Vook's Sherlock Holmes App (mediabistro)

[pking36330]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

from:
http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknews...7732.asp?c=rss

Sadly, the free offer expired and $5 is too steep to experiment with this to see if I like it. Maybe there will be another free offer someday. They need a good novella that's free to introduce this new media.

Correction $2.99, several of the others are $4.99 and I mixed that up.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by pking36330

Sadly, the free offer expired and $5 is too steep to experiment with this to see if I like it. Maybe there will be another free offer someday. They need a good novella that's free to introduce this new media.

It's $2.98 on iTunes tonight, but I'm with you - I'd take a look at it if it were still free - or maybe at 99 cents - but no way I'm paying 3 bucks.

I'd like to see how it works, but I can't imagine that I'd care for videos. I generally don't watch them when they are linked to things I'm reading on the internet.

I don't have the patience to watch videos. The great thing about reading is that you can read slowly or quickly, & vary the tempo as you go along. Reading is interactive, viewing is not.

[Exer]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

embedded videos, hyperlinks or what have you will simply take you away from the original purpose of the book..that is, to concentrate on what you are reading.

Which, I suppose, is why they are optional.

Maybe we should think of it like a modern DVD or Blueray movie. Sure I can view it the standard way as most do, simply the movie, but every now and again it's fun and informative to turn on some of those fancy special features. Things such as director and actor commentary, behind the scenes, deleted scenes, alternative endings, artwork, etc.

Then again I do tend to embrace new technologies with open arms.

I do agree with you though, I like to concentrate on a book while I read. I would most likely get a Vook style offering as my second read through of a story (if all it simply had were links and video). We all know reading a book twice always reveals more than we caught the first time, I imagine with an interactive style I might be treated to even more.

[nboshart]

You know, I would love a Vook cook book. See the dish as it's made. Or a tech book. I think my poor experience with the Sherlock Holmes book has to do with my concentration levels. I'm a bad multi-tasker. I need to be doing one thing; if I'm reading, I'm reading.

I enjoy books because of the total immersion and the concentrated reading time.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Great response. Thank you.

"Augmented reading" is a nicely turned phrase. But heres the thing.

You are limited to what you can 'research' to what/where the providers decide you need. Thats freakin' scary.

Independent research will soon go the way of the dodo.

There's a long - and highly reputable - history of producing "annotated" editions of Sherlock Holmes; is this really any different? I don't think it is.

[ficbot]

I don't think I would mind as long as I could turn the extra features off, but I would not like it on the iPod Touch environment because I don't want to make each book its own app. I would rather have an ebook reader app (like eReader) where I can load in multiple files. I have over 500 books on my Sony reader and that many 'apps' would not fit on the iPod. I think it is inefficient.

I did look some stuff up in Wikipedia recently when I was reading Sherlock Holmes stuff. I don't normally use a dictionary when I read in English, but I can see how one who reads classics might have a need. For example, if you were a younger reader who did not know what a telegram was since that is not a technology really in use anymore, you may need to look that up. I had to look up 'hansom' and 'brougham.' I got that they were both kinds of carriages, but I wasn't sure what the difference was (and the pronunciation of 'brougham' was not at all what I thought it was). I think I am a fairly educated reader (my university degree is in Literature and I read a lot, so I think I am fairly well-read, but with the classics some extra background can be helpful sometimes.

Still, every book as an app would not work for me. They would need to change it so it's more like the eReader app where you have ONE app and you can get many files to use WITH it.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There's a long - and highly reputable - history of producing "annotated" editions of Sherlock Holmes; is this really any different? I don't think it is.

You really can't see the difference?

Something you choose to read, rather than what is chosen for you?

[HarryT]

I'm afraid I can't see the difference. Are the annotations in a printed edition of an annotated Sherlock Holmes not equally "chosen for you" by the annotator? In both cases, you have the choice of whether or not to read them - in the book, read the annotation side-bar or not; in the app, click the hyperlink or not.

[pking36330]

Originally Posted by ficbot

I don't think I would mind as long as I could turn the extra features off, but I would not like it on the iPod Touch environment because I don't want to make each book its own app. I would rather have an ebook reader app (like eReader) where I can load in multiple files. I have over 500 books on my Sony reader and that many 'apps' would not fit on the iPod. I think it is inefficient.

I'm not real keen on the 'every book is an app' concept either, but the size reference you make just isn't true. Holding 500 Vooks (assuming they are 10 times the size of an ebook) would be an easy fit on my iPod Touch. But in practice I'm sure I would manage my Vooks like I manage ebboks and music, only load a portion of my total catalog on my portable device with the remainder available as desired at the next Sync. But I do agree that manage Vooks on device like ebooks would be preferable to each one being an individual app. If the format takes off and becomes popular, I'm certain that Vook and third-party programmers will develop a Vook Viewer tool that organizes and displays Vooks similar to the Music and Stanza apps on the iPod.

[glassbell]

The additions strike me as original content. It could be an organic "mash-up" -- sort of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Dancing Men and Zombies, as it were. That might be lovely. But it's not Arthur Conan Doyle, and it shouldn't be advertised as such.

Having stated that, I think a case could be made for annotation. I was very fond of my thoroughly-annotated Oxford Shakespeare, when I was at University. Brevity was the beauty of those footnotes. They told me what I needed to know to understand the play, and nothing else. That's a specific function, and one not performed by a dictionary (which would tell me that a nunnery is where nuns live) or Wikipedia (which would open to me the vast richness of Elizabethan slang, not to mention brothels). Something between the two is useful (maybe even necessary).

[pking36330]

Originally Posted by nboshart

You know, I would love a Vook cook book. See the dish as it's made.

I'm pretty sure that one of the few Vooks available on iTunes is a cookbook. Let us know if you like it better if you give it a try. I tend to agree that a cookbook would be a very logical interactive candidate over a Sherlock Holmes novel (or two).

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm afraid I can't see the difference. Are the annotations in a printed edition of an annotated Sherlock Holmes not equally "chosen for you" by the annotator? In both cases, you have the choice of whether or not to read them - in the book, read the annotation side-bar or not; in the app, click the hyperlink or not.

If the hyperlink were basically a toggle, it would be somewhat like a printed edition. But the difference lies in the way that the printed annotated SH works. Those annotations are in the margins, so all you have to do is flick your eyes to the side to deal with the annotation - scan it, do I want to read it, how dense is the info, how deeply do I want to read it - then back to the text. This happens much faster than a hyperlink toggle would work.

In other words, the printed annotation is not a "yes/no" situation. There's a kind of "maybe" incorporated into it that the hyperlink lacks.

[demoric]

Originally Posted by PhishStyx

In my own case, an RPG book where a term automatically links me to rules covering that case and other references dealing with that situation is potentially incredibly valuable.

I too would find that very useful. One of my favorite hardbacks is "The Annotated Hobbit" annotated by Douglas A. Anderson. It is a great read although sometimes I do get lost in the side panels containing the various annotations, I find it enjoyable and informative. I would view books with hyperlinks to be much in the same vein. In fact I would find it less disctracting if it were done correctly. I tasteful link that would give a preview of the material if you select it would be great. A bothersome link animation and such is very distracting. It all boils down to the implementation, and intentions of the author / publisher.