New Harry Potter Enhanced Editions

[ProfCrash]

Pottermore opens to the announcement of new Harry Potter Enhanced Editions but it appears that it is only available through iBooks.

I can't click on the link at work, it comes up blocked. Has anyone else seen anything about this? The regular store does not say anything about the enhanced editions.

[AnemicOak]

Harry Potter books come to Apple in exclusive digitally enhanced editions

Digital versions of all seven Harry Potter books are now exclusively available on Apple's iBooks Store. The company announced the launch in a press release published today, adding that the "enhanced" digital versions of J.K. Rowling's novels feature interactive animations, custom covers, and annotations written by Rowling herself.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/8/94...hanced-edition




Price is $9.99 per book in the US iBooks store.

[ZodWallop]

How can this be? I just read an article telling me digital books are stagnating.

[tomsem]

I downloaded a sample. It doesn't include any 'enhanced' features, apart from nice illustrations (different than those one associates with the US Edition) and lightning bolt themed drop caps. It's in IBA format, not ePub, so you cannot change the font or switch themes.

[eschwartz]

Well, according to the GIF from the article, the iBooks will have videos in them. But maybe the sample doesn't.


Personally, I see things like this and wonder if it might not be better if digital books had been stagnating after all.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

...I see things like this and wonder if it might not be better if digital books had been stagnating after all.

I agree.

[tomsem]

Well, I always thought digital HP should have some animated GIFs for illustrations, reminiscent of the magical portraits described in the books. Now we have them. The 'interactive features' apparently consist of some pop-up notes from the author. Harmless enough, it doesn't seem to be overdone.

It's somewhat ironic that these are priced at $9.99, given Apple's past history with ebook pricing.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Personally, I see things like this and wonder if it might not be better if digital books had been stagnating after all.

Hmmm...seems like one would EXPECT an HP book to have these extra features in them. It was just that ePub 2 was insufficient!

A magical book series that captured the hearts and minds of kids (and parents) for over a decade.... little kids would love seeing the animations, and older kids (me included...) would love to see the added info...

Of course, if you don't like that kind of thing then I highly recommend NOT clicking on the "buy here" buttons associated with them. For the rest, it's a good thing that those ePub 3 options are finally becoming available!

... now, if we could just fix the tiny standardization problem...

[eschwartz]

I'm very old-fashioned. I don't want my books moving around while I'm trying to read them.



To claim that "A magical book series" is something that should naturally have all these fancy schmancy EPUB3 features, would imply that you also think the entire rest of the Fantasy genre should naturally be expected to have these features as well.

Are you willing to go that far?

[Apache]

My mind can enhance the books I read just fine without the help of Apple or any other company. This seems like it would be more of a distraction than an enhancement.
Apache

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Hmmm...seems like one would EXPECT an HP book to have these extra features in them. It was just that ePub 2 was insufficient!

A magical book series that captured the hearts and minds of kids (and parents) for over a decade.... little kids would love seeing the animations, and older kids (me included...) would love to see the added info...

Of course, if you don't like that kind of thing then I highly recommend NOT clicking on the "buy here" buttons associated with them. For the rest, it's a good thing that those ePub 3 options are finally becoming available!

... now, if we could just fix the tiny standardization problem...

This is IBA (Apple proprietary format) not ePub3.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I'm very old-fashioned. I don't want my books moving around while I'm trying to read them.



To claim that "A magical book series" is something that should naturally have all these fancy schmancy EPUB3 features, would imply that you also think the entire rest of the Fantasy genre should naturally be expected to have these features as well.

Are you willing to go that far?

I'm willing to let publishers publish them if there is a market for them...

But it seems kind of nonsensical to complain that books have the ability to do these things... If you don't like it, don't buy it.

Now, having said that, I can't STAND the trash that some "musicians" are putting out these days!!

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by tomsem

This is IBA (Apple proprietary format) not ePub3.

Yeah, that was part of the "tiny standardization problem" comment!

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I'm very old-fashioned. I don't want my books moving around while I'm trying to read them.

I agree with that, but there's one part in the HP where moving pictures would be awesome: those newspapers clippings...

But I would want to be able to turn them off after one reading, probably....

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I'm willing to let publishers publish them if there is a market for them...

But it seems kind of nonsensical to complain that books have the ability to do these things... If you don't like it, don't buy it.

Now, having said that, I can't STAND the trash that some "musicians" are putting out these days!!

Come back and say that after your books have pop-up ads in them.