All of the recent ‘buzz’ about Apple’s iPad roll-out has me wondering these days just what is the ’sweet spot’ for a personal computing / communication / media player device. In my household, we’ve got two desktop computers, one laptop, two iPod Touch players, a Barnes & Noble Nook e-Book reader, and miscellaneous other LCD-equipped, battery-operated gadgets.

Pete Putman
Insight Media Analyst

My wife bought me an iPod Touch as a Christmas present, but I didn’t get around to unpacking it for almost three months as I’m one of the few people who doesn’t need music constantly blasting into my ears. (That would clash with all the voices already residing in my head!) After several threats by my daughter to appropriate it, I finally unpackaged the device and began exploring the world of apps.

It didn’t take long before I discovered the NAB scheduler app, along with other useful goodies (NY Times online, The Weather Channel, ESPN Mobile, etc.) The NAB app worked well as I navigated the Las Vegas Convention Center, although it was difficult to read some of the maps without constantly re-sizing the screen. The NY Times app is handy for reading quick digests of news stories, while the ESPN mobile app lets me check baseball scores before I call it a night.

But the screen is too small for extended reading, which is why I picked up the Nook in May. This eBook reader is growing in popularity, and of course Barnes & Noble has an enormous library of titles to choose from. The recent addition of a Web browser and a couple of games (Sudoku and chess) is a clear indication of where B&N wants this product to go.

The most useful feature in the Nook is its compatibility with Adobe Acrobat. For InfoComm 2010, I formatted all of my schedules and notes (and even Powerpoint printouts) to a page size of 5.5" x 8" and saved them in the My Documents folder. Voila! Now, I could quickly and easily scroll to any booth appointment, notes, press releases, and slides as I strolled around the show. Of course, I couldn’t make any notes on the main eBook reader screen, nor could I view video clips or color images.

As this is being written, I’m installing an update to my Nook that provides free connections to AT&T’s 3G Wi-Fi network anywhere in the U.S. B&N has also added a ‘go to page’ feature and a new, even larger type font for those of us who need reading glasses. They’re also cut the suggested retail price by $60 (dang, I should have waited!) and have announced an even cheaper version, the Nook Wi-Fi (no 3G access) for $149.

Right before InfoComm, a company called Sungale sent me a review sample of their kula TV product. This is a super-thin, portable Web TV player with a 4.3" LCD touchscreen that can also play back AVI and MPEG4 files from its internal 2 GB flash memory. I tried to log onto my secure home network with it (no success) but was able to access a public WiFi network at a local restaurant and watch (in no particular order) a Ukrainian talk show, weather reports from Hawaii, South Carolina, and Idaho, NBC News Online, and YouTube clips.

It’s a clever product that can do pretty much everything Sony’s Dash can, except that kula’s menus and audio/video quality aren’t quite up to Sony’s. (Hey, what do you want for $150?) And it couldn’t tell me if a given network was secure or not — my wife’s iPod Touch had to be pressed into service for that function. What the kula does better than the iPod Touch is to let you find and save the IP addresses of Internet video channels as names, making channel navigation as simple as a portable TV set. (Now, if they could just fix that tiny speaker…)

The small form factor is what attracts me to the Touch and the kula. But the larger screen is what makes the Nook attractive for reading. However, it can’t do touchscreen entry, but the kula and Touch can. And their displays are color, while the Nook isn’t. Still, I don’t need color to read a book, but I do need long battery life, something I can’t get from the Touch (or even my 4-year-old Acer notebook.)

I know what some readers are already thinking: Just buy an iPad, and be done with it. Well, that would solve my periodic need for a larger screen, but the battery won’t last nearly as long when reading a book. Try using your iPad/iPod back-and-forth between Philly and Los Angeles on one charge if you don’t believe me!

So, where is the ’sweet spot?’ The answer seems to be a tablet device with WiFi, with a screen size close to that of the Nook (about six inches diagonally) based on a bi-stable, touchscreen color display with at least wide XGA resolution (1280×768 or 1280×800) that can also switch fast enough to keep up with 60 Hz video, change from portrait to landscape mode, and run for six to eight hours on a charge. (And also read Acrobat files.)

We can dream, can’t we?