NOW should IPad have its own forum?

[desertgrandma]

Mods are welcome to close this poll, as the desired effect has been accomplished.

Thank yew verra much...

[JWLaRue]

Alexander,

Many thanks for the reply. That definitely helps.

-Jeff

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

... Following this discussion what we decided to do is turn this section into a dedicated place for Apple devices, with optional prefixes that allow you can denote the device you're discussing. This is analogous to how we've done it in the new Sony Reader section, where devices with different hardware share similar software.

This sounds reasonable, except that the iPhone and the iPad have completely different primary purposes: one is primarily a phone, the other is a multimedia device, with one of its primary purposes being reading e-publications.

It would be analogous to lumping Sony's smart phones, such as the XPERIA X1, with the ereaders.

IMO, the iPad should have a separate section, and it should be with the other readers. That way, it wouldn't choke off the iPhone discussion, either.

Maybe the Other devices should be simply a subsection of the readers section, anyway, to avoid making somewhat arbitrary judgments as to what is an e-reader.

Just my 2 kopeks.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by Sonist

It would be analogous to lumping Sony's smart phones, such as the XPERIA X1, with the ereaders.

Yes, but how many people join Mobileread to discuss Sony's smart phones? It seems most iPhone or iPod related discussions that you find here are related to e-book reading as well.

[zacheryjensen]

I personally agree with the approach taken. Neither iPhone/iPod Touch nor iPad are dedicated reading devices. Sure iPad will bring with it Apple's entry into eBookland but it's still not dedicated to that. Much more emphasis was put on the web browsing experience anyway.

Other multi-purpose devices are not getting dedicated forums either.

So I think renaming the Apple forum and adding tags is more than sufficiently recognizing the unusually high popularity of the associated products and works fine for organizing on this board.

Besides, the iPhone forum was pretty dead most of the time anyway.

[yvanleterrible]

If the iPad can't be in the dedicated ebook readers section even with the iBook store it offers, could we have an "All formats in one" forum?

Mobile reading is not only ebook reading. Where pdfs are concerned almost all readers are found wanting except for computing devices. Most computers lack in true portability; you can't read a netbook in bed. The iPad will do it nicely and if holding it is difficult for you, I have a practical solution for that. But I can't reveal that yet, I need a Pad in my hands first!

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

If the iPad can't be in the dedicated ebook readers section even with the iBook store it offers, could we have an "All formats in one" forum?

Mobile reading is not only ebook reading. Where pdfs are concerned almost all readers are found wanting except for computing devices. Most computers lack in true portability; you can't read a netbook in bed. The iPad will do it nicely and if holding it is difficult for you, I have a practical solution for that. But I can't reveal that yet, I need a Pad in my hands first!

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

I like that thought!

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

... Neither iPhone/iPod Touch nor iPad are dedicated reading devices. ....

While this is true of the iPhone, it is certainly not true of the iPad. The iPad is specifically targeted at reading, in addition to the handful of other core functions it has.

It has a dedicated bookstore, and it looks like it is poised to become THE device of choice for textbooks.

Lumping the iPhone and the iPad together does disservice to both, IMO.

[sfernald]

iPad is a reader. One of it's primary functions is ebooks, unlike the iphone and itouch. It has it's own store for buying books.

It should definitely have it's own forum in the ebooks category.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by sfernald

iPad is a reader. One of it's primary functions is ebooks, unlike the iphone and itouch. It has it's own store for buying books.

It should definitely have it's own forum in the ebooks category.

iBooks is an optional download. It will not even be included out of the box. It's also only available in the US at launch while the iPad will be available internationally.

iPad is not a dedicated reader device, not even close. If you actually watched the announcement you'd see, there was far more emphasis put on web browsing, and even authoring office documents than there was on reading.

I'm sure it'll be great for reading, I plan to use it that way, but it's no more dedicated to the task than the iPod Touch is.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

iBooks is an optional download. It will not even be included out of the box. It's also only available in the US at launch while the iPad will be available internationally....

Uhm, see the story below about texbooks coming to the iPad.

Check out the much larger screen size of the iPad, which is well suited to reading, while for most, the iPhone's screen is not.

Check out the book store. Yeah, it's US only, but so was the Kindle. You can load a wider variety of free e-books than you can on the Kindle.

It looks like a reader, it quacks like a reader, it is a reader.

It is also already changing the ebook market, as you can glimpse from the Macmillan/Amazon exchange.

Not giving it its own space is shortsighted, IMO.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Uhm, see the story below about texbooks coming to the iPad.

Check out the much larger screen size of the iPad, which is well suited to reading, while for most, the iPhone's screen is not.

Check out the book store. Yeah, it's US only, but so was the Kindle. You can load a wider variety of free e-books than you can on the Kindle.

It looks like a reader, it quacks like a reader, it is a reader.

It is also already changing the ebook market, as you can glimpse from the Macmillan/Amazon exchange.

Not giving it its own space is shortsighted, IMO.

Based on your own argument, any random laptop also deserves its own space. You aren't using your brain. Companies have been bringing text books and eBooks to numerous multipurpose/general purpose platforms for years. MobileRead doesn't go off giving every random device a slot. Where's the OLPC slot?

Also if "most" people didn't like the iPhone sized screen, then the iPhone/iPod Touch platform wouldn't be the most used platform for reading eBooks, which it is.

You're also making a foolish assumption that iBooks is only ever coming to the iPad. That's extremely unlikely. Apple gets their media distribution to as many devices as they can, it will definitely come to iPod Touch/iPhone, and probably to Macs and maybe even PCs.

The only potential justification for slotting out the iPad separately from iPhone/iPod Touch would be that it was somehow significantly different. It's not, that's the point. Other than being larger, the OS is the same, the software only minorly different to take advantage of a larger screen.

Individual Kindle models don't even have their own forum, and the screen size is also a differentiating factor there.

Anyway why are we still talking about this? A decision was already made, didn't you notice?

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

Based on your own argument, any random laptop also deserves its own space. You aren't using your brain. Companies have been bringing text books and eBooks to numerous multipurpose/general purpose platforms for years....

The form factor of the iPad, as well as its UI, make it much more reader-like, than a "random laptop."

I understand that you personally read on your iPhone, and good on you. But while I have also downloaded the Classics app on mine, I would not read on it for any significant length of time. Neither would most people. So, no, the iPhone is not a reader for most.

The iPad is considerably different. The whole publishing industry seems excited about it, which indicates, that THEY also consider it a reader. So do the text-book publishers. (Publishers did NOT target the iPhone in a similar fashion, for a good reason.)

Yes, a decision was made by the administrators, and I think it was wrong, and this is why I posted. If you look at the poll above, it appears that a large majority of responding participants agrees with me.

As far as "using my brain," I have tried to be polite, even though I can hurl a few insults at your "arguments."

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Yes, a decision was made by the administrators, and I think it was wrong, and this is why I posted. If you look at the poll above, it appears that a large majority of responding participants agrees with me.

Firstly, this isn't actually a democracy and secondly with the vague wording of that poll this forum becoming applicable to the ipad could be what some of the voters had in mind when they voted i.e. somewhere for ipad posts to go so they aren't clogging up the news forum.

Personally, I would like to see less specific forums in the future, the sont forum and now this one with proper tagging seem to be a much better solution than dozens of pointless little forums for every single device.