Chapter 3. Read Books and Other Text

My mind jumps to video and audio when I hear "media," but let's go back further—a few centuries, in fact—and look at how the printed word is making the jump to the iPad's screen. You'll find plenty of video playback devices, but if you really want to test the mettle of the iPad or a competitor, see how people react to electronic books. Reading a book taps into passion for the written word.

Apple's iBooks app—and third-party apps, such as Amazon's Kindle for iPad and comic-reading apps from Comixology—fulfills the needs of people who read frequently and will likely amass a sizeable book library on their iPads. Words don't belong solely to books, of course. Many of us get our news online, and although the iPad ...

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