Reading the Internet
by Michael Camilleri
So in the past two or three weeks I’ve had about two or three discussions with people regarding Apple’s upcoming iPad. Usually the discussions go like this:
Me: I want an iPad.
Them: Are you insane?
Me: No, I’m serious. I keep thinking of situations in which I’d love to use something like that.
Them: Are you insane?
Am I insane? What are the ‘situations’ I claim to want to use the iPad? Well, I’ve stopped and thought about it and, you know, I think there really is only one situation1. It’s the situation where I want to read the Internet.
It seems meaningful to me that when we talk about the Internet we rarely talk about reading. You ‘surf’ the net, ‘visit’ a website, ‘follow’ somebody’s Twitter account and ‘friend’ a friend on Facebook. But for a medium that is, for the most part, incredibly text heavy, why not any talk of ‘reading’ a site2?
The reason we don’t use the word ‘read’ very much is because, quite frankly, the Internet sucks to read. Reading a website is typically a terrible experience. Partly this is because of the content. Most websites have nothing to say. Rather, they’re about advertising. Even when a site does have something to say (eg. newspaper), the design of the website is very much built around the idea of making you leave as quickly as possible by clicking on an ad.
Of course, it’s not entirely the fault of the sites. Our Internet reading devices, or ‘computers’, frequently let us down, too. Consider how many people read newspapers or books at a desk. Yet that’s where we expect people to read something on the Internet. With a book or a magazine or a newspaper you sit in a chair, lie down in bed or recline on a couch. But with a computer, even when that computer is a netbook, this is all but impossible. A computer is too heavy to be comfortably snuggled up with and if you’ve ever tried to read something on the web when you’re in bed, you know not to.
Which is what has me excited about the iPad. I feel like with it, the web as a platform for reading is primed to take off. And with the appropriate device, I have high hopes that we’ll see websites designed to work on it. Of course, they’ll work on your regular computer, too, but increasingly I’ll think you wonder why you would want to bother.
The only impediment I can see to this grant strategy is that we’re talking about reading. And reading’s kind of dead. Which leaves me to wonder: can Apple make reading cool?
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This perhaps does not bode well for Apple. ↩
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We do, of course, talk about reading a blog. All of which proves my point that part of the problem with reading online is that they’re very little to actually read. Blogs, with their focus on content that you, well, read, are the exception rather than the rule. ↩
Comments
Fair enough.
I actually agree I can really see a use of a scaled up iPod touch for reading because I already use my iPod touch to read stuff. I’d only be using it to read around the house though.
I think the key issue is one of price. And more importantly for us Aussies, Apple still haven’t announced the AU price yet, despite the launch of the wifi models being less than a month away.
I suppose it depends on how you see the price. If you’re thinking of the iPad as the equivalent of a book, then no, it’s not going to be worth it since one–even ten–books will be cheaper. But if for $700, I replace the newspaper and books and the Internet… oh, and it plays videos and games.
I am skeptical of how great it will be for games, or at least, current iPod Touch style games, it is much larger and any game designed with the player holding up the device I don’t see working very well.
I admit that I was fairly disappointed at the initial iPad announcement. I was hoping for something that would be suited to take on a holiday. Not a weekend trip. The iPad (despite iWork and the like) is pretty firmly aimed in the media consumption category. I don’t think it removes the need for a travel computer (where I’d primarily use a netbook) on anything other than short trips.
While Apple has made a lot of being able to run iPhone apps on it, I actually think that’s a bit of a furphy. I think what you’re saying for games applies to most iPhone apps. They’re not designed for that kind of screen and simply because they can run isn’t going to make it an enjoyable experience. I’m still confident about the device because even if it only ran Mail, Safari and iTunes, I think it’d be pretty worthwhile.
Of course that’s back to your point about it being a consumption device. I think that’s true. I think that in the situation you’re talking about, Apple is saying you should buy a Macbook Air.
The Aussie launch has been delayed to April, still no price announced and won’t be able to purchase books through Apple at launch. Not really helping from my perspective.
Yeah, that was a bit disappointing. Same story in Japan so I can’t even try to pick one up there either.