Saturday, February 04, 2012

Can bells and whistles save the book?


Enhanced e-books bring images, animation, soundtracks and games to the reading experience -- but don't add much

 Thursday, Feb 2, 2012 

ebooks_pop
(Credit: bcdan via Shutterstock/Salon)

Almost two years after the launch of the iPad, Apple distributed a free copy of a new iBook, “The Yellow Submarine,” based on the 1968 animated movie by the Beatles. This e-book — what’s usually referred to as an “enhanced e-book” in the trade — featured the traditional images and text of a kid’s picture book, plus video and music clips. There were also interactive animated features, such as a whack-a-mole bit in the Sea of Holes with heads of the Beatles popping in and out as you tap them. It’s the Future! — exactly the sort of thing various techno-pundits have been insisting that publishers must devise to make e-books seem more valuable to readers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the author has got e-books confused with vimeos and films, and he isn't a digital native so he can't cope with more than one method of storytelling at a time. Probably needs to go away and learn a bit more before he pronounces to the rest of us.
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