Pam's Mother's Day present arrived early this year. Friday, she began using her 3G iPad. So far, when she has been able to wrest it from the hands of visitors, spouses (spice?), and child, she has been loading it with books and organizing her recipes. I have upgraded our wireless network so that the kitchen is now within range. So....will she ever buy another paper book? It's a hot topic right now. Both Will Richardson and Jay Hurvitz have written on the subject. Will writes that since he found out he can access his Amazon Kindle annotations online (who knew?), he thinks the game has now changed. Accessing his notes means he can share them with others. Oh, right now, things are a bit cludgy, and closed systems such as Amazon and Apple make the actual sharing more of a chore, that will eventually come to an end, I surmise. People will want to communicate their thoughts on a piece of writing, a video, a podcast, and those thoughts will be shared and recommented upon much as many Twitter users retweet their favorite sites of the day. At the speed at which apps are being developed, this will probably happen sooner rather than later.
Jay is a bit more skeptical, but, then again, he lives in Israel which last week finally allowed Wi-Fi iPads into the country, so he is forgiven for being a bit behind the iPad curve. Jay is more concerned about the closed nature of Amazon. How does one share notes if they have no Amazon account? Actually, it is a good question. How does one share Amazon notes with those who have accounts? I know of no way to currently share my annotations unless I move them out of Amazon and that is a substantial amount of work. Also, I currently use three e-book readers. I am unable to share annotations between them.
I am, however, as enthusiastic as Will Richardson right now. Apps are just starting to be developed for the iPad. I believe an App will appear that lets me share my notes and thoughts on a book with others around the world. Why so optimistic? Magic Piano! This iPad app has a duet feature which allows users all over the world to play piano duets together. Now, if musicians can do it, can readers be far behind?
Saturday, May 1, 2010
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Well, I know that guy from Israel you refer to, and he's pretty skeptical about quite a lot of things, regardless of the country he lives in.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth remembering that even when sharing notes won't be encumbered by proprietary issues, it's far from clear than many people are going to rush out and make use of that possibility. Still, we can hope.