PressReader is an app that provides a gateway to read newspapers from multiple publications across the world. It has options to download and read over 2100 newspapers. Wow!
I hadn’t heard of this awesome app until the folks at PressReader offered me a trial subscription, and I have been hooked on it since then.
I downloaded and used the PressReader iPad app for this review. But, it is available on all IOS and Android devices, and Blackberry as well.
The app is a free download. Once you download it, there are multiple subscription offers that you can take up depending on your usage requirements.
Here’s a screen capture from the PressReader blog. Do visit their blog for more details about their subscription plans and other information on the app.
PressReader Subscription Options
I don’t have much time to read newspapers during the workdays, but the weekend is another matter entirely and I’m sure there are many like me. I think $.99 per download is just about fine if I get to read the hefty Sunday editions from some of my favorite newspapers from around the world. My father who is a more serious newspaper reader would definitely find the $29.99 option of interest.
The $.99 pricing is especially reasonable for me because living in India, hard-copy newspapers such as The Guardian or The Independent are hard to find; most copies that I see on the stands are rained on, torn, outdated, and they are still prohibitively expensive. Reading online copies still feels like work, and I also don’t quite love the digital display of most online newspapers.
So how does this app work for those readers like me who love to get a feel of an actual newspaper? I found the display of the newspapers through PressReader very comfortable and enjoyable to read. The app really combines the best of the paper option with the best digital reading experience.
Here’s how:
The look and feel of the newspapers is like an actual publication. The download doesn’t take very long, and then you just flip through the pages.
PressReader has a great audio option. Great for those multi-tasking times. I can now feed the baby and listen to the news. I can improve my french pronunciation while simultaneously reading a newspaper from France. Love!
I am a hard-core newspaper clipper. I cut out favorite newspaper articles all the time and keep for future reference. PressReader offers a virtual option for it too. With a single click, I can save newspaper articles to Evernote or Instapaper. I am beyond thrilled .
My husband is also kicked. This means less paper clutter in our house, and if you consider the larger environmental impact, less paper in general is a great thing.
In short, the PressReader app is a great experience, and I highly recommend it for newspaper lovers who are exploring digital reading options. Since the app download is free, you do get to see what publications they offer before you pony up the money.
If what I have written is not enough to convince you to try this app, I leave this review with a few screenshots showing the PressReader display on the iPad
Awesome print-like display
Great clipping and sharing options
Note: The above screen captures were taken on the first version of iPad. I am sure the later versions with their awesome retina display will better highlight PressReader’s great display.
I loved the story of The Ugly Duckling when I was a kid. It was the perfect reassuring story for oddballs like me who always felt like they didn’t fit in with the crowd.
And now, I am so thrilled to share this story with my daughter and watch her also enjoying this sweet little story in a dynamic 2.0 version – the iPad app.
The Ugly Duckling iPad Book App by Publisto
Now, I have blogged before about how reluctant children could be coaxed into reading books using the iPad here and here. And I am so pleased to know that more publishers are joining the bandwagon with quality book apps.
After loading this app from iTunes (price $4.99), the snubnose and I settled down to read. The basic story from Hans Christian Andersen is charming anyway, and this app retains all the charm and warmth of the original story. The voiceover (can be turned off if required) is the best. I loved the clarity and the sweetness of the voice. The music and sound effects are also of high-quality. If you don’t want the voice, it’s also possible to record our own voice.
The graphics are also charming, not too bright, not too modern looking. They give the effect of the book within the iPad.
Sweet Imagery
I also love how with these apps, the text becomes bold as the voiceover speaks the words aloud. Such a small feature, but makes it easier for smaller readers to follow along without me having to touch the iPad screen.
Apart from the sweet and well-written story, the app also offers some fun add-on stuff to do. There are jigsaw puzzles to do, pictures to color in, dot-to-dot puzzles, matching puzzles using your memory, and even (my favorite) postcards that can be emailed/tweeted/facebooked. How cool is that?
