iPad is "The Future Of Reading"

[mikij]

Originally Posted by Skydog

I hope not!!

Agree with you!

[fishface]

Agree with SOS.

FYI my e-reading device is a tablet PC and although I was looking for a e-ink replacement, I've realised it's still a long way away for precisely this reason. I need the ability to look up a theorem online, and clip and paste it into the document I'm reading as a reference.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by JaneD

Must be a slow news day, because the LA Times has a giant front-page article about the iPad. It's mostly about the advantages of embedding video in text, but it's a pretty wide-ranging article about how digital gadgets are changing the publishing industry.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,2712081.story

The future of reading is a little presumptuous, I'd say. There is always something else on the horizon.
However I came onto something interesting in Zinio, my favorite app. I was going through the available titles and my eye caught a free issue. It's the Readers Digest special joke issue. Yes, you can laugh; a highly cultural work.
Because it was free I downloaded it. Throughout the magazine there were commercials on demand for Geico. That little gecko always amused me so I tapped it.
The commercials were part of the page layout and set inside a gilded frame. As the commercial goes on, nothing changes with the layout. Usually a commercial brings you to some other page that doesn't let you leave but those are tastefully set and non obtrusive.
If this is the future of reading, I'm in.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Mostly I agree with Worldwalker. In this case, only somewhat.

If other media interferes with my leisure reading, I agree. But sometimes other media is needed or desired.

I've read, and re-read, W. E. B. Griffin's WWII books. But sometimes you'll hit something that you don't know.


Everybody that knows what a Brewster Buffalo is, raise your hand.

Not too many I see.

Brewster Buffalo

Spoiler:

Need more info on the Corregidor tunnels"

Spoiler:

Malinta Tunnel - Wiki

Narwhal, anyone?

Spoiler:

Narwhals - Wiki

Those examples would be ok in some ebooks and especially in a "text" ebook.

Just started the thread, SOS so I'm late to the game. I know all three (without the spoiler!).

So, in the spirit of fun, What country sucessfully used the Brewster Buffalo?

Spoiler:

Finland! - 1941, against Russia

[catsittingstill]

Maybe something like the Kindle's dictionary function (I seem to recall other readers can do this too, but I've only used the Kindle's) but with pictures, or the option of pictures?

That way the pictures could be in one document and not need to be imported with each new document. Perhaps one could work something like cascading style sheets into it, and have supplementary pictures for specialized vocabulary in new documents, so a reader can pick "Brewster Buffalo" and not have to page past pictures of bison relatives.

I would not mind having pictures available in my reading when I wanted them, but I would find the "show" buttons a bit obtrusive for my tastes. Even the underlining of a hyperlink tends to distract my eye. But the way the K2 handles dictionary lookup (i.e. not, unless requested by the reader) might work well for something like this.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Just started the thread, SOS so I'm late to the game. I know all three (without the spoiler!).

So, in the spirit of fun, What country sucessfully used the Brewster Buffalo?

Finland! - 1941, against Russia

Great the US sends planes to Finland in '39, and then in a couple of years we send planes to their enemy, Russia. Then we have a (bloody) cold war with Russia.

What happened to the good old days of war against characters like Attila the Hun? Napoleon Bonaparte! There was a nice neat war(s).

You got me on that one Ralph.

, I know. I'll be good. Sorry.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

Maybe something like the Kindle's dictionary function (I seem to recall other readers can do this too, but I've only used the Kindle's) but with pictures, or the option of pictures?

That way the pictures could be in one document and not need to be imported with each new document. Perhaps one could work something like cascading style sheets into it, and have supplementary pictures for specialized vocabulary in new documents, so a reader can pick "Brewster Buffalo" and not have to page past pictures of bison relatives.

I would not mind having pictures available in my reading when I wanted them, but I would find the "show" buttons a bit obtrusive for my tastes. Even the underlining of a hyperlink tends to distract my eye. But the way the K2 handles dictionary lookup (i.e. not, unless requested by the reader) might work well for something like this.

I read a Terry Pratchett ebook (Unseen Academicals I think) where he used inline footnotes. Click on the footnote and you get taken to a page with only the correct information relating to that footnote. Another click and you were back reading the story.

The only problem was the footnote markers were very small. Of course, some would say THAT was the best part.


