As I entered Google Reader and perused TechCrunch's latest stories about the digital world, I felt bombarded by the sheer number of consecutive titles lauding or criticizing the Apple iPad. Even though both pros and cons are presented, all the buzz is just getting ridiculous. But at least for Apple, buzz is better than no buzz...
The iPad Apps were released live in the iTunes store before the actual launch of the tablet. With over 2,000 iPad applications, the choices are plentiful, yet overwhelming. In another TechCrunch article, it's been reported that only 20% of the iPad apps are free. According to Erick Schonfeld, here are some of the most popular free and non-free apps for the latest technical toy on the market that will be continued in subsequent blog posts:
iBooks:
Apple rivals the Amazon Kindle with iBooks, which transforms the tablet into an electronic book reader. The iBook allows readers to flip through virtual fingers with a simple touch equipped with a built-in search option and dictionary. Other features include font size/brightness adjustment, book-marked/highlighted pages, and a choice of vertical or horizontal viewing. The book store provides options just like the iTunes format with best-seller and most-popular lists, but this application definitely has its downsides. While the application is free, the actual electronic books are not. This cost could add up to big bucks depending on how much individual reading you do. While some books are free, many range in price from $9.99 to $14.99.
iPad Kindle:
Although I just described the advantages and disadvantages of the iBook application, the Amazon Kindle app has brought new and old offerings to the table. It has a full-color touchscreen, animated page-turning, font-size and brightness adjustments, vertical or horizontal options, and a direct iPad download feature once purchased from iTunes. But Amazon has a larger book selection: 450,000 compared to iBook's 60,000. Thought it doesn't have a search and dictionary function, Amazon's Whispersync technology links the Kindle, iPhone Kindle App, Blackberry, Mac, and PC together and knows what page you last left off. Luckily, the Kindle application all offers all the customer reviews from Amazon customers, so the data and information is backed by their hard-earned reputation.
The application itself is also free, but the books are also priced differently on iTunes.
Since reading comprehension is so important in school, perhaps we should all order Apple iPad's for everyone in class. And at the top of the list, it's apparent how important and vital reading is to life and society...or just how lazy Americans oftentimes are.
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