Monday, August 24, 2009

Apple Outdoes Kindle

A friend who owns an iPhone claims that she prefers reading on it because the phone makes a page-turning sound when she touches the screen to go to the next page.

On top of that, Barnes & Noble has done a deal with Apple to provide books for the iPhone. You don't need a purpose-built device to carry around a load of books. Your commute-time entertainment is available on your telephone.

Now comes word that Winged Chariot Press has developed a child's picture book that will be available to iPhone subscribers.

How many times is a parent searching for something to entertain a child? Whether it's Sunday Mass or a wait at the pediatrician's office, there's a need for small, portable amusements. Parents will have a phone on them anyway, and who could resist a touch-screen interactive story that costs only 59p?

Rebecca Green of the National Literary Trust is all for the new technology.

Whether it's a back lit screen or a hard copy of a book, from a young age a child will be introduced to the magic that is reading. Anything that fosters love of the written word can only benefit authors down the years. How can reading be seen to be a chore if it's got its own app on the iPhone?

Small, portable, and convenient, the iPhone has done Amazon's Kindle one better.

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