PS- Terry Pratchett is a one person vocabulary builder. You definitely want a dictionary. Preferably a UK dictionary.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Great the US sends planes to Finland in '39, and then in a couple of years we send planes to their enemy, Russia. Then we have a (bloody) cold war with Russia.

What happened to the good old days of war against characters like Attila the Hun? Napoleon Bonaparte! There was a nice neat war(s).

You got me on that one Ralph.

, I know. I'll be good. Sorry.

Or at least be careful...

[Worldwalker]

Of course the Finns could get some actual work out of the Brewster Buffalo. The Finns are just crazy. Consider Simo Hayha. They could probably kill you with toothpicks and chewing gum.

(by the way, am I the only one who was disappointed not to find a Brewster Buffalo in the Axis & Allies Miniatures "Early War" expansion?)

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

I read a Terry Pratchett ebook (Unseen Academicals I think) where he used inline footnotes. Click on the footnote and you get taken to a page with only the correct information relating to that footnote. Another click and you were back reading the story.

The only problem was the footnote markers were very small. Of course, some would say THAT was the best part.

I found the hyperlinked endnote method a bit irritating, so I made genuine footnotes for my PDF copy of Unseen Academicals. Tricky as the first page has quite a doozy of a footnote, but in my opinion worth the hassle.

[dogsballs]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Mostly I agree with Worldwalker. In this case, only somewhat.

If other media interferes with my leisure reading, I agree. But sometimes other media is needed or desired.

I've read, and re-read, W. E. B. Griffin's WWII books. But sometimes you'll hit something that you don't know.


Everybody that knows what a Brewster Buffalo is, raise your hand.

Not too many I see.

Brewster Buffalo

Spoiler:

Need more info on the Corregidor tunnels"

Spoiler:

Malinta Tunnel - Wiki

Narwhal, anyone?

Spoiler:

Narwhals - Wiki

Those examples would be ok in some ebooks and especially in a "text" ebook.

how much water do you actually need to bath a cat?

[J. Strnad]

I hate reading text with a lot of hyperlinks. The underlining is distracting. I would hate reading text with ads.

Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon Days is an excellent example of distraction in storytelling. The footnotes are counterpoint to the text, sometimes overwhelming the text in sheer volume, and it's all meant to be very entertaining. Keillor wrote, about the technique: "It really allows a person freedom of digression that you want in a book." Unfortunately, most readers did not agree, and Keillor abandoned the technique in later books.

I pay extra to buy premium television channels to get away from the ads. If a book is any good, I'll pay for it to avoid ads. Whether it's TV or books, my primary investment is my time, and I'll pay for a premium experience over a wonky one.

If ad-laden, hyperlinked fiction is the future, I can see that I will be one of those cranky old people longing nostalgically for the days when "you just read the damn story!"

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

Yes. I think there was a limited market (and limited development) without the portability of tablets, and with the limited spread of tablets. That is changing, of course.

Nitendo DS ? Sony PSP ? Quite portable Way more than an iPad acctually.

When it comes to learning, video "textbooks" have enormous potential. That doesn't mean I want my fiction texts to become multimedia extravanganzas, and I don't want them distracting me with a bunch of extraneous crap. But again, for the zillionth time, it doesn't have to be one or the other! We can have both!

Ditto !

[HamsterRage]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Yes, the market for the mid-90's coffee table CD-ROMs didn't go very far for the same reasons these rich content "ebooks" aren't going very far any time soon. Lack of standards, device specificity, low volume/high prices vicious circle, and aiming at the consumer market instead of the educational/academic market.

For me, this kind of misses the point. I think those CD-ROMs failed because the nobody wants to sit at a PC to read that kind of content. Something tells me that there is going to be an onslaught of tablet devices hitting the market in the next 12 months, and they are going to redefine what computers are used for.

On the flip side, as ebooks start to scoop up more market share of the pure text reading (stuff like paperback novels), it's going to push up the overhead for the print versions of coffee-table books and textbooks, so we'll see what happens in to that marketplace. Maybe, in 10 years, the only cost effective way to publish a coffee-table book will be for a tablet computer.

[EowynCarter]

For me, this kind of misses the point.

Not really. I'll be warry of buying someting unless i can read it everywhere.
Hey, look at our books with vidéo and all, but they can only be read on our reader". No buy !

A standard for multimedia books is first thing to do if it want a have a minimum of succes.