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href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-downsides/&service=bit.ly"> href="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ipadinvert.jpg">The href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/ipad/">iPad is not the transformational device so many Apple enthusiasts were hoping for. It won’t href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/15/apple-tablet-revolution/">turn all the content industries upside down, it won’t be your primary computing device, and it’s not even a bigger, better href="http://mashable.com/mobile/iphone">iPhone.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad/">introduced the iPad as a device to fill the gap between smartphones like the iPhone and high-end laptops like the MacBook and MacBook Pro. He said there needs to be a middle device, but it needs to be better than the alternatives at what it does. Netbooks currently fill the void, but according to Jobs, “netbooks aren’t better at anything.” He and his colleagues at Apple believe that the iPad is.

Apple’s href="http://apple.com/ipad" target="_blank">website and href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/official-ipad-video/">promotional video call the iPad “magical.” We’re told the iPad is “the best way to experience the web, email, photos, and videos. Hands down.” But it’s not — it’s not even close. It’s mighty cool, it’s super convenient, and it’s very sexy, but it’s not even better than a netbook at some of those things.

This isn’t the middle device folks have been waiting for because — and I’m using Steve Jobs’s own criteria here — it’s not better at anything than any other device on the market. It’s a step in that direction, but the day hasn’t come yet. Here are just a few of the ways the iPad isn’t as magical as Apple claims.

It’s Not the Best Way to Browse the Web

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Steve Jobs said it needs to be a better web device than the alternatives. The Apple website says it’s “the best way to experience the web.” Some variation of that phrase is repeated several times in the promotional video Apple has released. But it’s just not true.

It might be one of the best ways to browse the web on a mobile device, but laptop and desktop computers — even netbooks — are still better. Most current websites were designed to be experienced on those devices with a mouse and a keyboard. Maybe the mouse isn’t necessary, but you don’t have to pop up a software keyboard to type in URLs on a netbook or laptop. Even if you lug around the keyboard dock, it will be a tad awkward moving between the keys and the screen to interact. You’re sacrificing some usability for simplicity on the iPad.

Most importantly, the iPad’s browser does not support href="http://mashable.com/tag/flash">Adobe Flash, the foundation of rich media on the web today. Adobe is href="http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/2010/01/building_ipad_apps.html" target="_blank">planning to make it possible for Flash developers to develop apps, but it won’t work on the web.

I’ll admit that the decision not to support Flash is a logical one if you start at the right premises; Flash is responsible for countless reported crashes on Macs, and Apple can’t control it to ensure quality of experience. Apple is banking on a transition to href="http://mashable.com/tag/html5">HTML5 and CSS 3 for rich web content. While that transition has already begun, it hasn’t fully happened yet. Until it does, it’s ridiculous to call this device the best way to experience the web when one of the most ubiquitous and essential web technologies is not supported.

It’s an Unprecedented Win for Closed Computing

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Many of the software restrictions that drive people mad when they’re using the iPhone are going to be href="http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/01/27/how-a-great-product-can-be-bad-news-apple-ipad-and-the-closed-mac/" target="_blank">just as frustrating on the iPad. All the device’s content — apps, songs, TV shows, movies, books, you name it — can only be processed through Apple’s href="http://mashable.com/tag/itunes">iTunes Store.

You won’t be able to drag and drop or share files with other computers like you can with your laptop on your home network. You won’t be able to download a program or music file from the web and play it on the spot. You won’t be able to use any application that doesn’t meet Apple’s strict approval guidelines. It’s closed computing at its most extreme.

Unfortunately we’ve come to expect that from our smartphones. For a larger device that’s supposed to replace your netbook as a complete portable computing solution, though, this is almost unprecedented — at least from a device that’s likely to have a great deal of influence on the market and on the design of future devices. That’s bad news no matter how you spin it.