Here are a few images showing what’s on offer…
Pictures to color in
Jigsaw puzzles to do
Beautiful e-postcards to write and send to friends
And so much more…
After going through the gamut of features, me and the snubnose were absolutely exhausted and happy. This is a truly worthwhile purchase and I highly recommend it for moms who struggle with getting their children to pay attention to regular books. For example, the snubnose has very fixed reading tastes – only Barbie, Princess Poppy, or such books for her. However, I see that when I showed her The Ugly Duckling book app, she quickly became engrossed in the story. Success!
Note:Publilsto provided me this book app for review. However, this is an honest and unbiased review. We truly loved every aspect of this book and think they have done a great job with this app. They seem to have other book apps in the pipeline too…The Swan Lake sounds pretty exciting and may excite older readers who have already read The Ugly Duckling.
Whew! I am finally back with a book review. I really didn’t expect to take such a long blogging and book break. But life’s been hectic and I have had a severe case of mommy brain –just haven’t been able to focus long enough on any one task without cocking up my ears to check if baby is crying or not…if baby is not crying, then quietly tip-toeing in and checking why baby is not crying…ending up waking up baby and baby crying…endless crazy lovely cycle.
But now, life has started to settle down a bit more. I am back at work, back reading, and hopefully back to blogging as well.
The first book I read this year has been The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I don’t know what made me pick up this book because reading verse is really not my thing. And this book for the most part is entirely verse. Only a friend challenged me to it, and that coupled with my native stubbornness made me complete a book that was really a meh at best.
The Canterbury Tales is a series of short tales. A group of strangers are heading out to Canterbury on a pilgrimage. To enliven the journey, each one tells a story. As is the usual in such type of books, some stories are excellent, some are all right, and some are just downright terrible.
It is enough to say that this book requires, really requires a lot of effort. The language in the book is Middle English and it takes some time to understand and process it. After struggling for some time with the printed book, I decided to use the awesome Audibly app for the iPad and listened to the story while I followed along with the book. This helped me focus on the language and the footnotes without trying to follow the rhyming and the pronunciation. Once I got used to the lingo, I soon found it pretty easy to read and appreciate and found that I even did not need the audio cues.
The actual stories vary greatly from each other in quality, length, and even values. Some of the tales are very bawdy, bordering on the vulgar, a couple of tales are chivalric, some are very devout, and then there are one or two that are absolutely senseless.
Surprisingly, I loved the bawdy tales. The characters and the situations in them are laugh out loud shameless and funny. Not so surprisingly, I disliked the religious and the chivalric tales.
What is amazing though is how often I realized that some of these tales were already familiar to me, having been modernized and adapted in different languages also! I just never knew that the source was probably the Canterbury Tales.
Overall, this was a book that I eventually liked. It was a tough one to get through however and definitely not for the casual reader. Even though I read a lot of English classics and was mentally prepared for some amount of verbosity, I was startled to find that some of the 30+ page stories could have been easily summarized within a page or two without losing anything.
I’ve been a happy owner of the original Apple iPad for more than a year now. It’s an awesome tablet and everyone in the house is completely happy with it.
But, how does it compare with the competition one year later?
Sadly, not so good. The new Samsung Galaxy tab comes chock-full of interesting features, and I can’t wait to get my hands on them in person and try it out for myself.
Here’s a small slide show of tech specs that I took from the Samsung website:
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//Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 features a 10.1 inch WXGA multi touch TFT LCD display, 3 MP rear camera with autofocus and LED Flash, 2 MP front facing camera for video calls, 720p video, 1 GB RAM, 16/32 GB internal memory, Samsung TouchWiz UX, Multi format audio/video player, Accelerometer, Ambient Light sensor, Gyroscope and digital compass.//
At first glance, nothing seems all that novel. All these features are present in some form or the other in the Apple iPad 2 as well.
Sure, the camera and video camera feature in the Galaxy tab seem superior, but I know that I am not planning on using it much. Hmm…maybe, if there are some awesome movie editing apps that I can download for free, then maybe
What I do like about the Samsung Galaxy tab features are some basic things:
USB support – Syncing data, videos, and photos between my iPad and my iPhone is such a pain because of the lack of a USB port on my iPad. I need to first connect to a laptop, download data there, and then sync from the laptop to the iPad/iPhone. Cumbersome at best, and impossible when you are on the move. But, I do hope when Samsung says USB support, it means that they have a USB port, which I suspect not, unfortunately .
