eReader? Give Me the iTablet…

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 10:05 AM Posted in Business, Life, Technology

Amazon Kindle DXThe thing about all great new products is that they inevitably get much better. Macs, PCs, cell phones, iPhones, TVs, DVD, Blu-Ray… the list goes on. Books are no different. Remember when books were pretty much words on paper? Sometimes you got the book with slightly yellowed paper and sometimes it was bright white. If you were really lucky, you found a book that had pictures- and they were in COLOR!

Since Amazon came out with the Kindle a couple years ago, I’ve watched as many of my friends fell victim to early adoption. They coveted new technology and they pursued it, not realizing that future generations of their product would be vastly superior. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have eReaders (soon to be) available. Consider the list of features offered by the Kindle:

  • Slim
  • Lightweight
  • Books in Under 60 Seconds
  • 3G Wireless
  • International Coverage
  • Paper-Like Display
  • Carry Your Library
  • Long Battery Life
  • Read-to-Me

We all know that battery life will improve as the technology gets better. The same goes for capacity and speed (as 3G becomes 4G and so on). Those features are great. But what I really want is… the Apple iTablet. Okay, so that’s not news. I’m a Mac guy. But if I were a PC guy, I’d want a Tablet PC. One that ran a fully functioning OS, whether it was Windows, Linux, or Mac OS. I’d want it to look nice. And in addition to all those things the Kindle and Nook offer, I’d want…

  • Full color.
  • High resolution.
  • Touch screen.
  • The ability to draw/write notes in the margins.
  • And save them.
  • And email them.
  • And print them.
  • Removable battery (that doesn’t heat up so much)

I bet if I thought about it more, I could come up with more things I want. But if I were a college student, I’d want every book I had to buy to come in a digital version, in full color, with a huge resolution and all those other things I listed above. Now nice would that be? It would be awesome.

by Joe Kennedy

4 comments

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October 28, 2009 - 10:27 AM

Leanne - The community college I’m attending is talking about going to the Kindle and having students buy the license for their textbooks. Problem? You only get the books for the length of the class, you still pay the same price as the full textbook, and you can’t sell it back to the college at the end of the term.

October 28, 2009 - 2:47 PM

Joe Kennedy - Leanne, that is not at all what I have in mind. My solution does prevent you from selling your books back, but I imagine the overall cost of books would eventually drop with printing costs eliminated. Call me an optimist.

October 29, 2009 - 11:13 AM

John Wilker - I think there’s also the problem of “I’ll wait for better” to consider. Yes, there will always be a newer, better, faster device on the horizon, at some point you have to jump in.

I think the thing that gets overlooked in the whole eReader vs. Tablet world, is sometimes a single tasker is what you want/need.

When i read a book, I read a book. I don’t read a paragraph, then hop on twitter, facebook, check my email, etc. An eReader is designed to do one thing awesomely, and for all it’s faults (of which I think there are many) my Kindle is perfect for reading.

I will most definitely be getting an iTablet, assuming it’s remotely interesting, and has a compelling UX. But I won’t be reading on it. Backlights aren’t good for your eyes, it’ll no doubt be heavier than a Kindle, and it’s battery life will be hours, not days. Of course I don’t read for days, but after being on a machine all day, I want to read, I don’t want to be stuck next to a plug.

I’m excited that the Kindle has competition. It’s way too restrictive, and closed for my taste, but for reading books, even technical ones, it’s really good at it’s job.

November 4, 2009 - 7:22 PM

Joe Kennedy - You make some good points, John. Still, I’m thinking broadly- I’d rather have one thing to carry around than several.

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