You can see it live blogged here. I don’t know how I feel about it. I suppose I can’t afford it right now regardless of how I feel about it. It interests me most as an e-reader, as I think that is the direction publishing is headed (unfortunately in some ways, fortunately in others) and I’m not wild about the Kindle and Sony E-reader that currently exist. This looks like a step up in that regard…it’s kinda big though…
Update: They haven’t gotten to anything specific to e-readers yet…well, they did just show a pretty good looking New York Times…
Okay…here we go…ibooks…looks WAY better than The Kindle
Oooh. You can change the font. That’s a nice feature.
Wow. $499 for the iPad. Honestly…that is…not bad. I was thinking it would be a lot more. I still can’t afford it…but that’s a pretty impressive price point for what seems like a pretty broad spectrum of functionality. Plus it’s pretty.
Update 2: Here’s a link to a video of the iPad in action. At the end it shows the ibook application. Again, a huge step up from Kindle and Sony by the looks of it…but where are the comic books…? Until we get there I think I’m probably an admirer rather than a buyer. Because you know as soon as buy this a new one that works (or works better at least) for comics and trade paper backs will release…
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I have mixed feelings about Apple. Everyone says it’s a great company that has great products and everything is so easy to use, but if I can’t successfully navigate their iTunes and an iPod, then there’s a problem. And if their videos don’t play on the iPod, the problems get bigger.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the idea of a tablet that will let me read books (after all I bought a Kindle didn’t I?) and something with color sounds even more awesome (especially if I can get a newspaper or graphic novel on it or even a movie/TV show). But by the time you get all that jazz on the tablet, isn’t it really just a computer? I mean, don’t they sell tablet PCs that let you do all sorts of gee-whiz stuff by touching the screen?
In the end, I’ll be skipping any future Apple products for some time.
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I’ve just been checking out the “live blog” (or whatever it is) and the thing looks like a neat little computer. As opposed to an ereader like the Kindle, that only really does text reading and has a battery life of 7 days with free 3G service (for downloading books only), the iPad looks like a little futuristic computer. Seems like a cool thing and hopefully it will spur companies like amazon to make the kindle a color screen (for comics).
Any idea how much the iPad will cost? I say it has to be over 2K, unless you can only get it thru a service like AT&T (iphone style).
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kfugrip – I minor point to correct or clarify. Our Kindles (my wife has one too) will each last about 2 days on battery with the wi-fi turned on. With no wi-fi, they’ll last at least 2 weeks (just reading a book of course, not playing audio). They’re both the DX model, so it may vary with the older versions, but that might give you some persepective on the battery life.
As to the whole comics thing, amen. I’d love to read my Sunday paper, in color, on my Kindle. But alas, it’s only greyscale. And I can deal with that for now. I’m sure in a few years when technology, money, the market, and everything else get factored in, we’ll see a color Kindle. Until then, I’m content to read my insane queue of books in black and white.
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The price point is actually really good…what do you guys think?
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It compares directly with the Kindle DX price point. And no, that’s not bad at all. Good enough to make me wonder if I should have waited longer to buy my Kindle. But seeing as it’ll take 2 years for the iPad to even be available enough for me to buy, I’d say it’s a wash.
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Yeah, it does compare…but I’m honestly surprised they’re able to compete at that price point…usually Apple doesn’t seem to bother about competing with price points. It’s good.
I can’t afford it anyway, but if they release a comic app for downloading in the future, I will start seriously considering it. The ibooks e-reader looks far superior to the what the kindle and sony have going…and it has a lot of other functionality as well…I’m not sure how much I’d use the other stuff…but if I could read, buy, and store books on it, and read, buy, and store comics on it…I’d have to seriously consider it.
One note the live blogger mentioned was there was not much talk about multifunctionality…or simultaneously running programs…as I expect I’d use this mostly as an ereader that doesn’t much concern me…except it would be good to be able to get email notifications and listen to music while reading…and is that possible? Time will tell. I’m still impressed with the price point, regardless.
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I haven’t kept up with the iPad launch, so I have no idea how it truly compares to the iPod or the Kindle or anything else. But from what little I’ve read and heard, it does sound like a single-app device. The Kindle essentially is as well, but if you know what you’re doing you can listen to music and read at the same time. I found it too distracting.
The big things for me are the apps (like an iPhone) and the color. Any sort of app that you can install will increase it’s productivity immensely. Even if it’s something silly like using a compass when you’re lost. But the color, now that is the real ground breaker. I don’t think there’s a full-size device that offers color. I’ve tried reading USA Today on the Kindle. It sucks. But if I could get it in color WITH ALL the photos, that would be awesome.
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I am so stoked for this. I am more excited about this then any other Apple product. That said I come in with a sceptically view of the Kindle and the like…I like traditional books. But this blows the limitations of Kindle away and if it takes on the application potential of the iPhone it may become what I envision it should…the tablet computer that Apple should have made long ago. So far it exceeds my expectations and leaves plenty of room for growing into what I could envision using it for. Thanks Kelly for posting this.
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