The iPad has all the time been a little bit of an enigma for me. I keep in mind when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad for the primary time. Within the keynote, he talked about how the world had gotten used to the pc and the smartphone — the Mac and the iPhone in his thoughts, after all.
Then, Jobs requested if there was room for a 3rd machine. Not a pc, and never a cellphone, however a 3rd machine that may sit in the midst of the 2. That’s when he introduced the iPad, Apple’s tackle the pill.
Effectively, it’s been nearly 14 years because the iPad was initially launched to the world and, after greater than a decade with a heck of quite a lot of completely different iPads, I believe I’ve discovered that, at the least for me, there’s room for a 3rd machine — it’s simply not the iPad.
I’ve had a blended expertise with the iPad
I’ve owned quite a lot of iPads over time. In reality, I’ve owned each mannequin of the iPad. At one level or one other, I’ve owned the bottom mannequin iPad, iPad Air, iPad Professional, and iPad mini. I’ve owned all of them! And, after attempting all of them, I by no means actually discovered a stable sufficient use case for the iPad to maintain it round.
I’ve tried to make use of the iPad for lots of various issues, too. With the bottom mannequin iPad, I attempted to make use of it as a consumption machine for watching motion pictures and tv exhibits and enjoying video games. Nonetheless, I all the time discovered myself both utilizing my iPhone or my Apple TV extra. I additionally discovered that — regardless of Apple actually desirous to get within the gaming trade — the iPad was no substitute for an Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo Change.
With the iPad Air and iPad Professional, I attempted the entire “what’s a pc” recreation and paired each with the Magic Keyboard to see if I might exchange my Mac altogether with the iPad. That didn’t pan out both time I attempted it. Whereas it COULD work, it simply wasn’t pretty much as good as utilizing my MacBook Air for writing, which is the factor I take advantage of my Mac for essentially the most.
The final iPad I attempted was the iPad mini. Since I dominated out the iPad as an leisure and productiveness machine, I figured that Apple’s tiny iPad may do one thing else for me: get me again into studying. And you understand what? It labored. I began studying my articles and magazines in Apple Information+ and, extra importantly, I began studying extra books utilizing Apple Books and Libby, the app that lets you hire ebooks out of your native library.
Nonetheless, whereas I used to be studying extra books, the iPad mini nonetheless felt fairly chunky to carry for some time, nonetheless felt too brilliant when studying at night time earlier than mattress, and fully crapped out once I tried to make use of it outdoors within the daylight.
It was proper once I was experiencing these ache factors that the Kindle Paperwhite confirmed as much as blow up the iPad as my third machine.
The Kindle Paperwhite is my third machine
As a lot as Steve Jobs needed the iPad to be each Mac and iPhone proprietor’s third machine, the Kindle Paperwhite has change into the third machine for me. After utilizing it facet by facet with the iPad mini for a number of months now, my iPad mini has sat in a drawer unused.
The primary motive for that is the burden. Whereas the iPad mini is Apple’s lightest iPad, it’s nonetheless a little bit of a piece, particularly when you could have Apple’s Good Folio connected to it. The Kindle Paperwhite, as compared, is at the least one-third lighter and much more so with out its personal (additionally lighter) case from Amazon. If I’m studying for some time, the Kindle is far more snug to carry for lengthy intervals in contrast with the iPad.
The second motive is the distinction the display screen makes at night time. Whereas the iPad mini definitely has a extra succesful display screen — being shade and LED as a substitute of black and white and E-Ink — that shade and LED display screen doesn’t actually assist put me to sleep at night time. The black and white E-Ink show, nonetheless, makes studying at night time significantly better. Not solely is it extra nice for the eyes, nevertheless it doesn’t hold me awake just like the iPad mini display screen did. I learn a number of pages on the Kindle and I fall proper asleep — precisely what I would like it to do.
The third motive additionally has to do with the display screen however, as a substitute of speaking about the way it performs at night time, I’m speaking about the way it performs throughout the day. Whereas the iPad mini appears effective indoors, that LED display screen is not any match for the solar. I took it as soon as to the seaside and will barely see the display screen by way of the glare. The E-Ink show on the Kindle, nonetheless, appears clear as day, whatever the solar that’s beating down on it. I’ve used it on the pool, at camp, and on the seaside and it’s carried out splendidly in any respect of them.
The final motive I selected the Kindle over the iPad is as a result of it’s a single-use machine. Whereas it was straightforward to get distracted with messages or leap to the YouTube app with the iPad, the Kindle’s solely job is to offer you books to learn. I’ve grown to understand having a tool that solely does one factor, particularly when that factor is to encourage me to learn extra.
Possibly Apple will make an E-Ink iPad
The one factor I might consider that might get me to return to the iPad as my third machine after experiencing the Kindle is that if the corporate made a water-resistant iPad mini with an E-Ink show. Simply think about how bonkers it might be to see the corporate make one thing like that, however that’s what I’d have to swing again.
Nonetheless, I definitely doubt that the corporate would make such a tool (there’s a motive I simply referred to as it bonkers), so I believe I’m going to be sticking with the Kindle Paperwhite for some time now.
That’s until Kobo will get me to leap from Amazon to their E-Ink pill. That’s price trying into, however I’ll follow the Paperwhite for now.
