The iPad release made huge news in the consumer electronics world. The device plays your favorite music, videos, allows you to surf the Internet, manage photos, and more. But the question on everybody's mind is - is the iPad an eBook reader? Because Apple's pinpoint the iPad is as a tablet computer, people didn't receive a clear answer how it would function.

To slashed to the chase, the reply is yes, it has a eBook reading function. In fact, the iPad is a threat to standalone eBook readers like the Kindle in the marketplace. The device features a new request called iBook where you can store all of your digital books. You'll be able to purchase books when you go to their online store which is similar to how they sell music with iTunes.

The great thing about iPad is that you can actually flip the pages of an eBook like a real book as the device takes full advantage of the multi-touch technology. In addition to this unique feature, it has a rotating shelf giving you an impression like you're inside a virtual library.

The shelf gives you several books to choose from and once you click on the selected book you need to read, it automatically prompts you to the first page. It then gives you the option to adjust the font size or the font type of your preference. Just by looking at it, you'll be able to tell the device has sharper text and its backlight is brighter compared to a Kindle.

The high resolution, LED-backlight shows the crispness of the text and rich color even while reading it in low light. When you flip on the page it gives you the same experience as touching the pages of the book except that you do not feel the paper texture. Not only that, it flips impressively fast when compared to load times that other eReaders on the market usually have. You can also flip the iPad to switch it to a single or dual page. If you have vision issues and want clarity, it is possible to just keep to the single-page viewer.

Using the iPad as an eBook reader is comfortable to the reader as well as it is very light and thin, weighing in at 1.5 lbs at.5" thin. The iPad is an integrated device that's a mix of the Mac book laptop and the iPhone wherein iPhone applications can run smoothly. The only thing that hurts the eBook reading feature is that Apple plans to charge ?14 to &15 for eBooks which is more expensive compared to what Amazon.com charges (which is ?9.99 or less for most digital books).

The cost of the device and the ongoing plans for eBook reading is said to start at ?629 plus ?30 a month (for the 3G device and data plan). You actually have the option to skip the data plan and just simply use the Wi-Fi capability of iPad. There may be a possibility that iPad will boost multimedia application functions aside from its versatility to justify the high price so you get more value from your investment.