If anyone else interested in the iPad as an ebook reader, here is a gushing review from Andy Ihnatko.
iBooks is worth the price alone for iPad as ebook reader
And that’s the same danger facing the iPad. It’s a tablet computer that can fulfill any function, provided that a developer write the app and Apple actually approves it for sale. But it’s just such a bloody good book reader that some folks will never wander far from its eBook functions. And why not? From one perspective, it’s hands-down the best book reader you can buy.
He answered some of concerns.
I’ve spent about eight hours reading iBooks. The iPad hardware and the software melt away almost immediately, just as they should in any good reader. Within a minute, you’re having the same immersive experience as you’d have with a printed edition,
Comparisons to traditional books render complaints about the iPad’s weight and size rather moot. True, the iPad does feel a bit heavy in my hands after a half an hour. But so does a thick paperback. Even my Kindle forces me to rest my support arm against something after a while.
It’s perfectly comfortable to read. The iPad has something that e-ink displays lack, too: backlighting. The LCD display wouldn’t work without it but it has the nice side-effect of providing your iBook with a built-in reading light.
Well, I took the iPad to an actual beach at high noon on a gorgeous cloudless New England day (gorgeous except for the 28 degree temperature and the howling winds, I should correct). I could read an iBook in sunlight just fine. It’s not nearly as contrasty and clear as a Kindle, of course. I’d say that it’s about as readable as a Kindle is via indirect indoor lighting. Strictly on the question of readability, I have to call this one a draw.
So that’s why I can confidently put the iPad at the top of the tree in the e-reader competition. If the price and the size aren’t obstacles to you, then it’s the clear winner. And we haven’t even covered the fact that reading books is only one of many, many things it does.
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