Archive for the ‘reading on the ipad’ tag
Wattpad iPad no comments
Perhaps the single best thing about the iPad as an ereader is that you have access to different content providers. For ebook reading you will no doubt install the Kindle for iPad app as well as iBooks, Kobo and the Barnes & Noble app when it arrives. The iPad gives you access to Kindle ebooks as well as those tethered to Adobe’s DRM.
I would also suggest that you check out the Wattpad app for iPad.
Wattpad was founded in 2006 and is based in Toronto. The service offers independent and self-published work and fanfic that are unencumbered by DRM. A strong social networking theme is quite evident. I’ve recently been catching up on my Cory Doctorow via Wattpad on my iPad.
Each of the various reading apps on the iPad has its own unique set of features. The free Wattpad app has a couple of features that I would like to see the Kindle and Kobo reading apps include in their bags of tricks.
First of all Wattpad has an auto-scrolling function. This works really well for reading in bed. Once you get the scrolling speed set just right you can prop the iPad against a pillow and you should not have to touch it to turn pages. This comes in handy as the iPad is rather heavy. Talk about decadent reading!
I’ve noted before that I do get eyestrain when reading books on the iPad. This is alleviated to a large extent by using the Night Mode that some of the reading apps have. Wattpad takes this a step further by also letting you choose from a large number of colors for the text. I find that my eyes like a blue font against a black background. I can read for several hours with this combination with no eyestrain. Reading on the iPad in this fashion also does not seem to disrupt my body’s sleep feature.
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Kobo on the iPad no comments
Kobo’s ereading app for the iPad lets you tweak the appearance of your reading experience quite a bit.
With the Kobo iPad appyou can view your library in a thumbnail with details view or with the by now familiar bookshelves. But Kobo adds the option of choosing from seven different styles of bookshelves.
You also have eight different bookmark styles to choose from – including a dead trout, which sounds shocking but is actually kind of cool. There are also four different page turning styles to choose from.
You can, as in the other iPad reading apps I’ve tried so far, adjust the brightness from within the app. Kobo provides a black text on white background or a Night Reading mode that gives you white text on a black background. I find the latter is much easier on my eyes when reading for extended periods.
Kobo gives you four fonts to choose from, three of which feel bolded. The largest font size is a little larger than the Kindle for iPad app which should make it easier to read for those with vision impairments.
Pagination in the Kobo app is a little different. An example would be “CHAPTER 2 – 2 of 51” which would be the second of fifty one pages of chapter 2. This can be a bit of a hassle if you are reading the same ebook on more than one non-synced devices and have to search for your last read page. Reading apps on the iPad have a slider bar you can access at the bottom of the page for rapid movement forward and backward in the book. Kobo’s slider, at least in the ebooks in my Kobo account, just moves you back and forth within each chapter.
There are no search, dictionary, note taking or annotation features in Kobo’s app, at least at this time. To look a word up in a dictionary you can exit the Kobo app and search on the Internet, or you could install Dictionary.com’s free app which does not need an Internet connection.
For some reason, one ebook that was in my Kobo account is shown in my Kobo app’s library on the iPad but I cannot open it. If I try to access it I get an error message – “Content not Available … we’re working as fast as we can to make this available soon.” I can open this book on my ereader, so not sure what the problem is. Judging by this, if you have a lot of books in your Kobo library you may not be able to access all of them on the iPad just yet.
Update: As of 4/7/2010 all of my ebooks are available, so it looks like Kobo has fixed this.
I like the ability to personalize the Kobo ereading app, but they do need to work on adding the missing study tools.
It is too early to tell how popular the Ipad will be for long form, immersive reading. With the iPad we will have access to the largest ebook stores on one device (still waiting for the Barnes & Noble iPad app – so far only their iPhone app is available). Thanks to the agency model imposed by the publishers the various ebook sellers with apps on the iPad will not be able to compete on ebook prices. So they will need to compete with the amount and variety of content they offer (Kindle Store wins here) and with the excellence of their reading apps. Having an app that is able to sync with other devices, including dedicated ereaders, will also be a great advantage.
So far all of the reading apps I’ve tried are fast and all have things to like, but each one also has some missing features and all have room for improvement – but then the iPad has only been out for three days.
Reading apps on the iPad need to have a night reading mode (Kindle and Kobo do) for those of us whose eyes are bothered by extended reading on the backlit screen. Dictionaries, search, go to, note taking and annotation features need to be standard as well.
As for reading on the iPad in general, after using it continuously over the weekend, I have to say that for long form reading e-ink is still better for me. One does have to wonder though if it makes sense any longer to buy one of the larger format ereaders such as the DX, Skiff or Que (providing that the latter two are even released) at their current or proposed prices.
For portable content handling I have at the moment (besides my smartphone) a netbook, iPad and three ereaders.
- The netbook seems best suited for content creation.
- The iPad is best for multimedia content consumption, Web browsing and reading magazines and newspapers.
