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Originally Posted by HarryT
I honestly don't think you need extensive format support for academic use.
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Not so much "extensive", but "epub, mobi, pdf." Doc/RTF would be good too, but (sigh) those can be thrown into PDF if necessary. It'd be good for a single program to handle both commercial ebook formats (even if only non-DRM'd) that are required reading for some classes, and the standard PDFs.
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Like it or loath it, the academic world works with PDF. It's the standard used for pretty much everything. I get a good 10h actual usage from my iPad - easily a full day's work - and that's with extensive web browsing, and other such power-hungry activities. I think personally that's enough, although I'm sure that some might disagree.
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I think the 10 hr iPad battery should be plenty for academic & most business uses; after all, laptops get a lot less than that. ("Most" business uses: business execs want something that'll deal with an 8-hour flight and a few hours on either side of that. But I suspect that can be worked around, just as they manage for laptops now.)
I suspect the real complaint against tablets is the cost, which I don't think is caused by the extra computer functions--I think it's caused by putting a good visual display and long-life battery in a tiny package, and it wouldn't be substantially cheaper if the rest of the iFunctions went away. The bits I've heard say the iPad is a fine ebook reader; it's just that the market for $500 ebook readers is still fairly small, and many of the people who can afford one at that price wanted the handful of features that the iPad doesn't have. (E-ink; reading all the ebooks through a single interface; etc.)