I Don't Want an iTablet (probably)

It seems that Apple's Tablet won't have an e-ink screen. Even if it does, if they are talking between $500 and $1000, that's too much for what I want anyway. I don't want a portable internet computer, I already have one of those.

All I want is the ability to put pages from a book or magazine onto a non-paper surface, and be able to do that via wi-fi. I think that is the future, and although there are e-readers available, there is not yet the traction to have publishers agree on a unified format and delivery system. I also would really like to put recipes and notes onto something that I could clip to a cupboard door in the kitchen. E-ink does all those things, it puts actual ink onto a screen, and it doesn't necessarily need to lit up to be read. It doesn't do it as fast as a computer screen, so it can't play video (and presumably display animated ads!)

And that's probably why the iTablet (or Canvas is my guess) won't have an e-ink screen. I think Apple wants to sell a magazine+ experience, with tv type ads and video accompanied stories (just like sci-fi has had futuristic magazines forever). To get all the major publishing houses to agree to whatever iTunes type store setup Apple puts together will be a good thing. Apple has the clout and hype to solve the chicken and egg scenario that has stopped this from happening so far. The Kindle had Amazon, but Amazon mostly sells books, which the Kindle is good for. But newspapers and magazines have yet to reach non-geeks with their online content, for the most part. And for textbook publishers to get in with Apple, that is just great - the amount of wasted paper every semester makes me shudder when I begin to calculate how many trees that represents for intentionally planned obsolescence.

I don't really want all that. For my kid it will surely be a fine replacement for her netbook, if her textbooks and note-taker can be on the same electronic surface.

But for me, I like devices that just do the thing I want. I got a cheap-o cell phone that basically is just for calling people, or texting them, and that's about all it can do.

And I just want an e-ink screen that I can read traditional print media on, but without filling the recycle bin with paper every week. And I find cookbooks a real pain, and I use a can to hold the pages down - if I could clip a screen to a wall or shelf, that would be much more ergonomic. And I use the internet for recipes more than half the time anyway. This macbook on top of the fridge just doesn't work, and probably the worst place to put a computer - on top of a hot surface full of electromagnetic fields that gets jostled, and buffeted by air full of steam and hot grease droplets.

I would (and probably will) buy the Amazon Kindle. The main reason that I haven't is that the Kindle available to we Canadians is only half the Kindle experience. The physical device is the same, but in the States, the price includes free wi-fi available ubiquitously across the country. Of course we don't have that - yet. Hopefully Apple puts the pressure on Chapters/Indigo to copy the Amazon model. Even without the wi-fi, the Kindle is probably what I would choose over an Apple iTablet, given that it likely to be half or a third of what the yet-to-be-confirmed device will cost.

And I doubt that any tablet or electronic publishing medium will reduce my paper delivery job anytime soon. I am pretty sure that most of my subscribers already have computers with internet connections, and they still get the newspaper, for all the various reasons that one likes a physical paper. As I do.

And I don't think that my book consumption will change much, either. I like a book with pages, that doesn't need any cables running from it ever, or to be charged up, that one can take in the bath or stuff in a backpack.
But I would be happy never to have to buy a paper magazine again. I hate the Hub Cigar experience, and so miss the Front Page.