{"id":1783,"date":"2011-05-19T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T08:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=1783"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:34:48","slug":"e-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2011\/05\/19\/e-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"E-reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have written <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/blog\/2011\/04\/28\/do-e-books-make-me-read-more\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recently<\/a> about e-books and on earlier occasions, but this topic is advancing fast enough that I felt moved to visit it yet again. As I have mentioned before, my first serious foray into e-reading has been using my much-loved iPad. This has served me very well and convinced me that e-books are now the way forward. I often meet people in social situations, who claim that their love for &#8220;real&#8221; books will never allow them to &#8220;defect&#8221;. However, I have observed that the smarter book lovers &#8211; of all ages, I might point out &#8211; are open minded enough to give the technology a chance and tend to become converts quite quickly.<\/p>\n<p>My e-reading has moved on: I just bought a Kindle &#8230;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A valid question might be: why would I want a Kindle, as I already have an iPad, which can read Kindle e-books and do a whole lot more besides? And I was asking myself this for some time and arrived that the conclusion that a Kindle might add just enough to my life to make it a worthwhile investment. Let&#8217;s look at the pros and cons of an iPad [as an e-book reader] and a Kindle:<\/p>\n<p>Advantages of an iPad:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reads Kindle books very well.<\/li>\n<li>Can also read other e-book formats.<\/li>\n<li>Does lots of other things.<\/li>\n<li>Illuminated screen means reading in low light is easy [like in bed without disturbing anyone else].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Drawbacks of an iPad:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A little heavy to hold for long periods [though iPad 2 is improved].<\/li>\n<li>Illuminated screen disturbs some people&#8217;s sleep patterns.<\/li>\n<li>No good for reading in bright light or sunshine.<\/li>\n<li>Battery life is limited for long trips.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Advantages of a Kindle:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Very light and easy to hold.<\/li>\n<li>Fantastic battery life.<\/li>\n<li>Good visibility in bright light and sunshine.<\/li>\n<li>Does not affect people&#8217;s sleep patterns.<\/li>\n<li>Very reasonably priced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Drawbacks of a Kindle:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cannot read unaided in low light. [Needs more light, I feel, than a paper book &#8211; my bedside light is barely adequate.]<\/li>\n<li>Has very limited additional functionality.<\/li>\n<li>Cannot read other e-book formats [except PDF].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I think that this analysis shows that the two devices are quite complementary. Only time will tell whether my usage pattern bears this out.<\/p>\n<p>My life is slightly more complex, as I also use a very small notebook PC [netbook]. I am beginning to think that I really could get away with just having the iPad when traveling, but I have not yet been brave enough to try that. For someone with no iPad, I think that a netbook and a Kindle would play together very well.<\/p>\n<p>Ask me again in 6 months &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have written recently about e-books and on earlier occasions, but this topic is advancing fast enough that I felt&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[354,350,302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-e-books","tag-ipad","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9961,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions\/9961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}