Kindle vs. iPad

I spent last week agonising over whether I should buy an iPad or a
kindle. This pain was caused by the sudden realisation that I do like
buying Kindle books but I don't like reading them on my laptop or
iPhone - at least not for long periods. The realisation was prompted
by Amazon's sudden price slash on the Kindle 2 which bought the UK
price down to under £200.

Free much reading an deliberation I went for the Kindle. It was
significantly cheaper than the iPad, much lighter than the IPad and -
according to advice from friends and the Internet - much better suited
to the heavy reader like myself. I don't see why being over-weight
should matter, but there you go.

Of course, the Kindle sucks compared to the iPad which can leap tall
buildings in a single bound, play movies and such, as well as do a
pretty good job as a Kindle ebook reader. It's a glorious beast of a
machine, no doubt, an I don't doubt well worth the extra £2-300.

And I was torn between the two.

After 2 or 4 days I reluctantly decided to practice what I preach and
draw a conflict cloud. That forced me to ask why I wanted the iPad or
Kindle; what need did each fulfil in my life. It wasn't easy.

Well ... That's not entirely true. It was easy for the Kindle. I
wanted a way to read Kindle books, easily. That was all. I'd read
loads of reviews (I think there are 15k of them on amazons site) and
the bulk of them were raving about how Nathan and easy the Kindle is
to use. That appealed.

But why did I want the iPad? That was hard. I just did. In fact, if
I'm honest about it to myself, I was looking for an excuse to buy an
iPad. I mean, it's like a great big glorious iPhone and (now that it's
got spellcheck) the iPhone is kinda cool. Getting an iPad would be
like getting a mistress which I use in front of my wife, read books
on, but not have to bother with all the romance and sex stuff.

I didn't write that in my cloud. I wrote something like "super dooper,
does everything well machine, include ebook reader".

Which didn't help much. I didn't like the shape of my cloud so I
asked myself what each of the options jeopardised.

That helped.

Getting a kindle jeopardised my ability to get an iPad and all the fun
that came with it. That was all.

Getting an iPad jeopardised my sanity.

This might not apply to you but I'm kinda getting sick of the
Internet, of social websites, of instant access email which barks at
me when it arrives, of, of, of ... Living inside this big electronic
world. And the IPad would only make that worse. I'm too weak to fight
it. I've been assimilated, I'm afraid. And I was seriously considering
spending £500 to make it worse.

So I got a Kindle. Because I could read books on it in bed.

And it arrived yesterday! And wow! It's cool.

Beat of all. I can use it to read my gmail for free when I'm on
holiday in Ireland in August and my wife will think I'm reading a
book!

[sent from iPhone email client.]