by Flack » Thu Jan 28, 2010 11:13 pm
I already posted some of these thoughts on another forum and on my blog as well but I might as well share them here too.
I have a Kindle and I am disappointed with some aspects of it. For example, I can't read anything on it in my living room when the lights are dimmed. True, I can't read a magazine either, but a magazine costs $5 and my Kindle was $400 so I was hoping for a little something extra. Also, the native PDF reader on the Kindle is a joke. It's like if you walked into a tire store and said, "gimmie the cheapest tire you got" and they bolted a triangle-shaped tire to your car. I've tried reading half a dozen PDFs on my Kindle and I can't make out the text on a single one of them. Why would you add a feature just to make my cry? It's worse than the mp3 player (which is horrible, by the way) because the PDF reader is something people really wanted. Having a crappy mp3 player on an e-book reader is like finding out that the cigarette lighter in your car doesn't work when you don't smoke. (What is it with me and bad analogies tonight. It's like a ... eh, nevermind.)
At first I had a hard time seeing the iPad replacing my Netbook because since it runs the iPhone OS, you're locked into their approved software. That means checking e-mail and surfing the web and stuff will be fine (you know, the things we were supposed to be doing with Netbooks) but anything "computery" like coding or playing PC games or running emulators looks to be out. That's a pretty big bummer right there. I know Apple likes to lock their shit down but imagine how cool it would be to play games on this thing -- not iPod games, but real ones.
I'm not disappointed by the lack of a camera, but the lack of a real GPS kind of blows. There are rumors that it'll have some sort of GPS detection but, eh, we'll see. With a GPS, yeah, I'd rip out my car stereo and mount this thing to the dash. Think about it -- movies, music, navigation and a touch screen for $499? I swear to God, it's the future.
I'm not crazy about the virtual keyboard. By all accounts, it's not great. I saw the add on keyboard but, even with that, I can't imagine pecking out a novel on this thing. Then again I bitch about the small keyboard on my Netbook all the time too so it's a tie.
I think it's a testament to Apple that I want one of these things and {A} I hate Apple and {B} I'm digging for uses at this point. At this very moment, and I wish I were kidding, I am within 20' of not only this laptop but 2 PCs, my Netbook, and my iPhone, all of which can do what the iPad does. The fact that I'm even considering buying one is amazing.
I already posted some of these thoughts on another forum and on my blog as well but I might as well share them here too.
I have a Kindle and I am disappointed with some aspects of it. For example, I can't read anything on it in my living room when the lights are dimmed. True, I can't read a magazine either, but a magazine costs $5 and my Kindle was $400 so I was hoping for a little something extra. Also, the native PDF reader on the Kindle is a joke. It's like if you walked into a tire store and said, "gimmie the cheapest tire you got" and they bolted a triangle-shaped tire to your car. I've tried reading half a dozen PDFs on my Kindle and I can't make out the text on a single one of them. Why would you add a feature just to make my cry? It's worse than the mp3 player (which is horrible, by the way) because the PDF reader is something people really wanted. Having a crappy mp3 player on an e-book reader is like finding out that the cigarette lighter in your car doesn't work when you don't smoke. (What is it with me and bad analogies tonight. It's like a ... eh, nevermind.)
At first I had a hard time seeing the iPad replacing my Netbook because since it runs the iPhone OS, you're locked into their approved software. That means checking e-mail and surfing the web and stuff will be fine (you know, the things we were supposed to be doing with Netbooks) but anything "computery" like coding or playing PC games or running emulators looks to be out. That's a pretty big bummer right there. I know Apple likes to lock their shit down but imagine how cool it would be to play games on this thing -- not iPod games, but real ones.
I'm not disappointed by the lack of a camera, but the lack of a real GPS kind of blows. There are rumors that it'll have some sort of GPS detection but, eh, we'll see. With a GPS, yeah, I'd rip out my car stereo and mount this thing to the dash. Think about it -- movies, music, navigation and a touch screen for $499? I swear to God, it's the future.
I'm not crazy about the virtual keyboard. By all accounts, it's not great. I saw the add on keyboard but, even with that, I can't imagine pecking out a novel on this thing. Then again I bitch about the small keyboard on my Netbook all the time too so it's a tie.
I think it's a testament to Apple that I want one of these things and {A} I hate Apple and {B} I'm digging for uses at this point. At this very moment, and I wish I were kidding, I am within 20' of not only this laptop but 2 PCs, my Netbook, and my iPhone, all of which can do what the iPad does. The fact that I'm even considering buying one is amazing.