The choice for me: fruit-free

On the day of the iPad’s introduction my wife received a new iPod Touch from her employer. That meant her old Touch came to me. I spent my first serious time with it last night and that time confirmed what I already knew: I’m just not a Mac person. I’ll stick with the netbook until it burns up or breaks down. Maybe by then there’ll be something in the Apple section that tempts me.

From RegHardware:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was rather dismissive of the netbook at the iPad’s launch last night. He needed to be: he was trying to win over journalists and analysts who’ve spent the last 18 months or so asking when his company will release just such a product - and telling readers why it really should.

Jobs’ criticisms were certainly unfounded. He slammed them as “slow” and sporting “low-quality displays”. The problem with them, he said, is that ” netbooks aren’t better than anything”.

Wrong on most counts, Steve. (more)

Update on January 28, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Update on January 28, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

OK, after watching the above video I am tempted… as a reader if nothing else.

Update on January 29, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

“No netbook killer” and would you believe “Touch now outselling iPhone”?

Comments

[Andy Mesa]

What does being "a Mac person" have to do with the iPod touch? What do netbooks have to do with the iPod touch? None of these things are in the same category, and only one of them fits in your pocket.

And as a reader you should be pleased to note that the Kindle app in the App Store already has hundreds of thousands of books, all of which you can read the first chapter of for free and Stanza has millions of public domain works.

I've used the Kindle app myself, it's fantastic for travel when you want to load up on guidebooks without the weight or any book you might want that isn't available at a store abroad in English at a reasonable price.

[Brad]

Honestly, I have the same aversion to the Touch as to my wife's and son's Macs. But the 'Pad will be a great reader. I'm just going to wait a while. The best thing the iPad could do for me is reduce the weight of my professor-wife's bag. She doubts that the small academic presses will supply much of what she needs in an e-book format.

[Chris]

I've also used the Kindle App on my iPhone. I went out of town for a weekend and forgot my Kindle once, luckily I had synced it with Amazon the nite before. I just connected the iPhone Kindle App and downloaded the book I was reading, I picked up reading where I left off the night before on my Kindle.

I've ambivalent towards the iPad. For casual reading my Kindle 1 will most likely be better suited for me. The Kindle appears to be smaller, lighter, easy to hold in one hand to read with, and most likely easier on the eyes for extended reading periods. When away, I use my iPhone for light webbrowsing & email. I'll bring my Macbook Air in case I need to access our systems at work, that requires a real keyboard, and, a terminal window. However, should I be 'given' one, I'm sure I could find a use for it :)

[Miguel Marcos]

> She doubts that the small academic presses will supply much of what she needs
> in an e-book format.

Apple is, for better and for worse, offering DRM on ePub books. I'll bet small presses will be all over this thing after a bit of time and once academia begins making the demand.

[Till]

The changes for publishing companies will be tremendous thanks to DRM in this case. Everyone will profit. Especially academia and students. Imagine when a student doesn't have to buy and art history textbook for $90 anymore. He can now get the same content for $45 and not ruin his back. He can also search the book electronically and annotate it and set bookmarks without defacing the book. Even interactive learning tools will be easily possible, like flash card for artists for example. For the publishers it's great because they effectively save the entire printing cost and the distribution cost is MUCH lower. Thus they will make more money selling the book for $45 than before when they sold it for $90. They will also sell more books because the price threshold to buy will be lower. And profs will be more ready to tell their students to buy such a useful tool for $45 than to buy a big block of colored paper for $90. Of course, the weight factor is HUGE. Imagine going to class with nothing but the Ipad to hold all your books and all your notes. And to not make any noise when you are taking notes on it in class. Even exam taking will be possible with the right software. I can send the exam to their Ipads and they can fill the info right in. Then they send it back as a read only document which I annotate and grade. Fantastic!

