Posted by
timothy
on from the one-that's-out-next-year dept.
jacob1984 writes "A few years ago there was a question about which e-reader was the best. Since then, the market has beenfloodedwithnewadditions, many of them more open than others. Have you bought one yet? If so, which one did you find best and why?"
The fact that the iPad supports all of the books ever written, not just those that can be rendered on newsprint, is all you need to know. That wins the contest right there. Most books are in color. Many books are entirely made of photographs, such as art or recipe books. Even if a book is all text, the cover is usually color. Even business books are filled with color charts. Supporting the whole library is key. Further, it supports audio video so it supports future books, such as a book for learning Photoshop that includes video of painting techniques.
Secondarily, the touch user interface that lets you just turn the page is fantastic. You don't have to use buttons to read. The device becomes a book. A child can operate it without instruction. No nerd corps is required to help people to read a book.
The full Wi-Fi n and HTML5 Web browser based entirely on an open source, standards-compliant Web decoder is the modern equivalent of having a dictionary built-in. Hyperlinks in books take you right to the Web, and you have Google and Wikipedia and Oxford.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of bookstores, so you can buy from Amazon or Kobo or iBooks or use any of the ones that are filled with free public domain books. The open ePub format is supported in iBooks and many other reading apps. I work in publishing and iPad is the only reader that's generating excitement among publishers. We know that the master copies of these books can be translated to iPad and retain their quality, whereas on other readers you are degrading the master when you put it on there. You have to fix color charts, rework even basic things to make a book work on other readers. With iPad you just make an ePub. Your color photos and charts still work. The labor is much less and the result is much better on iPad.
The iPad battery can play 10 hours of video, which likely means 15 hours of book reading. It charges via USB and there are many juice packs, so you can get as much battery time as you need. This year at CES they had wall sockets with 2 AC and 2 USB in them.
The iPad adjusts its screen brightness to your surroundings so you don't wear out your eyes as on other readers. (Do not repeat that awful myth about LCD being harder on eyes than e-Ink... that is a joke at the best of times, ridiculous from a Slashdot reader.)
At $499 it has a premium price over other book readers, but you get much more. Not just full color and touch, but also 4-20 times the storage, much more speed, a built-in iPod, built-in and 3rd party apps, many games, Podcasts, and it can even run Skype. So it is a book reader with a PC and iPod built-in for many users. If the iPhone is prologue, it will be easy to get 2 years of everyday use from this device, and often even more. And Apple Stores provide consumer grade support, replacing faulty devices on the spot, and offering free help with any technical issues.
The fact that iPad runs on an open source Unix core OS means it is reliable and interoperates well with the Internet and other networks. Everyone who contributed to BSD, Mach, WebKit, OpenGL, and other open source projects and open standards that are represented in iPad should be extremely proud of themselves. This is the closest to Neal Stephenson's Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (read The Diamond Age) that we've come yet. Of course everyone at Apple should be proud also. This device has been described for decades and is sorely needed, much moreso than another Windows netbook.
Slashdot Mirror
The fact that the iPad supports all of the books ever written, not just those that can be rendered on newsprint, is all you need to know. That wins the contest right there. Most books are in color. Many books are entirely made of photographs, such as art or recipe books. Even if a book is all text, the cover is usually color. Even business books are filled with color charts. Supporting the whole library is key. Further, it supports audio video so it supports future books, such as a book for learning Photoshop that includes video of painting techniques.
Secondarily, the touch user interface that lets you just turn the page is fantastic. You don't have to use buttons to read. The device becomes a book. A child can operate it without instruction. No nerd corps is required to help people to read a book.
The full Wi-Fi n and HTML5 Web browser based entirely on an open source, standards-compliant Web decoder is the modern equivalent of having a dictionary built-in. Hyperlinks in books take you right to the Web, and you have Google and Wikipedia and Oxford.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of bookstores, so you can buy from Amazon or Kobo or iBooks or use any of the ones that are filled with free public domain books. The open ePub format is supported in iBooks and many other reading apps. I work in publishing and iPad is the only reader that's generating excitement among publishers. We know that the master copies of these books can be translated to iPad and retain their quality, whereas on other readers you are degrading the master when you put it on there. You have to fix color charts, rework even basic things to make a book work on other readers. With iPad you just make an ePub. Your color photos and charts still work. The labor is much less and the result is much better on iPad.
The iPad battery can play 10 hours of video, which likely means 15 hours of book reading. It charges via USB and there are many juice packs, so you can get as much battery time as you need. This year at CES they had wall sockets with 2 AC and 2 USB in them.
The iPad adjusts its screen brightness to your surroundings so you don't wear out your eyes as on other readers. (Do not repeat that awful myth about LCD being harder on eyes than e-Ink ... that is a joke at the best of times, ridiculous from a Slashdot reader.)
At $499 it has a premium price over other book readers, but you get much more. Not just full color and touch, but also 4-20 times the storage, much more speed, a built-in iPod, built-in and 3rd party apps, many games, Podcasts, and it can even run Skype. So it is a book reader with a PC and iPod built-in for many users. If the iPhone is prologue, it will be easy to get 2 years of everyday use from this device, and often even more. And Apple Stores provide consumer grade support, replacing faulty devices on the spot, and offering free help with any technical issues.
The fact that iPad runs on an open source Unix core OS means it is reliable and interoperates well with the Internet and other networks. Everyone who contributed to BSD, Mach, WebKit, OpenGL, and other open source projects and open standards that are represented in iPad should be extremely proud of themselves. This is the closest to Neal Stephenson's Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (read The Diamond Age) that we've come yet. Of course everyone at Apple should be proud also. This device has been described for decades and is sorely needed, much moreso than another Windows netbook.