Rumored new iPod Touch: The e-book angle
The news about the iPhone/Touch as an e-book reader just won’t stop.
Within the past week, BookZ has issued Version 1.2 with wrinkles such as tagging of books. You’re seeing a screenshot with menus in place.
But what about updated hardware—in this case, the new iPod Touch? Just what will it be like from an e-book perspective? Hard to say. Steve Jobs and friends have an almost CIA-ish skill for putting out disinformation.
The MacRumors on the next iPod Touch
Over at MacRumors, however, the denizens are thrashing out possibilities, and here’s the one I find the most intriguing—that perhaps the next Touch will have a somewhat bigger screen for viewing multimedia.
Not necessarily same as rumored iPod tablet
Don’t confuse this, of course, with the idea of a whole different machine, an iPod tablet with a screen of six or eight inches or whatever. But even a small increase in screen size would increase the Touch’s usefulness as an e-book reader. I hope nongeeks are paying attention. Little details like this can help grow the e-book market.If Apple does something, either a modification or a whole new box, some me-too companies will follow.
When we’ll know e-books have arrived at Apple: When Steve Jobs makes up some kind of BS statement saying people misinterpreted his gloomy comments on the future of reading.
Housekeeping: I’m running out of time. I may do another post or two, but delay the already-mentioned item on ISBNs and library-related DRM.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I’ve been saying iPod Air since January.
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/is-apples-tablet-the-ipod-air/
One thing everyone keeps forgetting is that Apple *made* digital music. It didn’t become real until *Apple* did it. The same will happen to ebooks. Current eReader and Stanza iPhone users are the bleeding edge. They are like the people who bought the Altair. Apple II made the mass market. Apple will make the mass ebook market too.