Sunday, April 4, 2010

Would I trade my Kindle for the iPad?

Although Amazon do have a Kindle app for the new iPad so that I could still read my Kindle books - and the iPad has color and a bigger screen - I still haven't seen anything that will make me turn over my Kindle to my daughter and buy myself an iPad.

For one thing, the basic $500 model comes with WiFi - I rarely go anywhere that I could get an unprotected WiFi access, so that would mean an upgrade for the 3G option at an additional couple hundred dollars for that. Or I'd have to go back to downloading my books by USB.  

It looks beautiful, although the touch screen always makes me shudder a bit, the thought of reading through smeared screen and fingerprints. Although millions of iTouch users manage with that, I like my screen squeaky clean. Heck, I can silence my Kindle, turn on Text to Speech and let my Kindle turn its own pages so I can eat sticky food and not touch the darn thing anywhere, let alone on the screen! Just prop it on my knee and read hands free.

But down to the basics of what I love about my Kindle and is it on the iPad?

Well, iPad doesn't have e-ink, and the backlit screen ignores what many of us Kindle lovers love.... the Kindle reads like a book, not a computer, and so the Kindle doesn't contribute to screen-induced eye strain and headaches. I read with soft light in the evening & the Kindle's screen is soothing like a book page. iPad skipped that pro.

Additionally it looks like Apple missed the boat on preventing sun glare. Len Edgerly demonstrates alarming glare and reflection on his iPad screen in his YouTube video. YIKES! I love to read outside in Summer and when I am passenger in the car. Admittedly my Kindle is one with a sun fade issue, but only when I hit Next Page (so I can tilt the screen to stop that). With the iPad it's constant when in the sun.

And with those two big cons - backlit screen and terrible sun glare - that rules it out for me altogether. I'll happily stick with my Kindle to read and my laptop and desktop for everything else!

No comments :

Post a Comment