iPad is "The Future Of Reading"

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

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

*raises hand high*

Need more info on the Corregidor tunnels"

Doubtful, as I know a fair bit already, but if I do, I'll look it up without having my book playing video at me.

Narwhal, anyone?

Given the context I thought you meant the sub. I might have to look up its specs. The cetacean is easy.

[m-reader]

Multimedia books and learning applications have been around since the days of CD roms in cartridges (and even before dare I say!).
My 7 year old daughter just finished playing with a human body encyclopaedia which lets her click on body organs and see what's behind on her laptop computer. This CD was made in 1998.
What they are talking about here is by no stretch of imagination new. It's just a different packaging.

[susan_cassidy]

Most of the time, I prefer to read about things, rather than watching a video about it. I detest the trend of sites like CNET, where instead of a short article about an item, they have a vido with a talking head essentially reading to you about an item. I read faster than they can read something to me.

Obviously, sometimes video is useful, but most of the books I read would not benefit from video.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by m-reader

Multimedia books and learning applications have been around since the days of CD roms in cartridges (and even before dare I say!).
My 7 year old daughter just finished playing with a human body encyclopaedia which lets her click on body organs and see what's behind on her laptop computer. This CD was made in 1998.
What they are talking about here is by no stretch of imagination new. It's just a different packaging.

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.

[J. Strnad]

I love CNN.com but I've quit clicking on any article with video, because it's largely what you describe: a talking head telling me very little. I'd much rather have an article that I can scan and which inevitably gives me more detail.

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!

[fjtorres]

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.

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.

There is great potential there but until somebody comes out with a multiplatform standard that publishers can target (conceivable could be Blio but I'm not holding my breath) we'll see dabbling and startups and nothing that sticks.

The first thing is that any viable rich-content standard has to be a data format, not a runtime with embedded data. Apps are by definition platform-specific. Second, it needs a flaship device tailored to the academic market. The OLPC folks could help here if they weren't so focused on computing functions first with education second. And third, the standard needs to run on legacy PCs (not just new ones) as well as portable devices.

It'll still be a while.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

But again, for the zillionth time, it doesn't have to be one or the other! We can have both!

Definitely. I think some people who don't want multimedia worry that such books will overrun the marketplace, further limiting their choices.

About CNN and needless multimedia: I think it depends how any Web site or other content provider targets multimedia. For instance, do they see it as a supplement or an alternative? Maybe some users pick just one option -- reading or viewing -- and by offering both, the provider is widening its potential audience.

I think The New York Times does multimedia well, at least for my preferences: The multimedia supplements the written stories.

[Maggie Leung]

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.

There is great potential there but until somebody comes out with a multiplatform standard that publishers can target (conceivable could be Blio but I'm not holding my breath) we'll see dabbling and startups and nothing that sticks.

The first thing is that any viable rich-content standard has to be a data format, not a runtime with embedded data. Apps are by definition platform-specific. Second, it needs a flaship device tailored to the academic market. The OLPC folks could help here if they weren't so focused on computing functions first with education second. And third, the standard needs to run on legacy PCs (not just new ones) as well as portable devices.

It'll still be a while.

Yup. Still lots of shaking out of standards and lots of misfires ahead. As a reader / content user, I will vote with my money.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by kjk

Seems to me that the article is about how digital is the future of publishing.

Exactly, The girl in the story just happened to be using an ipad. But the focus of the story is how digital media is slowly but surely changing publishing in general which ereaders as well as ipads & other multimedia devices.

No where in the title did it mention that Ipads were the only way to that change.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

*raises hand high*

Worldwalker I thought you would. Any self styled curmudgeon will be better informed the most people.

I now know what a Brewster Buffalo is. But when I first read it in a Griffin book I had to stop reading and look it up. Why read a book with lots of details, and then gloss over those things that add richness to the story.

I know that there are people that will say "Yeah, must be some kind of plane". Just as they would say "Yeah, Peregrine Falcon and Desert Eagle. Birds!" I want that added knowledge and understanding when I read.

The key, though, is that the info must not be intrusive.

[Jack Tingle]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

I want that added knowledge and understanding when I read. ... The key, though, is that the info must not be intrusive.

Um, there's this thing called "hypertext". It can link to this other thing called a "glossary".

These are long-solved problems. They really don't need a complete rethinking of how information is delivered. They just need publishers to remove thier heads from their ... fundaments and do their jobs properly, rather than trying to either turn back the clock, or find some way to smash square pegs into round holes and call it "value added".

When I see articles like this, I figure it's a perfect lesson in people who don't understand history (even recent history) being doomed to repeating it. It's also what makes patent lawyers rich.

Disgustedly,
Jack Tingle

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Jack Tingle

Um, there's this thing called "hypertext". It can link to this other thing called a "glossary".

These are long-solved problems. They really don't need a complete rethinking of how information is delivered. They just need publishers to remove thier heads from their ... fundaments and do their jobs properly, rather than trying to either turn back the clock, or find some way to smash square pegs into round holes and call it "value added".

When I see articles like this, I figure it's a perfect lesson in people who don't understand history (even recent history) being doomed to repeating it. It's also what makes patent lawyers rich.

Disgustedly,
Jack Tingle

An old HyperCard user?



The thread is about the LA Times story where they mention little Emma Teitgen's experience with "The Elements: A Visual Exploration". Some think that such is an intrusion in to a books story. Others see some value in it.

I could see it working like a built in dictionary. But it has to be totally unobtrusive.



Almost like this;

The thread is about the LA Times story where they mention little Emma Teitgen's experience with "The Elements: A Visual Exploration". Some think that such is an intrusion in to a books story. Others see some value in it.



So, tell me. When did they come up with this hyperlinks and hypertext stuff?

[Skydog]

"iPad is "The Future Of Reading"

I hope not!!

[fishface]

Whenever I go to a site that throws video into my face, I instantly navigate away regardless of whether it was relevant.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by fishface

Whenever I go to a site that throws video into my face, I instantly navigate away regardless of whether it was relevant.

I've said something very similar, elsewhere. And I'm with you 100% on that one.

And I wouldn't take even a free ereader if it did that. But what I'm talking about in an unnoticeable feature that could be built into some stories.

Under your name it says Device: none. But you post a lot, and I'm assuming that you might like to choose a method of reading ebooks sometime in the future.

If you should buy an ereader, do you want one with a dictionary?

If you were reading a book and it mentioned a bateaux, would you know what it is? You may not have to look it up, but most people would. And a picture of one might be better than a description to some.

That is what I'm talking about. Not popup ads and videos. Just the ability to select a word for an explanation and maybe a picture.

What the article was describing is what a computer/netbook/tablet/MID would be good for. To me, those things aren’t what ereaders are about.