I just got a tablet, an iPad mini. My laptop, a MacBook Air, was too heavy to lug around the campus. My job is a lot like being a student (except that I don’t have exams). Every week I have to read documents and articles and write reports and communications. I also have to go to meetings all across the campus and thus opted to carry my laptop in lieu of paper. Lately I have concluded paper would be lighter. The intent is that the iPad/tablet will be used every week to read my documents and hopefully to write small reports. Ideally it will be useful for many other things too.
One goal is relying less on printed materials while another is learning to enjoy the iPad’s many online options. I am addicted to paper books so thought I might embrace reading online by reading some graphic novels. My daughter loves reading online because as soon as she finishes a book she can acquire a new one over the web. I will report back in the fall how hooked to the tablet I have become. Meanwhile do you have any tips to get me started? I checked out Goodreads but the selection is too limited and I have read a lot of the titles in my favourite genres. So, now I have to learn how to remove an app.
Hey Cynthia,
I sometimes wish I had a little tablet for reading the news. Especially now that Feedly is leading a RSS renaissance and their mobile apps are really great. If you like getting your news via the internet, I strongly recommend it.
I saw a tid-bit of a product demo by Samsung (I think?) and they are developing a smartphone with a very thin, flexible screen. So it won’t be long before we have tablets that are almost identical in appearance to paper–except they happen to be computers.
Goodreads is a good platform for what I guess you could call social reading. You can organize online book clubs with relative ease. As for actually finding ebooks to read, I couldn’t really advocate for one vendor over the other. I don’t think Goodreads would be the best place to look, it seems like they just hoist you over to Amazon, Kobo books, et all anyway. I stick to Goodreads for reviews and suggestions.
What I do like for finding another read is Project Gutenberg. They’ve been digitally archiving since 1971, far before the advent of people using “computers” and “fun” in the same sentence regularly. They have -a lot- of public domain books; they’re very conscientious about how they navigate copyright law so everything is legal. They have a very huge selection available in a variety of digital formats. Really awesome team.
Sorry for the deluge of opinions! A very exciting topic for the techno-savvy reader.
- Jessia
Congratulations on the iPad mini Cynthia! I shall tell you right now, it’s totally worth having one. They’re beautiful! Personally, I don’t own an iPad mini but I often (luckily) get a chance to use my brother’s. It’s very easy to get hooked onto it. Beside reading documents and writing reports, you have over 300,000 apps to choose from. I am sure you will discover something new everyday.
While I have created business presentations, beautiful documents, impressive spreadsheets for school, I also use it for day-to-day activities such as playing games like Temple Run or Angry Birds as well as watch videos on Crackle. I don’t like to read books online since I am more into paper books just like you. But I have looked into iBooks which is almost a pocket-sized library as many of the books come for free.
I use the “ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard” which allows me to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and the ability to share them online. It saves me great time during lectures/tutorials. You should definitely explore the Reading Tools where you can highlight or underline texts as well as make personal notes. I am quite the photographer so I cannot forget to mention the camera! I love taking pictures on the iPad mini. I like showing off my pictures from the iPad- I’m sure so will you. In addition to that, one of my favourites is the Google Maps app. I will leave that for you to try. It’s all about exploring the 3D world in the mini tech.
Hi Cynthia,
If you’re looking for something new and exciting to read on your IPad, then I suggest using your local library’s online collection of ebooks. Sometimes, I tend to really gravitate towards the services provided by the public libraries such as online blogging (like we are doing now here), and email alerts for renewals and requests. They also may be able to suggest books for you based on the print books you checked out or requested, which is also really neat! Basically, the librarian suggests books for you based on the types of books you’ve already read. It’s great for when you want to read just for fun and when you have certain genres you prefer.