestrain. The first reading on such devices was fine but I always found something else to do instead of subjecting myself to reading again on these devices once the cool factor wore off.

With Eink (Librie, Reader, and now the Edge), I can read reliably without eyestrain. I am talking about years of usage on a consistent basis. I estimate a few thousand pages worth of solid reading on my Reader over the years that I had it (I sold it when I got the Edge). This may seem small compared to the 700 pages in one week for the ipad owner but I primarily used the Reader for bedtime or in-flight reading.

So for me, Eink has always been very worthwhile and my sole reason for picking the Edge was that it provided the best bang for the buck in terms of Eink screen size for the price. The other bonuses, such as the tablet functionality, Android, netbook replacement, awesome PDF functionality, etc. were just gravy that are of course much appreciated. What can I say, I am an Eink fanboy though I am keeping an open mind about the PixelQi display too.

does anybody know if there are already laptops with pixelqi? I know, it's not realy related to my eDGe, but we like to get a new laptop preferable with pixelqi.

As far as I know no laptop manufacturer is using that screen, however the PixelQi manufacture was (still is?) shipping out conversion kits for laptop owners. I think the problem is they don't have large enough manufacturing capacity yet.