iPad air 1st impressions (Mobileread user's experience)

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by jocampo

If I turn my Mini on landscape mode, the fonts on my PDF become larger than when is on portrait mode.

PDF files are office files, not e-books. Besides, if you switch from portrait to landscape in a PDF file and "enlarge fonts" that way, you will reduce the visible content on the screen. You will no longer see the same content in landscape mode as you did in portait mode, if you enlarge the fonts. That will be accompanied (as consistently stated earlier) with the necessity to flip pages more, or in the case of PDF files, even to scroll within a single (!) page, because the page would no longer completely fit on the screen in landscape mode with enlarged fonts compared to portrait mode.

I'm not "enforcing opinions" anywhere. I have several times clearly stated that buying a mini is perfectly legitimate. I own mini tablets myself. I'm explaining why I would never choose an 8-inch tablet over a 10-inch tablet as my primary tablet. What's wrong with that? I'm also clearly stating my justification for that position: because fonts are physically larger on a bigger tablet than on a smaller tablet, therefore easier on the eyes; if you make them as large on the small tablet, you need to flip pages more. Those are facts of physics and mathematics that cannot be disputed, just like 2 + 2 = 4 is non-negotiable. If, despite those facts, you or anyone else goes for an 8-inch or 7-inch tablet as their primary tablet, that's perfectly fine! One should only be clearly aware of the disadvantages of doing so, and to me, the disadvantage discussed here is the main one.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Faterson

PDF files are office files, not e-books. Besides, if you switch from portrait to landscape in a PDF file and "enlarge fonts" that way, you will reduce the visible content on the screen. You will no longer see the same content in landscape mode as you did in portait mode, if you enlarge the fonts. That will be accompanied (as consistently stated earlier) with the necessity to flip pages more, or in the case of PDF files, even to scroll within a single (!) page, because the page would no longer completely fit on the screen in landscape mode with enlarged fonts compared to portrait mode.

I'm not "enforcing opinions" anywhere. I have several times clearly stated that buying a mini is perfectly legitimate. I own mini tablets myself. I'm explaining why I would never choose an 8-inch tablet over a 10-inch tablet as my primary tablet. What's wrong with that? I'm also clearly stating my justification for that position: because fonts are physically larger on a bigger tablet than on a smaller tablet, therefore easier on the eyes; if you make them as large on the small tablet, you need to flip pages more. Those are facts of physics and mathematics that cannot be disputed, just like 2 + 2 = 4 is non-negotiable. If, despite those facts, you or anyone else goes for an 8-inch or 7-inch tablet as their primary tablet, that's perfectly fine! One should only be clearly aware of the disadvantages of doing so, and to me, the disadvantage discussed here is the main one.

Who said PDF is an ebook? I know it is not. I said rotating the Mini enlarges the fonts! And that's true!

Stop forcing your opinion on others. And go to other forum if you are gonna keep bashing Apple or others people's experience.

Clearly, you don't know anything and have no idea what are you talking about .

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by jocampo

I said rotating the Mini enlarges the fonts! And that's true!

Only at the expense of having to flip pages (in PDF files, even scroll pages!) more frequently, which is exactly the disadvantage of a mini tablet mentioned earlier.

[MeSue]

So, I got my iPad Air last night. Wow, it is so light compared to iPad 3. I won't get my Smart Cover until tomorrow, and --yikes-- this thing is slippery without any kind of cover or case! However, holding it one handed is pretty comfortable. I still would like a convenient way to prop it up, so I hope the Native Union Gripster comes out pretty soon. Right now I am using my phone to prop it up a little for typing and have dug out some home-made stands.

I did a little reading in Marvin last night, and one thing I noticed right off is opening long chapters is a lot faster. I happen to be reading a book now with long chapters and I barely even noticed the loading animation as it flashed on the screen. On iPad 3, it was several seconds. I also had to tweak my color themes in Marvin a little since every iPad model renders color a little differently.

Downloaded the free bonus Apple apps last night but haven't had a chance to check them out yet, except for iPhoto, which I already had.

[Faterson]

I use the following stand for all my tablets (I have 5 of these stands):

http://dx.com/p/portable-folding-des...ps-black-72933

In practice, I now prefer to take a "bare" iPad along in my briefcase, and the above stand, instead of the extremely overpriced "smart cover". My briefcase has padded cushions inside, so the iPad should be safe there. The trouble with the "smart cover" (yes, the original by Apple here) is: it creates two horizontal smudges/ridges across the screen whenever I unflap it. It's just too time-consuming for me to be wiping the screen all the time.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by MeSue

So, I got my iPad Air last night. Wow, it is so light compared to iPad 3. I won't get my Smart Cover until tomorrow, and --yikes-- this thing is slippery without any kind of cover or case! However, holding it one handed is pretty comfortable.

I do agree.

