So our heroine did not buy an ipad2.

I really really wanted to.  Really a lot.  I want to play angry birds.  I want to read books while travelling without carrying more weight in paper than in clothes.  I want to watch movies or TV episodes while travelling.  I want internet access when I visit my folks [1], and indeed, when I travel.

But, you know, it is pretty expensive, and I won't use most of the features (games? no, make my own movies? no, photoshop pictures I have just taken with the cameras? no, skype people? no - and all the other things that I don't even know that are there, so I wouldn't even know to try them).  For what I wanted, it would have been about $1400.00 CND after tax - and then I would have to buy internet for it, for about $35.00 per month.

That's a lot of money for something that will be superceded in a year.

And I'm not happy that I can't plug a USB into it, and that, while they sell a wireless keyboard for it, there is no mouse available.  I'm not fond of touch mouses - the dragging of the finger on the pad gives me the shudders, so I am worried that the whole concept of the entire screen being driven by touch will be physically unpleasant.

And, you know, I have a laptop that I never take anywhere because it is too heavy, and such a pain in the neck to set up.  And I have a portable DVD player, which I never take when I travel because it is too heavy and such a pain to set up.  I really really wanted both of those things - a lot - but that didn't acutally make me use them when they were inconvenient (which is always).

For the same amount of money, I can buy a Kobo, some ebooks for it, a new (better) mattress for our guest bed, and a holiday.  So.  I bought a Kobo, and an adapter cord for the laptop so that it can be plugged in for internet (it is wireless, but in the future we plan to vacation at a place that only offers plugged in internet).

But I still really really want one. 


[1] - getting sufficient access to their home computer is just not possible.

But our heroine did buy a Kobo.

I like to read a lot, and I like to travel by bus, so there is lots and lots of time when all I am doing is staring into space, when I could be reading.

I am really happy with the Kobo.  It has a touch screen, and it is plumbed for wireless internet access - so that one can buy books anywhere, I guess, but I doubt that I would be comfortable placing an order over an unknown system, but hey.

I find reading with it very easy,  Turning the page is easy, and the turn is exactly right to be smooth, just like turning a paper page - no loss of flow in the book.  It is also easy to turn off the features you don't want.  I've turned off the wireless, to extend the battery use, and I've turned off their silly reading incentive program because it is designed for people who need to be rewarded for reading.[1]

The only thing that I am not entirely pleased with is how it handles footnotes.  It shows them, but, while the superscript looks underlined like an internal link to the footnote text, it doesn't actually go anywhere.  I am assuming that the footnotes are somewhere at the end of the book, but I haven't gotten there yet, and there is no easy way to flip between pages widely separated from each other in sequence.  I am re-reading a Pratchett book, so it is not like I am really missing much, but I would hate to be trying to read a new Pratchett or a new scholarly work.  Reading the footnotes at the end, out of context, is just not good.  But I think this will not be a deal-breaking issue.  It would prevent me from buying an e-version of a textbook for a class, though.

So, I've been reading the Kobo on the way to work every morning, and I'm very happy with it.

[1] - this does not describe me in any way.

100 years of Fashion - East London.

have a youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JxfgId3XTs