iBooks

Notable New iBooks: Riding on a Beam of Light

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Riding on a Beam of Light iBook

The iBookstore description for Riding on a Beam of Light is short and sweet:

Young Albert Einstein imagines what it would be like to ride a beam of light, and fantastically illustrates how a child’s imagination can change history.

Nice idea, and it’s nicely executed in this short story. There are just a line or two of text on each page, accompanied by beautiful illustrations that pull you into the story. The writing style is light and fun, with rhymes throughout the pages.

The book does a great job of highlighting the power of imagination and the idea that it’s good to dream. And who doesn’t like the idea of riding on a beam of light?

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Notable New iBooks – Led Zeppelin: Sound and Fury

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Led Zeppelin Sound and Fury iBook

Led Zeppelin: Sound and Fury is a new iBook that should prove to be a big hit with Led Zepp fans and rock fans in general. Here’s a little of its App Store introduction:

Led Zeppelin: Sound and Fury by Neal Preston is an in-depth, illustrated digital coffee-table book created and designed especially for iBooks. It provides an unprecedented and comprehensive glimpse into the world of Led Zeppelin through the lens of famed photographer Neal Preston. Blending images, interviews, and information to allow readers inside access into some of the greatest moments in rock history …

Preston had unparalleled access to Led Zeppelin and the photos and multimedia elements in this book are spectacular proof of that.

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Defiance: the TV Show, the Game, and Now the iBook

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Defiance: The Essential Guide iBook

Before yesterday afternoon I’d barely heard of Defiance, and had a vague impression it was a new game that I wouldn’t be interested in since I’m not a gamer at all. Thanks to +Tad Donaghe and the superb new iBook Defiance: The Essential Guide I now know this is an upcoming TV show, a game, and much more than that.

I’m not going to become a gamer overnight for this title, but now I am absolutely psyched to see the TV show, which looks just incredible and epic in its scope – a bit like Lord of the Rings crossed with Star Wars. But that’s my own probably misguided comparison. Here’s a bit of the iBookstore description for the iBook that offers a much better overview:

Defiance: The Essential Guide by Syfy and Trion Worlds is the perfect interactive companion to the groundbreaking TV series and the incredible multiplayer game.

Set in the near future, Defiance introduces an exotically transformed planet Earth, its landscapes permanently altered following the sudden – and tumultuous – arrival of seven unique alien races.

In this somewhat unknown and unpredictable landscape, the richly diverse, newly-formed civilization of humans and aliens must learn to co-exist peacefully. Each week, viewers will follow an immersive character drama set in the boom-town of Defiance, which sits atop the ruins of St. Louis, MO, while in the game, players will adventure in the new frontier of the San Francisco Bay area.

The dramatic tapestry of the series and the intense action of the game will exist in a single universe where their respective narratives will inform one another and evolve together into one overall story.

That last point is one of the most interesting and unique aspects of Defiance, and it’s talked about a lot in the opening chapter of the iBook. The huge amount of ‘interconnectivity’ between the TV show and the game is highlighted.

The weekly TV show affects the game – and how you play the game just might change what happens on the show … Events in the show will impact the game, and events in the game will impact the show – creating an unprecedented interactive experience.

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Killer Little Features: Vertical Scrolling in iBooks

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iBooks

We often focus on big, exciting features that set an app apart or make it great. Incredible graphics, slick interactive elements, hyper realistic gameplay, and so on.

But there are also a number of little, unsung features that turn out to be killer features. Seemingly minor bits of functionality that end up making a huge difference to how good or bad the experience with an app is.

Vertical Scrolling in the iBooks app is a perfect example of one of these killer little features. Right from the first time I used it, I was already becoming hooked on it. Now that I’ve used it for several months I feel I almost can’t do without it. I miss it tremendously when I read a book in the Kindle app on my iPad or on my Nexus 7.

Fancy page-turn animations may have been an impressive feature when we first saw them, but they only ever had sort of novelty value. The fact is we don’t need to turn a physical page when reading a 600 page book on the iPad. And it is faster, easier, and far more comfortable to just scroll vertically on the iPad – regardless of whether you enjoy reading in portrait or landscape mode.

This feature alone has dictated how I purchase eBooks the last few months. I do the vast majority of my reading these days on the iPad mini, and now I also buy nearly all my books from the iBookstore.

What do you all think? Do you do much reading on your iPads? If so, what do you think of vertical scrolling and which eBook reader app do you use the most?

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Notable New iBooks – Hamlet: The Shakesperience

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Hamlet The Shakesperience iBook

I do a ton of reading on the iPad these days, and though I use a number of different eBook readers, iBooks has gradually become my favorite – mostly because of its lovely vertical scrolling feature.

Because I am spending more and more time in the iBookstore I have started occasionally sharing a notable new iBook that’s caught my attention. Today’s entry in that area is Hamlet: The Shakesperience. I can’t say I’ve ever been a keen student of Shakespeare, but a few of his works did draw me in – and Hamlet is certainly one of those. So this book (and its clever title) caught my eye. I installed it last night and have spent a little time with it – and it looks like a fantastic title for students and teachers.

Here are some of its notable features highlighted on its iBookstore page:

– Remarkable photos and illustrations that help to provide an interactive Shakespeare experience

– Performance Audio: audio of some of the great performances of Hamlet embedded within the scenes. These include Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, and Sir Derek Jacobi – who also provides introduction audio clips for each of the acts of the play.

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