On Apple's I-PAD

I know what Apple is doing. It's trying to tap every audio-visual recreation known to man. From cellular phones to laptops that carry the power to capture or store pictures and songs with wi-fi internet capability, it's not a surprise that Apple decided to enter the market of e-reading. You would wonder what's next.

Though personally, I'm still not impressed with the legion of e-book readers out there. Even I still buy my books the old way, through a bookstore, leafing through the pages that smell of intoxicating ink and industrialized paper. But the point is, e-book readers are growing albeit slowly. Some time last year, I played with thoughts of owning my very own Kindle and read literary works on a machine. I just couldn't make the transition because reading books in itself adds to the whole joy of reading. And more than a voracious reader, I'm a book collector. I believe books aren't made to disappear overnight just like how beepers did over the emergence of cellular phones, but I'm a human who is easily intrigued and should be kept updated enough on things to be able to make an appropriate choice.

Eventually, I passed on owning a Kindle, which is distinctively made for e-book customers. Going to Power Books, National or Fully Booked is still the comfy way for me. In dire circumstances I get my literary fix in manybooks.net on a desktop or laptop. But how long will I keep on saying this when I don't normally read the tangible broadsheets anymore? I read news online. I have even eliminated the use of TV. All I need is done in my computer. Movies, I can freely watch while mobile. Books are facing the same signals of modernity.

If you're curious, I'm not turning into an e-book reader overnight. It would take years and a literary revolution. I'm still your traditional reader who is just curious of options that are present. Kindle might have been a bit lax and insufficient, but Apple, which has a proven marketing force to reckon with and the creative desire to present all to the able customers, is a different contender. Apple has become a household name and changed how people do things. The only thing I could do is raise my eyebrows and scrutinize its new toy, the I-PAD tablet for e-book reading. But it's not just for e-book readers, it also carries the ability of its recent ancestors, IPods and I-Touch. You can watch movies, listen to songs, store photos and surf the net. It seems Apple's slowly encouraging people, even non-ebook readers, to try the new "in" thing, then possibly let the users discover for themselves the new convenience that I-Pad brings to reading. In that way, the transition isn't drastic and the switch is made comfortable.



Smart move, Apple. You even got me curious and possibly wanting.