9To5Mac hopped on over to iFixYouri, ordered and acquired a LCD with model number LP097X02-SLN1, which is claimed to be the LCD used in the iPad 2. The LCD is manufactured by LG Display. No surprise there as LGD is the primary display supplier for the current iPad. The specs for it are as follows:

The letter L stands for LG Display. All LCDs manufactured by LGD have model numbers that start with the letter L. The P stands for portable. The 097 stands for 9.7 inches. The X stands for XGA or 1024×768. The rest I am not certain. So what’s so special about this LP097X02-SLN1 LCD? There are three things going for it.

First, it is claimed to be lighter. Not sure by how much compared to the current LP097X02-SLA3. Second, it is thinner by about 1mm. Every millimeter counts because that extra space can be used to pack in a bit more battery, which in turn lets you use the iPad a little longer. Third, the bezel is considerably thinner. Now this might not be such a big deal since the iPad requires a rather thickish bezel, which is what we use to hold the iPad. But it really is a big deal: it allows Jonathan Ive to taper the edges of the iPad 2, like he did to the most recent iPod touch. I also think the iPad 2 will have the cover glass optically laminated to the LCD, like what Apple did with the iPhone 4. I would also like the display to be less glossy and bounce less ambient light.

There is one thing missing though.

The letter Q. Which would stand for QXGA or 2048×1536. If this LP097X02-XLN1 LCD by LGD is in fact the display used in the iPad 2 then it also means that the iPad 2 will not have a Retina Display. For that to happen we’ll need to look for a LCD model number that starts with LP097Q.

The iPad 2 is shaping up to be thinner, lighter, and possibly with a longer-lasting battery life. If the optical lamination, reduced glare and reflection bits turn out to be true, though mere incremental changes, I expect the iPad experience to be significantly better than what it is today. Of course, I’ll be holding out for the next next iPad, which I hope will sport a Retina Display.

Trade-in your Kindle at Microcosm Publishing in Portland for $139-$189 worth of real books. I think this is a terrific idea! The paper, the printed text, the feel and sound when I turn the page. I enjoy all of it when reading a real book. I prefer quality hardbacks and coincidentally just picked up The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman at a local library. I’ve read many books about Apple and Steve Jobs but this book, 65 pages in, tells a story of Jobs more as a person than a business icon. The fact that it is a real book makes the reading experience more enjoyable for me.

I’m not so fond of this trend toward e-book readers. I was just at a Barnes & Noble on the corner of Stevens Creek and San Tomas Expressway in San Jose. As I walked in I saw a huge section carved out just for Nooks. There was no way to ignore them so I took hold of a Nook Color and started flipping the pages. The page flip was near instant, unnaturally instant. The feeling was too… digital. The IPS LCD was good enough and worked quite well in the brightly-lit B&N store, but the reading experience was too… gadgety. I’m fidgeting for words because the difference is between the physically real experiencing of touching and reading a book made of paper and an electronic one made with digital pixels. You can’t really flip the pages, instead the digital pages are just a reorientation of the liquid crystals that have been manipulated by sending electrons through a grid of semiconductors.

It was only the second time I was fiddling with a Nook so I didn’t know what I was doing, but I did get a magazine to load. The entire page filled up the screen but the text was unreadably small. I double-tapped on the text, a habit from using iDevices, expecting the paragraph of text to zoom out and fill the screen. The Nook responded by doing absolutely nothing. Hmm. I reoriented the Nook in landscape mode but that only made it worse: now two pages filled the screen! Anyway, I walked away from the huge Nook island unimpressed. The E Ink version with dual displays beckoned but was ignored. I sat down with my cup of coffee, pulled out my iPhone 4, and started reading RSS feeds on Reeder, which I think is absolutely the best RSS reader for the iPhone. This too was digital but RSS feeds started life as digital so there is not an analog equivalent to compare it to. Reading RSS feeds on the iPhone is completely natural though 100% digital. The next generation of kids that start reading books on e-readers and tablets will have vastly different expectations of what it means to read a book. For me, I love the analog experience of reading a real book and probably won’t change.

My recommendation to Microcosm Publishing: allow Kindle users to ship their Kindles to you. And you can ship them a whole bunch of books they pick online.

I didn’t know Mike Daisey until very recently because of a monologue that is currently showing at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre titled The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. According to his blog:

Mike Daisey has been called “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections.

I started watching the following two videos of his interview on TechCrunch (more videos have been added) with enthusiasm. And it is with a heavy heart that I write this post. You see, Daisey went to China. To Foxconn, where Apple products are made. What he saw there were teenaged kids and others working in terrible conditions building the beautiful iPhones and MacBook Pros that we oooh and aaah over. Not everything is revealed in these two interviews, but he shares enough to break my heart.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Why must there be sacrifices to the human condition to build beautiful high-tech devices? Like Daisey, I too have a deep appreciation for Apple’s simplicity and elegance in hardware and software design. But he is making me think about whether or not I should vote for the continued violence forced upon these workers by buying another Apple product. I am certain it isn’t just Apple, but it makes it all the more depressing because Apple, and Steve Jobs in particular, has been the center and darling of a high-tech renaissance that transformed the music, mobile phone, and now computing industries for the better, for us.

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