I do not know if buying the smart cover or getting a sleeve. But I do not want a bulky cover, that is for surel

[kyrilson]

Mine arrived yesterday. It is a huge improvement over my iPad 2! Amazingly light. I wish my Smart Cover would arrive, as it's pretty slippery. Hoping that will help. The retina display is wonderful.

Marvin is my main ereader app, and as MeSue mentioned above, it is much quicker overall. I'm trying to figure out how to get the colors exactly the same as on my iPad 2. My main theme during the day is Wine text, Anti-Flash White background... It's not QUITE the same shade now, though. My night theme is Pistachio text on Black background. The text color is a little more muted with Pistachio, but that's fine as it's a night time theme anyways. But the day time theme has been troublesome.

[Faterson]

Yes, kyrilson, every iDevice interprets the same colours a bit differently. I use "Citrine" as one of my night-mode font colours in Marvin on iPad 1, but had to replace it with "Metallic Gold" on iPad 3, because "Citrine" was just too vivid there.

[desertgrandma]

I have to agree...its so lightweight its easy to feel 'slippery' without any type of cover...

I did get the smart case, expensive as it was, just so that I wouldn't scratch the back cover and to make it easier to hold....but Im on the lookout for the Gripster.....a great looking device.

[kyrilson]

Yeah, I'm intrigued by the Gripster. I may have to pick that up if they make a version to fit the iPad Air.

[MeSue]

Okay, I just had my first "bad" impression. I was scrolling the app switcher, and got booted to the Apple logo, like it was restarting. Then it went to the "Hola" welcome screen like when you first turn it on from new. It only asked me for my iCloud password and my iMessage and FaceTime addresses, so it wasn't the full set up routine, but I was a little freaked out, half expecting to see a stock home screen. Then it dumped me on my familiar home screen, which was a relief.

[JTravers]

Originally Posted by MeSue

Okay, I just had my first "bad" impression. I was scrolling the app switcher, and got booted to the Apple logo, like it was restarting. Then it went to the "Hola" welcome screen like when you first turn it on from new. It only asked me for my iCloud password and my iMessage and FaceTime addresses, so it wasn't the full set up routine, but I was a little freaked out, half expecting to see a stock home screen. Then it dumped me on my familiar home screen, which was a relief.

iOS 7 still has some stability issues, especially on 64-bit devices. The crashes usually happen due to low memory. Hopefully, the memory handling will be fixed in the near future. My iPad Air crashed about an hour ago exactly as you described. My iPhone 5s re-springs at least once a day (not a full reboot, but a crash of the iOS launcher, Springboard). Very annoying. Hopefully, iOS 7 can get back to the stability of iOS 6.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by MeSue

Okay, I just had my first "bad" impression. I was scrolling the app switcher, and got booted to the Apple logo, like it was restarting. Then it went to the "Hola" welcome screen like when you first turn it on from new. It only asked me for my iCloud password and my iMessage and FaceTime addresses, so it wasn't the full set up routine, but I was a little freaked out, half expecting to see a stock home screen. Then it dumped me on my familiar home screen, which was a relief.

Do not worry. Happened to me 1st day during setup, not anymore. It was odd though.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Faterson

I think what both of us are really waiting for, Sue, is controlling the page flips and/or autoscroll speed with our eyes! Like, wink at Marvin with your right eye, and Marvin flips a page forward! (Or speeds up the autoscroll.) Wink with your left eye, and Marvin flips a page back, or slows down the autoscroll. Wasn't Samsung boasting of already being able to do something like that (detect the user's eye movements) on the newest Galaxy phones?

Yesterday at the mall, a lady tried to sell a Galaxy Note 3 to me for €600. (Ideally coupled with Galaxy Gear for an additional €290.) Anyway, she proceeded to demo all the features to me, although I made it clear I wasn't buying the things. Maybe she was bored. I can attest that the eyes movement detection works (it's almost scary) for scrolling a webpage. Also, look away while a video-clip is playing, and it automatically pauses; look at the screen again, and it automatically resumes play. (Which may not always be the desired behaviour if you're only watching something casually; the eyes movement detection can easily be toggled on and off, though.) There was no e-reader app installed on the demo unit (a mistake!), so I couldn't test whether flipping pages in books using your eyes only would work, but it's very likely it might, at least in theory, and especially in e-readers like Moon+ Pro Reader, where you can optionally either flip pages, or simply scroll vertically in books as if they were webpages. (No explicit switching between the two modes is needed, either: both reading progress modes are available simultaneously at all times.)

Anyway, that's some potentially great functionality, and it might also greatly assist persons with disabilities in that no haptic feedback whatsoever would be needed any longer to read through an entire book. I wonder if we ever get to see this functionality on iOS devices.

[krighton]

selling my IPAD 4 and buying the Air 32gb, the 4 was just too heavy for reading/watching tv in bed. Purchased a Cimo Ipad Air Smart Cover case (notch is opened to allow a smart cover to be added) amazon to protect the bottom.