My thoughts on the newly-announced Apple Ipad. I’ve been watching the evolution of electronic publishing closely since I’m so involved in book publishing through my design work. First off, just let me say sure it’s awful that we’re moving away from traditional books to electronic substitutes. But it’s always been this way throughout the history of printing and publishing. A new technology is developed and it’s criticized for being crude and incapable of the elegance of existing work; then after awhile it becomes itself the standard that an even newer technology is compared to.
A big limitation of electronic readers is the black and white only and lack of other electronic functions like video and Web access, so the new Apple tablet looks good. But it seems too big. Yes, it’s a good size for newspapers and would actually make reading the New York Times somewhat like reading the paper version. But the way of the world seems to be the IPhone and it’s size. That’s too small to read a newspaper on, but maybe some kind of foldable Sony Reader-size would work.
And since Flash is so prevalent now, it’s hard to understand why the Ipad can’t use it.
My two cents.
Ken Crocker Artist 