Or, order it from Amazon and don't leave your chair.
And if you want to read the book you ordered with an incandescent light bulb, fine. Compact fluorescent? Fine. Candlelight? Fine.
Want to lend that book to a friend? Go right ahead.
What if, in six months, the publishing house changes the type of paper they use? Not a problem. Your book still works fine.
If you buy books on the iPad, they will only ever work an Apple-authorized devices. Apple is using their own DRM schema for the ePub open standard. Want to read that book you bought on a Kindle or a Nook? Tough luck, sucker. Can you lend books? I imagine not. What if Apple decides to close down their authentication server in a few years? Your book is unreadable and valueless. I have many books that are over 50 years old. Apple will NOT be running their same eBook authentication server and schema in 50 years.
The iPad does not do Flash. There goes 70% of all web video content, and 90% of all web games.
The iPad does not multitask. Say you're having a conversation over IM with someone and they send you a URL. "Hold on, I have to quit my instant messenger so I can use my web browser." A few minutes later, "Oh, that's a link to a Hulu TV show. I can't see Flash content."
The iPad is nothing more than a DRM-laden vending machine. As you may be able to tell, I'm unimpressed. The FSF is 100% right about DRM. I don't want some company telling me how and where I can use content I paid for.
Jobs describes the iPad as something between a cell phone and a laptop. Since it does not have a phone (or a camera) that means I'll still be carrying my cell phone everywhere.
Where will you use this device where you would NOT be carrying your laptop? A quick viewing of "Avatar" between the produce and cereal aisles at the grocery store?
I guarantee you, the more Apple gains market share, the more they will behave in the same anti-competitive and monopolistic way as Microsoft. The iPad and its associated lock-in and vendor control is a glimpse of that future.