Adobe Flash Support – Another sore point when it comes to the iPad.
Android Marketplace – Which I hope is more simplified than the iTunes user experience. I hate the amount of space iTunes occupies, the UI sucks, and iOS updates are killer .
So, will the Android OS v 3.1 (Honeycomb) experience on the Samsung Galaxy tab be any better? My husband K uses an Android phone – the Nexus One. Google pushes updates directly to his smart phone as they see fit, which is great in terms of usability. But, I also have to admit that compared to iOS on my iPhone 4, the Android on Nexus One is much more slow and sluggish. Of course, a lot depends on the hardware, memory, and disk space of the device.
And what about the price?
I saw the Samsung Galaxy tab with 16 GB offered for 34,999 on flipkart. Wait a minute, that can’t be right! I was counting on some competitive costing.
For this price, I may as well buy the Apple iPad 2 right? The Apple 16GB WIFI costs about Rs.29500, and the 16GB 3G version costs about Rs.36900. Something must be off here…
I then went straight to priceof mobiles.com , a site I always turn to when I want to do quick spec comparisons between competing products, and plugged in my data here.
Hmm…there is not that much differentiating the 2 products. So, if I want to upgrade, what would I choose? The known tablet (Apple iPad 2) where I am already comfortable with the look and feel, and the quality, or the unknown Samsung Galaxy? Or do I wait for more options (Apple iPad 3)?
I suspect I will be able to answer this question after the Samsung Galaxy tab Indibloggers convention that I am attending this Saturday. It’s an invitation to bloggers to come and get introduced to the Samsung Galaxy tab 750 and get your questions answered directly from the folks at Samsung.
I know one of my major questions will be about the support for an e-reading tool like Apple’s iBooks. I enjoy using iBooks, and would definitely want something similar in the next tab I buy. I definitely also need to play around with the product some and hopefully get some user reviews from friends to see which way I”ll eventually go.
What about you? If you had to choose, which way are you inclined to go?
Btw, if you want more information about the Samsung Galaxy tab 750, check out the below webcast:
My blog posts have decreased in frequency of late…and there are a couple of reasons for that. Tons of work to complete, combined with less time and inclination to read, and … this awful, chronic pain in my wrists .
I first noticed this sometime last month, but ignored it thinking it would go away by itself. Really smart, right? It was only when I was in such acute pain that day-to-day activities such as chopping veggies, or even turning the pages of my paperback caused such agonies that I acknowledged that there was a problem and hauled myself over to the orthopaedic.
Turns out it is some kind of RSI…oof…I had no idea this could be so painful and crippling. Basically, my lifestyle is such that I am always attached to some device or the other. If I am not working on my laptop, then I am blogging/tweeting/facebooking, and yes, even reading books on my iPad. Looks like something had got to give, and turns out it was my wrists .
Thankfully, things are better now. I have been scheduled for regular physiotherapy for the next couple of weeks, after which the doc will reassess my condition.
As it stands, I am already feeling more comfortable using my hands for all my daily work. Thank goodness!
So anyways, I am back to blogging, and reading books and you can look forward to tons of reviews coming up!
Another milestone I will be celebrating this month is my blogoversary, and I am going to be celebrating that with a giveaway! International to boot!! So, keep looking in, I am back, and hopefully things will look up this month
My reading efforts and my life in general has been pretty lacklustre of late. Nothing eventful to blog about. Couple of weeks back, the snubnose was down with pneumonia. In the ensuing worry, leave from office, and so on, I have had to do some massive catch-up with work, and it is not over yet.
I have also had to slow down completely halt my reading of Bleak House. I stopped reading when the snubnose fell ill, and I have just not been motivated enough to pick it up (or even any other book) again. Strange for me! I must really be feeling the blues…
Anyway, I saw this interesting meme on Mae’s blog, and I liked the questions enough to take part myself. So, without much ado, here we go:
Favorite childhood book?
If it was early childhood, I would agree with Mae and list The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. By the time I was ten though, I was headlong in love with Robert Louis Stevenson … in particular Treasure Island and Black Arrow.
What are you reading right now? Bleak House by Charles Dickens
What books do you have on request at the library?
None
Bad book habit?
Spilling food/water/tea on my books. I always munch when I read.
