Quote:
Originally Posted by johndoesecond
Hi mgmueller,
It's been some time since you have it, so I'm being extremely anxious to know how you'd grade and rate and rank Ipad.
Just be careful there, as one of the most authoritative public source on e-readers around, your opinion may be a swing vote and a tipping point for the destinies of sonies, amazons, apples, nooks and other garden varieties around there.  |
I've got iPad for 2 weeks now. I took it with me on a 2 weeks trip to Italy, so I've tested it quite intensively.
iPad definitely will change the picture for me, respectively it already has.
On the trip to Italy,
I only took iPad and PocketBook 360 with me. This has proven a great combination.
I never would take iPad to the beach or the pool. Too bulky, not comfortable enough and too shiny (certainly pretty obvious for inviting robbers).
So I brought some zipbags with me, put PocketBook 360 into one, didn't care about sun cream, sand or dirt. I didn't even press any buttons, just turned pages by briefly moving my wrist (that's the reason why I brought PocketBook 360 instead of Cybook Opus).
So I've read 4 books on PocketBook 360 and half a book on iPad. The half book on iPad I read because I had to turn down the lights ("It's 3 am, turn off the §%&%#! lights!!") and had to switch to iPad (thanks a lot for a backlit unit).
I don't have any problems at all with the screen of iPad. Neither with glare/reflection, nor with the backlit.
But I guess I'm pretty flexible here, having read on Pocket PCs, Palm Pilots, iPhone/iPod touch and various dedicated readers.
Concerning reading eBooks, iPad only has 2 disadvantages to me:
- It's heavy and I don't find the Apple cover very comfortable to hold (didn't find any better alternative yet). I don't see myself reading more than 2 hours in a row on iPad (don't do so on iRex 1000S or Kindle DX either). But for the 1.5 hours it was absolutely okay.
- The battery is critical of course. On one hand, 10 hours (for the moment, I seem to make a bit less, maybe 7 to 8 hours, using WiFi) are absolutely great, compared to my UMPC (Samsung Q1, making maybe 5 hours). On the other hand, PocketBoook 360 or most of the other ePaper readers can do way more. I can do a 1 weeks trip with ePaper readers on a single charge, but I have to charge iPhone and iPad almost every day.
But: As a multifunctional unit, iPad for most issues already has replaced my UMPC. I've read quite a few ZINIO magazines, I've played some games (Plants vs. Zombies, Fieldrunners, Sudoku, ...) and of course I've browsed the web, checked points of interest and so on.
Meaning:
I've already reduced the frequency of purchasing new readers. There's just not enough progress, to find arguments for another reader every 3 weeks or so.
I'll check the new Kindle and nook. I still wait for Que and Skiff. But there's less pressure, enough to toy around for the moment with my iPad.
BTW: I've bought the WiFi only version. I didn't want to go for a new 3G contract and didn't know about the "cutting standard SIM to Micro SIM" trick when I've ordered mine. Instead of 3G, I use my tethered iPhone, plus I use mobile WiFi, plus the WiFi hotspots from T-Mobile for example on most trains.