Wednesday, Steve Jobs showed us a demonstration of his newest toy: the iPad. The iPad will include iBooks, Apple's version of electronic books. Currently, there are only a handful of publishers that will have books available on the iPad.
Here's a request from me directly to Apple. Please, allow self-publishers to create dynamic books in the same manner you invite developers to create apps. This only makes sense. The iPad has incredible maps and, of course, all the advantages that the world wide wonderful has to offer.
So, why limit iBooks to a two-dimensional, black-and-white copy on a page? Kindle already does this. And while I love Kindle (and by the way I'm keeping mine and I will continue to publish my book via Amazon), it does have a few drawbacks for a book like mine.
Any travel guide should be interactive and serve two purposes. First, it should help people shop for and prepare for a vacation. Second, it should show travelers what they can do once they arrive. So, a useful travel guide will be one that people read before they go on vacation and one that they will use when they get there as a reference. In both cases, a Kindle or an iPad are great gadgets for fulfilling these needs because of their portability. However, the iPad can really shine in this arena.
Think about it this way. Suppose you have never been to Las Vegas. You read Simplifying Las Vegas on your iPad, and you see the street-level view of the Bellagio fountains. Then you tap on a link that takes you to a YouTube video of them. You decide that this is really a cool place and you think you want to stay there, but you want a comparison with other hotels. You look at a Hotels table, and swipe your hand and across a "Price" column to see how the Bellagio stacks up against other hotels. When you're ready to book, you either tap on a link that takes you directly to their booking site, or you select another link that takes you to package deals where you can book your flight and rental car.
It's all right there, and it's interactive. That is what travel books will become, and the sooner iBooks and the iPad support us travel nuts who are ready to develop and write these books, the better. So, Mr. Jobs, I'm here and I'm ready. You can call me any time. Or just visit my website. 8)
Viva,
Mike
2 comments:
How the iPad could seperate itself would be to allow people to insert interactive comments in iBooks. For instance, if you have a section in your book about the poker room at the Sahara (my favorite place) and I'm waiting there, I could bust out my iPad and make comments (in the "margin" - steve, call me too) about the current blinds or the $5 blackjack, that could instant be shared with everyone else reading your book.
I'm currently reading "Atlas Shrugged" and I think it would be great to be able to turn on the "Harvard Review" margins and study the book as I go.
John - excellent idea! I think we need to contact Jobs directly. The iPad has so much potential - I hope they open it up to the developer community for iBooks
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