Just after Apple presented their iPad device, there had been a lot of posts about how this device will revolutionize the e-book reading. Apple are great in making their product simple to use and great looking. They are also great in making fashion out of it. But how many of you will replace an e-book reader for an iPad? I definitely won't. So I just decided to drop here a simple reminder about the advantages of modern e-book readers. If you never used one before, it's tempting to grab this beautiful colorful multitouch display as your first e-book reading device. Well, there are things you need to know before you do so:
- Displays: e-ink and e-paper displays are much more gentle to your eyes. They don't have back light. Their look and feel is very close to normal paper. It would be like comparing reading from a laptop or other similar display to reading from paper. Reading from e-ink or e-paper display requires additional light just as reading from a normal book does. And believe me this is good for your eyes! Also since none of them is touch capable, you won't read through the tracks of your fingers.
- Battery life of e-ink and e-paper based displays is much better. Depending on usage, I recharge my lBook e-reader from once a month to once per 3 months. I know that for other e-book readers this time is more like once per week (my device don't have WiFi and/or 3G), but it is still far better than 10 hours which iPad promises.
If you're planning to use iPad primary as an e-book reader, think carefully before you do so. Otherwise I like the iPad idea. It might be useful.
