Futurebook has an article looking at a new Dutch e-book application called the "delay app". The idea behind this application is that if you know about how long you’re going to be delayed, you can choose a story that should take approximately that length of time to read, ranging from 5 minutes to an hour. It’s a pretty early attempt—it’s currently only for the iPad and iPhone, and there’s no way to add new content—but it is interesting for what it represents: a way to fit e-reading applications into the ways people use existing ones already.
After all, many of us who carry pocket-sized devices that can be used for e-reading already do just this when we find ourselves caught in a line, or on public transportation, or waiting for a movie to start—pull it out and pick up whatever we were last reading. It’s a clever idea to give someone the option of the starting something new that should take exactly as long to read as they have left to wait.
The Futurebook article looks at some other ways publishers are trying to create new content, or better match existing content with the reading habits of e-book users. Who knows—this might be the start of a whole new trend. But even if this sort of thing does catch on, there will still always be a need for more basic, general-purpose e-book reading applications—because sometimes, you just want to read a book.
A great idea. It fits with an idea I have for a cable channel that broadcasts only interesting snippets 30 seconds to a minute long. You’d go there when the commercials came on the longer show you were watching.
And even better design would have these snippets fed out like podcasts and stored on devices like the Apple TV. They’d start when you jumped to their “channel” and a small window would let you monitor the other channel for the end of those commercials.
I guess you can tell that I’m no fan of commercials.