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In the world of technology, if you aren’t moving forward you get lost behind. iPad creator Steve Jobs has embraced this philosophy with vigor. He remains an innovator in a crowded market where new products come out daily.

Jobs has made technology sexy by taking existing products and amping them up with graphics and options. First it was the iPod, then the iPhone and now he has introduced the iPad. A lot of buzz has being going around about the gadget. Many users are excited about its innovative graphics, light weight and superior readability. Despite its hefty price, the device is appealing to them because it’s new and can be used as an alternative to their heavy laptops which they’ve had for years.

For someone who is looking for some high tech eye candy, the gadget doesn’t disappoint. The design is attractive and sleek. Its frame is just 9.7 inches.

The iPad is small but mighty. It has lots of power and functions, but only weighs 1.5 pounds! That’s a huge selling point.

It is useful to play games, surf the web and receive and send emails. It can also help you create professional business presentations with the iWork application. The toy has many great features for work and play!

One of the most talked about applications for the accessory is iBooks. This free application is available from the Apple store. The application is a virtual bookstore with countless books to choose from.

Book lovers with a fondness for technology will love the device’s iBooks application. It is a free application that can be downloaded at any apps store. It allows you to buy books online and download them to your iPad to read. The machine stores a multitude of books and is convenient for students often burdened with heavy textbooks.

Users can browse for books all day in the iBookstore. Books are cataloged by title, author and genre. New books are added daily. The best part is that you can purchase a book and immediately start reading it. No trip to the actual book store. If you are a nontraditional book lover, looking to incorporate technology into your favorite past time, the iPad may be for you.

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[ad#250 x 250 Sqr Adsense]E-Book readers were certainly hot news in 2009. Internet giant Amazon launched both the Kindle 2.0 and the Kindle DX, causing quite a stir and gaining a lot of publicity for e-book readers in general and the Kindle in particular. Competitors like Sony and Barnes and Noble fought back with readers of their own, whilst others such as Microsoft and Apple continued to develop their own hardware for future release.

Since e-book readers are consumer electronics devices – and relatively new ones at that – it’s easy to become swept away in the analysis of the technical specification of the various individual readers. The Kindle can download books wirelessly with no need for a broadband connection, a Wi-Fi hotspot or a computer of any kind. Barnes and Noble’s Nook has a color screen, the Daily Edition reader from Sony lets you borrow books from participating libraries – and so on.

However, it may be worth considering that e-book readers may very possibly be the biggest thing to happen to reading – and publishing – since the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1440. The invention of the printing press allowed books to be mass produced on paper instead of parchment or vellum. It reduced the cost of books and, quite literally, put them in the hands of the common man.

There really haven’t been any significant changes in the way that books are read since that time. There have certainly been efficiency improvements in printing technology. Word processors and computers have reduced costs further. Even so, the end product has remained remarkably similar to what Gutenberg produced – printed text on paper.

And the consequence of the unchanging end product also restricts publishers. A physical product is produced – at some expense – which also needs to be delivered, either to the point of sale or by direct mail to the customer’s home.

E-book readers do not just represent a way of carrying out the existing process more efficiently. They completely change the rules, both for publishers and readers. For a start, there is no physical product. This means that there is less consumption of materials. No paper, ink, chemicals, bindings etc. And with no physical product, there are no delivery costs.

What this means is that not only do e-books cost less to publish and deliver, but they are – even when taking the materials used in the production of the e-book reader devices into account – less harmful to the environment.

It also opens up more possibilities for publishers to market both authors and books in different ways. A publisher who wishes to showcase a particular author could, for example, offer a selection of their work at either very low prices or even completely free. Another tactic, which is now becoming increasing common, is to offer the first book in a series free – obviously in the hope that the reader will then purchase other books in the series or possibly other books by the same author. This isn’t impossible with traditional books of course – but it would be a much more costly undertaking with a higher risk element if a traditional print run was involved.

The Amazon Kindle store contains a pleasantly surprising number of free Kindle books. All Kindle books, free or otherwise, have their first chapter made available as a free download so that prospective readers can sample the book before they buy. One possible benefit is that readers maybe encouraged to experiment a little and to try authors who they may have previously overlooked.

As understandable as the present excitement with the technical capabilities of e-book readers is, it will be the additional opportunities for publishers and the increased choice coupled with instant access for readers that is going to change the way that we look at books in the future.

Find out more about Amazon’s Kindle reader and see how you can save money by downloading free Kindle books direct from Amazon’s Kindle store.[ad#inpost]