Finally, imagine the decrease in carbon footprint. No more paper use anymore (an art history text book weighs around 2.5 lb), no more shipping those volumes, no more ink and printing resources needed. The increase in electricity and hardware will be minimal. The layout of the book is done on a computer anyway, then it is send to the printer, then the entire high carbon footprint chain starts. With the ebooks it is not sent to the printer but directly to the end user. The buck stops there. Not good for BM bookstores, though. Previewing books will also be much easier. As well as quoting from books. The time savings in academia will be enormous. At last, we will get more sleep. :)

For non academic users the magazine access will be great. Imagine you have Vogue or National Geographic on the Ipad. The models are running over the catwalk as the cheetah hunts its prey in the Masai Mara. See something in an ad? Click on it and instantly get more info or buy it. That's the kind of advertising manufacturers could only dream of until now in print publishing.

If academic books like text books are also offered in a very low cost version with advertising (say $10 instead of $45 instead of $90), imagine the effect this will have on the accessibility of a college education, and thus on the state of the nation.

Frankly, people who don't get that and complain that there is not more gadgetry to it and make inane hygiene jokes about the name, should have probably stayed out of college or at least didn't really profit from it.

[Ed J.]

I think a Macbook Air is a better deal all the way around; especially if you have an Iphone.

[Luke]

The continuing reliance on DRM will kill the e publishing market. When I buy a paper book, it is then MINE. I can loan it to someone, give it to someone, or sell it to a used book store. I can do the same things with non-DRM ebooks that I buy. Technically, if I, my wife, and my son, who all have the Kindle app downloaded, want to read the same Kindle book ,then I have to buy it 3 times. With DRM on their Kindle books, Amazon has the ability to forcibly REMOVE books that you have paid for from your Kindle, and Apple would have the same ability with DRMd books in iBooks. DRM means that you are RENTING the books, not buying them.
Their is currently one major publisher that is offering EVERY book that they publish in a non-DRM electronic format. You won't find them on Amazon in a Kindle format. Baen Books offers every book as an ebook, priced at trade paperback levels, on the same day (or sometimes before) as the hardcover is released. Many books are offered as electronic Advanced Reader Copies 3-6 months before the hardcover comes out. Baen actually encourages its readers to pass around the ebooks, and offers much of its catalog as free ebooks. Contrary to most pundits statements on DRM, Baen has actually seen the sales of its back catalog INCREASE through its strategy. So far, for every eARC that I have bought, I have gone on to purchase at least the hardcover, and in some cases the fnal electronic version.

Apple finally got the message on DRM with its music and movie store. Once I buy the item, its MINE, and i should be able to do with it as I wish.

[Chris]

I agree completely with Till. For Academic texts this will most likely be a huge thing! I think that the Kindle DX from Amazon was trying to do a similar thing, speaking of which, I think the iPad is going to kill the DX (I imagine that will be getting a price cut soon).
While I am a die-hard Kindle (not-DX) fan, I can see a change coming in what books will be like in the future. I'm not sure what they will be called, but they certainly won't be anything like books. A combination of books, videos, games, interaction (changing plot lines). It will be interesting.
Oh - I still like paper books too, it's known as "Picard's Syndrome", and, I suffer from it occasionally (I like to visit the Public Library). However, for traveling - there is nothing like an E-Reader.

[Till]

Luke, very interesting point. What you say about DRM is how I think it would be implemented for the books. You OWN them. And you are allowed to make at least one or two copies (perhaps without annotation and search features?) and you can also sell the original. How that would need to be impicated in practice I don't know but it should be doable. Interesting also about ebean. I will check that out. The thing is, if the prices are that much lower (half) and the features and advantages that great, I will gladly trust Apple that they won't delete the book from my online shelf. After all, why would they?

[Scott]

eBook prices are going to have to come WAY down before I bother with a dedicated reader. A normal paperback novel only takes me 2-3 hours of dedicated reading to finish, so most of my books come from "goodwill" type stores at $.50 each.

I have downloaded a decent reader app for my Motorola Droid ("Aldiko"), which has quite a few free book downloads available, and there's enough free content out there (Baen books as Luke mentioned above, Project Gutenberg, etc) to keep me going for quite a while. (Conversion to epub format done by "Calibre" on my Windows PC if needed, which can also collect and convert emagazines and newspaper feeds)

The iPad has a potential niche in replacing magazines, and other graphic-intensive print formats, but I suspect Students will still be better off with a notebook that can handle multiple tasks, rather than having multiple expensive specialized units.