I bought an iPad.

That’s right. I’m not reading Kindle on my Kindle. I’m reading Kindle on my Apple iPad. This probably causes some of you to panic, yell, or scream. “How can you possibly be enjoying your Kindle more on the iPad”, you’re thinking. “Surely the iPad doesn’t have the eInk screen, or the integration of buying anything from the Kindle store without going into a web browser. So why do you like it?”

The truth is, I didn’t think I was going to like it either. I mean, I was going to buy an iPad anyway. I’m an iPhone addict, and I knew the experience would probably translate well over to the iPad. Besides, I also develop iPhone and iPad applications for the startup I’ve created. But I didn’t buy the iPad thinking I was going to replace my Kindle entirely. I had a place reserved in my heart for the eInk bearing white Kindle 2.

As I started to play with the iPad over the last month as an eBook reader, I started to quickly realize that this was a much nicer experience than what Amazon was giving me before with the Kindle 2. Gone were the agonies of slow page turns. Gone was the inability to read in the dark without a flimsy plastic book light. It was a truly new way to read my books.

Bad Kindle, Sad Kindle, Goodbye Kindle

Don’t get me wrong. There was plenty to love about the Kindle family of devices. The eInk screen and the always-on anywhere-you-are Amazon Kindle Store were the primary reasons I loved the Kindle, and still do to this day.

But here’s what I didn’t like about my Kindle 2 experience:

• Each page was too small. I was constantly clicking the page turn button, because I’d run out of content on the page to read. I could turn the font way down, and it would fit a considerable more amount of text, but then I was squinting. Wait, didn’t I get the Kindle because it had eInk and reduced my eye strain? Now why am I straining to read tiny text?
• Page turns were too slow. Owners of the original Kindle are probably rolling their eyes at me right now, since the Kindle 2 turned pages significantly faster than the Kindle 1. Yeah, you’re right. But it was also way too slow for me. The pause in my ability to read from turning the page was too long for me to always keep my focus on the book’s plot line, but too short to be able to ponder or expand upon what I had been reading. It was simply a distraction. Not always, but often enough.
• Browsing the Amazon Kindle Store was too slow. When I first got the Kindle 2, I was so excited that it had free cellular-based wireless Internet access to purchase books that I overlooked the fact that the UX (user experience) for the Amazon Kindle Store wasn’t quite up to par on the device. I mean, since it was basically showing you simple web pages, you had to wait for each page to load, and then you had to wait for the Kindle to render the page. Once you clicked into a category, you the had to click into a book, or click on the next page. Then you either clicked the link that said “Return to the Store” (paraphrased), but that took you back to the very front of the store, not to where you were at in your search results. Or, you pressed the back button. In either case, again you had to wait, wait, wait, wait… Every time you did anything, you had to wait. Perhaps I’m too impatient, but I finally got tired of waiting. Note that I thought that the downloading of the actual books was quite fast, it was just navigating the Amazon Kindle Store that I thought was unfortunately a bit aggravating. Why didn’t they just download the whole catalog (or sections of it) to the device, and then render it locally? I’m certain it would have been a better user experience.
• Amazon doesn’t care about the Kindle devices. Blasphemy that I say this, right? But it’s mostly true. When Amazon released the first Kindle people were mostly happy. It was new, and it offered some nice things for the time that no other eBook reader ever dared to do. Then Amazon released Kindle 2, which was really mostly about updating the cosmetics of the casing and the user interface. But then Amazon stopped innovating. They decided to not release any significant software updates and improve upon how people use the Kindle. Not a single meaningful software update came out that added a way to manage all your book purchases (if you have more than 30, you’re tearing your hair out trying to navigate through it all), nor did it offer any performance improvements. Over a year went by, and Amazon made the message clear: they’re not going to improve your Kindle 1, Kindle 2, or Kindle DX experience. Sure, they may come out with a Kindle 3, or Kindle HD, or whatever you want to call it, packed with color eInk, a larger screen, and a fancy new UI. But that’s too little, and way too late. They’ve had 2-3 years to show us that they care about the platform enough to release some updates, and they didn’t. So when the Kindle 3 comes out, it won’t be updated for another year or two, as far as I’m concerned.

Hello, iPad!

The Apple iPad has a gorgeous high resolution (1024×768) color screen, and touts a hefty 10 hour use time. Let me be really clear when I say this: my iPad’s battery lasts for 11 or 12 hours of active use! If you put the thing into standby frequently (as most people do), it can last many days (although, I’m not sure how many, since I can’t stop playing with this thing so it is always on). The majority of the device’s weight and internal space is dedicated to the batteries. Quite an amazing feat really. So you could technically sit there for 10-12 hours straight and finish a book or two and not even need a recharge.

The iPad has several applications for reading eBooks, each with their own sources of content.

