I came away from yesterdays iPad news with mixed feelings. A giant iPod touch? Hmmm…. Not sure that’s something I want. After all it lacked some of the features I thought it should have. But when I thought about it, I was wanting more of a computer and what they released if much more of a reader.
With that in mind I set out to evaluate it against the Barns and Noble Nook and the Amazon Kindle.
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| Features | Nook | Kindle | iPad |
| Screen | 6″ E-inc/Color | 6″/9.7″ E-inc | 9.7″ of LED Backlit Apple Kick-ass-ness |
| Wireless | Wifi/3G | Wifi/3G | Wifi/3G |
| Wireless Plan | Free 3G | Free 3G | $15 |
| Books Cost | Around $9 | Around $9 | $15? |
| Book Store | Barns and Noble | Amazon | Apple, and Probably Amazon and BN via their Apps |
| Interface | Partial Touch Screen | Buttons | Multi-touch |
| Maybe | Extra | Oh Ya | |
| Expandability | SD Cards | None | None |
| Hackability | Its running Android/Linux… | I guess it can be done | Steve Jobs is watching you |
| Other Things it Does | Not Much | Not Much | Various other Multi-media, Games, Apps from the Apple App store. | Lowest Price Model | $259 | $259 | $499 |
Conclusion: The iPad, although lacking free 3G, is a reader +. If you are going to buy a reader you should strongly consider the iPad. If you are looking for a small computer you should consider the MacBook Air or any one of the unwashed masses of netbooks.
I think its important to remember that Apple Steve was not looking to reinvent the laptop.
I was also going to mention that if you go to places like the Gutenberg Project, you can get free transcripts of older books. I’m not sure if you can format it to work in an e-book reader…or just scroll down.
If you’re into classics, that’d be a great way to go!
How about throwing in the Touchbook ( http://www.alwaysinnovating.com ) into the comparison? It’s more of Tablet Laptop than a reader but it does read ebooks.
Oh, and I know none of the things you compared can Multitask, but you would think the i-Pon would.