No need to do another unboxing of the iPad. Twitter has thousands of them. Instead I will give my take on this incredible piece of hardware. It goes far beyond being a big iPhone. The iPad is the ultimate all-in-one-killer. It kills the iPhone but more generally smartphones, ebook readers (sorry Amazon, Sony and all the others), netbooks, multimedia players, and to some extent laptops in general.

Two years after changing the face of Telecom, Apple is leading the path to a new era of computing. Forget those huge carton boxes for a laptop, 4 cd-roms, the heavy-duty wall charger, the Targus roller case and the 40 20 min set-up.

iPad is ready to use out of the box– in fact Apple has redefined what we called plug and play.

I can’t imagine the storm of desperation building up at HP, Dell, Sony and all the others. What have those guys been doing all that time? What the heck happened to their expensive R&D department?

Apple did a fantastic job creating a device that has no competition out there. They clearly invented something we didn’t have. Not just an enhanced version of the iPhone.

There are some drawbacks such as lack of Flash support, frontal camera, memory card slot, usb ports. But the device is so exceptional that none of the above should stop you from buying an iPad.

I overheard some voices stating they would rather wait for the 3G version. Well don’t! You can tether the iPad with your phone via WiFi or Bluetooth and it works.

So no need to pay another $200 and wait any longer. Plus you have the option to pick a faster network such as Verizon or Sprint 4G.

On a side note, Gmail offers a brand new layout on the iPad which leads me to think they didn’t specifically did it for Apple but for new tablets running Android OS supposed to be out later this year. Google will have to strike high to compete with Apple’s iPad. Very high.

Last month I posted a quick comparison between Sony PRS-600 and Kindle 2 where was mentioned the upcoming new Sony.
New wireless Sony eReader PRS-900BC won’t be available for another couple of months but earlier today I got a call from a Sony rep who just received a demo unit.
I played with the device for half an hour. Enough to say I love it but not enough to give an in-depth review.
Size is probably the best asset of this ebook. Somewhere between a Nook and a Kindle DX. A nice 7′ display using E Ink Vizplex technology. A lot has been said on the Sony vs Kindle screen. Personally I like Sony screen better as it provides a natural, high-contrast picture without provoking any eyestrain.
Wireless capabilities add daily papers delivery right to the device, real time RSS feed reader and of course the ability to buy a book on the fly.
Epub open format, 2 weeks battery life, gigantic 1.6gb internal memory expendable to 33.6gb with an SD card and matte black finish makes the PRS-900BC most appealing reader for now. One major drawback is the $400 price tag. Sony must launch around $250/$280. Over $300 will keep sales marginal.
Below pics of PRS-900BC in action.

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Electronic books are not my cup of tea. I resisted as long as I could to move to digital content. Nothing can match the touch of a book, the smell of inked paper, the easy access to any page, sneaking preview of chapters and the legacy you leave to younger generations.

Anyway we have to live with our times and I decided to give ebook a try. My daughter has a Kindle and reads about 2 books per week. She takes it everywhere.

I personally find the Kindle ugly and lacking basic features making any attempt to try the device worthless. Choice was limited to Sony eReader or Kindle. Soon new devices will be released- obviously upcoming readers can only get better.

The #1 difference between Sony and Amazon is accessibility. Kindle is an online device with wireless capabilities (limited to US market and soon to be open to international) as the Sony eReader is an offline device where you need to connect to your desktop/laptop in order to download books.

I do not see the need to download a book wirelessly as a mandatory feature. It’s not a news or weather service. You can download hundreds of books on a Sony and be set for a long long time. The only thing you need to add a book to Sony eReader is a USB cable. You can even use memory cards. Sony supports all memory card formats adding more flexibility and more storage to the ebook.

Being wireless and connected to ONLY Amazon store is an extremely restrictive feature of the Kindle. Wireless doesn’t mean openness. You must buy your books from the 350,000 titles available. It’s a lot -I agree. But Sony eReader gives you access to Google’s library of 1million FREE books and tons of other libraries accessible online in all languages.

One of the top features Sony added is the touch-screen ability. I love flipping pages using my finger. Makes digital content user-friendlier for an old man like me.

At last my choice for the Sony eReader PRS-600 was final after someone showed me Calibre. Calibre is a magic piece of software that turns ANY digital content into a reading material on the Sony eReader. Magazines, word docs, books, tutorials…anything you can see on your computer can be readable on the Sony.

It gives also access to ebooks purchased by a friend who willingly lends you his book. One thing Kindle cannot handle. If you bought a book and your wife wants to read it on HER Kindle – she cannot transfer your purchase. Recently Amazon pulled OUT books that were purchased on the Kindle store directly from users device. This is inadmissible for me. When I buy a book – it’s mine and I can decide to lend it to my kids without violating any copyrights. There is no fear one will come to my place and take it off the shelf.

If books were not going from one hand to another – literature would have died long time ago. I do not encourage anyone to steal but I must admit it’s a killer feature.

Sony has learned from the ATRAC days that open file formats are more preferable than proprietary ones. By supporting the ePub format, Sony’s essentially guaranteeing that your digital library will always have a home. Stick with Kindle’s proprietary format, and you’re forever a slave to Amazon’s device.

Same feature that made iPod so popular. Take an mp3, drag it on iTunes and enjoy the music. No question asked.

Conclusion: my subjective review goes towards Sony eReader. Three good reasons: cheaper, better, richer. For a detailed review of Sony PRS-600 read Ilene Hoffman post on http://www.electronista.com/reviews/sony-prs-600-touch-ereader.html