E-books push deeper into interactive territory

The big buzz around e-books are devices, like Amazon's upcoming tablet, and apps such as Booktrack that take interacting with stories to a new level.

September 18, 2011By Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times

If there's already a tablet in your house — an iPad or an Android-driven one — then this fall, e-books will be all about interactivity. If you don't have a tablet yet, keep your eye on Amazon.

Industry watchers have been predicting that Amazon will introduce a tablet later this year — if so, it stands to be a big hit. In August, the technology and market analysis firmForrester Research said that Amazon could sell between 3 million and 5 million tablets in the last quarter of this year, if the company prices the (not-yet-announced) device at $300 or less.

Amazon proved it could transform the publishing landscape by introducing its Kindle e-reader in November 2007. Before that, e-books were an oddity, and e-readers strange, unloved creatures. After Amazon put the Kindle in front of book buyers, everything changed; readers embraced the device. Last summer, the online bookseller saw e-book sales overtake its print book sales. During the first half of this year, Random House, the world's biggest publisher, saw more than 20% of its U.S. revenue come from e-books.

Now there are many e-readers on which to consume those e-books: Barnes & Noble's Nook, the Kobo, the long-standingSony e-Reader and a multitude of others. Most compete with Amazon's Kindle; a tablet from Amazon would be designed to compete with Apple's iPad.

The iPad can function as an e-reader — it has the native iBooks application — but its real appeal, book-wise, has been in apps. Other tablets, many of which run on the Android operating system, can run apps too, but Apple got a head start. Since the iPad's debut in April 2010, it's been a Wild West of app development, with companies small and large creating apps that allow books to move and more.

One of those lets you create an animated children's e-book starring your own son or daughter. JibJab Media, the onlineanimation house with its roots in political satire, launched JibJab Jr. on Sept. 1 with a free e-book, "The Biggest Pizza Ever." After two simple steps — selecting a gender and adding your child's photo — the story commences with your child's face included in the page-by-page animation. Future books coming out this fall are about the alphabet and the ocean, and these cost $3.99 for an individual version or $7.99 to customize for more than one child.

Some apps debuting this fall are far out. Take Booktrack, whose announcement party in New York featured models in neon-pink wigs demonstrating enhanced e-books to Salman Rushdie, filmmaker Paul Haggis and James Frey. Enhanced with what? Music and a soundtrack. The app tracks along at your reading speed, so when a door closes in a Sherlock Holmes story, there's a slam, and when things get scary in "Hansel and Gretel," the music swells. The chief investor in Booktrack is Peter Thiel, chief executive of Paypal; and Sony Music is a partner. Upcoming Booktracks, which cost a few dollars more than their non-enhanced counterparts, include short stories by Rushdie and Jay McInerney.

Publishers are still trying to figure out how to best make e-books people want. You might buy one that comes with a video interview from the author, or a code to scan with your smartphone to access online extras, or find that Lee Child and Stephen King have short stories available only as e-books. Random House has partnered with Politico to publish real-time e-book coverage of the 2012 presidential election, with the first releases planned for this fall. Also look for an e-book from David Sedaris and the e-book version of previously unreleased interviews withJacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Despite all the buzz about devices, the Internet hasn't gone away: It remains a destination. One quiet project, Small Demons, won't be unveiled until October but it promises to mix books and online in new, innovative ways. And online is the focus of the high-profile Pottermore, J.K. Rowling's official interactive website for all things Harry Potter. It will open up for public access in October; reviews from users who've had early access have been strong. So far, the Harry Potter series has not been released as e-books but with any luck, Rowling will have that set up before the holidays.

Apple iPad 3: Retina display and 5 more features we'd like to see

Re-Post from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/08/apple-ipad-3-retina-dispaly-and-5-features-we-want-to-see.html
By: Nathan Olivarez-Giles and David Sarno

The Web was abuzz Friday with a rumor we've all been hearing for months -- that the iPad 3, whenever it comes out, will be outfitted with Apple's retina display.

Double the resolution, up to 2,048 by 1,536 from the iPad 1 and iPad 2's 1,024 by 768 for a crisp 326 dpi (dots, or pixels, per inch) matching the density of the much-loved screen on the iPhone 4 -- that's the rumor and the latest to report that this is happening from unnamed sources oversees: the Wall Street Journal.