What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Bleak House by Charles Dickens, and Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. I am on a classics kick now.
Do you have an e-reader?
I have an iPad, and I do use iBooks for reading.
Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?Strictly one book at a time.
Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I pay more attention to the book, I think…I note down sections that I like. I make the effort to check up certain facts mentioned in the book to see how accurate they are. Basically, blogging has made me a more conscientious reader…or that’s what I’d like to think .
Least favorite book you read this year (so far)?
That’s easy…Witch & Wizard by James Patterson
Favorite book you’ve read this year?
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky comes close, but I have to admit that my favorite book was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. I love books with dogs.
How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
A lot. I love variety when it comes to books.
What is your reading comfort zone?
There are some authors – unfortunately most of them dead who always do it for me. My favorite authors I turn to are Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, and Victoria Holt (gothic romances). Generally, any well-written mystery with a dash of romance will do the trick for me.Of the living authors, I think Sophie Kinsella is creeping up on me.
Can you read on the bus?
Nope…not on bus, train, airplane…nothing. I tend to fall asleep when the vehicle is in motion.
Favorite place to read?
Sofa
What is your policy on book lending?
I have no problems with it…no problems when it is not returned either…I just go ahead and buy a new copy if it is a book I particularly like. I generally bargain hunt a lot while book shopping, so monetarily also it’s not a huge loss.
Do you ever dog-ear books?
All the time. I am not precious with books ever…my dad keeps complaining about how he knows exactly which books in his massive collection that I have read just by the number of dog-ears!
Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Never…my dad would kill me if I ever did that.
Not even with text books?
OK, that I do…
What is your favorite language to read in?
English. I can read Hindi and French, but it’s really a struggle. I’d just cave in and read a really good translation. I do wish that I could read Bengali. Kal’s blog with its frequent references to Tagore’s poetry and books makes me wish that I could read them in the original language. Our Indian languages are extremely rich…something always gets lost while translating into English.
What makes you love a book?
It’s really hard for me to say. I think the plot must be interesting enough to span the length of the book. Some books lose out when they are needlessly long, while other books end rather abruptly. I think a well-plotted, and well-edited book regardless of the genre will always win with me. I’m being rather vague with this answer, but that’s how best I can explain it.
What will inspire you to recommend a book?
In person, I rarely recommend books. One man’s meat is another man’s poison, and I believe that strongly. Mostly friends read my blog for recommendations. Also, in real life…very few of my friends are bookish.I do sometimes recommend books to my mom, though
Favorite genre?
Thrillers and Fantasy
Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Non-fiction, philosophy
Favorite biography?
Nothing in particular comes to mind. There was a mad phase when I read a bunch of stuff on the life of Marilyn Monroe. I outgrew that pretty fast. I am not very much into biographies in general.
Have you ever read a self-help book?
Ah, no…I read strictly for pleasure, not to improve myself ;. Also, some of the more obnoxious people I know are heavily into the self-help style of reading, so I have always felt self-books are rather dangerous . Plus, I am really not that interested in knowing who moved my cheese
Favorite cookbook?
Nah…I just filch recipes off from the internet or from my favorite cooking blogs. Not that I ever actually cook them . They are just saved up for the time when I retire and have all the time in the world to really cook, rather than the 20-minute slap dash fare I make now.
Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?Inspirational? Nothing this year. Last year, I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and felt very inspired by the strength of the two women protagonists.
Favorite reading snack?Chocolates
Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
I won’t say my reading experience was ruined. Ruined is too strong a word. I will just say that I did not enjoy The Swan Thieves as much as I expected to. I don’t think the book really lived up to the hype. Not that it’s a bad book…but just overhyped. I also think the Inkworld series by Cornelia Funke was way overhyped.
How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I don’t always agree, but I like and respect the different perspectives that people bring to a book review
How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
If it’s a book I bought or borrowed, I don’t have a problem with negative reviews at all. I do struggle though when authors/publishers give me bad/mediocre books to review. Then I really struggle .
If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
There are so many. I would choose French because how awesome would it be to read Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas in French. But, I would also choose Bengali for its rich regional literature, and Tamil – also rich in local literature, and it’s my native tongue and I can’t read it. Shame on me!!!
Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. Indecipherable and BORING. The fact that I finished it is a true tribute to my will-power and persistence.
Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
Nothing really. I don’t get intimidated…I start off and then get stuck.
Favorite Poet?
Edgar Allan Poe
How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
4 because that’s my library’s limit.
How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Hardly ever. I’m persistent, remember .
Favorite fictional character?
Current faves are Harry Bosch – the detective from the Michael Connelly series, and Vish Puri – the detective in the Tarquin Hall books.
Favorite fictional villain?
Long John Silver from Treasure Island. Also Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair.
Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
A book based on the place I am going to. Or, at least as close as it gets.
The longest I’ve gone without reading.
I did neglect reading during my school board exams – for about 2 years, I read nothing but textbooks. During my college years, I partied a lot and read very little. That’s the only time I can remember when books took a back seat in my life.
Name a book that you could/would not finish.
War and Peace is a book I never managed to even get halfway through, forget about finishing. I hope Bleak House does not end up in this category!
What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Nothing, really. I tend to get engrossed. My family members get really annoyed sometimes.
Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Lord of the Rings, and Silence of the Lambs. Generally, most thrillers make good movies as well.
Most disappointing film adaptation?
The Harry Potter movies – especially the later ones seemed to miss a lot of the richness and wonder of the books.
The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
I’m quite thrifty when it comes to book buying. Mostly second-hand for me. I don’t think I have ever spent more than Rs.1000/- at any given time.
How often do you skim a book before reading it?
I don’t skim. I just go ahead and read.
What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Usually, if something much more attention-grabbing happens in real life, and I end up having to stop reading, or if it is blah, blah, blah like War and Peace.
Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes, Organizing my book shelf is actually a comforting activity for me. Though, I always end up leaving it half-finished and starting on some book that has caught my interest there
Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I would keep some – the ones I loved, the author-signed ones, etc. The others I wouldn’t mind giving away.
Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
I am avoiding books 2 and 3 of the Stieg Larsson series and the Hunger Games trilogy. I want to take my time and read those books long after the blogosphere chatter has died down, and I am no longer as influenced by the hype.
Name a book that made you angry.
I think the sloppy writing on The Dangerous Days of Daniel X made me very angry. My book review also reflects that I think
A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
I expect to like most books, that’s why I read them
A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
I know I am flogging a dead horse here, but I really expected to like Twilight and the rest of the books in the series. I find vampire fiction fun as a rule, but these books were damp squibs.
Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Victoria Holt
Whew! I finally finished this meme. Anybody else want to take it up? Go on, do it, and then link to me after
I have mentioned loving the iPad in an earlier post. In this post, I will list and describe in specific the iPad apps that I am addicted enough to turn to everyday…because after all any Apple product is ultimately about the apps, right? So, here we go:
iBooks: I’m in love with the design of this app. Since I got iBooks I have read a book a week and haven’t paid a cent for it. There are thousands of free classics in there. Some of the books I’ve reread recently are Black Beauty and Gulliver’s Travels. What I particularly love is the extensive dictionary. I can look up any word just by tapping it twice, and I can easily highlight and annotate favorite passages in several colours. It’s awesome for book bloggers!
Note: I am not aware if Kindle or Nook have this functionality, so I can’t compare. Also, I am seeing that the prices of some books are much higher when bought through iBooks as compared to Amazon…so, yeah, I love the app, but would like to see better pricing on the books.
Flipboard - My own personalized magazine consisting of my Facebook and Twitter feeds laid out in magazine format. If you are not into Facebook or Twitter, this app has its own feeds of cool stuff from around the internet…plus, this app is free.Here’s a video demonstrating how it works:
Houzz: If you are decorating/building a house and looking for inspiration, this is THE app to download. Again, free…it provides a series of ideabooks based on a particular theme. The images are awesome and there is enough variety to cater to everybody’s tastes. A word of warning though – this app provides ample scope for domestic disagreements. We are currently in the midst of building our house, and K and I are quite dismayed to find out that so far, we are drifting towards the opposite ends of the design spectrum . The only thing we agree on is that this app totally rocks!
