The Killer iPad/Kindle/eBook App — Books!
I think I finally get the ebook appeal — and it’s not at all what I expected. And if I’m right, then Apple has got the better product with the iPad than Amazon does with the Kindle. Here’s why.
Think of your workflow throughout the day. Mine goes like this: Up at 6:15, check iPhone for weather and emergency emails and overnight events requiring immediate blogging. Coffee, shower, get the kid ready for school. And during every part of that but the shower, I’m checking in on the laptop or the phone.
Get the kid to school, then get back on the desktop computer or the laptop. And for the rest of my working day, except for when I’m in front of the camera, I’m in front of a computer.
Get kid home from school, enjoys snacks and family time… and, yes, check in on the phone or the laptop. Blogging isn’t the world’s biggest effort, but it does require constant attention — you’ve got to moderate the comments, keep in touch with readers, and at least type some notes down whenever the muse tickles. And that muse is frustratingly unpredictable with her timing.
After dinner, settle in on the sofa, laptop on lap. Look, I’ve tried watching movies or TV without the MacBook, but wifi and IMDB have totally changed the way we absorb video. See an actor you like or whose name you can’t remember? IMDB’em. Miss an episode and need a synopsis? IMDB it. Oh, and, yeah, check in with work.
Bedtime? One last look at email…
And none of this is meant as complaint. My job rocks, and I’ve chosen these weird hours and this strange system all on my own. These days, pretty much all of us are wired in 24/7, and I kinda like it. And honestly, except for the thing with the video camera and the lack of a commute, I bet my workflow isn’t so much different from yours.
But there is one tiny bad part. I hardly get to read books anymore. I used to go through two or three or more a week. Now a book can take a week or two, because I’ve always got my eyes glued to an LCD screen somewhere. And as I’ve said before, the MacBook’s screen just isn’t good enough for reading “books.” And all that scrolling is a real pain.
How about this, however: a portable device with a killer screen and a great bookstore — that I can also get my email and IMDB and all the rest on? I’m reading my ebook when an important email comes in, or the CNN app alerts me of something blogworthy. Well, just switch over to email or the browser and have at it. Then switch back to the book. iPad can do that. As yet, Kindle can’t. So my money is, once again, going to Cupertino.
There’s just one little problem. Books — real, solid, papery, physical books — are still where it’s at.
Have you seen the Blu Ray movies that come with a digital copy you can put on your computer, then transfer to your iPod or iPhone? I hardly buy BDs anymore if they don’t come with a digital copy. And, it gives people a reason to buy physical media still.
But when it comes to books, the physical media is what still attracts most of us hairless primates. The electronic edition would be the bonus, the convenience, the thing I could learn to live with — as a bonus.
So Apple and Amazon should absolutely include an ebook with every physical book you buy. Free? Hell, I’m open to paying a buck or two more. And then I’d read more books again, and buy more books again. Win-win.
Well, except for my checking account.
UPDATE: Help me Baen!
I was buying ebooks on my Palm IIIx years ago. I way prefer ebooks to the real thing. I may spring for a Kindle or iPad, but both are bigger than I want. For that size factor, I may as well just read on my netbook, and I can still play Hearts or web surf if the mood strikes me with out learning a new interface!
Ed –
iPad uses iPhone’s UI, an as a longtime iPhone user I can tell you — there’s nothing to learn. You pick it up and it just works.
No computer for me in the morning before work. No tv either, just the radio (NPR, sigh, because there’s nothing better) and the newspaper. Up at 6:30ish (hey, it’s winter, I can hit the snooze bar once. or twice. or three times on Friday) and out the door by 7:30ish.
I like reading the sports & comics on dead trees with my Cheerios.
The last hardcover book I bought (At All Costs by David Weber) came with a DVD that contained _all_ of the Honorverse books up to and including the one I had just bought. In several different formats. Baen Books does it right.
Oh, and the DVD specifically had a release printed on it saying I could give away (NOT sell) copies.
Great post, Stephen,
Rupert Murdoch said much the same thing on his latest interview on National Review Online’s “Uncommon Knowledge.”
I blogged about this very thing on my family blog (Mom wasn’t happy. No pictures of the kids) just before the iPad came out. I have a love of paper books for simply romantic reasons. Right now my favorite reason is when my 9 year old comes into the kitchen with his copy of the 5th book of the Chronicles of Narnia, and shows me how much he has read. Then to see his face when he looks at the thousands of pages he has read in the past year. A girlfriend of mine also pointed out another very good reason to keep paper books around. When you are taking that reprieve from full time motherhood in the bubble bath, if you drop the book, a paper book will dry out and cost you about $10.
My hubby has an e-reader on his phone. I am addicted to the thing, for one reason. I can get the book I want to read immediately, either through Amazon or free through my library, without having to actually go to the store or library. I’m beginning to think I’m gonna have to save my pennies to get an iPad.
OT: You remind me so much of the TA who taught my government class when I was in college. He was a conservative, and drove the Profs crazy because he just wouldn’t conform. One of the only non-major classes I took that I actually remember.
Baen publishing has been putting a CD of books OTHER than the one you buy into it’s hardcovers for a couple of years. Great way to lead you off to other authors in their stable. (first hit’s free kid)
Fuloydo beat me to it, Baen sometimes includes machine-readable versions, at least with hardcovers. Copy them to you EBook reader.
Oh, and they also have downloadable free EBooks – in several formats.
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm
Not the only free EBooks out there, but perhaps the biggest with still-in-copyright freebies. Well, Google or Amazon, if you do some contortions like downloadng a page at a time and do not mind that you could go to jail because you do not have permission to have more than one download portion of any one source.
Steve,
I hear you. Everyone I know with an iPhone would rather lose their eye teeth (iTeeth?) than their iPhone. However, for me, my hospital pays for my cell phone. In my case, it’s a Verizon Wireless five-generations-old Motorola. No chance they’ll be sending me one of those, that’s for sure
Regarding it just working, so did my Palm and Peanut Press software, and this was several years ago without some pretentious, turtleneck-wearing, California hippie telling me it was “magical”. LOL I refuse to leap on the Steve Jobs bandwagon until iPad 2.0 fixes are nailed down, especially for what they’re charging for them.
You know your Iphone has a Kindle App right? You know that your Kindle account allows you to convert your own existing documents (books in various formats) and send them to your kindle ( in this case, your Iphone). Right?
I dont recommend the iphone as a reading device over the kindle, but it works fine in a pinch. If you already have an Iphone, its a pretty straight line to a solution if you want one.
Kindle has an e-ink display that’s far easier on the eyes when reading for long periods. Ipad is LCD so you’d have the same issues as reading on your mac.