It’s Not Really a Competitive eReader

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The Kindle owns the eReader landscape right now, and the greatest expectation for the iPad was that it would bury the Kindle. While the iPad’s reader interface is indisputably sweet-looking and the list of participating publishers is promising, there are href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/kindle-dead-ipad/">several ways it just won’t beat the Kindle.

The most important issue is the href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-price/">price. The Kindle costs $260; so do Barnes & Noble’s Nook and the comparable Sony Reader. The Kindle even comes bundled with free 3G network access, though it admittedly can’t do anywhere near as much with it as the iPad can.

But if you are considering the iPad primarily as a reader, that price difference is a big problem. Also a big problem: The lack of an e-ink display. E-ink doesn’t wash your face in eye-strain-inducing light like the displays on the iPhone, the iPad, and laptop computers do. It’s meant to be a soft experience, just like reading a book. Without e-ink, you might not be able to tolerate spending four straight hours reading Stephen King’s latest on a regular display, cool IPS tech aside.

Finally, as impressive as 10 hours of battery life is for a multi-purpose device like the iPad, the Kindle can run in reading mode for a week without recharging — longer if Wi-Fi is disabled. Because it’s trying to do everything, the iPad isn’t the best at anything.

It’s Not Worth It If You Have a Smartphone and Laptop

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If the iPad isn’t a good option as a middle device, it ought to at least be attractive to power users and enthusiasts who already have other devices. Unfortunately, it’s not.

It’s not significantly better at anything than either your iPhone or your MacBook. It can’t be used as your daily workhorse computer on the go, because just like the iPhone’s OS 3.1.2 the iPad’s OS 3.2 doesn’t multitask. And if you already have an iPhone, you can do basic information gathering, mapping, and so on while you’re on the go without spending an additional $29.99 per month for 3G service.

Further, your laptop or netbook very likely has a web cam for video conferencing, and your cell phone probably has a camera (or even video camera) for capturing images. The iPad has neither.

Since the interface is graceful and satisfying, you might want to buy it as an extra device just for the experience, but at between $499 – $829, that’s not practical for most consumers.

The Anti-Hype

The iPad isn’t going to be a phenomenon with either netbook users or power users. It’s not better than existing devices at anything, and it’s too expensive for most people to use it as a secondary device. I might have said something different if the rumors that the iPad would be all about a new push in the content marketplace were true, but that didn’t happen. Instead, we got a cool toy.

[img credit: href="http://www.fsf.org/news/ibad_launch" target="_blank">FSF, href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyfield/2658033947/" target="_blank">Yutaka Tsutano]

Tags: href="http://mashable.com/tag/apple/">apple, href="http://mashable.com/tag/apple-tablet/">Apple Tablet, href="http://mashable.com/tag/ereader/">ereader, href="http://mashable.com/tag/ipad/">ipad, href="http://mashable.com/tag/kindle/">Kindle, href="http://mashable.com/tag/opinion/">Opinion

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href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/ipad/&service=bit.ly">Last updated: January 27th, 2010

After months of speculation and rumors, it’s official: href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad/">The Apple iPad is real. The device, announced earlier today by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, is designed to fill the perceived gap between the smartphone and the laptop.

With literally thousands of articles and blog posts being written about Apple’s new device, it’s easy to experience information overload. That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive Apple iPad guide. It is our complete, constantly updated article on the iPad and its specs, features, pricing, availability and much more.

Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about the Apple iPad, and then some:

Apple iPad: The Overview

On multiple occasions, Steve Jobs spoke about creating a new category of devices that would fill the gap between the smartphone and the laptop markets. He slammed netbooks for “not being better than anything.” He wanted something that would be better than a laptop at browsing the web and that could play games, movies, href="http://mashable.com/social-media/youtube">YouTube videos and more.

The answer to that gap, at least for Apple, is the iPad. It’s essentially a giant iPod touch/ href="http://mashable.com/mobile/iphone">iPhone with a 9.7-inch screen, 16 to 64 GB of memory, and the ability to run almost every iPhone app in the App Store. It can connect via USB to sync with your PC or Mac, play HD video, act an ebook reader and a lot more.

