Film/TV May 10, 2010 at 1:45 pm

Comments

1
Why would you download it more than once?

Besides, the zen trampoline app is way more fun.
2
Who wants to buy books that are trapped to one device? Kindle books work on a variety of devices (including desktop computers) and are therefore the smarter choice.
3
I've heard there's an upsurge in alternate browsers for the iPad too. But it's still early days, so we'll have to see if it's a long trend. Hope it's resolved by Fall.
4
Iphone slips to third behind Blackberry and Android in 1st Quarter.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/195958/an…
5
e-ink was difficult to get out the door and into production. But it has the potential to be a superior display technology. Saying it's a "dated technology" would be like declaring plasma displays to be a "dated technology" in 1990.
6
Plasma displays use more power than your washer, dryer, and fridge combined when used for HDTV screens ...
7

1 out of every 300 Americans owns an iPad.

But where are they?

High tech meccas like Seattle should be awash in iPad users.

None on Sounder.

None in Starbucks.

What gives?!
8
Ahhh, the wisdom of Slog and its commenters. I recall on Jan. 27 Mr. Constant wrote, "the Kindle is basically done....the Kindle, and all those e-readers that debuted at CES earlier this month, are going to be fighting over the tiniest portion of the market." And then on April 30, the ever sagacious Will in Seattle quipped, "Can you hear that?... (pause).... It's like what happened when VHS crushed Beta ... "
9
@Will in Seattle

That's not even close to the case. Plasmas still use more power than an LED lit LCD screen, but their power consumption isn't close to what it used to be. A 2010 Panasonic 54" Plasma only uses around 160 Watts when it's on. It will use more if you turn the brightness to max and display an all white screen, but the 140 Watts is a pretty good average. A 55" LED LCD with local dimming (what you need to get as good of a picture) uses 124 Watts according to CNET.

A Cold Cathode LCD will use as much or more power than a Plasma at similar sizes. The only TV that will kill the Plasma in terms of power is an Edge Lit LED, but the picture quality is not as good.

10
iBooks has "taken a tumble?" From spot 1 to spot 2? And, btw, I just checked, and it's back to position 1. But, a bit o' hyperbole, no?

That said, I think it's great that my iPad can use either the iBooks app OR the Kindle App. Win for me. Win for Apple. They get to sell me the device (they're a hardware & a software company).

The Kindle Device can only display Kindle books.

Finally, Apple will provide parity regarding multiple-device readability soon. The iPhone will get the app next month, and my guess is that the desktop will follow shortly. So, that argument is pointless.

Finally…Apple is still growing their listing of available titles; once we get to an equality of available titles between the Kindle and Apple, then the game will be on. As for now, it's pretty amazing that iBooks is doing so well! ;-)
11
i-ink or something like it is MANDATORY for a reading device. The kindle's real competition is Sony, B&N and some minor players. Reading a 300 page book on a bright screen is no fun, and certainly not a replacement for hard copy books as the kindle and like devices aim to be.
12
@11…

Well, now that I've read 6 full books on my iPad, I respectfully disagree with your position. I've been reading, all day, every day, on a computer monitor for the better part of 25 years now. No eye strain.

I actually enjoy the reading experience on my iPad. A lot. I dare say, better than reading on cheap, gray paper stock that many paperbacks use.
13
I'm talking the 102 inch plasmas. Like the one I saw somebody buy (he was very happy) when I got my 37 inch LCD HDTV.

Mind you, even an LCD uses as much power as all the compact florescent lightbulbs in both my kitchen and living room when I've turned everything on.
14
But it's not like I was reading the wattage from the boxes. Which I was.
15
@7: Many iPad users, especially ones with wifi-only units, don't find the need to take them onto a Sounder train or into the middle of a dance floor. For some people the iPad is just a device they have in their living room one moment and maybe next to the bed the next hour (the NPR app is a favorite bedside companion of mine when not watching TDS/C on it).
16
I have both iBooks and Kindle. I price any title I'm interested in at both stores, and buy the cheapest one. I also have Stanza, which is still an iPhone app, but I have a bunch of low-cost DRM free books from Baen's Webscriptions.com, and I read them on Stanza on my iPad. When I have the time to figure out how, I hope to be able to move them to either Kindle or iBooks, which are much superior apps.

Oh, and MY iPad is currently "on holiday" with me. Don't look for me at Starbucks, I'm in Sint Maarten
17
Lucky. Say hi to the Antilles for me.
18
@12

I'd say there's a big difference in markets between book readers looking for an e-reader and ipad users looking for something to do with their ipad.
19
@10 But Apple's DRM hasn't been cracked yet (it's a version of FairPlay that they use for music and videos wrapping standard epub content). As soon as that's cracked I'll be happy to buy iBook books (anybody else think it's wrong that they're reusing the name of an old Mac laptop?).

@16 Stanza will probably never get an iPad version. Amazon bought them last year, and I suspect that the only reason the iPhone app still exists is because it was released before the purchase. The Lexcycle folks almost certainly had a hand in creating the iPhone Kindle app (though not as obviously as Barnes & Noble's eReader iPhone app that's just a stripped down copy of the old and broken Fictionwise eReader app). However if you have DRM-free books that are already epub format (or can be converted to epub using the excellent Calibre ebook library management software -- http://calibre-ebook.com/; or books with DRM that can be removed, like Adobe's ADEPT, anything from Kindle, anything with Mobi DRM, etc) you can "sideload" those books onto your iPad to read in iBooks via iTunes (my iHead hurts!).

I sure wish Stanza would get an iPad release, since no other iPhone eReader has he wealth of configuration options available in Stanza (line height, indenting, paragraph spacing, many more font sizes than the competition, user-customizable color schemes, etc). I just don't see it ever happening, since Amazon wouldn't want to create competition for Kindle.
20
You seem to think that Apple cares. They're in a "heads I win, tails you loose" game.

@7 I was just in Starbucks hanging out on my iPad; you missed me. Actually I often keep it closed in Starbucks and use my laptop instead, because I get pestered by strangers for iPad demos which gets old after a while.

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