I started this as a comment to Meghan's post, below, but it kept getting longer and longer.
One of the kids I babysit for (a girl, 8) got a Nook for Christmas and says a lot of the books she wants aren't available for it. I know everyone is going to say "What books?" and when asked that question, she couldn't remember.
As for me: I live in the country and I must say, it would be HEAVEN to be able to get any book I wanted, instantly. I don't think I'll ever be much of an ereader, though, unless they ALL let you see the pages turning the way the ipad does -- that really is cool. I'm a fast reader and read the last line on one page awhile I turn to the next, so the screen going blank/blank completely ruins the reading experience for me. It takes me out of the world of the book. If I had unlimited funds, I might get ipad just so I could read in bed and read anything.
But then what would I do when I travel? I have to bring a laptop. It would be too heavy to carry a laptop for my writing (which is already too heavy!) AND the ipad. The Macbook Air is light enough to carry around, and Kindle books can be downloaded to it....but it's expensive, and what good is that for reading with the screen going blank or black at the end of every page?
Back to the ipad: if it could handle Word, I'd be tempted: very tempted. You can use the USB camera port on it for external keyboards, and a mouse, too......but I just don't think it would work well for long documents. I'd miss Word, which has become so automatic for me (I have been using it for over 20 years) that I don't even need to think about it, I just write with it. It's become part of my brain, in almost an Ender's-game-like way.
Has anyone found a good Word substitute that works on the ipad? If there is one, I could adjust and might be even more tempted!
The ipad is very cute, and lots of the applications are fun. My favorite is the one that labels all the stars and constellations in the sky WHERE YOU ARE STANDING, from your point of view! The kids I babysit for never use this or any others, though: they just play games on it. And one of them is a reader, the kind of reader who LOVES to read. He's ten, and when he reads, he reads books: printed books.
