Kindle on the iPad 07 April, 2010

I decided to write on the iPad today because it seems like the internet as a whole is neglecting it. I can't find a single blog post, tweet, or website that mentions it. . . 

First, I think the iPad seems like an amazing piece of technology, even for a first gen model.  I know people are deriding it for not doing this or that, but you have to admit that having a clipboardlike touch screen is what people (read nerds) have been dreaming about for decades. Since I have only handled an iPad for a few seconds I won't cast judgement on it yet.

I will however cast stones toward Amazon for releasing a kindle reader for the iPad. Yes, there are readers for the iPhone, PC, and Mac, but this one stung. My Kindle DX cost just as much as an iPad and you are basically giving the iPad the same functinality as my Kindle in COLOR and for FREE!?!

I willingly paid the price for the Kindle DX because Amazon promised it was the future of ebooks. By releasing an app for the iPad Amazon stands to make loads of money on book sales, which might help drive the prices down, but when was the last update you released to the Kindle, Amazon? When are we going to be able to highlight text in pdfs? How about working on getting the contrast a little bit sharper? And what happened to all that hype about e-ink being superior to led/lcds? 

I still stand by my Kindle as the best way to read digital books. If I was reading on an iPad I would quickly lose interest and start surfing the internet, or watching Netflix on demand, or watching anything from Hulu if I could VNC into my desktop. Even though I paid the same amount as an iPad I really appreciate my single function e-reader, and my ability to take it out in the sun! But, I am a little hurt by amazon simply cashing in on another revenue stream while neglecting it's own hardware.

This post might seem nitpicky, but I don't want Amazon to forget it has its own hardware. Hopefully Amazon's Kindle app will convince publishers to e-publish more and more content since there will be a bigger demand. And let's be honest, this will probably do for ebooks what the iPod did for mp3s, creating a /cough/ under ground network for acquiring content. Luckily all the books really worth reading are in the public domain!