I came across this cartoon today. It made me chuckle.
A year ago, I shared how Amazon, the world’s top bookseller, stated that they now sell more books via the Kindle device and app than they do paper copies. For me, it was a difficult decision to think of going towards an e-book reader, as I like paper books with a nice warm cup of coffee alongside it.
I don’t believe paper books will become obsolete. But I think we can take note of where we are headed in world and consider how to utilise such an opportunity. Reflecting on some of these things, I was able to purchase an iPad just under a year ago. And it has been a wonderful tool, of which has sparked great ideas in me of how we can better train the pastors and churches we work with around the world.
I hope you were able to have at least a small laugh at the cartoon above. And there are plenty of e-reading devices out there to consider, spanning from $79 (new basic Kindle model) to $829 (64GB iPad2 with 3G). My question is two-fold: 1) Will the new Kindle Fire be the greatest competitor to the iPad and 2) Will iPad come out with a “Nano” version in the near future?
The Prodigal Thought 
Reblogged this on realitynow2012.
Hi Scott, I have had my iPad now for over three years, upgraded to a IPad II last year and love the IBook app. Randy and I bought a 1983 Airstream travel trailer little over a year ago for a song and a dance. We go camping every chance we get. My iBook has over a thousand books in its library and travels with me everywhere. No need for a lamp to read by when I settle in at night, and if an email or text comes in I can bookmark and have look. Family members have the Nook and Kindle Fire, but I much prefer my IPad.
Loved the cartoon! Going to post it on Facebook for others to get a laugh at as well. To answer your question(s), I think the Kindle is going to give the iPad a real run for its money. And, for that reason, I think Apple will come out with something of a hybrid between the iPod Touch and the iPad that has a 7″ form factor. My daughter has a iPad 2. I have 3 relatives with the 10″ HP tablet. And my brother has a 10″ Android Xoom. I loved the portability of them, but wanted something I could comfortably handle with one hand. The Amazon Kindle Fire was a perfect size. After having it a week or so though, I returned it and got an Acer A100 Android tablet. It didn’t have the limitations of the Kindle, came with Bluetooth, GPS, and HDMI output, and is 3G capable and has an external SD card slot for additional memory. And the dual cameras work great with Skype. I’m *very* happy with it and have it loaded with all my Bible translations, study bibles, and Greek/Hebrew dictionaries on it.
BTW, if you have a Kindle or iPad, there are two really cool sites you should check out. SendToReader.com will compile new blog posts into a “book”, complete with table of contents, and automatically send it to your device and/or personal email address. I have separate ones for national/world news, local news, Android news, Tech blogs, Theology blogs, and so forth that are sent to me daily. The subscription service costs $5 a month, but they also have a free bookmarklet that will convert any page into a ebook format and send it to you.
The other site is ereaderiq.com. They will send you an email every day of the most popular books in the kindle store that just went for free that day. And, if you go to their site, you can save searches by genre and such of all the free titles. It is updated hourly. It was via them that I found some commentaries on James, a book on church history, and even a title called “Ancient Genesis” that discussed the creation/evolution debate in the context of the writings of ancient Rabbis and ancient Jewish understanding of the passages.
Also, if you have much in the way of digital books, you should check out Calibre located at http://www.calibre-ebook.com. It is a ebook library app that lets you add covers, convert between different formats, sort books in series order, and even has a server option that lets lots of different ebook programs (like FBReader) to download any content from your computer to your mobile device over wifi. It’s free and even comes with a portable version. With it, you can get books in the popular EPUB or MOBI formats, or even PDF or TXT, and convert them into Amazon’s Kindle format or reverse that process.
Daniel – The things you can do with these tablets as well!
Ebooks are great, I will always be a supporter of the physical book though. This summer I’ll even be starting my career in publishing and I plan on sticking with physical books even if they’re my last stand.