The journal says the retina-display-packing iPad 3 will hit stores early next year, while others have said such a device could launch this fall or winter. Either way, nothing is official as of yet -- an Apple doesn't comment on rumors. The Cupertino tech giant hasn't yet said anything about the next iPad and the iPad 2 is enjoying huge sales.

But, with a growing swarm of tablet competitors running various versions of Google's Android mobile OS (rest in peace HP TouchPad), the iPad 3 might have to be more than simply thinner, lighter, faster and equipped with a better screen.

In that vein, here are five unsolicited features that we'd like to see on the next iPad -- or any tablet for that matter.

Thinner and lighter

This may seem obvious, but while the iPad 2 is svelte, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is barely thinner and yup, even lighter. However, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 achieves this with the use of a plastic back that feels much flimsier in the hand than the iPad 2's aluminum body. Apple has used plastic and glass to create thinner and lighter iPhones and this might be an option in the iPad 3. Another idea for Apple might be the use of something similar to the grippy, rubberized plastic feel of the Motorola Xoom.

Glare protector

Among the biggest knocks on the iPad is that its glossy screen reflects too much light and is therefore no fun to take outside and read by the pool or on the beach. (Yes, it's a good problem to have.) But it's a serious issue for Apple, which wants to become a major player in the electronic book market and compete with Amazon's Kindle, the leading e-book reader. The Kindle has a matte-type screen that diffuses light rather than reflect it -- so why shouldn't the iPad have a glare-proof screen?

As Apple offers with its MacBook Pro laptops, an anti-glare screen and a glossy screen could be offered so consumers can choose what they want.

Haptic feedback

Apple seems to have become an accidental force in the mobile gaming industry. It's iPhone and iPad have inspired developers to make hundreds (if not thousands) of affordable games with low barriers to entry. The iPad 2 offers impressive graphics performance and the iPad 3, which will assuredly make use of a faster processor, will see a bump here as well. But if Apple wants to make the iPad an ever better gaming machine, it needs to give gamers a rumbling iPad, one that vibrates and shakes in response to the video games played on screen in the same way that every home gaming console'scontrollers do.

This isn't impossible by any means. Many Android phones and tablets already feature haptic, or tactile, feedback when using keyboards and other functions. Of course, this would have to be a feature that could be turned off or on for those who do or don't want to make use of the rumble.

Biometric security

The physical security of mobile devices is still rather limited. Users are able to protect their phones and tablets with a four-digit unlock code, but many don't even bother, leaving their iPads and Androids vulnerable if they leave them in a coffee shop or taxi cab. So why not add another layer of security -- like iris scanning? Companies like Hoyos Group make iris identification systems that scan 2,048 points in the eye's most colorful layer -- the software can even detect "liveness" so, you know, no one can use some dead guy's eye to break into an iPad.

Wireless charging

Apple's iOS 5 will enable iPad and iPhone owners to "cut the cord" and wirelessly sync songs, contacts, apps and plenty of other content whenever Apple mobile devices are near their Mac computer counterparts. And, with iOS 5, users will even be able to download operating system updates "over the air" without having to plug their i-device into a computer for the latest software. This can be taken a step further with wireless charging.

The technology is already proven. Many third-parties accessory makers offer wireless charging products for phones, tablets and even TV remotes. Hewlett-Packard had built wireless charging into its HP TouchPad as well. All TouchPad users had to do was lay their tablets into a charging dock and it would charge right up, no need to plug any cables into the device itself. Post-PC should be post cables and wires too.

Amazon Sees a Good Read in the Cloud

Re-post from: http://www.technologyreview.com/web/38298/page1/
Friday, August 12, 2011
By Erica Naone

Yesterday, Amazon launched Kindle Cloud Reader, a Web browser-based version of its popular e-reading platform.

Built using HTML5, an emerging standard that lets Web applications function like desktop ones, the Kindle Cloud Reader looks and acts a lot like the Kindle apps created for the iPad, Android tablets, and PCs, even offering the ability to store content so it can be read in the browser offline. Experts say the move furthers Amazon's efforts to make Kindle the dominant standard for e-books.