While there are a lot of functions, all of which we describe below, its killer feature is by far the price. While many predicted it would cost $1,000, the starting price of the iPad is just $499. For comparison, the Kindle DX, which also has a 9.7-inch screen, costs $489, only $10 less than the iPad.

Let’s get into the details of the iPad, shall we?

Apple iPad: The Specifications

Here’s what we know so far about the iPad’s specs. We’ll update this as more is revealed about the device:

- SCREEN: 9.7-inch IPS LCD screen. The LCD provides the backlighting, but most of the technology is IPS, or In-plane switching. This gives it a stronger viewing angle than most screens.

- RESOLUTION: 1024×768 pixels (132 pixels per inch)

- SIZE: 0.5 inches thin.

- DIMENSIONS: 9.5 inches x 7.5 inches x 0.5 inches

- WEIGHT: 1.5 pounds (1.6 pounds for 3G)

- CHIP: 1 GHz Apple A4 chip. They went in-house instead of going to Intel.

- MEMORY: Three models with 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB solid state hard drives.

- INCLUSIONS: Accelerometer, Microphone, 30-pin connector, Compass, full capacitive multi-touch, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 3G access on higher-end models

- BATTERY LIFE: 10 hours at full blast. On standby, it will last over a month.

Summary: It’s thin, it’s light and it’s fast.

Interface

The interface should be familiar to you; it looks a lot like the iPhone OS interface. In fact, it’s essentially a custom version of the iPhone 3.2 OS. Primary apps are housed at the bottom and you swipe left and right through your home screens to find apps. Steve Jobs even mentioned that it would be easy for people to pick up on the interface because so many people (7.5 million) have either an iPhone or an iPod touch.

There is a new SDK for developers to build apps specifically for the iPad, but all iPhone apps run in the iPad. iPhone apps can run either in their native resolutions or in a “double pixel mode” for full-screen use. Most of the apps we’ve seen run very well in double pixel mode. Developers will be able to modify their apps using the new SDK to optimize them for the iPad, though.

Most everything else is just like the iPhone, but larger. The keyboard is larger, although we have yet to see whether typing is more efficient via your thumbs or with all 10 digits.

Web, Email, and Maps

Just like the iPhone, it utilized Safari Mobile as its browser. It’s bigger, but not much else is different. And just like the iPhone, it does not support Adobe Flash, a plug-in that Apple simply doesn’t like.

In fact, most of the other standard web apps are the same between the iPhone and the iPad. Email, for example, utilizes a similar interface, but it does have more features such as email previews. Google Maps runs on the iPad just as it does on the iPhone.

One app that did get some new features though was the Photo app, which now sports an iPhoto-like interface and some new multi-touch inputs that allow you to easily view and manage multiple pictures.

Connectivity

Apple’s tablet comes in two models, based on their connectivity. Both versions have Wi-Fi connectivity, which is to be expected. However, the higher-end model also comes with 3G access — for $130 more, you can have a 3G-enabled tablet.

If you want the 3G model, you have to use it currently on AT&T: it’s the official launch partner of the iPad. Luckily though, you don’t have to sign a contract to use the 3G connection. Instead, you prepay for however many months of 3G access you desire. It costs $14.99 for 250 MB of data per month, while you’ll need to fork over $29.99 monthly for an unlimited plan. You can cancel any time without any termination fee.

The iPad utilizes microGSM, meaning that it’s not specifically bound to AT&T. Thus, you can expect it to work on international carriers sometime in June or July. That doesn’t mean you can just stick in a T-Mobile or Verizon card though: Verizon and Sprint use the incompatible CDMA 3G format, while the iPad’s 3G modem doesn’t support T-Mobile’s 3G frequency.