- The dedicated ereaders are best for more than casual book reading.
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Apple iPad – Update no comments
Some more thoughts on iPad Day 2.
First of all, reading in bed with the iPad is a mixed blessing. Its weight can make it a bit awkward, while the backlit screen helps when reading at night with low ambient light.
I am also finding that reading with the white font on black background really helps control the eyestrain in my case. I’ve been reading some other reviews whose writers say that they aren’t experiencing any eyestrain; maybe this affects me more than usual, or maybe I just spent more time reading.
The iPad has a lot of glare and is a fingerprint magnet – I will get an anti-glare screen protector as soon as I get a chance.
Welcome to App City
Netflix for the iPad rocks! Much more immersive with a good set of earphones, although the built-in speakers are louder than expected and are good enough for use in a quiet environment.
A few other cool apps I’ve installed:
- NPR – very good.
- Marvel – I’m not a big comic book fan, but that may change thanks to this app.
- IMDb is quite good.
Wonder where the Wired Reader app that was shown at TED is?
Kindle for iPad vs iBooks
Yesterday I only used the Kindle app, but today I’ve been trying out iBooks. iBooks has far less books but the iBooks app has more features than the Kindle app – but then Amazon only had an iPad simulator to build their app on so hopefully it will get better. Some of the differences:
- Font size: iBooks has a much broader range of font sizes. The largest font size on the Kindle app may be too small for some readers with visual impairments.
- Font type: iBooks has five font styles while the Kindle app has only one.
- Presentation: iBooks has the bookshelf and the double pages in landscape mode. You can select a list view instead of the bookshelves. The Kindle app lets you choose from displaying the covers only of books in your library or a list.
- Screen brightness can be adjusted from within both reading apps. iBooks seems to have only the black text on white background option though. Kindle has a choice of black text on a white or sepia background, or a white text on black background which helps to reduce eye fatigue (at least for me).
- Note taking: You can take notes and highlight with the Kindle app and it should be synced across devices via Whispernet. iBooks doesn’t seem to have any annotating abilities, though you can bookmark a word or phrase.
- Dictionary: The dictionary in iBooks seems quite good; dictionary coming soon for Kindle app.
- Search: In iBooks you can search for a word within the book, on Google or Wikipedia; search coming soon for Kindle app.
- Content: Kindle Store has 450,000 titles vs 60,000 for iBooks.
- Pagination: Amazon’s app has the location range and the percentage read which will be familiar to Kindlers, while iBooks has page numbers, total number of pages in the book and pages left in the current chapter.
I’ve just installed the Kobo reading app, so I’ll be looking at that next.
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Reading on the Ipad – First Impressions 1 comment
I’ve spent several hours reading today on my new iPad using the Kindle for iPad app. I have not messed about with iBooks or other reading apps yet because I primarily wanted to see how comfortable doing more than casual reading on the iPad’s LCD screen is. Also I took the iPad outdoors to see how well it fared in sunlight.
First, about reading in the sunshine. Yes, it is doable, but not optimal as you will constantly be trying to find an angle to hold your tablet at that shows less glare. An antiglare film is going to be one of the first accessories I get for my iPad. As expected the LCD screen is quite dim and washed out when viewed under full sunshine, but it is readable. Reading outdoors in a shaded environment is much easier. Overall an e-ink screen gives you a much better reading experience when reading outdoors as compared to the iPad.
As for eyestrain, this is going to affect every set of eyeballs differently. If I spend a whole day and into the night on my computer working, Web browsing and playing games – usually a mix of all of these activities – I will feel some eyestrain at the end of the day about 30 % of the time.
When reading on the iPad I was somewhat surprised to feel some strain after only reading an hour or so. Switching to white text on a black background helped a lot and I found myself wishing I had done this from the beginning.
Again, just because my eyes felt the strain does not necessarily mean that yours will. Keep in mind though that when using a computer’s LCD screen we are usually reading shorter blocks of text broken up by graphics, etc. This is much different from reading long blocks of text such as when reading the typical ebook.
So far, after admittedly limited reading time on the iPad, I find that I have not been disabused of my original expectations:
- For casual reading the iPad is fine. For long form, immersive reading an e-ink screen is much better.
- Most dedicated ereaders will be much easier to use one-handed. The iPad is heavier (one and a half pounds) and is best used when held with both hands on one’s lap or perhaps propped in some sort of stand on a table.
- The iPad’s screen is quite shiny and you will find yourself moving it around to avoid glare when reading. Also, although the IPS LCD display that Apple chose for the iPad allows for wider viewing angles than regular LCD displays, at some angles the text on a page will appear to have slightly differing levels of brightness on different parts of the page, which can be a minor distraction.
- While I have been spending my time on the iPad so far just focusing on the ereading experience, it looks like it will be an excellent platform for magazine and newspaper reading, Web browsing, video streaming and probably gaming (I bought Mirror’s Edge but have not yet had a chance to try it).
