Why the thinkpad is no kindle
Last week I wrote about the rumor of a text book kindle coming from Amazon which inspired some interesting comments, of which one from Jason of WelkerWikinomics fame, inspired this post:
U Tech Tips » Blog Archive » Kindle coming to students
I
have held and used the very device you are describing. A textbook size
machine that allows students to annotate pdf,s read e-books, subscribe
and follow RSS feeds, access the web using wi-fi, with a full-color
screen. It’s even able to play videos from the web, video games, edit
photos, create presentations, and so on.
He advocates that his new school’s Lenovo Thinkpad tablet PC IS the ebook solution and more. But I wonder is it really? Three significant shortcomings:
- Battery life: He says his kids get six hours. Awesome for a laptop. But the Kindle gets two days. Technically they say is 30 hours. On one charge. Reports from teh wild confirm this battery life or better…and a new generation kindle would be bigger allowing for a larger battery–and more life.
- Weight. At 3lbs 10.6oz. The kindle comes in at an ultralight 10.3 ounces. Granted the device rumored will be much larger–so even if you double the current weight it will still considerably lighter than the thinkpad. By contrast the macbook air comes in at 3.0 pounds.
- Screen: 12.1″ 1024×768 LCD–and this is the real short coming. It is LCD. LCD is just plain harder on the eyes than epaper and other such technologies. Now the kindle does not offer perfect readibility:
AppleInsider | In-depth review: can Amazon’s Kindle light a fire under eBooks? [Page 2]
Because
the screen isn’t backlit, you can’t read in the dark. In bright light,
the Kindle’s display looks like very much like light grey, unbleached
paper printed with a good quality inkjet printer (below, in contrast
with paper). In dim light where paper books are still very readable,
the Kindle’s contrast and readability falls dramatically; it’s like
reading a wet newspaper: black on dark grey
I have also seen the argument that the iphone is also the killer ebook solution. But as an iphone owner, I can tell you the screen is too small, the too bright (LCD backlit) and battery life just would not cut it. Besides does my phone need to be my book as well? Now if apple does doe a larger screen ipod touch, I may have to re-evaluate my opinion. And in fairness, since I have never actually held a Thinkpad let alone used one, I may have to change my opion about that. The beuty about blogging is you can write about things that ou may actually no nothing about and someone else will set you straight. So go ahead, set me straight.
I completely agree that a Kindle-type device is a better option for education (in regards to reading/tablet device). The weight, battery life, expense, and complexity are very real factors. With international schools, you also have a variety of students with differing levels of English comprehension; why add the complexity of a more tech-based, virus prone PC to the mix? Simplicity is king.
Another factor which I would assume would be important: the durability and expense/risk.
If you drop (and they will at some point) a semi-heavy tablet PC, will the screen and hard drive hold up? A solid state memory device is much more dependable in that regard, and cheaper to replace should something happen.
Good post. I look forward to seeing what Amazon is up to.
good and useful information,i will come back later.
Shaun,
Some good points are made here. I think you’ve convinced me on one thing: that as far as an e-reader goes, the Kindle is far better than a tablet. But that’s probably all the Kindle has on a tablet, when it comes to application to the classroom.
Reading and annotating their e-books is about 5% of what our students do on their tablets. But that would be about 95% of what they could do on a Kindle. The tablet is a communication device, a research tool, a networking device for connecting students with one another IN the classroom, OUTSIDE the classroom, and with their teacher and other technologies in the classroom too. For example, using LinQ software (and an even more advanced SynchronEYES, which I have yet to experiment with), the teacher can project the content of his or her tablet onto the screens of his students while projecting onto a SmartBoard. Or the teacher can project the contents of ANY student in the class onto the SmartBoard in the front… can you do that with a Kindle?
I think we’re talking about apples and oranges here. Clearly, the Kindle, designed specifically as a substitute for a paper book, incorporating all the great qualities of a paper book, is not trying to do what a tablet does. I’d be surprised if the next generation of Kindle goes so far as to incorporate many of the tools that a tablet already includes, because the tablet’s already out there on the market.
I would love to hear of schools that are using Kindles or other e-readers in the classroom. Of course, unlike you, I have now used a tablet in for five weeks yet never held a Kindle, so I cannot fairly evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. But I can say that as an all-around educational tool, the tablet offers far more than the Kindle to teachers and students.
Which would I rather have on a plane for 10 hours, where there’s no internet and battery life is of utmost importance? Definitely a Kindle. But what would I rather my kids have in class where we’re reading blog posts, writing in online forums, researching developing countries, taking notes digitally and sharing our work via a networked SmartBoard in the front of the room? Well, that’s easy.
Hi, I have been using a Bookeen Cybook e-ink based reader(similar to the Kindle). Having read couple of books on it and also on my iPhone(as pdf files), my preference is for the iPhone. e-ink refresh rate is still a bit slow – text and image zooming are not that smooth. The ability to show colors is also a plus for the iPhone. The battery life is not the side of the iPhone but I anyway end up charging my iPhone. A bigger sized iPod Touch like device would be great. My bug with e-ink based device is if we are going to hand a 300$ device to students, lets make it another 200$ and give them a device that could do 2-way communication.
As owner and user of both a Kindle and a tablet PC, I would echo what Jason said, the Kindle and PC are apples and oranges with two separate purposes. I did a lot of research before buying the Kindle and I heard a lot of complaining that the kindle doesn’t have this feature or that one. I decided to buy it for its stated purpose, as an e-reader and nothing else. For just ONE example: I don’t mind that it’s not backlit because if I was reading a real book in low light, I would be using my book light, which is what I do with the kindle.
As far as using the kindle for textbooks, I’m not really convinced. I do use some of the notes and bookmark features like I might write in my books, but its just not the same as having a physical book with highlighting and post it notes sticking out the side. I have bought one book that is similar to a text book, with charts and tables. It’s something that if I had a physical book, I would flip back and forth in, and it just does not work well in this format. I love that you can change font size, but this feature makes it impossible to have page numbers and the system on the kindle to find a previous place in the book is pretty unusable.
Basically, I LOVE my kindle for everyday reading. The screen is great compared to an LCD and I am ok with its little defaults, but as far as using at a school tool for text books, I say stick with the Tablet and/or physical books.