That’s the title of a Dear Author posting by Jane. She starts out by saying:
I like the iPad a lot. I can foresee using this device everyday but it’s not the greatest ebook reader. I’m not certain if my frustration stems mostly from the software (the reading applications) or the hardware. I don’t think the iPad is a Kindle killer (or dedicated eink device) because I think the primary purpose of the iPad is not long form narrative reading.
One thing she points out is the poor sunlight performance. This is something that most reviews have skipped over:
The iPad is fairly heavy. It weighs 1.5 pounds versus the Kindle’s 10.2 oz. Plus, it is unuseable in bright sunlight. You really, really need to have some shade to be able to see much of anything. You can see the comparison between the two. The indoor picture is the exact same screen, finger prints and all.
This is a really good article and you should read it all. According to Jane the Romance selection on the iBookstore is poor and prices are high. She’s got a lot more details. Overall, one of the best real “user” reviews I’ve seen.
Excellent article by Jane. Reinforces my belief that the iPad is a half-baked solution in its current form.
Rich Adin refers to the iPad as a half-baked solution. Definitely half-baked as an e-reader but sounds quite fabulous for many other uses. I have a 3G coming whenever they see fit to ship them, but did not buy it as an e-reader; it was for the other things. Still love my Kindle and expect that to continue.
Great link! I have heard a lot of love for the iPad but I still wonder how much book reading the reviewers have actually done on it.
I’m still waiting for someone to actually read a long book on the iPad and let me know how it compares to reading on the Kindle. Not being able to read with just one hand using the iPad (like you can do with most dedicated ereaders) might be a consideration for some readers.
This was the best in-depth review of iBookstore I’ve seen so far. Thanks for the link. It seems as though the book app concentrated mostly on the finish of the reading experience for version 1.0, leaving the back end without drywall in some places. Good to know. Big disappointment that pdf’s are not supported out of the box. For me as a reader, it’s a much bigger hangup than lack of Flash support.
I would still look back at the history of handhelds and say that multifunction devices have, so far, always beaten the single-use devices. Unless eink can improve production yields and cut prices way, way down, they will all just wither on the vine.
Remember that one of the big initial appeals of the Kindle was the subsidized $9.99 price for books. It took the sting out of the upfront cost of the device. But now that’s almost gone. If the Kindle, the Sony Reader, the Nook etc. were selling for $149 or $99, they would have a chance against the iPad, which can do so much more. Maybe us lonelyhearts, who read ONLY fiction, will hold on to our Kindles; but families will get the iPad to please kids and grannies alike.
With a Netflix subscription and an iPad, you can not only read all your Kindle ebooks, but you can also fire up an old movie or TV show at any hour and watch it. Kids can play games, and the picture books for kids on the iPad will absolutely leave grayscale eink books in the dust.
— asotir
@asotir: There is an excellent app, re-done for the iPad, called GoodReader, which is 99 cents and it will handle pdf files and reflow them. In addition, it handles many other file types. Files are transferred via wi-fi. Since I do not yet have my iPad, I have no experience with it on that device, but I have used it for some time with the iPhone and it’s all been good. Just so you know, it only allows you to read files, not to highlight, annotate, or change them.