The iPad and e-Books: A Missed Opportunity

[guyanonymous]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

It is something like a dikfore.

snicker.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

kjk - It's putting a load of mostly tiny image fragments together on the fly. Yes, it's sloooow for a reason.

That is crazy...the things they come up with these days.

[guyanonymous]

Originally Posted by kilron

...apple is already saying that they're not going to pull the apps

Hadn't read that - if so, let's hope they follow through.

Originally Posted by kilron

....don't see a point right now in thinking otherwise until we have some sort of proof or indication. know what i mean?

My point exactly

Originally Posted by kilron

these things are basically handheld computers. having a B&N and kindle app on there is a very good thing for apple and i don't think they see it as a direct hit to their revenue. i think they see it more as a bridge to their product. bring them in with the promise that its the only device that works with all of these different formats, and then show them how easy the new iBooks store is and how superior their reading applications is.

If this was truly the case, there would be more browsers, permitted voip apps, etc. I just read that they've blocked Google's Latitude (locations of you, relative to others)...because they're working on something similar themselves.

Proof will be in the pudding! Let the book apps be the exceptions to the rule...but if sales via mechanisms outside the Apple book store are involved, I doubt they will be! And yes...I know you believe the total opposite!

[mores]

I, for one, don't want any distractions when reading books. Even images bother when I'm reading, only acceptable when it really, really can't be explained by words. I don't even care for Mr. Brown's hieroglyphics that are etched into whatever thing Mr. Langong is looking at.

So, I definately do not want to watch video, listen to music or whatever when I'm reading a book.

I do want to watch video, listen to mp3, view images etc. occasionally. But then I actually seek out the media. Something I probably can do with the iPad.

[kilron]

Originally Posted by guyanonymous

If this was truly the case, there would be more browsers, permitted voip apps, etc. I just read that they've blocked Google's Latitude (locations of you, relative to others)...because they're working on something similar themselves.

Proof will be in the pudding! Let the book apps be the exceptions to the rule...but if sales via mechanisms outside the Apple book store are involved, I doubt they will be! And yes...I know you believe the total opposite!

i don't know if i can explain why they haven't allowed other browsers. although i also don't see where there needs to be other browsers, but i understand that its a point of debate as well. the VOIP thing they've changed on recently. they're now allowing all VOIP apps to work over both wifi and 3G. you can download a free app called iCall right now that lets you do it. skype is working on refining their 3G call support before they re-submit it. i agree that they've been too closed on some things like VOIP and google voice which they need to fix.

i don't know anything about google's latitude though, but i do know they allow something similar with loopt, but that's through an agreement with at&t i believe.

have you tried the kindle app? i think it works quite well. the only problem with it is that you have to go into a browser window to purchase books rather than having an easy way inside the app itself. this is the limitation that apple gives you basically. but its quite slick in implementation otherwise.

[guyanonymous]

I don't own a kindle, or iTouch/iPhone, and won't buy drm'd books, so no, I've not

My mother and sister, and two cousins here in town, all massive readers, just can't get into using their itouches for reading. I've tried to get them going with Stanza and my mother did get excited about that "classics" (not sure of the name) app...but they don't enjoy reading on the small screen.

Drives me nuts, since I read everything on my ancient ebookwise device and think the iTouch screen (and the product, less it's Apple-lock-in) is quite nice.

[kilron]

yep. it does take some getting used to with the small screen, that's for sure.

[guyanonymous]

I started with a small screen, though, and much prefer more text on the screen - finding my current device perfect for pocket-book style reading. That said, the resolution on that first device and on the PDA's I've tried since is lacking; I'm one of those people though who loves hi-res, keeping my monitor at it's highest setting in the case of CRT's, and seeking out the highest res screens in the size-class I'm after (1920x1080 wins on a 24" vs. 1280x1024 etc.). Crispness and decent contrast = win.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Kris777

Well, you can read the full article, the author has the point:

What kind of features? How about reading a fantasy novel and tapping a single button to pull up a map showing exactly where you are in that fantasy world. How about tapping on any name in a non-fiction novel and getting biographical information about that character? How about textbooks with graphs that can be enlarged and class networking features built-in? And these are just some suggestions from an unimaginative dolt.

Science fiction, mate.

Before we reach this level of technology with affordable price it is good they didn't invent yet another ebook format.

[WillAdams]

The real question here is when will we have an ebook format which allows something like to _Euclid's Elements_ Joyce's Java Version:

http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/jav.../elements.html

William