Books in the Age of the iPad

[WillAdams]

My concern w/ making new-style books is what will the file format be?

Can't be ePub --- too limiting, unless I'm missing something in it?

So presumably, every new-fangled such book will be an app --- is Apple going to set aside a special area on the App store for books as apps, or will one have to sort them out from all the other apps?

Or is there some third possibility I'm missing? (Each such book vendor will create an app to read their books and there'll be a myriad of incompatible proprietary formats?)

William

[WillAdams]

nekokami --- mentioning Runtime Revolution is _very_ interesting to me, since it was based on HyperCard which was originally used to make a number of book-like projects as well as things which went far beyond books (_The Manhole_, _Myst).

I'd really like to see a Runtime Revolution app for the iPad --- or Apple should do AppleScript Studio for it.

William

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

nekokami --- mentioning Runtime Revolution is _very_ interesting to me, since it was based on HyperCard which was originally used to make a number of book-like projects as well as things which went far beyond books (_The Manhole_, _Myst).

I'd really like to see a Runtime Revolution app for the iPad --- or Apple should do AppleScript Studio for it.

William

Runrev for iPad is in alpha now. (Yes, I was a Hypercard programmer long and long ago. )

Regarding books on iP* devices, as Stanza shows, we no longer need to have one book=one app. And Apple has said that there will be a separate iBooks store. (They also plan to split the apps store out from music and videos, which I think is a great idea.)

[clockworkzombie]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

My concern w/ making new-style books is what will the file format be?

Can't be ePub --- too limiting, unless I'm missing something in it?

So presumably, every new-fangled such book will be an app --- is Apple going to set aside a special area on the App store for books as apps, or will one have to sort them out from all the other apps?

Or is there some third possibility I'm missing? (Each such book vendor will create an app to read their books and there'll be a myriad of incompatible proprietary formats?)

William

During the iPad presentation Steve Jobs said the format for the books will be epub. That will not stop people making standalone applications and I am guessing there will be DRM though Jobs has a dislike of DRM.

There will be a separate section for books.

Even though I said the unit has a 10 hour life whilst playing video the one thing we do not know is how many of those hours is the backlight alone. The backlight will consume a set amount of power. There are currently controls to adjust backlight brightness. I do not expect anywhere near the time I get on my BeBook.

The only thing that is making me wait is I like the e-ink screens and the 10" iRex is very tempting. Here in Australia the price is $1600.00 so an iPad will be cheaper than that.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Nakor

The iPad is intriguing at first sight, but when you really start to learn about its capabilities, you start to wonder why you didn't buy a netbook instead, lol. If it could throw in the ability to multitask I'd be a lot happier with its potential.

A person who wants an iPad doesn't want a netbook, for reasons very similar to the reasons a person who wants an eBook reader does not want an iPad.

An eBook reader is a "text consumption device." (TCD) From the perspective of a person who wants a TCD, an iPad is a heavier, bulkier eBook reader, a netbook is a heavier, bulkier, even more poorly configured eBook reader.

The iPad is an "interactive content consumption appliance." (ICCA) From the perspective of a person who wants an ICCA, a netbook is a heavier, bulkier, poorly configured iPad.

If all I wanted to do was a TCD, the ONLY argument for the iPad is that I will probably be able to get any ebook from any source I want and read it despite proprietary systems & DRM. But I want to read things other than ebooks - email, websites, Instapaper articles I've culled from my iPhone and iMac, etc.

If I wanted to create documents, make data entries, and screw around with Windows or Linux as a kind of hobby, etc., I'd get a netbook or laptop.

Bottom line: you have to start with what *you* want to do, not with what the *device* is able to do, then choose accordingly. I mean, does a person who wants a netbook really really want it in the form factor of a tablet?

I'm not sure something like that is ideal as an eBook reader anyway, as battery life also has to be considered, as well as the fact that the iPad is a little heftier than I'd like when trying to relax with a story.

I'm in about half-agreement with that. At bottom, it's a physical thing - where do you read, how do you like to hold your reader, how much weight can you handle. My wife was reading Little Dorrit a couple of weeks ago, a nice fat Dickens, and complaining a little about the size & weight. So I put it on my Sony 303 for her, and it turned out she liked the fat book better because the 303 actually seemed heavier to her (she has carpal tunnel.)

When I get my iPad, I will be reading sitting back in my Lazyboy, or sitting at the diningroom table. The size & weight of the iPad will be of small concern in those venues. I will not be reading the iPad on the train, or hauling it around to read at lunch during the work week. So I'll be reading something on my 303or my iPhone at those times.

