A book may not be the first thing that comes to mind when discussing innovation but as technology has progressed, the way we consume the information presented in books has made a steady evolution. From the audio book to the Kindle, technology has jumped in to make books easier to consume in a variety of formats creating a debatably richer experience.
New to the market is Vook. It is the latest innovation in reading that brings together books, video and the Internet. Vooks are available on the web and to download on a mobile phone. It’s an interesting idea with the goal of supplementing books with video and social content that aren’t available in the static format.
The web-based version allow for the reader to view the text of the book in a similar format to an e-Reader. Video is incorporated on the side of the screen so you can easily view complementary material without flipping between screens or from book to computer. It also includes social media capabilities by integrating with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The mobile format has similar features but due to the size of the screen, readers are directed to video rather than it being incorporated in the screen. Although I have yet to try it, I imagine this is incredibly useful for cookbooks and fitness materials more so than novels.
The book selection is on the smaller side and focused on fitness and cooking texts but the site is new and I expect their library to grow. I do wonder if they will attempt to turn some of the classics into Vooks, which could be very interesting to see.
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this is totally awesome ! – thanks for the pointer
I agree that this is best suited for how-to type books, such as cooking, fitness or technical-type books where a visual aid is useful to demonstrate what’s being explained in the text. But, I’m certainly not going to read an entire book on my iPhone due to it’s small form factor. As it is now, I read way too much on my iPhone and I bet it’s degrading my eye sight. I wonder if there’s been any studies on the health of our eyes and reading so much on small form factors, such as iPhones, Blackberries, etc.