The New York Times says the iPad is "too heavy." LINK How much does the iPad weigh? A pound a half. Damn that is heavy! If you are a octogenarian with arthritis and you weigh 76 lbs. And you have bone cancer. And you're really tired. 1.5 lbs as being "too heavy."
Um... seriously? This is a rant? And people are agreeing? That was in the "techie" section where they were specifically comparing it to other e-readers. As they pointed out, the Kindle is only 10oz which makes the iPad 2.5x heavier. They also never said it was "too heavy" but instead that it starts to feel heavy in your hand after a while when using it as an e-reader. If it's an e-reader you're after, then there are better choices then the iPad. That's what they were saying in the article. Context matters. Here is the actual passage and the only place the word "heavy" appears in the entire article:
If a pound and a half "gets heavy" for you after any length of time you've got some serious muscular issues.
The whole not being able to read the books on the Mac issue seems like a bit more of a problem to me. It'll probably be fixed by the end of the month though.
The point is, since you missed it in both my post and the actual article, that there are better devices for use as an e-reader then the iPad. In a mobile device that you use for long periods of time, weight matters. And again, at no point did the author actually say it was "too heavy." Did you even read the whole article? Because the overall tone is actually positive and at one point he actually referes to the iPad as "light". He only calls it heavy compared to other e-readers and this is absolutely correct. So again: seriously?
Apple has now made available the guided tours. http://www.apple.com/ipad/guided-tours/ Avoiding the carpal tunnel syndrome (and the like) is included Seriously, I don't think that the Kindle(s) are going to become roadkill instantly, but it's hard to fathom why somebody would choose a Kindle over the iPad, a one-trick-pony over a multi-talent? It's a different story, for sure, if you already own a Kindle and a laptop.
Say whatever you like. If I say that "if buying a real book bothers you, you've got issues" it's as valid and makes as much sense as your assertion. I swear, the lengths people will go to, to defend Apple's junk...
I hear ya... it is nearly as bad as people who waste their time trashing Apple junk. Of course Apple haters sort of remind me of STXI haters... I mean people, if you don't like something, move onto to the things you like. There isn't any point wasting time hating when there is so much else in life.
The big difference is e-paper versus LCD. I haven't seen e-paper up close yet, but conceptually there's a big benefit to a device which can be read easily in bright sunlight and which has battery life measured in weeks rather than hours. The lack of color is a problem, though.
Yeah, the lack of color is the biggest problem with e-paper with refresh rate a close second (though that's been improving pretty fast). But there's some cool tech coming down the pipe, hopefully in the next few years, that will help quite a bit. But for a lot of people, color isn't such a big deal... if all you're doing is reading novels or newspaper articles you don't need it. As for "one-trick-pony over a multi-talent"... the obvious comeback is jack of all trades, master of none. If you want a device that can do a little bit of everything, then something like the iPad is great. If you want to do a lot of a single thing and don't care about the other things... why pay extra for something that isn't as good at your preferred task?
Because I hate reading on a glowing screen, and I hate carrying around 10 books whenever I'm travelling. Only one compromise makes sense - e-ink. Also, having been involved in digital forensics for most of the last 8 years, I know how horrible security is on the iPhone, and no way I'd trust it to do much more than very casual web browsing. Eastern European hackers are praying the iPad becomes popular, because people WILL do their banking on them - it looks enough like a laptop, that people are going to forget it isn't...