- As with the iPhone, there are a myriad distractions with the iPad – hard to stay focused on reading.
So far, after one day of use, my impression is that dedicated ebook readers are still best for general book reading, while the iPad will be much better for reading magazines and newspapers and will also be excellent for consuming other forms of media. The iPad will also no doubt be best for textbooks with lots of graphic content, though that may change when we have ereaders with reflective color screens.
As to whether you should buy an iPad or a dedicated ereader, it still depends on how you plan to use it. My recommended path to Nirvana would be to buy both! 
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iPad vs eReaders – Surveys Predicting Usage and Purchase Intent no comments
A survey performed by ChangeWave a few weeks ago seemed to indicate that amongst potential buyers of ereaders more were planning to buy the Ipad rather than the Kindle or another dedicated ereading device. Also according to this survey a little over a quarter of those who had recently purchased an ereader would have bought an iPad instead if it had been available. The ChangeWave survey was of 3,171 consumers and came out the week after the iPad announcement.
One of the questions on the survey “From the list of possible uses, please tell us which ones you’re most interested in using on the iPad. (Check No More Than Three)” resulted in:
- Surfing the Internet came in first place at 68%.
- Checking email at second place with 44%.
- Reading books came in third at 37%.
- Reading newspapers and periodicals came in third place with 28%.
- Watching video came in fifth at 24%.
This same survey also found that 27% of recent ereader purchasers would have opted for the iPad if it had been available at the time of their purchase, and that 40% of those planning to buy an ereader in the next 90 days would opt of the iPad.
Last week the results of a survey by comScore were released. This comes almost a month after the initial iPad announcement by Steve Jobs. By this time there had been a lot of scrutiny of the iPad and comparisons between it and other competing tablets coming to market. This survey was of 2,176 internet users.
ComScore’s survey results predict purchase intent of customers who plan on purchasing an ereader within three months as follows:
- Apple iPad comes in first at 15%.
- Amazon Kindle gets 14%.
- Barnes and Noble nook at 10%.
- Sony ereaders get 9%.
Curiously, the Samsung Papyrus came in at fifth place with 8% of respondents planning to buy this ereader. This even though the Papyrus is not available in the US. Perhaps this is a result of confusion with the Samsung E6 ereader, which will be available soon at B & N.
As for usage intentions, this survey found that the top four intended uses were:
- 50% of iPad owners will use it for surfing the Web.
- 48% will use the iPad for email.
- 38% will use the iPad for listening to music.
- 37% will use the iPad for reading books. (tied in fourth place with maintaining a contact list/address book).
ComScore also found that:
Younger consumers indicated a high willingness to pay for news and magazines specially formatted for e-readers. 68 percent of 25-34 year olds and 59 percent of 35-44 year olds said they were willing to pay for this content, representing substantially higher percentages than people age 45 and older.
This is a bit surprising.
Another study by Morpace (also last week) found that 47% of purchasers intending to purchase netbooks and 49% of those intending to purchase ereaders would wait until seeing an iPad before making their purchasing decisions. For those planning to purchase laptops 28% were waiting to see the iPad before making their purchase. This survey was of 1,000 consumers aged 18 and over.
The usage intent shown by the surveys seems to fit in with my expectations of how people will use iPads based on what I’ve been told by people I’ve talked to who have ordered Apple’s new tablet. I think we are going to see a massive wave of iPad enabled couch-based Web surfing. I would also expect that in the first few months after the iPad ships there will be a lot of ebooks sold for it as new owners stock up their tablets. In the long term though I would expect that iPad owners will account for fewer ebook sales per user than users of dedicated ereaders.
Of course we will not know how exactly the iPad will be used and how good it will be as an ereader until it has been out for awhile. Surveys can be and often are misleading. Obviously the iPad is a cool, sexy device and has the potential to be disruptive to a number of other devices.
I just bought a new netbook a few months ago. Do I regret not waiting for the iPad? Well, not really – I needed the netbook then. I also think that there are other tablets coming out with more capabilities than iPad Version 1 and I will be comparing these with the iPad before I buy a tablet.
Incidentally, Craigmod has an interesting post today about reading on the iPad and backlit displays. He makes some good points about why reading on the iPad’s backlit screen is not the same as reading on your desktop’s backlit screen.
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iBooks Features Revealed no comments
Apple has released details of the iBooks app for the iPad.
- Landscape mode will show two pages at a time.
- Touch and hold on a word to choose from: look up in the dictionary or Wikipedia, or to search for the word in the book or on the Web.
- VoiceOver – read aloud feature.
- Compatibility with non-DRM ePub ebooks from other sources.
- Book genres are separated into 20 main categories, with more than 150 subcategories.
The iBooks app will not come preinstalled on the iPad, but is a free download.
For a company whose CEO claims that no one reads anymore, Apple seems to be taking reading pretty seriously on the iPad.
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