Next-Generation E-Books
But will these work? If you've tried learning school topics via television, you might find it boring. Afterall, you'll miss being with people. You'll miss sitting next to a classmate you secretly admire.
On the other hand, if you can increase the level of classroom interactivity via the e-book, it may prove to be a winner. For example, the e-book can contain certain chat programs that link classmates in a particular course. You can also incorporate webcams which provide improved visual clues when students exchange ideas with the educator and with one another.
3.0 Newspapers as e-books
Let's face it -- a lot of people use the Internet to keep track of news. So why not a newspaper e-book? For this to work, the e-book could be some type of wireless, always-connected type of device that easily and quickly connects to various news sources online.
Personalization is also a big plus in the sense that the ebook user does not need to wade through screen after screen of information she's not particularly interested in. Auto-location tracking (some kind of GPRS device) will allow the e-book to guess which type of local news is most important to the user.
But will this work? It is still uncertain if there will be enough people who will bother to get instant news in a mobile way. Currently, large groups of mobile people rely on -- you guessed it -- radio.
So a newspaper e-book will have a better chance of succeeding if it incorporates audio in a cost-effective way. Otherwise, the people who can afford such a service may very well be the ones who won't even have time for it.
4.0 Travel guides as e-books
When I say "travel guide," I don't mean electronic versions of DK or Fodor's or Lonely Planet only. I mean "human expert" or virtual assistant, if you will.
Thus, these e-book travel guides will also provide language translation services. The device will also have a microphone and camera, which will prove useful in countries where signposts use the local dialect.
Say you're in China and can't understand some signs. Simply point your e-book's camera to that sign and voila -- instant translation.
This next-generation kind of e-book will also have links to weather news and embassy updates and will be controlled by a central server that can easily update the contents in real-time.
Thus, you don't have to deal with annual updates. If a certain department store has a special
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