Ebooks and Publishing Features

Apple essentially drove a dagger straight into Amazon and the Kindle’s hearts with the iPad. Not only is the device comparable in price to the Kindle DX, but it has its own bookstore: href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ibooks/">iBooks.

iBooks, announced today at the iPad event, is a new native application for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that allows you to browse, download and read e-books. At launch, five book publishers will have publications on iBooks: Penguin, Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillian and Hachette. Left off the list is href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/26/apple-tablet-iphone-os-2/">McGraw-Hill, whose CEO accidentally spilled the beans on the tablet a day too early. We think it’s possible that Apple handed retribution to McGraw-Hill for the leak, although you’ll likely see its books on the iPad at some point.

Here’s how Steve Jobs described iBooks:

“The iBooks app is a great, new way to read and buy books. Just download the app for free from the App Store, and you’ll be able to buy everything from classics to bestsellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you’ve bought a book, it’s displayed on your Bookshelf. To read it, all you have to do is tap on it and it opens up. The high-resolution, LED-backlit screen displays everything in sharp, rich, color, so it’s very easy to read, even in low light.”

Time will tell whether the iPad is suitable for long-term reading, but Apple didn’t hold back any punches in its quest to href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/kindle-dead-ipad/">wrest the ebook crown from Amazon.

TV, Movies and Video

The video display itself is crisp and sharp, and that was on clear display when Apple demoed several movies on the device. The video interface is just like the iPhone’s video interface, with options for bookmarking, fast-forwarding, rewinding, etc. Oh, and it plays video in HD.

It also has an iTunes store-like interface for browsing videos, movie chapters, and purchasing video content. On the left-hand side you’ll find your viewing options with screenshots, descriptions and video length. On the right-hand side are graphs, either from that movie or TV show.

Still, this device is NOT a widescreen device. There is a lot of black space on the top and bottom when watching a film in widescreen mode. We expect that Apple will address this in future versions with slightly longer iPads, but for now you’ll just have to deal with it.

Summary: It’s great for watching movies, but it’s nothing revolutionary.

Gaming

You really want to href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-gaming/">look out for the iPad as a gaming device, because EA and others are going to build some amazing games on this platform.

Several games were demonstrated for the iPad, including Need for Speed Shift and N.O.V.A. In Need for Speed, the driver moves the car by turning the tablet. Tapping on the device changes your perspective and zooms. You utilize the touchscreen to accelerate and change gears. Our estimation is that the game looks great — better than an iPhone game — but still doesn’t compare to the PC. In N.O.V.A., a first-person shooter, you can use thee fingers to open a door or slide two fingers to toss a grenade. There are more input possibilities with Apple’s tablet.

The same things that made the iPhone a popular gaming platform were apparent in these demos, however the iPad’s HD capabilities and its more advanced touch screen will make it a stronger gaming platform. And with all iPhone games running on the device, there’s already a big library in its collection.

Productivity and iWork

For productivity and business work on the iPad, Apple has introduced a new version of its iWork software specifically designed for the touchscreen device. It’s been in development for over a year, apparently.

A rundown of the key features and applications in iWork for the iPad:

- Keynote: Apple’s flagship presentation software has gotten an overhaul that allows you to easily view and add slides using the touchscreen interface. You can made edits, browse through slides and more.

- Pages: Word processing on the iPad goes through Pages, which allows you to type more effectively without a physical keyboard and provides touch-based formatting options. For example, dragging images on a page is easy since there’s auto-wrap.

- Numbers: Apple’s spreadsheet feature lets you design data cells and spreadsheets with the multi-touch interface.

- Cost: It costs $9.99 for each app in the app store.

It’s important to note that you can open Excel, Word and Powerpoint documents in iWork, meaning that you can work on your PC documents on your iPad.

Pricing

Pricing was the biggest shocker at this event. While we thought it would cost in the $800 range (some thought $1,000 was more accurate), the true price of the cheapest model is actually $499.

