Here’s what they say about their new interface. You can find more details here.
Our Choice will change the way we read books. And quite possibly change the world. In this interactive app, Al Gore surveys the causes of global warming and presents groundbreaking insights and solutions already under study and underway that can help stop the unfolding disaster of global warming. Our Choice melds the vice president’s narrative with photography, interactive graphics, animations, and more than an hour of engrossing documentary footage. A new, groundbreaking multi-touch interface allows you to experience that content seamlessly. Pick up and explore anything you see in the book; zoom out to the visual table of contents and quickly browse though the chapters; reach in and explore data-rich interactive graphics.
Al Gore’s Our Choice Guided Tour from Push Pop Press on Vimeo.
This isn’t a “book”–it’s a personal audio/video program with some text thrown in. A great replacement for those old film clips we used to watch in school.
This sort of application will be great to replace traditional textbooks and technical manuals.
But, I don’t see it enhancing my fiction reading in the least. If anything, it would be a distraction, ultimately ruining the total immersion experience that a really good story provides.
I use to love these things when they were called websites
Yes, Nathan. You’re right that this isn’t something really that new. However, it’s fairly clear (at least at this point in time) that people aren’t often willing to pay for ‘websites’ so please be prepared for content like this to only show up in ways that people are willing to pay. This is the type of outcome that the ‘information yearns to be free’ people don’t realize is their own doing.
Is it a stand alone app ? or a series of MultiMedia productions read by a new eReader app ? I can’t find any info on the web site which seems to be devoted 100% to Gore’s AGW nonsense.
Either way it certainly won’t change the way people read ‘books’. Maybe a new slant on MM reference material, ok. I also wonder about the file sizes ? Offline or Online reading ?
Nathan is right, it seems to be a step backward from a web site presentation which would be more easily accessed and managed and streamed. Looks like a bit of a gimmick to me.
Multiple thoughts here…
1) “Groundbreaking” twice in one paragraph? Urgh. Terrible press release.
2) My first reaction was “another book with video thrown in, yawn”. However, it looks like there’s some interesting ways that they visualized the data and made it interactive. I also like how tactile the book seems to be, like when you “grab” a photo.
3) I feel like some of the articles on Teleread are great – offer some analysis or insight – and others are just quotes from press releases with no value added – or lists of features added to the latest version of Calibre. I’m wondering if such information would be better served up in its own section. There could be sidebars listing the latest press releases and newest Kindle/Kobo/Calibre/etc. software version announcements.
p.s.
4) @Howard – if anybody is speaking nonsense, it’s you. Global climate change is happening. I wish it were all a big hoax, but the scientific consensus – and the facts on the ground the last couple decades – say otherwise.
This is a book for people who don’t read books. A well written fiction book will have no need to include this. However I can see the appeal in non fiction books.
Who (other than the florid press-release-writer, perhaps) claimed this was going to be useful for fiction? (Hopefully nobody!) But it could be a great tool for visually conveying the information – whether you normally read books or not!