Amazon's original Kindle, a device designed specifically for electronic reading, has long enjoyed dominance in the e-reader market. But Amazon has also built an empire that stretches far beyond this one device. The company gives away Kindle apps for a wide variety of devices, including PCs, Macs, Android tablets and phones, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry smart phones and tablets, and the iPad and iPhone. These free apps get readers to expect the Kindle format, and they encourage those who don't own a Kindle to build up a Kindle library.

The cloud-based app could extend Amazon's reach farther still. In a statement released at launch, Amazon noted that the Kindle Cloud Reader supports its philosophy of "Buy Once, Read Everywhere." The Kindle device and related apps all sync with one another via the cloud, so that a user can access her full library—with bookmarks, notes, and highlights intact—from any device.

Much of the early discussion around the launch has focused on the way the new app circumvents Apple's stringent App Store rules, because it can be accessed via the iPhone or iPad's browser, and doesn't need to be approved by Apple. Apple recently limited developers' ability to take users out of an app—such as by offering a link to make a purchase on Amazon.com. But publishing experts say that focusing on this squabble is shortsighted.

"The Kindle Cloud Reader is a game changer, from my perspective," says Kassia Krozser, owner of Booksquare, a site that tracks the publishing industry. "What really excites me about this platform is that it is browser-based; it uses the technology that people are using all day long. No special software is needed, no dedicated devices."

Krozser believes the browser is "the future of reading," since it gives aficionados the most flexibility and provides a familiar, easy-to-use environment for newcomers to test the waters.
he Kindle Cloud Reader is likely to make things easier for Amazon, too. "Amazon has worked hard to create apps specific to pretty much every platform available, which is one of the biggest reasons I read Kindle books almost exclusively," says Brian Sawyer, a senior editor at O'Reilly Media who manages the company's Missing Manuals division. "But it becomes a huge burden—and a losing game—to put this much development effort into every new operating system, especially ones whose user base and outlook [are] questionable."
The first version of Amazon's reader is designed primarily for the Safari and Chrome OS browsers, but the company plans to add support for other browsers, including Firefox and Internet Explorer, in the coming months. Sawyer says that once Amazon does this, the availability of Kindle books will leave Apple and other formats "far behind." He adds, "Amazon's Kindle platform is indeed becoming the de facto standard for consumer books."

Despite the likely impact of Cloud Reader, Amazon's format has its flaws. Michael J. Deluca, cofounder of independent e-bookstore Weightless Books, says that Cloud Reader makes him worry about privacy and control of his own digital assets. Deluca says that the Kindle format limits a publisher's design options. PDFs, which are by far Weightless's best-selling format, allow for artistic page designs. However, he notes, "The bottom line is that no matter how we or any small press feels about it, Kindle is already too big to ignore."
"[As both a publisher and a consumer], I'm disappointed that Amazon decided to try to carve out [its] own format," says Joe Wikert, who is general manager and publisher at O'Reilly. He says that Epub, a free, open standard supported by many in the publishing industry, offers a richer experience than the Kindle allows.
But Krozser wonders if Amazon will take this opportunity to embrace more-advanced technology. The latest version of Epub, Epub 3, is based on HTML5, she says, and it might make sense for Amazon to abandon its format to make better use of the browser.

An Ex-Pixar Designer Creates Astounding Kids' Book On iPad

By John Pavlus
re-post from: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664419/an-ex-pixar-designer-creates-astounding-kids-book-on-ipad?partner=co_newsletter

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore iPad App Trailer from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

"The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" is like a well-written bedtime story and an immersive animated movie at once.

E-books are already a fraught subject for many readers, writers, publishers and designers, but children's e-books are even more so. Is it rotting their minds? Is it as good as good ol' paper? Is it too interactive for their own good? Obviously there are no practical answers to such questions, but at least one children's e-book/app/thingie (what do we call these things, again?) is doing it very, very right. It's called "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore," and it's like a well-written bedtime story and an immersive animated movie at once -- without being "too much" of either.

