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Something real to consider during all the X speculation
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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11 Replies
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Beautiful. I still prefer reading on an E Ink display (a Kindle, Sony Reader, etc.), but those devices can’t handle color, much less full-motion video.
Funny to think that only about four years ago, I was working for a major publisher and our flashy eBook demo was a Spanish textbook in which you could click on a handful of Spanish words to hear them pronounced. Cool, but nowhere near as ambitious and fluid as this!
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This is undoubtedly the future. The minute you see it you know it.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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I hope it’s not the future. Being able to view photos full screen is useful. Everything else in the demo is gimmicky and pointless. Maybe it’s the choice of book – maybe there are subjects or formats that would benefit from a fluid mix of text, video and (be afraid!) interaction. Just not this one.
If I’m reading Al Gore’s writing, why do I need to hear his voice? Do I need to know where a photo was taken? If I click on Al Gore’s shirt, can I buy it online? Actually, that definitely is the future.
It looks to me like the shiny new portable version of CD-ROM and animated GIFs.
On a side note, I work in education and see attempts to make information interactive and sexy all the time. There seems to be an assumption that no one under 16 has the patience to read anything anymore, or think about something without an accompanying animation. Cos… you know… learning’s boring isn’t it? And then I see 12 year olds reading 19th century novels in a second language, so engrossed they don’t notice you’ve walked into the room.
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If you have an iPad, I suggest checking out an issue of “Project”.
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That looks cool and all, but I do agree that it seems gimmicky. Why do we need to see our location flashing on the “cover”?
Gimmicks aside, though, an e-book seems like a much better medium for this sort of message than a traditional book, since no trees had to be cut down to make it…
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[Greg Andonian] “That looks cool and all, but I do agree that it seems gimmicky. Why do we need to see our location flashing on the “cover”?”
Perhaps your viewing experience changes depending on your location. Say you live in a great wind power area and you never knew it, perhaps the book will tell you, for example. Or that location screen aggregates with different local geothermal/weather history or current information depending on where you are.
First time in Europe? Learn about the jet stream that keeps the area temperate. Or whatever.
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Would be better if it had the words “DON’T PANIC” written in large friendly letters on the cover.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[andy lewis] “It looks to me like the shiny new portable version of CD-ROM and animated GIFs.”
That’s what I thought, too. Looks like my Star Trek Interactive Technical Manual from 1995. What this is, though, is evolutionary: it pulls together all of the elements (text, sound, vision, the ability to bring in fresh info and incorporate it instantly), makes them gloriously touchable and drops them onto the world’s best distribution platform.In some cases, it may be a triumph of style over substance, but critics have been saying that since adjectives were invented.
This is undoubtedly the future, but it’s the future we were promised was ‘just around the corner’ way back in 1992. I’m glad it’s finally here.
[andy lewis] ” I see 12 year olds reading 19th century novels in a second language, so engrossed they don’t notice you’ve walked into the room.”
Are you sure they don’t have a Mad comic shoved inside it? -
[andy lewis] “I hope it’s not the future. Being able to view photos full screen is useful. Everything else in the demo is gimmicky and pointless.”
I think you’re simply wrong about that. The entire idea is that everyone has their own ideas and needs when it comes to learning and “data mining,” and “books” like these will allow everyone to choose their own particular style of reading and learning. Not everyone (you for instance) want to hear Al Gore, but some undoubtedly do.
Had they not included a few “gimmicks” in the demo you would have no idea what kinds of things are even possible, and you would probably have been very unimpressed, much like the Apple “sneak” left many cold with regard to FCPX.
I would suggest that instead of labeling things simplistically as “gimmicky and pointless,” which makes you sound limited and shallow, instead try to use your imagination to take the best from things and consider how you might make them better.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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[David Roth Weiss] “use your imagination to take the best from things and consider how you might make them better.
“Thanks for that, David. A timely reminder for me to pause, ponder and then act.
“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
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