I think battery life is a non-issue, particularly if all you are really going to do is read ebooks. The charge on the iPad will easily last a day, so you just park it on its charger at night.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Nakor

I just think they should up the specs a bit and throw a proper OS on there. Include the app store, but also let people use other software. For example, some fiction writers might want to be able to throw Scrivener on the iPad, which isn't in the app store to the best of my knowledge. A proper OS also solves the multitasking problem in and of itself.

See, what you are doing is trying to make the iPad something it is not intended to be. A writer should be using, for example, a full size ergonomically correct keyboard to type on, not a software keyboard or little portable bluetooth jobbie. Multitasking is not a "problem" on the iPad because for the most part, there is not a need for it. You don't multitask consumption, which is what the iPad is for. You multitask work, which is not what the iPad is for, anymore than the iPhone is for multitasking work.

You might as well be criticizing ebook readers because they don't surf the internet, and you can't watch movies, and they have a poor music file interface, and you can't adjust equalization on them, & on & on.

The iPad has the proper OS for what it is intended to do. It is a closed ecology, not an open one, and one reason is that a large portion of the prospective iPad customer base is not those who want to spend time cultivating the OS.

As for upping the specs, all that would do is up the price. My guess is that the big seller will not be the upscale 3G 64, but the 0G 16, precisely because of the price. Heck, Apple could run out of them if I'm right about this. So I'm ordering a 0G 32, in part to make sure I actually get one without much of a wait.

[petermillard]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

The smart thing to do with the Ipad is to not buy anything for a year...

Well, that may be the smart thing for you to do; the smart thing for me is to buy a mid-range model at launch and use the rest of the year to trial it properly for how I expect to use it; it'll either work out, or it won't. If it does, then I'll have a better idea of what I want from iPad 2.0 by the end of the year, and if it doesn't, then it'll just become the 'house' tablet for a bit of light browsing/email/movies/reading etc...

Win, win.

[Nakor]

@Harmon: But given what the iPad is, what kind of person does want it? That's what I don't really see. If I wanted something that could handle the iPhone app store that easily, and didn't care about the phone, then I'd probably just get an iPod Touch. The iPad isn't that far removed from it, just a much larger screen and a price to match, really.

[HansTWN]

The ipad doesn't really fill a need (anything it can do can be done done better by a device we already own; be it a phone, a computer, a reader, or a netbook) but stirs up gadget lust among many and is more convenient to use in a number of situations.

And they priced it low enough so that a significant number of people will say "what the heck, it is only 500 bucks, I want one of these". And come to think of it, with the right virtualization techniques it might actually be possible to turn it into a good thin client. Which, of course, means you have to have local or remote access to a real computer somewhere.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by petermillard

Well, that may be the smart thing for you to do; the smart thing for me is to buy a mid-range model at launch and use the rest of the year to trial it properly for how I expect to use it; it'll either work out, or it won't. If it does, then I'll have a better idea of what I want from iPad 2.0 by the end of the year, and if it doesn't, then it'll just become the 'house' tablet for a bit of light browsing/email/movies/reading etc...

Win, win.

<shrug> Your money...

You see, I have a -1 gen equivalent of the iPad and have trialed it. It's called a CyBook. (The first one, before e-ink.)

Touchscreen LCD (but no multitouch),
Screen size of 8 1/4 by 6 inches (15 x 20.5 cms)
lower pixel density 800x600
Windows CE operating system (instead of iPod/iPhone OS)
much slower CPU (but you didn't notice it when reading)
PCMCIA card slot (with adapter for CF card or WiFi adapter, I have both)
Built in cover.
Weight - right at a kilo (2.2 pounds)
Battery life - 3 hours

Cost - $600 USD in 2006

When I got an e-ink reader with halfway decent firmware, the Cybook went on the shelf (Just took it down for the measurements right now...)

A Pixel Qi device, by reducing the average need for backlighting, made stretch the comparable battery life from 10 hours to around 40 hours. The Adam is supposed to be out around May/June.

A Mirasol display (if it makes it out) is Bistable, like e-ink, so battery life gets defined as page turns again, not hours. Page change rate is at 20 or so frames per second. The company claims there will be screen by late 2010...

Liquavista is somewhere between the two (Pixel Qi and Mirasol) in energy use. (Still different technology.) Will handle full video frame rates (60 per second). Also targeted to come out in late 2010...

For those of us who are penny conscious, it makes sense to wait. After all, $600 will buy 100 e-books @ $6 a book....