Here’s what I love about the iPad:

• Long lasting battery between charges. Let me be really clear when I say this: my iPad’s battery lasts for 11 or 12 hours of active use! If you put the thing into standby frequently (as most people do), it can last many days (although, I’m not sure how many, since I can’t stop playing with this thing so it is always on). The majority of the device’s weight and internal space is dedicated to the batteries. Quite an amazing feat really. So you could technically sit there for 10-12 hours straight and finish a book or two and not even need a recharge. Sure, it’s not quite as long as the Kindle, but it does a boatload more than the Kindle does too, and it’s much longer than anyone every expected a device like this to pull off.
• Bookstore agnostic. Sure, Apple wants to push their iBookstore and their iBooks application. But they’re not preventing any healthy competition from running on their App Store. That means I can read my Apple books, my Amazon books, my Kobo books, my Zinio magazines, or my Marvel comics. In fact, there are so many applications and stores available on the iPad now, that it makes a Kindle device seem so useless in comparison. If you really know you only like Amazon Kindle books, and don’t feel constrained, then the Kindle does its job for you. But, if you’re like me, you want choices. And boy do we have choices.
• Sex appeal. Holy cow, this thing is gorgeous. It feels nice in the hands. People stop and ask about it more than they did when I had a brand new Kindle or Kindle 2 when they first came out; not that it matters if people stop by curiously though. The interface has a similar feel to the well appreciated iPhone, and the applications are simply well thought out. It’s an incredible user experience. You feel like you’re a kid in a candy store all over again. Even at the peak of my Kindle experience, I never ever felt that way.
• Full device backup. Maybe the Kindle doesn’t really need this, but I love that I can quickly restore all of my applications, books, and saved files onto my device whenever I want. Perhaps even a brand new replacement. In fact, I had purchased an iPad Wifi, only to want the iPad 3G model a few weeks later. Transferring everything over was so simple.
• New ways of reading. I think it’s really fantastic that some of the news companies actually took the time to reinvent how their electronic newspaper or magazine would function. Newspapers and magazines were bastardized on the Kindle; Amazon really screwed that up. Amazon had a custom Kindle file format that allowed the use of special graphics and fonts, but they didn’t encourage their content providers to use it very much. Thus, the book, magazine, and newspaper presentation really suffered. It didn’t live up to the hype. But, there’s hope here with the iPad, because lots of companies are innovating truly remarkable interfaces on it with ways to interact with books, magazines, and newspapers. Apple’s iBooks isn’t in itself a tremendously different experience from the Kindle’s, but there is a lot of opportunity here for it to be, or some thirsty developer to come up with it.
• Updates, updates, updates! Apple has a proven track record of releasing consistent and often minor software updates that add small features and improve the performance of most of their products. This alone is a nice way to justify paying a couple hundred dollars more on the Apple iPad because you know that you’ll get some lasting value out of it, perhaps as long as 3 or 4 years. A hefty update comes around at least once a year, and most of the time it’s a free one.
• My Kindle books are alive and well. Lastly, and possibly one of the most important to me, is that all of my previous and future Kindle purchases are accessible in the Kindle app for the iPhone and iPad. The reading experience is even nicer than it was on the Kindle devices (in terms of attractiveness and functionality, but not eInk). And all of my book purchases are safe and available for me anywhere. Amazon got this right. After all, it’s clear to me: Amazon is out to make a profit by selling content, not hardware devices. And this is one of the big distinctions between Apple and Amazon, because don’t forget, Apple is really a hardware company.

But if you’re still uninterested in the iPad, even after my superb dissing of the Kindle device family, please buy a Kindle today. Otherwise, how about one of these iPads?

If this is true, those of us who purchased the Kindle 2 only months ago, might feel a little scorned since we would probably have considered the larger format from the get-go. If the next device won’t come out for at least 6 months after the release of the Kindle 2 (August), then that is probably a very fair release date. However, if it’s coming out next week as these rumors are implying, then it seems premature, and it may be OK for people to feel a bit scorned about a third release that came out less than 3 months after the Kindle 2 was released. I know I will. I know it’s hopeful wishing, but a hardware trade-in program would be a very welcomed process from Amazon.

Is it really coming?

Kindle Site is Unavailable

Out of curiosity, I pointed my web browser to http://kindle.amazon.com, and I was greeted with the image above. Does this mean that Amazon is prepping their site for the upcoming release? Perhaps. The details will unfold this week.

• Paper type and quality
• The smell of dead trees aged by their siblings in a book store
• The binding of the pages
• The physical qualities of the cover (hardback, padding, art, texture)

While it may never be truly possible to dynamically simulate these things (that is, until they are able to create custom bound full ePaper books filled with blank pages that you can “connect” into a service), there are some things that I hope Amazon considers as they move forward:

• Clean up the “Home” page. We need categories! Paging through lots of samples, purchased books, subscriptions, and our own content is painstaking difficult to navigate through.
• Cover images! We should have the ability to browse by book cover (the same one you already have in the Kindle Store would work fine) so that we can get a feel for the book as we would if we saw it on a shelf.
• Emit a stinky musty smell of dead trees. OK, I’m kidding about this one.

What do you think about having cover images on the Home screen?

Contrary to their assumptions, I’ve have a great experience with the device so far. After a couple of hours, the screen “flashing” that occurs during page turns does not seem to bother me at all. In fact, I hardly notice it anymore, except when I’ve taken a break for a few hours and revisit the device. The number of interesting books in the Amazon Kindle Store feels unending, and I’ve been very satisfied (so far) with the choices. I have certainly downloaded somewhere near 30 free book samples, and they seem to give me a good idea of whether or not I will like the book. Doing this on the Kindle feels much different than having to browse the Amazon website and download and view a PDF sample; more refined and integrated.

A concern that I have is managing my content once it is on the device. There is no concept of folders, so all content is displayed on the Home screen. Sample content is blended in with full content, so it makes navigating your collection somewhat cumbersome. I’m hoping that enough users find this to be the case, and Amazon updates the firmware to support some kind of organization methodology (folders, tags, or at a minimum, content types like ‘Books’, ‘Sample Books’, etc).

The “screensaver” of book authors is quite pleasant, although I find that I have to explain to people that I show the device to that they are not necessarily covers of books or authors I am reading now. I look forward to being able to customize this further.

What are your first impressions?