Part of why the book works so well is its top-shelf creative pedigree: author William Joyce is also an accomplished illustrator and animator who's published New Yorker covers, won a bunch of Emmys, created character designs for some of Pixar's first animated classics, and worked on many others for Dreamworks and Disney. With his cohorts at Moonbot Studios, he created an interactive book-app around the story and a standalone animated film -- so you can experience "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" however you like.

Designing interactive interfaces for kids is no mean feat, and the Moonbot team really made some great choices with "Morris Lessmore." When you open up the app, it doesn't waste your time with teaching-screens about how to interact with it -- it just smoothly enters the story. (A key feature, I imagine, when you want to get Junior to go the youknowwhat to sleep ASAP.) Gently animated cues surface in the lush visuals at just the right time, encouraging you to explore the app rather than slavishly plod through it: When a house gets picked up in a tornado, you can use your fingers to swipe and spin it around -- but you don't have to.

In fact, the interface design is so subtle it wasn't until I was about six pages in that I realized that every page of the app has some delightful feature embedded into it that you have to find for yourself. This is the key to a successful children's book -- inviting them to play and explore and be curious, not just jab buttons to activate cheesy visual effects. And mercifully, every gewgaw in the book has a button so you can toggle it on or off: For example, you can kill the voiceover so you can read to your kid in your own voice the way God intended, or silence the music and sound effects if you want to. But they're all just a tap away if you change your mind -- and the whole experience is so well-produced, you very well just might.

Amazon’s Tough Decisions on Its Android Tablet

By NICK BILTON

Repost from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-amazon-android-tablet-conundrums/

Waiting for Amazon to sell a full-fledged tablet feels like waiting for the grass to grow: we know it’s going to happen, but it’s taking an awfully long time.

As we have reported over the last year, Amazon has been readying a color screen tablet that will run the Google Android operating system. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, has even acknowledged that a tablet project is in the works, saying earlier this year that the company was actively working on a “multipurpose tablet device.”

According to a person who works with Amazon and asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak publicly by the company, Amazon has struggled with a number of issues while building its upcoming tablet.

The company’s choice to pick Android in the upcoming tablet, for example, was not an easy one.
Internally, executives at Lab 126, the division of Amazon which makes the Kindle e-reader line, debated the pros and cons of an Amazon tablet running Android versus Amazon building its own operating system based on the existing Kindle platform.


One of the goals with the Kindle tablet is to enable Amazon to deliver its own rich media services, including its cloud music and streaming video products to Kindle customers. Yet the Android platform already offers the same services through Google and other third party companies.

Executives worried that putting Android on an Amazon tablet would be like opening a new music and video store on a city street already packed with dozens of other music and video stores.

In the end, Amazon realized that if it created its own operating system for its upcoming tablet, it would need to entice developers to build apps on yet another platform. Developers are eager to build for Apple, as evidenced by the over 100,000 apps that are available  for the iPad, and they build for Android, which has hundreds of thousands of apps available for tablets and mobile phones. Hewlett-Packard, with its webOS, and Research in Motion, also with its own operating system, are having a harder time winning developer’s time and they have far fewer apps.

If the Kindle wants to compete with Apple and its highly popular iPad, Amazon realized that it needed to offer services and products beyond just video, music and books. It also has to give customers access to games, social applications and other third party products.

Amazon also ran into trouble with the touchscreen technology it planned to use in the upcoming tablet. Last year, the company purchased Touchco, a multitouch project that grew out of the Media Research Lab at New York University. Touchco uses a technology called interpolating force-sensitive resistance, which is extremely inexpensive, costing as little as $10 a square foot. But engineers have had trouble integrating the technology into the Kindle e-readers because it can reduce the intensity and crispness of the screen.

Amazon has also been working hard to offer a device that is competitively priced compared to other tablets. The person who works the company said Amazon planned to offer its Kindle tablet at a lower price than the Apple iPad, which costs from $500 to $830 depending on memory size and 3G abilities.
To do this, Amazon is building its tablet with the bare necessities inside. Limiting memory capacity, peripherals and choosing to skip a built-in camera in the device, the person said.

According to an Amazon executive with close ties to Mr. Bezos, who could not be named because of his senior role in the company, Mr. Bezos made a decision after the iPad was introduced to try to lure customers onto the Kindle platform by offering less expensive devices.

