Prior to my discovery of the Kindle, reading at my computer was the only option I had if I wanted to do it completely independently with no assistance from anyone. Granted, I could listen to books and CD, and I was completely independent as long as my ear buds stayed in, and I didn't need help switching to the next CD of the book that I was reading. Now, although it was possible that my ear buds wouldn't fall out during the entire time I was reading, there was always a point where I needed help puting in the next CD. Not only was there needing help with the physical things of listening to a book on CD, there was also the fact that I never knew what condition the CDs were going to be in when I picked them up from my local library. Sometimes there would be huge scratches in them which would cause them to skip at any given moment, and therefore cause me to miss out on some sometimes crucial details of the book, not to mention just good parts in general. I think I could probably go on and on for days about how and why listening to a book and CD wasn't very efficient, nor as independent of an activity as it could've been, but I think you get the idea.
When the Kindle first came out, its goal was to revolutionize the way ingested our media content, specifically in reading material. When I got mine last june, I was so thrilled with the independence, freedom, and liberation it gave me that I didn't stop reading for almost an entire week straight! Now I would be able to sit in a more reclined position and be able to do something I absolutely love instead of having to sit in one position for several hours at a time while reading something at my computer. Not only that, but books in 60 seconds, now how were they, or anyone else going to be able to top that? I was convinced that it was going to be quite some time before anyone could even think about coming close to matching, let alone topping the Kindle. Well ladies and gentlemen, it looks as though I was very gladly mistaken!
Before I tell you why I was gladly mistaken, please make sure that if you're a wheelchair user, all safety belts are securely fastened. If you're not a wheelchair user, I still have some recommendations for you. Make sure that you're sitting in a very comfortable, heavily padded chair due to the spontaneous excitement that me revealing this may cause! OK, if you're reading the last sentence of this paragraph, I'm going to assume you're ready for the big reveal.....
It's the Apple ipad! 
This was first unveiled in January by the ceo of Apple, Steve Jobs at a conference of several hundred technology gurus in Los Angeles. Due to the fact that I could go on for hours, upon hours, upon hours about all the cool features that it's going to have, but don't have nearly the time or the space needed to do that, I'll just give you a few key highlights that are my favorites thus far:
- 10 plus hour battery life which means that you could take a flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, and watch an entire movie on a single charge
- One month of standby battery life which gives you the freedom to be able to set your ipad down and let it go to sleep without ever touching again for an entire month, and when you came back to it, it will have lost very little charge, if anything at all
- Adapts to how you want to use it--whether you hold it in landscape (horizontally) or in portrait (vertically), it automatically adjusts the image on the screen so that it's always facing the right direction
- Multi touch user interface which allows everything you do on the ipad to be done with a tap, double tap, or swipe of your finger
The onscreen keyboard with word prediction allows you to type almost effortlessly, and is able to predict what you're going to say next, saving you time and energy- Last but not least, it's ebook reader just like the Kindle, but on the ipad you can see two pages at once if you hold it in landscape
Although I haven't had the wonderful opportunity to go experience one for myself just yet, eventually, it will happen. For now though, all I can say is that I'm extremely excited that I have had the opportunity to grow up in the time of technology, because although I know I could survive without it, it's given me opportunities that probably would've taken me much longer to find, and opened up doors that may not have been opened otherwise! Thanks, Apple, and all the other corporations and companies who have invented technology that has not only greatly enriched my life, but in some ways forever changed it!