Why Get a Uni-Tasker?

I did catch a little of the local news before going in the pool tonight.  They actually had some useful information for a change.  They followed that up with something stupid from Consumer Reports though so I guess tonight was a wash.

The useful information actually explained why I have had to refill my pool several times this season.  For the month of July we have received approximately .15 inches of rain.  Today is the 16th so that is just over 2 weeks.  Cornell (I'm not complaining because it is a private school with no government funding for this study) did a study and found out that over the last seven days we have lost 1.68 inches of water due to evaporation.  No wonder the water level is dropping so fast!  But on to the waste.

So the local news does a story each night highlighting something from Consumer Reports.  Quite often the information is very useful, but not tonight.  One of my favorite shows of all time is Good Eats from The Food Network.  The host has this saying that there is only one uni-tasker allowed in his kitchen, a fire extinguisher. This doesn't usually apply to the world of technology as there aren't too many that would fit the category but Consumer Reports decided to look for the best ereader on the market.  I couldn't understand why they would do that.  Every major book retailer has an app for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices so why would you want to purchase something that is only good for a single task?  You may be thinking price, right. Well, their best buy pick cost $149, which is admittedly less then most tablets on the market.  However, I don't think the additional $50 for a multi-tasking device.  There are now two very good devices that are at the $199 price point, the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7 by Google (there is also an anticipated smaller iPad rumored to be coming near in the future which I'm sure will be closer to that price point).  With a multi-tasking device you can do much more then just read.  The great thing about the Nexus device is that there is a Kindle app allowing books from Amazon,  a Nook app allowing for books from Barnes & Nobles, and of course the Google Play Books app allowing for books from Google Play.  I believe, but I'm not sure as I'm not a Apple user, that Apple has their own bookstore with an app.  Why limit yourself to just one company? And why put yourself in the situation of having to carry around yet another electronic device with yet another charger?  It just doesn't make sense to me why you would do that and why Consumer Reports would waste the time finding the best one.

A majority of people now have a smartphone, and both of the major platforms have very good apps for reading.  These apps are also offered from several different outlets, so why limit yourself by purchasing one that is limited?