Saturday 29 May 2010

Not Reading That

A big announcement is that Whitcoulls now has an eReader available, and is selling eBooks. The eBooks can be used on pretty much any device, so that's good, lots of flexibility there. However, due to the recent low exchange rate with England, I brought a lot of books (pile goes up to my knee!), so I'm not seeking more books any time soon.

And if I was, I'm eying the Kobe eReader doubtfully. One of its selling points is a "quilted" cover for easy holding. Nice, but when the surface is a major feature, you do have to wonder about the product itself. (On the other hand, being easy to hold is a nice thing to have in a pseudo-book.) But one thing I'm not keen on is that all it can do is read books. No sign that I could throw a cbz/cbr in there.

Which might be an indication that what I want is the iPad. However, it has the same draw back as the iPhone, in that only one application can be run at once. On the iPhone, maybe, its small, not like there's a lot of space to have many things open anyway. But on the iPad? I want to have multiple media options, dangnabit, and not have to close one application to get another running.

Which then leaves me with a tablet. Now that has the versatility I'm looking for, however tablets aren't really the mainstream item other things (like the iPad) are, and so there are lots of choices with lots of set up needed (for example, read here). I'm not sure that "off the shelf with lots of options" is available for the tablet.

And that's not even mentioning the price of all this.

So while, in the future, I might get some electronic format, at the moment I'm sticking with paper. You gadgetted up yet?

Edit: ...on the other hand...

[END]

3 comments:

Foo said...

It looks like the iPad will offer multi-tasking as will the iPhone when the new version of the OS is released (in June - at the same time as the 4th Gen iPhone is announced). The argument against multi-tasking is that it kills the battery performance, and when you are getting 10 hours plus on the iPad, this could reduce this greatly.

You are right with regard to the Kobe eReader...you would be better off waiting for either an iPad one of the many (and cheaper) alternatives that are about to hit the market. Dell is about to bring out the Dell Streak and there will be a deluge of Android based tablets through the second quarter of 2010. Always remember before making this kind of purchase that you need to be very clear about what you want to be able to do with such a device.

Just remember, if you go Apple, you are tied in to the Apple eco-system of iTunes (which, for me at least, isn't my thing, although I know other people who love it).

Jamas Enright said...

Can't say that I'm gagging to spend the money (need to consider the connection plan as well as the actual device). And I've survived this long with an iPhone.

Definitely something more tabletish, at the very least not tied into Apple.

Will wait and see... and probably wait more!

Foo said...

Yeah, these sort of things do cost a packet, and New Zealand does sometimes get the short end of the stick in that regard when compared to the UK and the US. Same thing goes for the cost of phone call/data plans.

Apple is going to make the tablet idea succeed where previously it has failed...Microsoft had tablets just under a decade ago, but where are they now!? It takes a true master of marketing to make something new desirable, and Apple has that magic.

Personally, after having recently moved to an Android phone (which is simply fantastic), I think if I ever went for tablet device, it would have to run Android or possible Google's Chrome (as long as it had decent battery life and a solid UI).

Anyway, the second half of the year will be when many alternatives will come out and there will be time to wait for the dust to settle and see what viable (and cheaper) alternatives there are to the iPad.

Ramble over! :-P