Chicfeed: This is totally fodder for the girl interested in seeing what people are wearing. Do you spend a lot of time trawling style blogs such as The Sartorialist? Then, download this free app to your iPad now. This is a fairly basic app that gathers all the latest photographs from widely popular style blogs and displays it on the iPad. You can happily kill a few minutes scrolling through the latest photos from The Sartorialist, Face Hunter, Jak And Jill Blog, Cherry Blossom Girl, LookBook, and altamira. Because the app displays only one photo at a time, the page loads are faster than the actual web pages. So, you end up using your time more efficiently !
WordPress: How could I leave out this one? In an earlier post, I had complained that I couldn’t figure out how to publish my posts. But after a little playing around, I found the trick. Now, I totally love this app. It’s so easy and convenient for me to jot down my thoughts as and when they occur, and create a post out of it when I have the time. It’s faster than the wordpress.com admin dashboard, and it allows me to respond faster to comments. In short, it rocks!
Ebay: Ebay has always been my reference point to check for prices of gadgets and books online. And now, with the iPad app, I can watch/bid/respond to buyer-seller emails faster than I ever could. Earlier, I would just space out and forget to respond, but somehow the app’s notifications remind me if I am being neglectful, which is almost always Also, like chicfeed, and WordPress, the page loads and search results are much faster through the app.
So, these are my favorite apps. True, there are more than 5…but why restrict myself to a number? So, what are your favorite apps? I would love to know. Btw, all the apps mentioned above are free…I am cheap over things like that sometimes
Winnie the Pooh is the first e-reading experience I had with iBooks/iPad. It is a free book that comes along with iBooks when you download it from the app store.
Whew! that was a lot of “I”s in just a couple of sentences, but then we all better get used to it, because I am definitely going to be reading more books using the iBooks app.
Book Review: I don’t think that I can add anything more to the countless reviews of this wonderful children’s classic. It is sufficient to say that I love this story of a young english boy Christopher Robin and his imaginary friends – Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, the Hare, and other wonderful characters who live in the hundred acre wood.
I do think that some of the most delightful children’s fiction comes from a different era – Enid Blyton, A.A.Milne, Edith Nesbit, Beatrix Potter…they opened up such a wonderful world of imagination for me when I was a young girl. I don’t know if the children’s fiction of today is of the same calibre. Do you have any contemporary children’s novelists that you love? I would love some recommendations.
My experience reading Winnie the Pooh on the iPad was simply delightful. The illustrations, the fonts, the layout…everything was just perfect.
Here is a screenshot of how lovely the iBooks display is:
Winnie the Pooh on iPad
This definitely provides me with an incentive to purchase more such books
Btw, the Alice in Wonderland app on the iPad that I had blogged about here is just as awesome when I tried it out.
The more I use the iPad, the more thrilled I am with the purchase
I bought it when I went to the United States in May on work, and I can’t believe I have managed to keep this quiet on my blog for so long.
Well, I had my reasons to keep it quiet. I wanted to take my time with it and to figure out what exactly it’s good for and isn’t good for, so that I am able to post something meaningful about it, rather than just post a list of stats and apps.
I am a total Apple newbie, I have never used any of their products before (yes, I don’t even have an ipod), so when I opened the package I was totally surprised by the beautiful and simple design of the product. The images that I had seen on the web simply do not do enough justice to this product. I was even more surprised when I was able to configure my wireless network connection and email within a matter of minutes. All in all, the initial setup on the ipad – internet, mail, twitter, and facebook took less time than my laptop takes to even start up and detect the wireless connection. My laptop is pretty old though and is pretty much on its last legs, but still I was amazed at how quickly I was up and running on the ipad.
After the first initial euphoria, I encountered itunes. To say that itunes sucks would be an understatement. The interface and the search functionality suck. I tried to use itunes to sync up music and photos from my laptop to the ipad, and found it a pretty tiresome experience. It would have been so cool if I could have just directly connected the ipad as a device to the laptop and just moved the files accordingly, instead of going through this itunes rubbish interface.
The itunes experience turned me off the ipad for a few days. However, once I accepted this disappointment and moved on, I found a whole new world of great things to do on the ipad.
Remember an old blog post where I commented that the ipad had the potential to convert a whole new generation of kids towards reading more books? That was an off-the-cuff comment, but I can see it coming true with the snubnose.
