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Comment by pritovido | Hacker News Reader

I used to agree with that sentiment.

Then one day I saw a stock clearance offer and bought an Ipad because the price was so good it was a steal.

Then another day I added three pdf books to ibooks so I could read it on vacations, then three more, then ten, then twenty.

I also use it for note taking and sketches. The pencil and the ipad is an old model now but I love it.

Then I stated using it for programming with my own side loaded apps that connect with a big computer.

Then for minor things like controlling my 3D printers, for showing something to someone(work colleagues) you can do it while walking which is very useful.

So the thing only does three things for me, but in those things the thing is essential.

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First let me say that I get that there is a limit to how many devices you want to lug around with you.

But I personally find reading on a Kindle (or other e-ink devices) to be a far, far better and more comfortable experience than on an LED device like an iPad - honestly, it's as good as reading from paper books (and I say that as a lifelong bookworm).

The battery life, form factor and weight are also firmly in the Kindle's favour when compared to an iPad.

While I agree with you on e-ink being a much better reading experience, I would not say a Kindle is for technical references or other books with exact formatting requirements because the screen is so small. This, along with being underpowered, also makes reading PDF a pain because they are tiny on the screen and the Kindle has a hard time rendering them.

Now a Remarkable or other larger e-ink device would probably be better than the iPad, but last I checked they cost the same or more than an iPad Pro that can do so much more they feel like a waste of money.

Ah, yes, sorry, I should have been clearer in that I meant for reading fictional novels.

I've never even tried to read a technical book on a Kindle, largely for the reasons you outline, but also because I tend to read such books in a different way. With a novel, you're relaxing and reading large chunks at a time, whereas with a technical book I'm usually simultaneously taking notes, coding or looking up related stuff in a browser, so I use a laptop or desktop PC for that (a tablet wouldn't work well for me here)

Yeah for fiction, the only thing that beats my Kindle Paperwhite is a physical book.

I'm a little surprised that you are able to do all that so well simultaneously on a PC though. Whenever I've tried to do it the context switching between reading the book or other documents and whatever I'm trying to do with it kills me. Maybe it is because I've only tried to do it on laptops (I don't have a desktop PC) but I also prefer just browsing the web on my phone than on my laptop so maybe I'm just weird.

The trick is using multiple monitors, so you can have the book open on one, an IDE in another, and a browser in another. If you only have 2 monitors, as long as one is 3K/4K you can split it between the IDE & browser.

I find it really depends on what you're reading. For flowing text, I prefer the paperwhite Kindle. But if there are graphics, illustrations, etc. the iPad wins. The iPad also does a lot of other things of course so, in practice, I'm not going to travel with a Kindle if I already have my iPad with me--which I typically do.

My general rule of thumb when I'm (normally) traveling a lot is that I bring one laptop-like device (MacBook, Chromebook) and one tablet-like thing (Kindle, iPad).

>side loaded apps

The reason I (and probably others) tend to use community maintained software is because I absolutely hate fighting with my computer over something I shouldn’t have to (like wanting to install a compiler.) This is what people mean when they say the iPad is a big iPhone; you have to fight it to make it do anything just like on the iPhone.

It’s the other way around isn’t it? Iphones and ipads cracked the mobile application problem by making it effortless to install apps.

I’m so glad installing ocaml and irssi on my phone is much more effortless than my laptop. Apple did a fantastic job there.

Try reading the comment.

Sure, if you spend a minute thinking about who the ipad is made for. Console cowboys or normal people doing normal things like writing documents.

At that point why bother with apps? You can’t control any of it anyway so you might as well just use web pages.

Apps only make sense if they can access OS internals like on the Mac? I’d say at most 1% of what normal users want to do are even close to that.

I was also uninterested in one until we were given one. I immediately found it useful for presentations and speeches and for use in the classroom when I am teaching. I like it for note taking, reading and browsing as well. However, I still do the work of creating and editing my slides, lectures and development work on a laptop. The real-estate and windowed workflow are probably the main differences that make the laptop more powerful for certain tasks, but I also think it puts me in a different mindset.

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