Engadget’s review of the iPad – as usual, it’s detailed, informative, and doesn’t pull any punches. Well done Mr. Topolsky.
Especially impressive were their thoughts on Apple’s iBooks app:
To say Apple is about to put a major dent in Kindleworld is an understatement. The iBooks app is one of the most beautiful and thoughtful uses of the iPad screen real estate on the device…
Simply put, it’s a great e-reader with enough options to please even the most strident critic. The layout is quite simple; along the top of the page in portrait mode you have a button to flip to your library (a very slick hidden room kind of effect), a chapter button, brightness control, font size and face options, and a search drop down. Within the book you can long press to bring up copy / paste, dictionary (a beautiful implementation which pops up right over your content), bookmark (another perfect implementation), or search options. Besides the incredibly sexy page turning animations — useless but gorgeous nonetheless — the entire package is just so airtight. It’s the first e-book reading experience we’ve seen that seems to truly understand the visceral, sensual enjoyment of holding an actual volume in your hand.
And in line with other reviews, Engadget found that battery life on the iPad is astounding, noting that it was able to put the device through 10 hours and 43 minutes of heavy use on a single charge.
Hot damn.
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Actually, they were less than impressed, but then again they were comparing it to the laptops that they use day-to-day. It would have made more sense to compare this device to their cheap netbooks. If they wanted a laptop from Apple, they should be looking at the MacBook or MacBook Pro. This device is the Apple’s response to the undying cries from the computer press that Apple needs to produce a netbook.