I think the author could have gone further with his imagination. Yes, iPad will allow to display the formless content into different layouts, but that's hardly impressive...any e-book reader should be able to do that soon.
Actually, the iPad, or tablet computers in that matter, could open completely new ways of "reading entertainment", since the book could contain not only text and static images, but also other pieces of multimedia or even pieces of software! I am now making up a quick list of what could be possible:
1. iPad books can have video illustrations or sounds embedded.
2. Books can have some taxonomy data. For example, I could see a list of main characters which were presented in the book until the page I have read. I can see their short description, their relationship, or even where are they currently.
3. The text can be "location aware" - for example I am reading some scene, and there can exist an interactive map for that scene, so I will look around myself how it looks like there.
4. There can be some elements of gaming incorporated, like some puzzle or whatever, etc. etc. etc.
The possibilities are really endless here and I am excited to see what the content providers will be able to come up with.
Absolutely agree. But the goal of this essay was to lay a foundation for designers and writers to start thinking about content, form and context. I tried my hardest to keep it concise while still touching on all fundamental points. Which was tough because this is such a fun topic. The original piece was almost double the current length.
> Yes, iPad will allow to display the formless content into different layouts, but that's hardly impressive...any e-book reader should be able to do that soon.
Sure, however the important point is that this is the first device to do this and be of a form factor we will want to spend intimate reading time with. None of the individual technologies in the iPad are unique, but the combination in this form factor, wrapped in Apple's well-considered OS/interface is. This is most definitely not trivial. I'm sure (and very much hope) that Amazon, et al follow up with similarly great devices. The more competition the better our experience (one hopes) as readers.
2. Books can have some taxonomy data. For example, I could see a list of main characters which were presented in the book until the page I have read. I can see their short description, their relationship, or even where are they currently.
You don't even need the book to do this explicitly. Having the app reference Wikipedia based on content read would probably serve as a good 90% implementation.
I think the general prediction that print will contract to the production of only high-quality "permanent" documents is spot-on. I'm not so sure, however, that pagination will go away, at least not without the invention of a new UI element to replace it (other than scrollbars).
Pagination is useful to our mental models of progress through a document. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the reasons scrolls died out while we're still using the bound book format many centuries after it was invented. A hundred pages is a lot easier to parse than an infinite number of positions on a scroll, while recall and addressing is vastly easier citing a page number than counting out a distance to scroll.
You know, I agreed with you (and even upvoted you) but as I think about it I think you might be wrong. I think the meta point to the article is that our entire idea of what the written word should be is about to change now that the last vestiges of print are reaching the end of their life.
In other words you don't see pagination going away because it's part of our mental model of what a document should be like. I think the article is saying that mental model itself is becoming obsolete and we won't have documents as much as we'll have formless information. That's not going to happen overnight (and the article points out there will probably be a hybrid period where print exists beside electronic). But eventually I think it's probably inevitable.
I get the feeling "pages" will be around for a while because we currently use them as a deep link into the material. When a new model for documents emerges, we will still need that index/deep link for citations (I don't think a keyword search with the book title will do for academics).
I agree with you as well. I think we're basically saying the same thing; I'm saying the paginated model will stay with us until a new technology-enabled successor takes root. Our expectations of document structure will certainly play a role in pagination's tenacity even after that successor arrives, but I don't think pagination will be our permanent future.
Because those things require some kind of metadata added by the author while line numbers don't, and line numbers work for any type of text i.e. code. Not that those things aren't also really convenient for navigation, but I'd still want to be able to get at line numbers (though I'd also like to be able to create views, e.g. by zooming, that break up on-screen lines differently than the actual line breaks)
Um, what about changes in font size? That’s a problem for both pages and lines.
Oh, I see. You want to introduce “actual” line breaks! Oh, just imagine the joys of explaining that concept to those new to it. They will certainly get it right away ;)
(Lines might be a useful navigational tool for code but there is a reason why that number is used nowhere else.)
I've basically stopped reading books, and have gone 100% audio books. I listen in my car, in bed, while going jogging. I love it, although I imagine it's not for everyone.
Oh the joys of predicting media innovations. There are plenty precedents, so anyone with any view can find more than enough examples to support his view. I think we are looking more at a iPad:Book::CD:LP or iPad:Book::MP3:CD than a iPad:Book::Radio:Book scenario (where iPad includes all other current and future similar devices). But that’s just me.
(Note to all fuming LP fans: I know fully well that you can still buy LPs. You will still be able to buy printed books in one hundred years. That’s not the point.)
LPs are for collectors and very special music, you don't buy crappy pop on an LP, you buy a classic, something where the LP means something in and of itself.
Books will be the same, special, something beyond the ordinary, where as your pop books become something digital, because the book isn't part of the experience.
Actually, the iPad, or tablet computers in that matter, could open completely new ways of "reading entertainment", since the book could contain not only text and static images, but also other pieces of multimedia or even pieces of software! I am now making up a quick list of what could be possible:
1. iPad books can have video illustrations or sounds embedded.
2. Books can have some taxonomy data. For example, I could see a list of main characters which were presented in the book until the page I have read. I can see their short description, their relationship, or even where are they currently.
3. The text can be "location aware" - for example I am reading some scene, and there can exist an interactive map for that scene, so I will look around myself how it looks like there.
4. There can be some elements of gaming incorporated, like some puzzle or whatever, etc. etc. etc.
The possibilities are really endless here and I am excited to see what the content providers will be able to come up with.