Article: (Apple’s)Tablet is the New Book
I can’t wait for this device to come out, especially if Apple allows users outside of the US and Canada to purchase books easily and cheaply, as what they’ve done to the music segment. It’d be great to be able to read Neil Gaiman’s graphic novels at a fraction of the price, but in full colour, and it’d be fantastic to be able to annotate and store memorable passages, words and phrases. Check out the Youtube on what this device will do to textbooks too!
Unless you’ve been trapped under a very large P.C. for the last year, you’ve likely heard the about Apple’s rumored new tablet device (now being heralded as the “iSlate”). The device is thought to be an 8 (or 10, or 11) inch flat iPod-like gadget that will be a mix between a Mac laptop and a Kindle. Most rumors suggest that it will have a touch interface and video capabilities, and, thanks to today’s Wall Street Journal, it has a likely release date: March. (According to the article, Apple will show it to the public later this month.)
Although anticipation has already reached a fever pitch (just take a look at Twitter’s most popular topics on most days) book publishers have an especially vested interest in the gadget. While there have been numerous electronic book readers coming out in the last year (including the most recent, The Skiff), few have managed to capture the public’s imagination beyond the Amazon Kindle – which hasn’t exactly done much for publishers’ bottom line. Many people in the beleaguered industry are hoping that device will do for reading what the iPod and iTunes did for music. A survey among booksellers claimed that an Apple e-reader would one of the main factors that will help push digital publishing forward.
Article source: Apple – Salon.com (“Tablet is the New Book”)
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