As you can see from the image above, it comes in two editions: Wi-Fi enabled or Wi-Fi + 3G capable. There are also three sizes: 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. Thus, the cheapest (Wi-Fi, 16 GB) costs only $499, while the most expensive iPad, the 64 GB model with 3G, costs $829.

Here’s the rundown, in order of price:

- $499: 16 GB, Wi-Fi only

- $599: 32 GB, Wi-Fi only

- $629: 16 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G

- $699: 64 GB, Wi-Fi only

- $729: 32 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G

- $829: 64 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G

In addition, you have to take into account the cost of 3G services. The iPad has 3G through AT&T alone currently, but there is no contract, meaning you can prepay or cancel at any time. For 250 MB of data a month, it costs $14.99 per month, while unlimited data is $29.99. It’s quite a good deal in our estimation, especially since you can cancel your contract at any time and you get access to any AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot for free (e.g. Starbucks).

Availability

The iPad, while it doesn’t have an official launch day, should land in stores at the end of March, 60 days or so from today or so.

Only the Wi-Fi versions will be in stores at that time, though. If you want a 3G version, you have to wait until April.

We’ll update this section when we have hard launch dates for both device models.

Competitors

Above: The HP Slate

The iPad isn’t the only device to sit in this mid-level computing device realm. A slew of competitors were shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, and many more are slated to arrive in 2010.

While Apple may have the advantage of its brand and its loyal customers, watch out for some of these competitors, many of them running on the href="http://mashable.com/tag/google-android">Google Android OS.

- HP Slate: A Windows 7-powered tablet

- Asus Eee Tablet: An upcoming tablet that may run on Google Android

- Notion Ink Tablet: Another Android-based tablet

- Google/HTC Tablet: Rumor has it that Google and HTC are href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/02/google-tablet/">developing a Google-branded tablet, much like what they did with the Nexus One. There is no confirmation of this, though.

If you want to dig deeper into iPad competitors, we have href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/9-upcoming-tablet-alternatives-to-the-apple-ipad/">a more comprehensive overview of nine tablet challengers.

What the iPad Lacks

While in a lot of respects the iPad is a sleek, powerful device that will surely create massive lines on launch day, it is missing a lot of features we had hoped would be in it.

Here are just a few of the things that you won’t find on the Apple tablet:

- No camera: There is no front-facing camera for video conferencing, and there is no back-facing camera for taking photos. This is a major omit from the device. Hell, most netbooks and smartphones have a camera or two.

- No multitasking: You cannot run multiple apps at the same time. To make this a useful device, it needs to be able to do things like run Last.fm while tweeting. This is one we hope Apple will fix with a future iPhone OS update, but for now it can’t run multiple apps.

- No HDMI Output: You can’t plug your iPad into your TV.

- No USB port: You can’t plug in your favorite keyboard into the device…or anything else, really. It will plug into your computer via the same cord you charge iPhones and iPod touches with.

We’re disappointed at a lot of the things that were excluded from this device. Gizmodo has a href="http://i.gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad">great list of other things the iPad doesn’t include, but the point is this: It’s a first generation device, and it’s not going to include a lot of the things we want. With that said, make sure you know the drawbacks before buying.

Additional Reading

- href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad/">Apple Introduces iPad Tablet Device

- href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/official-ipad-video/">Official Apple iPad Demo [VIDEO]

- href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-specs/">Apple iPad Specs Revealed

- href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/ipad-for-publishers/">A First Look at the iPad for Publishers

- href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ibooks/">iBooks: Apple Answers the Kindle with a Digital Bookshelf Like No Other

- href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/kindle-dead-ipad/">4 Reasons the Kindle is Dead, 4 Reasons It’s Not

[img credits: href="http://gdgt.com" target="_blank">GDGT, Apple, Inc.]

