[ghshephard]

I'm not sure what's gotten into Gruber lately, but not only is this entire essay basically attitude free, he's also got a lot of content, and, dare I say, math/geometry in this piece?

He gives credit to Digitimes of all orgs for the original (March!) prediction of a thin-bezel ipad - and goes out on a bunch of limbs predicting what the new iPad Mini might look like. In particular, his weight prediction, of 265 grams, is somewhat hard to believe - but would be very much appreciated by those of us who spend 2-3 hours a day reading books on our (somewhat overly large for that function) iPad.

I guess we'll know in another 30 days.

[TillE]

If you're just reading text-based books, why not go with a Kindle? They're cheap and much better suited to the task.

Graphics-heavy stuff beyond the scope of the Kindle is usually larger format anyway, and even the 10" iPad feels a bit small for that.

[officemonkey]

EInk Kindles can't really do email, or twitter, or skype or angry birds. Right now I tote around three devices (four when I haul my laptop.) A smaller iPad means I get rid of the Kindle and the iPod touch.

[philbarr]

Really? I find reading on any device for a decent length of time that isn't e-ink a real pain.

[officemonkey]

EInk is definitely better, but I read the entire "Game of Thrones" series last summer on my iPod touch using the Kindle.app.

[geon]

I have used the GoodReader app on iTouch/iPhone and read about 10 MB of txt files so far. (The 2001 triology, all Stainless Steelrat, the Red/Green/Blue Mars triology, a lot of Heinlein, the Ringworld triology)

I find the iDevice very easi to read on. Perhaps e-ink is even better.

[coverband]

I don't know if this is rare or not, but e-ink hurts my eyes with every page turn (when the page gets erased and re-displayed). On the other hand, I find reading on the iPad a pleasure, and the mini's dimensions seem to be a great fit.