Apple iSlate is upon us?

[flavius]

If you are reading any technological or computer oriented news sites these days you most likely have read about it already.

http://macrumors.com for example knows all about it. And Apple itself, it seems, is not shying away from stirring up some interest just in time for an announcement in the last week of January next year.

Personally, I'm in the 7" camp, a smaller device, basically running the iPhone OS, that you can still pocket and use for gaming.

In order to beat the Kindle - which is a one-trick-pony - you don't have to do a better job at what the Kindle does, you just have to do it well enough and add enough value otherwise which would not be difficult, and if the price is right which seems possible with a 7"..

Remember those pads the TNG crew would carry around all the time?

[TallMomof2]

I own a Kindle along with several other dedicated ebook readers and can tell you that it would take a lot to get someone like me to replace their dedicated reader. Even with the wireless on my Kindle goes for a week without having to recharge. Turn off the wireless and it will go much longer, I've read of someone going three weeks without charging it. How long will a tablet last, at least 3 or 4 hours probably a bit longer maybe as much 8 but the user will still need to be cognizant of the battery. Back in the day when I read off my Palm I might get 6 hours without recharging and I had to plan accordingly.

The reading experience is, for me, far better on a Kindle (or any of the eInk devices) than on a backlit LCD. The Kindle display looks like paper whereas the LCD screens look like a TV. For many users, such as myself, reading off a backlit LCD cause a lot more eye fatigue than reading from paper or eInk. Others complain that the contrast on the Kindle isn't sharp enough. I've read on the Touch and it's fine for short sessions but my eyes get tired and the battery life is an issue. I've also read on my cell phone with the same issues.

There will be plenty of people who want a converged device to make the rumored Apple tablet a success. I've read that Apple is in talks with publishers to bring ebooks to their rumored tablet. But there also plenty of people who prefer to have a device that does one thing very well. I far prefer to read on my Kindle than a laptop or tablet or any other handheld device with an LCD screen. I have a builtin dictionary which many of the Kindle's direct competitors do not. I can easily go to Wikipedia. Web surfing is primitive and slow but I didn't buy the Kindle to surf the web I bought it to read books. Even though I don't buy that many books through Amazon, it's easy peasy to buy books from them and have the books show up within seconds on your Kindle.

IMO, in order for the Apple Tablet to be a serious threat for dedicated eReaders it will need to be small, no larger than a Kindle, be extremely energy efficient with 8+ hours of battery life, and cost less than $500. Considering that the lowest price Apple laptop is around $1000 this will be hard. Another huge consideration are ebook formats. If the Apple Tablet doesn't already support at a minimum the Kindle AZW DRM format and the ADE ePub DRM format it will piss off many customers when they realize they have to repurchase the books to read them on another new device. And what if Apple introduces yet another ebook format? That will definitely piss off almost the entire ebook world. If Apple sticks with the iPhone OS the Kindle app should work but ADE doesn't work on the iPhone. ePub is quickly becoming a dominant ebook format but if it's DRMed you won't be reading it on an iPhone. Many library ebooks are only offered in DRMed ePub.

There are ways to circumvent ebook DRM but it's not appropiate to talk about that here and most casual users aren't going to want to go that route.

I hope that the rumored Apple Tablet is finally introduced. I'm sure that it will do well and if it helps to increase readership that's a good thing. I wouldn't be surprised if the reading experience is slanted more towards newspapers and magazines especially if the tablet is closer to 10".

[fidget]

John Gruber, at Daring Fireball, has some interesting thoughts on the topic as well. He believes that it won't be a single purpose device, but a general purpose device that may even be a replacement for the MacBook.