True Confessions

I read a book on the ConformiPad the other day. (That’s iPad, for those who have trouble parsing nicknames…no one ever seems to understand that one. Let it be clear that, in the same way Devo acknowledges their own ludicrousness along with the rest of the species, I can’t exclude myself from the conformism that having one of these things implies.)

I did it because I didn’t know what I wanted to read and it was easier to search through the library on that device than on the slower Kindle. Also I was reading in dim light and would have had to use the Kindle light the whole time, which is OK, and the light on the Kindle Touch case is much more battery-efficient than the one for the Kindle Keyboard. But we’re all still waiting for them to release a sidelit model like B&N did months ago, and it’s getting annoying. (They call it frontlit, but it’s sidelit. I don’t know if it’ll be better or worse than the current lighting system, but it’ll be more compact.)

The device was much bulkier and heavier and notifications kept distracting me, and I had to charge it about three times during the course of the book, including once when I wanted to be reading. Also I dropped it once, on carpet, and it reminded me that I fumble-drop Kindles all the time…they tend to survive nowadays, though I broke about four of the more fragile models in the early days, but truly dropping the C-pad will smash it.

So I don’t think I’ll do it very often. But it wasn’t so bad for occasional reading. Now let it never be said that I’m bigoted against Apple, even though I am.