Tags: href="http://mashable.com/tag/apple/">apple, href="http://mashable.com/tag/apple-ipad/">Apple iPad, href="http://mashable.com/tag/apple-tablet/">Apple Tablet, href="http://mashable.com/tag/ipad/">ipad, href="http://mashable.com/tag/iphone/">iphone, href="http://mashable.com/tag/iphone-os/">iphone os, href="http://mashable.com/tag/islate/">iSlate, href="http://mashable.com/tag/tablet/">Tablet, href="http://mashable.com/tag/trending/">trending

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href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/kindle-dead-ipad/&service=bit.ly">“Uh-oh,” is the reaction we can imagine Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had when watching today’s unveiling of the eagerly awaited Apple iPad tablet. The new Apple device looks, at least upon first glance, like it will completely href="http://mashable.com/2009/09/12/apple-tablet-eats-kindle/">eat Amazon’s lunch. In fact, Steve Jobs even eulogized the Kindle in his unveiling.

“Amazon’s done a great job of pioneering this functionality with the Kindle. We’re going to stand on their shoulders and go a little further,” he said while unveiling the iPad’s href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ibooks/">iBook e-reader software. But is the Kindle really dead? Amazon proudly proclaimed the Kindle as the number one selling product on Amazon.com, with a huge banner on their home page today. Can it really be all over so fast?

Here are four reasons why the Kindle is dead, and four more why it might still have some life left in it.

Why It’s Dead

1. iPad Starts at $499

Going into today’s announcement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, most pundits predicted the Apple tablet would cost at least $600 and perhaps as much as $1,000. Steve Jobs dropped a major bombshell when he announced that the non-3G, 16GB base unit iPad would be priced at a very respectable $499.

In other words, just $10 more than the top end Kindle DX — a device with a comparatively measly 4GB storage capacity. A recent href="http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/100125_Kindle.shtml" target="_blank">University of Georgia study ( href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_apples_tablet_will_beat_out_kindle_as_a_news_r.php" target="_blank">via RWW) found that cost was a major factor when choosing an e-reader. “Nearly all respondents balked at the Kindle DX’s $489 price tag for reading a newspaper,” according to the survey.

While $489 might be too much for just an e-book reader, $10 more for a device that does a whole lot more may be worth it to a lot of people.

2. Just Reads Books

Out of the box the iPad has 140,000 apps available to it by virtue of the fact that it runs the iPhone OS. That means the iPad can do a ton of things the Kindle can’t — like play games, access social networks, display photos and videos, etc. In fact, because the iPad can run any iPhone app with no modification, that means even the href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000301301" target="_blank">Kindle for iPhone app will run on the iPad, giving iPad users instant access to Amazon’s library of Kindle-formatted books.

The iPad also has a built in web browser powered by Safari, which means that it can access millions of pages of web content in addition to books. The Kindle is limited to only the books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs that you can download to the device. (The Kindle does have a very basic, text-only web browser, but the web experience is very limited.)

Then again, the Kindle will soon href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/21/kindle-app-store/">offer apps of its own, making potentially it more attractive to those wanting more than “just an e-reader.”

3. iBooks Looks Sweet

Apple took a direct shot at the Kindle by href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ibooks/">launching iBooks, a digital bookshelf app with a number of high profile publishing partners. The early impressions of the iBooks app during Apple’s iPad unveiling were mainly positive — the reading and book management experience looks slick and the app integrates with iTunes.

If anyone can do for books what Apple did for music earlier this decade with the iPod and iTunes, it’s Apple. And the iBooks/iPad combination looks like it has the potential to be another game changer.

4. Kindle Lacks Color and Video

Sure a color display and video are mostly unnecessary if all you’re planning to do is read text, but just reading text isn’t what most people want. As bandwidth gets cheaper by the day, media consumption is shifting toward the visual. Even the New York Times application demoed today at the Apple iPad event included embedded video and full-color photos within articles, and last month’s href="http://mashable.com/2009/12/03/time-sports-illustrated-video/">vision of publishing’s tabletized future from Time Inc. put a premium on video.

