__/ [ bigscreen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ] on Saturday 29 April 2006 18:21 \__
> For today's demonstration, The Times was downloaded onto small tablet
> computers, about the size of a hardcover book, which are already
> commercially available for $1,000 to $3,000.
>
> Readers can in effect turn the page electronically. There is even a
> gauge that tells them how much of the paper they have read and how much
> more is left.
>
> Tom Bodkin, an assistant managing editor of The Times and its design
> director, demonstrated Times Reader to the audience. "You can page
> through the entire paper in a natural and intuitive way," Mr. Bodkin
> said.
I came across the story earlier this morning:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/online/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002425172
Somehow it reached several media outlets; probably because it's Microsoft.
Think of that overblown Origami UMPC hype.
Books were made in the form of books due to practical limitations, which date
back centuries into the past. Trying to take /electronic/ form and convert
it into /physical/ analogies is a mistake and a step back. It will only ever
appeal to seniors who antagonise technology.
Such tendencies and preference are definitely flawed. Some prefer to digest
information as A4-sized PDF, which should should be perceived as past notion
(how often do you come across the term "PDF warning"?). Newspaper Web sites
are notorious for failing to cope with Web standards and modern notion. They
try to emulate actual papers and aim for that 'pixel perfect' layout.
The shift from electronic to paper form misses the point and conveys nothing
extra. It is inflexible. Printing/'printability' should rarely take
precedence. This is another example of demoware which offers very little and
has no innovative value. The last innovation I heard about were peripherals
that allow you to purge spam by kicking or stomping. This came from
Microsoft. These are all 'Mickey Mouse inventions', in my humble opinion.
Best wishes,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Y |-(1^2)|^(1/2)+1 K
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
6:25pm up 2 days 1:30, 14 users, load average: 0.22, 0.43, 0.58
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms
|
|
