Probably a stupid question about the iPad but oh well

[ScipioAfricanus]

I;ve been thinking about getting one for reading books.. i have a big library of hardcover/paperback books...easily over 1200...and i need something to help me save space... so heres the question

I have some ebooks i have found online...and i have heard they have converters and so on... any problem with syncing them like with my ipod? Just copy and paste basically? Same thing with movies and music... got a big collection of both...how well does the ipad play different media though? Different formats of media, etc.? Do they have soemthing like the VLC media player for the ipad?

If anything i wont be getting one until next year when gen2 comes out... but it would be nice to know these things for certain... the closest apple store is like 60 miles away from here so i havent been able to play with one yet...

 

[vbuggy]

It's probalby better to look when you're buying. Android tablets for example may be a better bet if you want native support of a range of codecs, and support for drag & drop of ebooks.

 

[Emulex]

yes there is vlc player for ios now. check the app store to see if its ios 4 or 3 (ios 4.2 for ipad in a month)..

go get calibre to convert formats and gen1/2/3 kindle dude. your eyes will thank you. $100 for the oldest 3G model and its quite good still.

 

[speg]

You will sync your media through iTunes. For best results you will use officially supported formats which may require some effort on your part to get everything encoded. But after that everything will be peachy.

 

[Kaido]

If you are going to be reading for long periods of time, I would recommend a Kindle DX Graphite ($379). The E-ink screen is 1000x better on your eyes than the iPad. The iPad is great because it has a touchscreen and is in color, but it wears on your eyes after awhile. For normal browsing it's okay, but if you're really trying to read, the backlight wears out your eyes. I use an iPad at work, and even for reading technical documents for more than a few minutes, I start getting eye fatigue.

The regular smaller Kindle is pretty good if you're only reading novels, but if you need anything like a PDF manual, you'll want the bigger one. Most people will argue against E-ink to begin with, but if you really want a good reading device, I highly recommend it.

If you're just skimming mostly (like for reference) and want movies/music/internet, then the iPad is definitely the way to go. At some point I'll probably end up with both

 

[mmntech]

yes there is vlc player for ios now. check the app store to see if its ios 4 or 3 (ios 4.2 for ipad in a month)..

go get calibre to convert formats and gen1/2/3 kindle dude. your eyes will thank you. $100 for the oldest 3G model and its quite good still.

VLC for iOS frankly sucks. Very fickle with formats and its arguably worse than the default player. Also, it only does video, not audio AFAIK. Has potential but needs serious work.

 

[Emulex]

yx2player?