Indeed, as the media landscape becomes more animated, the lack of video could be a nail in the coffin for Amazon’s current generation Kindle.

Why It’s Not

1. E-Ink Display is Gorgeous

Though the tablet now actually exists, it won’t be on sale for another couple of months, and it remains to be seen what the backlit IPS LCD screen on the iPad really looks like (early reports are that it looks great — at least, indoors in Apple’s controlled lighting environment), and whether it will be ideal for reading in all situations and for extended periods of time. What we do know already, however, is that E-Ink screen on the Amazon Kindle is beautiful to read — everywhere.

One of the biggest advantages the Kindle may still have over the iPad is that its screen is ideal for reading, and not just for reading, but reading indoors or outside in the sun, and for long periods of time. If the iPad’s screen really is just like a giant iPhone, as some href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-first-hands-on/" target="_blank">early reviews have said, then it may not be the best choice for a long, lazy day of reading at the beach.

2. Free 3G

The iPad starts at $499, but if you want data, the price starts going up rather quickly. 3G versions of the device come at a $130 premium (so the cheapest device with 3G is $629), and a data plan costs at least $14.99/month.

The Kindle, meanwhile, comes with free, worldwide 3G coverage baked in. It doesn’t do nearly as much as the iPad, but it will always be connected without requiring you to shell out a penny more. Because the smaller, 6″ version of the Kindle is priced at $259, and still comes with free, global 3G coverage, the Kindle definitely wins on price.

3. Huge Book Selection

Even though Apple announced an impressive list of launch partners, including Penguin, Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillian and Hachette, it is unlikely that they’ll be able to match the Kindle’s selection right away. The Kindle currently offers 400,000 books, plus newspapers, magazines, and blogs, and recent moves to href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/20/amazon-bumps-kindle-royalty-cut/">entice new publishers with higher royalties should attract even more titles.

Of course, the iPad can run Amazon’s Kindle iPhone app, meaning it technically does offer the same number of books. Bottom line: the jury is still out on this one, but for now, the Kindle has a better selection of books — sort of.

4. Crazy Battery Life

The iPad’s battery life, according to Steve Jobs, is an impressive 10 hours, and it has an even more impressive one month of standby time. Still, it’s likely that getting the full 10 hours means doing things that negatively affect the experience (like lowering screen brightness, turning off WiFi, not playing video, etc.). The Kindle, on the other hand, can give you a full week of reading time with wireless on, and two weeks with wireless off.

If all you’re interested in is reading a book, the Kindle might be the better choice, allowing you to take a week-long vacation without bringing the charger. Your iPad might be dead by the time to step off the plane — or even before that, if you’re on a long flight with a few layovers or delays.

What do you think? Is the Kindle dead in its current form or is there still a market for e-readers? Sounds off in the comments.

Reviews: href="http://www.blippr.com/apps/337639-Kindle-for-Iphone" target="_blank">Kindle for Iphone, href="http://www.blippr.com/apps/336952-Safari" target="_blank">Safari

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When I was growing up, one of the most popular PC games was Wolfenstein 3D. It was a great first-person shooter in general, but let’s be honest, there was one reason that everyone really loved it: The goal was to kill Nazis. Fast forward to this year, one of the most popular movies in 2009 has been Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. It’s a great movie in general, but again, let’s be honest: People love it because it’s about killing Nazis. And a new iPhone game follows in this timeless tradition.

In Inglourious Basterds, Brad Pitt’s character, Lt. Aldo Raine, gives a speech to the group of soliders he’s recruiting for a special mission: “Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y’all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin’.” The speech is the driving force behind 100 Nazi Scalps, a new side-scrolling iPhone game that has just gone live in the App Store. The goal is very simple: Collect 100 Nazi scalps before you are killed.

The Mac community and TechCrunch love giveaways, but nothing beats the MacStories giveaway. MacStories is giving away over 450 licenses to Mac and iPhone applications, that total to over $10,000. Crazy, right?