She often used to turn her nose at the books that I bought or borrowed for her to read. But the children’s e-books on the ipad have really captured her imagination. And why not? Some of these book apps are extremely interesting.
The snubnose’s favorite book app is Toy Story. It’s amazing how flexible the app is. She can configure the book to read using Tom Hanks’ voice, or we can record our own voices instead. The pages of the book are in bright, vivid colors…but if she feels like it, she can just turn off the colors on any of the pages, and color it herself. So many options, but they are so simple and user-friendly that she can figure it out and do it herself. How cool is that? Oh, and did I mention the app is free?
Here is a demo for the app in case you are interested:
Reading e-books has also enhanced her interest in actual paper books. So, that makes me happy as well …at least the books I bought for her are not a waste. This experience also made me realize that e-books will probably be the medium of choice for the next generation of readers. All the books on my library shelf might as well be antique pieces.
How do I find the e-book experience?
I found e-books to be a pleasant surprise. It’s not that I haven’t read books online, I have. But those were mostly badly formatted PDFs, which I read purely because I could not wait for the actual book to come in store (Harry Potter). Before you ask, I don’t feel guilty about doing that because I eventually bought the books anyway. It’s just that I could not be bothered to pre-order and wait in line.
Anyway, I like iBooks. I also downloaded the Kindle and Borders e-reading apps. This is great because it allows me to take advantage of book deals on offer on these e-readers. I am still figuring out how it all works, but it does seem like I have more reading options. However, the quality of the iBooks app is far and away superior to the Kindle and the Borders ones.
So what else can I do with the ipad?
Well, social networking is a breeze for me now. Earlier, Twitter and Facebook were strictly weekend activities, and most of the times I just did not bother. I mean who’s gonna take the pains on my slower than slow system just to send out a random tweet or message. Well, now, it’s just so damn easy. I use the Twitterific and Facebook apps to post my updates and photos within seconds.
As for blogging, hmm…that’s a slightly different story right now. I downloaded a WordPress app for blogging, and it works great…it’s only got 2 problems-major ones though.
First major problem – Editing and uploading images is super smooth. In fact, it is much easier and quicker than doing it on WordPress.com. However, I am having issues getting the blog post published. I am still trying to figure it out, but my first inclination is to set it aside as a bug.
Second major problem – Saved drafts created using the WordPress app do not appear if I open the Admin Dashboard on WordPress.com and look for it in the Drafts folder. This sucks big-time as you can imagine. Both these problems combined renders the whole app pretty much useless.
However, I am hopeful that the next version of the WordPress app (hopefully there is one) will fix these issues and make blogging on the go a reality for me. However, this is a WordPress issue, and not an ipad one…so no putting the blame on the ipad.
Apart from blogging and social networking, I use the ipad to check and respond to work email quickly. I can also use it to make and mail notes to myself. I have yet to attempt any word processing applications though and I also don’t want to try. Do not want to get into frustrating compatibility issues with iPages and MS Office (what I use for a lot of my work).
The one thing I have yet to try with any seriousness on the ipad is Farmville. Yeah, that game that keeps clogging everyone’s Facebook walls. I have always been curious about it, so it was one of the first things I downloaded. I don’t really get the game, I tried it out and got bored within minutes. However, the snubnose seems to have got the hang of it pretty quickly. I noticed that within a very short span of time, she has grown and harvested corn, strawberries, and apples on her little patch! Impressive, right
So, in short Apple has one satisfied customer in me. The ipad’s turned out to be a gift for the entire family, and we all take turns (not without a little squabbling) with it. I would heartily recommend the ipad to anyone who asks me for my (admittedly uninformed, purely laywomanesque) opinion.
The only thing I need right now is a good case for the ipad. Until I get one, it’s going to remain securely at home.
So, any of you readers have any experiences to share regarding the ipad? Please share, I would love to know
Personally, I was just not interested when the iPad came out…I mean hello! which self-respecting girl would like to buy such a buy a product that’s named just like something a girl has to buy every month!
But if there are folks (particularly book lovers) considering an iPad…here is one reason to convince you to go buy…
An Alice in Wonderland book app
Doesn’t it look absolutely gorgeous. Imagine how much more fun story-telling time to your kid could be…
Do you think this could be another way to get children to read?
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