10. Comment

I am repeatedly asked "What's new?" and am never quite sure how to answer that. As I said last month, there is little now that is truly new and innovative. Little that would make me stop or turn my head. But what may make a difference is the way things are packaged. The company Creative was around selling mp3 players long before the iPod arrived. But Apple repackaged and revolutionised our access to music. Will they do the same with e-books with the new iPad? Rumour has it that they are already talking to many publishers, and some publishers are moving away from Amazon because they refuse to pay enough money. (The cheap price is good for buyers, but if the authors do not get a reasonable about of money, there could be less books to choose.) And after all, an e-book is just a tablet PC with limited capability. Personally, I will not get a iPad just yet. I need to see what you can do on it. If there are books, what about the text-to-speech? But there is little doubt that there will be a copycat response to this oversized iPhone. And as we all know, it is no longer the iPhone that is the selling point, it is all those Apps. So let's see how dyslexia-friendly these iPad's are, if they add something to a "learning" experience, or whether it is just another stepping stone towards something that will create the long awaited revolution.