The event, which is run by Federico Viticci, is called “The Christmas Apps Tree” and features interviews with designers, bloggers and developers, plus some cool guest posts and of course the big giveaway.

I never realized we were such pillow fans: iPhone icon pillows, pillow blankets, TV pattern pillows, laptop pillows, pillow rings, extra-terrestrial pillows, wiimote pillows… it never stops. Until now. Here’s the pillow to rule them all: The Condom Pillow.

Hand silk-screened, the Condom Pillow has a small pocket to put real condoms inside. Genius? I think so. It’s a great reminder, in any case. You don’t really want to have to use the undo pillows one day. [Etsy]

(Grinchmas for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Grinchmas [$1.99 - iTunes link] is a Christmas themed game designed by Oceanhorse Media. In the game, you get to choose if you play “Merry Grinch” or “Mean Grinch”. With the mean Grinch, you goal is [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Grinchmas for iPhone

I’ve seen Avatar twice now, which is saying something when you’re talking about a nearly three hour movie that was released 36 hours ago. But we lined up on Thursday night for the first midnight showing. And then I saw it again yesterday at the TechCrunch screening in San Francisco.

What do I think? I think I’m going to go see it again this weekend at an IMAX theater. Because the movie is awesome in 3D, but I want to see it in 3D on a 50 ft by 70 ft screen. Movies will never be the same after Avatar. Like the iPhone in the mobile world, this movie disrupts an entire industry.

I didn’t know much about the movie until I read an article about it in Wired on a flight to Europe last week. A movie James Cameron has been working on since 1994, but he had to wait until technology caught up with his dream, and he invented a new kind of camera along the way.

The amazing thing about Avatar isn’t the story – it’s simply a passable tale that’s part Pocahontas, part Dances With Wolves. But it’s a story played by ten foot tall blue people with tails who fly around on miniature dragons and generally kick ass. And suddenly the special effects in every movie you’ve ever seen seem trite in comparison. Jurassic Park type special effects, which seemed so awesome in the 90s, are now laughably dated.

There’s no point in the movie where you can really tell the difference between real imagery and CGI. You become completely lost in the world of Pandora, the setting for Avatar. And if you thought Zoe Saldana was amazing in Star Trek earlier this year, wait until you see Avatar. An entire generation of teenagers are now going to have a lifelong crush on a huge blue woman with a tail named Neytiri.

This article at CNet takes a detailed look at the growth of social gaming through Apple’s iPhone, a market many developers — and Apple themselves — are still struggling to figure out. The piece also speculates on how such games and networks will continue to evolve. Quoting: “While competition has spawned better features among these services, the future brings a growing need for a more unified network. Even if all these networks begin to become impossible to differentiate, users are eventually going to want a less-disjointed platform when jumping from game to game, and app to app. Thus far Facebook, and even Twitter to some degree have provided that constant, just by giving users a way to log in to these platforms. The unification can shake out in a number of ways though, the most likely of which is consolidation. Open Feint can continue to grow until it’s snatched up by a larger company (like Apple). Or it can begin absorbing, or muscling out the other, less popular networks. As mentioned before, Apple plays a big part in this: not only in how it changes the hardware, but also how it continues to evolve the business of the App Store and information sharing between applications.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There’s no shortage of wine-focused iPhone apps that help users access listings, varietals and recommendations on the go. Wine.com, a popular wine retailer with a fantastic domain name, is launching it’s own free iPhone app to help wine lovers everywhere find the perfect bottle.

You can research and buy from Wine.com’s database of 45,000+ wines, save them to your “cellar” to keep track of what you like and buy, create wish lists and more. The app also provides nifty recommendation lists, such as “90+ Point Rated Wines Under $20.” There are definitely practical uses of the app, which could be useful when you’re out at a restaurant and need more info on a particular wine, or want to compare prices and see how much the wine has been marked up.