Rise of the App/Book

If you've been using the iPad at all you have probably seen The Elements by TouchPress a new company focused on creating interactive non-fiction books for the iPad.  The writing in this App/Book is superb, the graphics are beautiful, and the UI is tolerable.  

What makes The Elements and other App/Books so interesting is that we consider them books at all.  App/Books are in fact a new category of entertainment; a combination of book and software application that leverages the best of both mediums.

An App/Book is interactive, it can have sound, video, animations. It is more like a random access film than a book in some ways. You watch or listen or interact with any part of the book at any time. Actually, that's not even a good enough description. An App/Book is potentially more than an application, a book, or a film.

Another App/Book that has enjoyed a lot of success is Alice for the iPad, a very simple but interactive version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with colorized versions of illustrations by John Tenniel. The book is simply put, beautiful.  The idea that you can take original illustrations and un-copyrighted material and create a new presentation for it its really exciting.

Another book I really like is iDante, the beautifully illustrated version of Dante's Divine Comedy. It's an excellent reading experience and far more interesting than the text alone.

In addition to App/Books that are informative or based on classic works there is the new Comic Book readers.  I enjoyed reading a couple of comics - something I haven't done in a while - using the Marvel Comic Book reader. The experience is completely different from reading a dead-tree edition - not better or worse but different and exciting.  

And finally there are App/Books for children.  My favorites are the Dr. Seuss titles being produced by Oceanhouse Media. These are beautiful, narrated books with an image flow that is simply enchanting. Disney has gotten into the game as well with releases of of App/Books about each of the Toy Story movies and DreamWorks came out with How to Train Your Dragon for the iPad.

What's interesting is that even these titles, while excellent, are really only scratching the surface.  As I announced earlier today I'm working on a Sherlock Holmes HD title that I hope will push the envelope a little father with animations, sound effects, and other things.  It's a fascinating time to be creating content right now. I don't think we've seen this big of a change since the Web went mainstream in the mid 1990's.