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Nakor

@Harmon: But given what the iPad is, what kind of person does want it? That's what I don't really see. If I wanted something that could handle the iPhone app store that easily, and didn't care about the phone, then I'd probably just get an iPod Touch. The iPad isn't that far removed from it, just a much larger screen and a price to match, really.

Perhaps someone who is in his sixties, and has to use reading glasses to read on the iPhone or the Touch. Perhaps someone who wants a lot more text on the screen. Perhaps someone who would like to read newpapers and magazines in a non-linear fashion. Perhaps someone who would like to see the details in movies. Perhaps someone who enjoys graphic novels. Perhaps someone who might want to look at paintings or drawings or photos. Perhaps someone who would prefer not to type with his thumbs. Perhaps someone who will appreciate his calendar being laid out in windows on his screen. Perhaps someone who believes that with more real estate on the screen, developers will come up with apps that work in ways that are not yet apparent to mere consumers. Perhaps someone who would like to rest his iThingamajig on the table so he could drink a cup of coffee and take a bite of his donut rather than having to hold the iT in one hand while manipulating the touchscreen with another.

Gee, I dunno...me?

I should add that in a way, you do have the right idea, but you have it backwards. The iPad is not a large scale version of the Touch. The Touch is a stripped down version of the iPad.

Basically, I consider the iPad to be a portable computer screen. It will be a satellite of my iMac, which is the central computer for the household. It has Word, TurboTax, Radioshift, AudioHijack, and my various media manipulation programs for home movies, scanning pictures etc. I expect to be able to access just about anything on the iMac by using my iPad. My Touch (actually an iPhone) is a handy pocket version of the iPad, which will not be able to do everything I can do with my iPad, but will serve as my away from home iPad.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by petermillard

Well, that may be the smart thing for you to do; the smart thing for me is to buy a mid-range model at launch and use the rest of the year to trial it properly for how I expect to use it; it'll either work out, or it won't. If it does, then I'll have a better idea of what I want from iPad 2.0 by the end of the year, and if it doesn't, then it'll just become the 'house' tablet for a bit of light browsing/email/movies/reading etc...

Win, win.

Actually, what you call "light browsing/etc." is exactly what I intend as the primary use for my iPad. I expect, as you evidently do, that in a year or so there will be a v.2 that will incorporate things that haven't occurred to most of us yet.

When the iPhone came out, I had no idea that three years later I'd be reading books and articles on it, while listening to music broadcast via bluetooth to my Bose radio. Heaven knows what the iPad will let us do three years from now.

[Nakor]

It just seems to me that my laptop does all those things and a lot more, with much better specs, for $500CDN, and only lacks the touchscreen and battery life. In fact, a lot of that is exactly why I chose to get a physically large laptop with a decent keyboard on it.

And they priced it low enough so that a significant number of people will say "what the heck, it is only 500 bucks, I want one of these".

Oh sure, if I could just say "what the heck, it's only $500" then sure, it wouldn't matter if it turned out to be a high-tech newspaper or something to waste some time on during the day. But $500 (be it US or CDN) is not a small amount of money to me, or to the majority of the world, especially the way things are right now not only with unemployment, but also the high percentage of the employed that are unable to get sufficient hours. For $500 it had better do something for me that my laptop can't do a good job of. And if it comes to a choice between buying a laptop or an iPad, I'll take the one that I know I can use for whatever I need.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Nakor

It just seems to me that my laptop does all those things and a lot more, with much better specs, for $500CDN, and only lacks the touchscreen and battery life. In fact, a lot of that is exactly why I chose to get a physically large laptop with a decent keyboard on it.

And they priced it low enough so that a significant number of people will say "what the heck, it is only 500 bucks, I want one of these".

Oh sure, if I could just say "what the heck, it's only $500" then sure, it wouldn't matter if it turned out to be a high-tech newspaper or something to waste some time on during the day. But $500 (be it US or CDN) is not a small amount of money to me, or to the majority of the world, especially the way things are right now not only with unemployment, but also the high percentage of the employed that are unable to get sufficient hours. For $500 it had better do something for me that my laptop can't do a good job of. And if it comes to a choice between buying a laptop or an iPad, I'll take the one that I know I can use for whatever I need.

You didn't read my entire post. I said it doesn't really fill a need. Everything it can do can be done by other devices, usually even better. It is not aimed at "everybody" but those moderately to well off who can afford to splurge a little. You could never justify buying it if you made a real cost-benefit analysis.

[pilotbob]

What are all the ages again?

The Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Reason
The Age of Aquarius
The Age of the iPad

Do I have that right?

Really, is iPad important enough to call it an "age"?

BOb