Apple's iPad2, which was introduced today by company officials including CEO Steve Jobs, has given me product-envy. For a few, fleeting months, I was a technological trailblazer with my first-gen tablet. But now, it just seems big and fat and blind. Can I possibly live with my iPad now that Apple has introduced a slimmer, lighter version, complete with two cameras?
Yes, I can.
The more svelte iPad2 will make reading e-books easier, but I still read most of my books on paper (review copies are one of the perks of blogging for The Baltimore Sun). The cameras are a significant upgrade, because I frequently use skype for video chats, but I'll just continue to use a laptop for that.
Apple also announced that customers have downloaded more than 100 million e-books from its iBooks store and that Random House publications will be sold through the store. That's good news for all iPad owners.
The changes won't push me to an upgrade. But I bet the tweaks -- especially the dual cameras -- will spark another jump in sales. And that will have an enormous impact on e-book sales, and a ripple effect on the brick-and-mortar bookstores.