Last week, I tested the new Apple iPad for several days.
I viewed it not only as a consumer, but also as a member of an industry that sees potential for this and other mobile devices becoming a major distributor of our news products.
The device is light, easy to carry, has a day-long battery life, even with heavy use, and the newspaper applications I tried were bright, clear and easy to navigate and read. The photos are pristine. I particularly liked the USA Today application, which has been designed to keep the traditional newspaper sections — News, Money, Life, Sports — but takes advantage of the iPad’s sleek finger-tip navigation.
FLORIDA TODAY does not yet have an iPad application, but we will someday, I’m sure. Meanwhile you can call up our website on the iPad and navigate it easily, using the iPad’s fingertip control. The iPad can’t run our videos yet, but neither can our print newspaper.
The breakdown
Everyone has his or her own specific test for whether a newspaper facsimile adequately recreates the experience of reading a print newspaper.
Like many people, I do like to settle in a chair and drink a cup of coffee early in the morning and read. (I hear this so often, I think we should go into some kind of marketing arrangement with Folgers and Starbucks.)
I found the iPad to be fine for this, but being a long-time newspaper reader, I’ll continue to pick up the print product if it’s there. I’m sure younger readers, presented with the same option, almost certainly would choose the iPad version.
But when I went to the YMCA to start the day, the iPad had a distinct advantage over the print product.
I like to prop the newspaper up in front of me and read while I keep my arms and legs in motion on the elliptical machine. I manage to do this with a real newspaper, even though I have to reach out every now and then and refold the paper, while still precariously keeping my stride and balance on an Elliptical machine.
The iPad made it easy to keep the workout pace going while reading. I only had to reach out and give the iPad a light finger tap to move to the next article.
One newspaper experience the iPad didn’t replicate was the opportunity for serendipitous experiences. Thumbing through a newspaper, I invariably find a small gem that I didn’t go looking for. The iPad’s finger-tip scroll feature is so fast and smooth that you zoom past things that might catch your interest in a print newspaper. But I would expect nothing less from a computer application these days. They’re supposed to get you where you want to go — now.
The iPad does lack one thing Amazon’s Kindle e-reader has: a function in which an electronic voice will actually read an article to you while you’re driving. The iPad has a great sound system on it, but it will only play existing electronic files such as those provided by National Public Radio. It won’t read a newspaper article for you. But I’m sure that won’t be long in coming. And, like we have with other news delivery advances of the past few years, we’ll try to figure out how to take advantage of that.
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