This can be seen with the company’s price reduction of the Kindle e-reader over the last year. The third-generation Kindle now starts at $140, compared to the original, which sold for $400.
Amazon also hopes to entice customers to its new tablet by offering competitive wireless 3G pricing. Although Apple originally offered unlimited access to AT&T’s wireless 3G on the iPad, the company discontinued this pricing option months after the iPad was introduced. Apple customers have complained that the current 3G pricing options for the iPad were too expensive.

Do the Math: Amazon is Planning Three New Tablets

Re-post from http://www.pcmag.com

By Damon Poeter

 
Amazon tablet rumors are flying fast and furious these days. A new report Thursday from Taiwan-based supply chain scoop sniffer DigiTimes may only serve to muddy the waters regarding the online retail giant's plans to take on Apple's iPad with a touch screen device of its own before the year is out.

The crux of the DigiTimes report is that Amazon has contracted with Kindle assembler Foxconn to put together 10.1-inch tablets for a release date sometime in 2012, while Quanta Computer is now shipping a 7-inch tablet to the online retailer.

At first blush, the rumored deal with Foxconn on a 10.1-inch tablet for 2012 doesn't jibe with this week's report from The Wall Street Journal that Amazon will have a 9-inch device with an outsourced design ready for release before October of this year.

But as TechCrunch points out, the 9-inch tablet reportedly arriving in the third quarter could be "a sort of placeholder" for a larger model that Amazon plans to design itself and release next year.
In that sense, both the Journal's article and the DigiTimes report could be on the money.

What's a bit more confusing is the part in the DigiTimes report from Thursday about a 7-inch Amazon tablet being assembled by Quanta Computer. ZDNet's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has cited sources who have identified Quanta as the maker of the Amazon tablet, so that much is consistent. The trouble is, Vaughan-Nichols' sources seem to be referring to the 9-inch tablet identified in the Journal report from Wednesday.

Here again, there may be an answer that indicates both reports are correct, though it takes some digging through the growing backlog of Amazon tablet rumors to find it.

Back in May, Boy Genius Report cited sources who claimed Amazon was readying not one, but two tablets for release in the second half of 2011—specifically, a more powerful model codenamed Hollywood (the 9-inch tablet named by the Journal?) and an "entry-level" version codenamed Coyote (the 7-inch device identified by DigiTimes?)

So here's the skinny, as far as we can tell: Putting together all the different rumors and assuming that everybody's information is more or less accurate, it sure looks like Amazon has not one, not two, but in fact three separate tablets in the offing.

First, there would be two color, multi-touch tablets running Google's Android Honeycomb 3.1, designed and assembled by Quanta and set for a September release—the 7-inch Coyote tablet with Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 chip, and the 9-inch Hollywood tablet, powered by either the dual-core Tegra 2 or perhaps by the upcoming quad-core "Kal-El" chip from Nvidia.

The third rumored tablet is the mysterious Amazon-designed, Foxconn-assembled 10.1-inch device mentioned by DigiTimes' sources. Not due out until 2012, this tablet would likely sport Nvidia's Kal-El processor and run a more advanced version of Android.

South Korea to throw away schoolbooks by 2015, Teachers to be given 'digital training'

Re-post from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/05/south_korea_kids_go_digital/

By Natalie Apostolou

Posted in Networks, 5th July 2011 01:00 GMT

The Korean government plans to digitise all school textbooks by 2015, and have students of all ages access "education content" via smartphones, tablet PCs and smart televisions.

The Korean Education Ministry has set the bold timetable to accelerate "smart learning", it announced last week.

The ministry plans to digitise all subjects for elementary school students by 2014, and all subjects for middle and high school students by 2015.

In addition to the content of paper textbooks, supplementary materials and two-way study methods will be included in the digital textbooks.

The government will increase online classes in 2013 for three years to allow for distance learning for students in remote areas and those who are ill, unwell, or otherwise unable to travel.

Using IPTV, the ministry is also encouraging students to also take a "University-Level Program", where high school students can take college-level courses that include foreign language study.

Around 25 per cent of teachers are set to receive dedicated "digital" training in how handle devices for the "smart education" programme.

The ministry also said it plans to hold nationwide academic tests online.