Kindle ebooks allow to share individual insights into the ebooks. E-readers can aggregate their experience of a text, so that anyone can identify those passages that collective wisdom had identified as particularly pertinent. Enough ereaders need to highlight a passage to be visible to others as an aggregate or a reading heat map. It’s a great idea to save time reading ebooks by showing key passages illuminated by layering all readers’ highlights for the same text. More insights into ebooks, e-reading, etc
Tag Archives: iPad
Do people read slower on Kindle and iPad?
Recent research by the Nielsen Norman Group found that it takes longer to read books on a Kindle or an iPad than in print. On average reading speeds declined by 6.2% on the iPad and 10.7 on the Kindle compared with print versions. I personally think I’m reading much more in volume on my iPad and iPhone, simply because it’s more convenient and accessible way of processing information. I believe once we read more on portable devices such as iPad and iPhone we’ll develop our ability to read ebooks faster than print books. The sales of ebooks on Amazon overtook the print sales for the first time last Christmas. Read more on this study
Interactive reading – the future of reading
The release of iPad and iBooks Store next month signals the new area for reading – interactive reading. Although reading on screen is nothing new (Google has been digitalising the world’s libraries since 2004) the publishing industry is ready to reinvent the book. The new platforms will allow readers to interact with one another in a social networks, travel books will let users send e-postcards, and kids will digitally paint-in their colouring books via the iPad’s touchscreen, among other things. “What was once a liner activity is an interactive experience. The iPad – it’s where the future is” says Anna Rafferty, the managing director of Penguin Digital.
Watch this video about the amazing new possibilities of interactive books of ‘iMagineering’ by Britain’s Penguin Books
How do you store 35 million books?
35 million books could be stored on a single cartridge made using a new type of storage tape developed by IBM and Fujitsu. Can iPad beat that? Not for some time. This new cartridge has the capacity to hold up to 35TB of uncompressed data. This is about 44 times the capacity of today’s IBM LTO Generation 4 cartridge. A capacity of 35TB of data is sufficient to store the text of 35 million books, which would require 248 miles (399 km) of bookshelves. The biggest bookshop in Europe – Waterstones in Piccadilly, London UK SW1Y 6WW (tel 020 7851 2400) stores about 250 000 books on four floors in over eight and a half miles of shelving.
Speed reading made easy on the iPad via iBook Store – revolution in ebook reading
Amazon Kindle tried to do it and Apple just did it! Apple revolutionised listening to music and now they’ve revolutionised ebook reading with the iPad via iBook Store. Five big partners… Penguin, Harper Collins, Macmillion, Simon & Shuster, Hachette Book Group… and more will sell their ebooks via iBook Store to be read on the iPad.
“It has a bookshelf. In addition there’s a button which is the store — we’ve created the new iBook Store. You can download right onto your iPad.” The store is very similar to iTunes. Same modal pop-overs. Pricing doesn’t look too bad. The book page display is nice. You can turn pages slowly or fast for speed reading. “You can change the font… whatever you want. And that is iBooks.” “So iBooks again, a great reader, a great online bookstore. All in one really great app. We use the ePub format. We’re very excited about this.” said Steve Jobs at the launch of the iPad and iBooks Store today in San Francisco (6pm London time). Read how mobile tablet devices will change the world of computing.
iBooks Store on the iPod – speed reading ebooks on the go
Watch Apple video on the iPad below (if you want to just watch the iBook Store and the ebook reader skip to minute 4)
For more info go to the iPad, iBooks Store and ebook reading
Read more on speed reading on Stanza free ebook reader for iPhone
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Hz8dhQw8Q
Interactive books – the future of publishing now
There are at the moment four interactive book formats on the market. Here are the examples:
Slice (free) Penguin’s wetellstories.co.uk plays with narrative forms and is a pointer to the sort of books apps to come. slice is made up of a blog by a young girl (in reality, novelist Toby Litt), with councurrent entries by her parents as well as messages on Twitter. Be sure to click on them in the right order.
Fighting Fantasy (£1.79 each) These role-playing books, first published in 1982, are being turned into iPhone apps. The gameplay is unaltered: construct a character by rolling dice, then pick your way through a quest, turn by turn. Search for Fighting Fantasy in the iTunes App Store.
Dr Seuss’ ABC (£1.79) The 1963 chldren’s primer is also an iPhone app. Listen to the narration as the text light up. The American accent grates, however – especially when you come to the letter ‘zee’.
The Death of Bunny Munro (£9.99) Move over, audiobooks – here’s the videobook. This iPhone features footage of Nick Cave, the musician and author, reading his story aloud, complete with mood-setting music. But at nearly 1GB in size, you might need to delete some of his albums to make room for it. Try a free taster of The Death of Bunny Munro as the iPhone app