I’m torn between two lovers.
My wife handed me the first one last January (my birth month).
Not satisfied with that, she gave me another one this January: How many men are lucky enough to have a wife like that?
I’m talking about a Kindle and an Apple iPad 2.
After I got my Kindle last year I loaded it with e-books from Amazon’s free popular classics and from an incredible website of free e-books I’d discovered. I was in hog’s heaven. I reckon if I’d paid for the hundreds of books I had on my Kindle I’d have spent well over $15 000.
Okay, I know you’re going to point out that at 68 years old I won’t have the time to read all these books.
Nonsense. If I were to read every book cover to cover I’ve calculated it would take me to the ripe age of 123. But who reads every book completely? Plus, I plan to live until 125.
Back to reality and our topic. The Kindle has four main advantages: It’s a lot cheaper, lighter and smaller. You can take it to the doctor’s office in your pocket while you wait. And it uses “electronic” ink technology, which makes it easier to read.
The iPad tablet is heavier and bigger. It’s not something you can slip in your pocket or purse.
But its screen display of an e-book is gorgeous, and page turning is seductive.
The whole Apple touch technology is sinfully delightful. I’m not a touchy-feely person like my brother, but being able to do everything with a delicate tap, or a gentle pressure, flick or swipe of your fingers is incredibly erotic. You should see how it turns on the iPad!
The iPad is also back-lit so you can read in bed at night without a light. You can also download e-books in the e-pub format (the most widely used format for creating e-books) direct to the iPad. With the Kindle you have to download and convert them on your computer to the MOBI format, using free software called Calibre. PDF files are also easier to read on the iPad.
The iPad also has a Kindle app (“app” is slang for the computer software applications pioneered by Apple. They’re smaller, task-specific and a whole lot cheaper). So all my free Amazon e-books were transferred to the iPad. The iPad has the advantage (shared by the Kindle Fire) of colour so you can enjoy any photos in an e-book.
Of course, you can do a whole lot of other things on the iPad besides read books: email, browse the Internet, watch videos, listen to music, use Skype, play games (I’m trying to delay growing senility). There are thousands of apps, either free or cheap. I typed this column on the iPad using the touch screen keyboard and the Pages word processing app. Indeed, the iPad replaces your laptop.
In all fairness I haven’t tried the Kindle Fire or other e-book readers or tablets.
So where does this leave me? I can’t choose. I want them both.
My wife fixed that. She took my Kindle.
All this has led me to reflect that the new electronic/digital technology is not just a smart tool; it’s a way of life. It’s changing how we live, work and relate to each other, mostly for the better.
It’s powering the knowledge economy that can be the economic salvation of Barbados if we have the courage to embrace the future and not cling to an unsustainable economic past (sugar).
For a year now I haven’t read a paper book, and will never read one again.
Imagine e-textbooks with interactive video, illustrations, notes, and so on. I’m sorry, but the paper book is a museum piece.
Those of us who lament the widespread inappropriate use of the mobile telephone should not blame the device.
Let’s not confuse the ill-mannered use of a tool with the tool itself.
