Video playback takes advantage of the larger screen, too. Content can be segmented as TV Shows, Movies, or Music Videos. You click the thumbnail art to enter the content. The type of content determines how the iPad handles it: A music video will show a thumbnail, and information about the video (dimensions, size, length, release date, and codecs, for example), while a TV show displays the whole series under that header. For example, all episodes from Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 2, or NCIS, Season 7, will appear under that single header. The menu visuals look outstanding; and playback is solid, with few artifacts visible in the iTunes content I viewed. In landscape mode, 4:3 content fills the screen and has top/bottom black bars in vertical mode; it looks great.

Apple has been touting the iPad as an e-reader, but I have my doubts. Granted, Apple has perfected the retail digital download model with its iTunes store, and the company may succeed in enticing consumers to shop for digital books, too. Also to its advantage, the iPad is the only platform so far (other than a full-blown computer) that supports multiple e-book readers and stores, opening the door wide for variety and innovation.

But how well does the iPad--with its glossy, glary screen and slightly heavier weight--perform as an e-reader? Here, the iPad stumbles big time. Though I loved how easily I could turn pages with a light touch to the side of the book, my hands grew tired of holding the iPad after a few minutes. In addition, the screen's glare tired my eyes, and it was further marred by a slight but noticeable flicker in the background. Furthermore, if you adjust the brightness in iBooks (to ease the potential eyestrain), the brightness settings for the entire iPad change as well. Another glitch: The auto-brightness feature in settings appeared ineffective at launch.

The iPad does simplify shopping for books via iBooks, but you're limited to looking at those books on the iPad. Browsing your library full of books--as represented visually by colorful book covers--is easy, too. The iBooks app, in horizontal mode, lets you have two pages on the display at once. It even tries to mimic the experience of reading a book, right down to the visuals of additional pages on the left and right, and the darker area in the center, where the gutter between pages would be. I could easily scroll along the bottom of a book to jump to a specific page, with no significant delay when doing so. And I liked how the iPad showed the page number, the total page count, and niceties such as the number of pages remaining in the chapter.