The Larger Screen Matters
Ever since watching the first Harry Potter movie, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of having newspapers with video and continually updated content. I have always hoped that someday we would have the same experience, and the iPad is the first gadget to finally succeed in bringing us this reality. After using the iPad for a few months now, I think that it is still a luxury consumption device that could definitely fit between the laptop and phone markets. It really is just a larger iPhone, and with similar resolution to the new iPhone 4 Retina Display ™, but it’s amazing how having a larger form factor makes apps and games so much more enjoyable to use. While it is currently meant for consuming content, the addition of a bluetooth keyboard and more powerful apps will allow for creating content such as drawing, composing music, documents, presentations, and writing screenplays as just a few examples.
While it can replace the Amazon Kindle for most people, I still enjoy reading on the Kindle due to it being very light to hold, and it’s excellent for reading in bright sunlight. But, if you only want to buy or carry around a single reading device, then the iPad is definitely the device to have. It is a great replacement for reading books, magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks. It works very well as a PDF reader, especially with the new support in the Apple’s official e-reader app iBooks. It can also be used for playing games, watching movies, viewing photos, browsing the internet, looking at maps, and much more.
Jen suggested I read the Golden Compass and the rest of the trilogy of His Dark Materials written by Phillip Pullman. It took a little bit, like many books, to really get into it, but once I had read the first couple chapters I knew this was going to be a fun and exciting ride.
I enjoyed the Golden Compass (or Northern Lights as it was originally titled) once I finally got into it through to the last page turn, and it had me excited to begin the second. There is dramatic character development, as well as lots of interesting and exciting action with definite plot twists along the way. Definitely a great start.
The subtle knife started out not directly where the first leaves off, but rather begins the tale of another child named Will. Quickly the storyline comes in sync with the first, and the exciting journey is whisked off to another world (literally). The story quickly builds to an even greater level in this book, but unfortunately for me is a sort of “to be continued” ending, and thus I now have the need to find time to finish the last book of the trilogy.
Overall the reasons I love this story are many. I love the incredibly interesting scientific and theological undertones and overtones that this series revolves around the soul, dark matter, and multiple parallel universes. The writer has a great ability to write for kids on the surface, while giving adults the ability to dive deeper into the substance of the content. I also love books where multiple plot paths are taken, thus causing an inherent need to read the next page or chapter.
I finished a book a few weeks ago called Busting Vega$ which is basically a story of a small group of MIT students who took down casinos around the world by playing skilled blackjack. They visited Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and even the Monte Cristo. Well a movie is coming out in late March (the 28th to be specific) entitled “21″ which is based on the true story, which the book is based on. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone who has been to Vegas, gambled, played cards, or is a Math geek! Everything about the book was entertaining, thrilling, dramatic, and most of all fun! It has it all: Science, Math, Gambling, Money, Sex, and Violence.
