Rumored new iPod Touch: The e-book angle

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By David Rothman

The news about the iPhone/Touch as an e-book reader just won’t stop.

Within the past week, BookZ has issued Version 1.2 with wrinkles such as tagging of books. You’re seeing a screenshot with menus in place.

But what about updated hardware—in this case, the  new iPod Touch? Just what will it be like from an e-book perspective? Hard to say. Steve Jobs and friends have an almost CIA-ish skill for putting out disinformation.

The MacRumors on the next iPod Touch

Over at MacRumors, however, the denizens are thrashing out possibilities, and here’s the one I find the most intriguing—that perhaps the next Touch will have a somewhat bigger screen for viewing multimedia.

Not necessarily same as rumored iPod tablet

Don’t confuse this, of course, with the idea of a whole different machine, an iPod tablet with a screen of six or eight inches or whatever. But even a small increase in screen size would increase the Touch’s usefulness as an e-book reader. I hope nongeeks are paying attention. Little details like this can help grow the e-book market.If Apple does something, either a modification or a whole new box, some me-too companies will follow.

When we’ll know e-books have arrived at Apple: When Steve Jobs makes up some kind of BS statement saying people misinterpreted his gloomy comments on the future of reading.

Housekeeping: I’m running out of time. I may do another post or two, but delay the already-mentioned item on ISBNs and library-related DRM.

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