Another problem is royalties. How will our hardworking writers here get their royalties if I am only renting the ebook. As for the other, the answer is cloudware.
Battery life, you say? How about 10 hours? It's aliiiiive!! http://www.macworld.com/article/145805/2010/01/apple_event.html?lsrc=top_1
But it's still a *screen*, and backlit one, meaning for achy eyes :/ I loved the convenience of reading on my iPod Touch, but I really, really found it tiring and sore on the eyes after a bit. I'll have to see it in store before deciding. I think they're model for eBooks and selling is very clever, but will see if the device is any use later...
But look how BIG it is (no, I am not talking about Greg Oden! LOL!) Hopefully, that big 9.7" screen will make it easier on the eyes. I heard they are working on the organic LED development and that may be less "backlit". It's also a game device, and it's $500 base price. So, we'll see...
Just because an Ipad screen is larger does not mean it will be easy on the eyes. If that was the case reading on an HDTV laptop would be a fine experience but it's not. Anyone who spends long hours reading will not enjoy the experience as much as they would enjoy reading on an eink screen. Now as far as internet, movies, games, photos and music I doubt the experience could be beat but not for ebooks. Internet reading and book reading are not the same btw. We read internet much differently because it's a contstantly moving around experience. Rarely does anyone read straight through 50 to 100 pages of internet text on their computer. As far as I can tell Apple has really brought nothing new to the table except for a humungus Iphone called the Ipad without the phone capability. It caters to the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh just fine but I do not see it as a "must have" device for a lot of people. An interesting poll on MSNBC asks if the device is a must have or epic failure. The majority side with either must have or meh. Only 25% think it is a must have but I wonder how many of that 25% will actually shell out the big bucks. I think even $499 is a little steep for the trimmed down version. If I were to buy one it would have to be the best one they sell. Here is the article: http://msnbc.newsvine.com/_question/2010/01/27/3817168-apple-ipad-must-have-or-epic-fail Kevin
Apparently all the chatter about this device is going on in Misc, if you want other points of view. Amazon is going to discontinue the Kindle and focus on the sale of ebooks to multiple platforms. Other ebook devices will eventually follow the Kindle into obscurity. Eventually people will take all of the non-phone functions of their phones to one device, and it will not have required peripherals. Within 5 years everyone will have some sort of Pad, whether by Apple or HP or maybe Viewsonic will actually bring out a new one. And that's where ebooks will thrive. What we're seeing with all these single use devices is transitional. What we're seeing with the iPad is the future. If only 1 in 4 can see it today, so what? By the time everyone else sees it, that 25% will be looking forward to something else. Somebody has to have vision, and that would be an individual, not a mob. They will follow, as always, and deny their having failed to see it today.
You know most of the time I think what you post is well thought out and worth pondering but this has to be the biggest bunk I have heard in a long time. Amazon is in the process of developing the Kindle 3. If Amazon does anything it will likely be to further their foothold on the ebook market and that will mean leaving aside their proprietary format and open up the Kindle. I also understand that Amazon has several apps in development for the Kindle. To imply that everyone who sees no real need for the Ipad as shortsighted I think is absurd and insulting. I think your love of Apple products has clouded your vision. The Ipad is in no way innovative and not at all what tech geeks were looking and hoping for. I think to the most of us it was a huge letdown. I really wanted to see that "wow" factor but it just is not there! Kevin
LOL! My love of the halfling weed, eh? Thanks. That's me predicting. No insult intended. Sorry. Let's call this thread up in two years and see if I'm right. The personal computer is changing, and this is the way it's going, I predict.
Well, for me there are even more negatives about the Ipad. It seems that the Ipad is going to use a proprietary epub format which will close out anyone from buying ebooks from Apple's website and using it on other devices. It also does not support Flash and so that excludes a whole lot of web use that has Flash imbedded along with videos, games etc. This is a quote from Adobe: This is pretty dissapointing news and shows how controlling Apple wants to be. There are other slate/tablet projects coming out soon that I think may not look as flashy as Ipad but will outperform it. Here's the source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/28/adobe-on-flash-and-the-ipad-apple-is-continuing-to-impose-rest/ Kevin
I can read PDFs on my iPod already. Why wouldn't I be able to read them on my BIG iPod? I'll let you know when I get it.
PDFs and Epub are not the same thing although both formats were created by Adobe. Epub seems to be the new ebook publishing standard. Undoubtedly PDFs will look fine on the Ipad and a lot of people who work in the medical field might like that if the Ipad does indeed support PDF. Kevin
I currently run Stanza on my iPod Touch, which allows me to read eReader-formatted ebooks -- including all my Star Trek ebooks. I think I read somewhere that all apps that run on the iPhone and Touch will run on iPad, so this solution should work.
Yeah, but you have to convert them from LIT, a proprietary Windows format. But I guess Microsoft gets a free pass around here.
Have to convert what from LIT? Star Trek books are available in (as far as I know) every ebook format that exists, including ereader.
And as long as they allow the txtr app to work on the iPad, all will be well. The ePub bought via iBook are going to have a different DRM which is not good. But, I am hoping that iBook will let us use our own DRM free ePub and it'll be easy to put content on the iPad.
I'm honestly not even sure why I bought my Sony PRS505 since I hardly ever read the thing. I have plenty of paperbacks to read and I will be collecting the entire McCaffrey PERN series on the eReader when I have the money since I want to stop clogging up my shelves with non-Trek books. I will probably continue to buy Trek books in paperback/trade, but switch to buying everything else in eBook formats for the Sony. That said, after seeing how good the Kindle is (my aunt-in-law got one for Xmas) I may seriously think about buying one when I have the money.
The Kindle cannot handle library ePub or for that matter any library eBooks. I've seen the Kindle and read enough about it to know I like my 505 better.
You know, I've stated many times that I love my Kindle, but if Amazon keeps this shit up for very long, I'm taking the loss and switching to a Nook or a Sony. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-outsiders.html This is bullshit. (Short version - in a dispute over ebook pricing, Amazon has stopped selling ALL books from Macmillan, which includes the sci-fi imprint Tor, INCLUDING print books. Not just electronic ones.)
Yep. Apple's iPad announcement didn't make me regret buying my kindle but this issue sure did. This is way worse than the 1984 fiasco.