by Techburrito Executive Editor, Alan Natale
I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Mashable.com when I came across an entry Celebrating iPad’s one year anniversary. As I mused over the infographic it occurred to me that if I wanted the new one, iPad v2 rumored to be on shelves in April, I could sell my “old” iPad now while it’s still in demand. Heck, even star of my favorite video podcast (diggnation.com) Kevin Rose took a break from sipping rare tea to yap that the new iPad would certainly have front and rear cameras, FaceTime and a higher resolution display — and should be out for consumers shortly. Good enough for me. It didn’t take long once listed on eBay for bidders to hike up the price (starting at $100) to a wee bit more than I paid for the thing ($500) SO I basically had the iPad all this time for free. But once I packed it up and sent it off to the lucky winner… I had no iPad. iPad no more.
Honestly I didn’t think I’d miss it THAT much, but I was wrong. I figured I could easily go without taking it to meetings where I would use Pages to take notes. I hadn’t realized how frequently I’d sit on the couch and make drawings using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for iPad and my Pogo Stylus. Angry Birds was fun but I figured I could hold off for a few months without playing it. But THE thing I had no idea I’d miss the most was eReading with my iPad!
Yes, I sold the iPad while I was in the middle of reading World of Warcraft: Stormrage by Ricard Knaak. Hey don’t judge or hate on my choice of reading material, Richard Knaak is an amazingly talented writer AND if the “world” of World of Warcraft is so nerdy then why is it played all day long across the globe by tons and tons of people? Harumph. Anyway, once the iPad was shipped off I found myself wondering what was going to happen next in the story. I figured I could go to a brick-and-mortar bookstore and pick up the paperback but then it occurred to me that if the book is readable on the iPad, it’d be likely that I could maybe access the book and read it on my iPhone. Lo and behold if you buy an iBook in Apple’s iBook store it turns out you can also read said book on your iPhone (once you download the free iBooks app of course). I figured I’d be screwed because the display is so much smaller but with one adjustment of the type size the novel was easily readable.
What strikes me the most interesting about eReading on an iPhone is how having my books on a small pocket-sized device (not the larger book-sized iPad nor a Kindle nor a Nook…) made a huge difference in how frequently I could enjoy reading. I realized that I had my books on my phone and could pick up my reading quite frequently throughout the parts of my day when I had downtime. When I was waiting for my sandwich to be made at the deli I could read a bit, when I was doing my 30 minute walk on the gym treadmill I could really get a lot of reading in and so on. I found that with with not only books but .pdf files (people send me screenplays and course materials) on my iPhone I could really keep up and enjoy reading more.
What seemed to be the only drawback was iBooks, the actual Apple app; the selection of books is still a bit limited AND iBooks/Apple does not permit reading the books on actual computers (you may only read your iBook on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch). I had hankering for that old book by Steven Hawking, A Brief History of Time, to reread for fun (again, don’t judge me — arrrgh) but I could not find it in the Apple iBook store. I remembered that Amazon.com offered a Kindle app for iPhone and so I checked that out (hey, it’s free). When I turned to Amazon.com I found that not only could I access many more books than iBooks offered but the prices were a bit lower AND they offered a free downloadable application which allows you to read your Amazon.com eBook on your Computer if you’re so inclined. What’s great is you buy the eBook on Amazon.com then if you read it on your iPhone, bookmark it then later open up the Amazon Kindle App on your computer the copy of that same book, but resident on your computer, will sync to where you bookmarked your story from your iPhone! It’s like magic. The only and I say ONLY drawback using eBooks by Amazon (Kindle books I suppose I should call them) is that the interface isn’t as nice looking nor as functional as the iBooks interface.
But wait- there’s more! I am very much a fan of comic books and I had my DC Comics app on my iPad. Turns out I did not have to give up reading my comic books either since DC Comics makes an iPhone app as well and comics are easily read as is or as they display frame-by-frame (sort of animated when you swipe).
So who knew that eBooks for one’s pocket-sized portable smart phone would make reading even more accessible and enjoyable? With the hype around Kindle, Nook and event the iPad for reading- the device is still large and not as portable as reading on the trusty iPhone. Rock on Apple iPhone (and Amazon)!
