Quote:
Originally Posted by Barty
You can always count on MR for knee jerk reactions. Just because a book CAN have interactive elements doesn't mean every book HAS to have it.
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So how else would
you interpret the word "steamroll"? Or the phrase "transform the experience of reading"?
If we say that the DVD steamrolled the VHS tape, the meaning is pretty obvious. So when Glassman says the "app-book" (from context, something resembling the 90's multimedia) will steamroll the conventional book, why should we assume he means something else?
Sorry, but Glassman is being foolish. He's going from "oooh, shiny!" to "everyone will want everything to be shiny!" No, they won't.
Wallace & Gromit is a joke. We don't live in a
Jetsons world. And while the multimedia book has its uses, as have been noted in depth in this thread -- from coffee-table ebooks to things like my dreamed-of car innards app -- they're going to be both specialized and limited.
Interactive "books" for children? Nothing new. We sold one of those in Radio Shack in the early 90's. About 1991 or so. It was a computer program based around a kid's room with all sorts of things to discover. The kids weren't all that interested; the adults kept playing with the thing. Dorling-Kindersley has been selling things like their History disc for at least 10 years. Glassman is all psyched about something that's far from new; he simply doesn't realize that. But I can't see a sleepy kid getting ready for bed saying "let me play with my video book" ... it's still going to be "read me a story" (especially if we want to raise kids who don't think the movie is better because it's less mental effort).
To Glassman, new = compelling and video books = new. He's wrong on both counts. People have already been exposed to the things to "transform the experience of reading" and the response has been a resounding "meh." They will certainly find their niche, but it's highly doubtful they'll be steamrolling anything.
Speaking of world-changing technology, I saw a guy on a Segway yesterday -- first time I've seen one outside a 25-mile radius from where they were invented.