I was reading an excellent post by Alex Wilhelm the other day at The Next Web, and I came across a telling comment by somebody named Lou Biggs. Like me, Mr. Biggs is a big fan of the iPad, but in his case that also seems to mean that he doesn’t understand what serious readers love about the Kindle. He responded to Wilhelm’s analysis with this comment:

Dude Kindle is not even back lit. You need a light to read at night. Who would want that??

I’m not going to begin here by suggesting that we should be dismissive of the “serious reader” chops of anyone who begins a comment by addressing the original poster as “Dude,” lest in doing so I reveal myself to be in some measure curmudgeonly. Instead, I will just note that Mr. Biggs is not entirely alone, among some subset of Apple fans, in failing to understand the limitations of the iPad’s lovely and magical backlit screen. And on the off chance that pictures may be more helpful than words in expanding the understanding of Mr. Biggs and some who share his limitations, I recommend to the citizens of Kindle Nation that this 30 second video — yes, it is an Amazon commercial — may be helpful.

Of course, the Kindle has its limitations too, some of which — like the Kindle’s inability to play this video — some serious readers may consider a strength. So, if you are reading this post on your Kindle, and you want to see the video, you’ll need to type in http://bit.ly/KindleBeach on a computer. Or on your iPad.