The future of books might not be e-books, but books designed like apps. And Fortune’s app about Steve Jobs is a prime example of this phenomenon.
We keep hearing about how e-books are the future and how one day the entire world will do most of its reading on portable displays of one sort or the other. However, the term “e-book” still conjures up the image of a page with text and maybe the odd picture being shown on a screen. And well, that is largely the case when you consider the reading experience on specialised e-book readers like the Kindle. Handy? Yes. But really more like an electronic representation of a paper book.
However, there is another way to look at books in electronic format – and that is to treat them like apps. The likes of National Geographic and Life have been experimenting with this format on Apple’s iPad, churning out titles that behave more like applications than books, complete with multimedia and special effects. And Fortune is the latest to jump on to this “book as app” bandwagon, coming out with a retrospective on Steve Jobs, using a mix of its older articles, analysis and select videos.
At more than 400 MB, it is a hefty download, especially in bandwidth starved India. And at $14.99, it is not exactly cheap, especially given the hammering the Rupee has been taking. But know what? It is well worth it. The app contains a number of detailed articles that appeared about Apple and Steve Jobs right from the company’s inception to Jobs’ departure to his return and ultimate date with his Maker. Yes, it is pretty text heavy, but this being Fortune, the text is a whole lot more fun to read than in some of the books on the man. You can actually see how Jobs and the companies he was associated with changed – yes, there is even stuff on Pixar here. Best of all, there is very little fence-sitting in the pieces – opinions fly around all the while, giving you a taste of what people really thought at the time of writing. And take our word for it, there is some seriously good writing to be found here – the article on Jobs ouster from Apple after his duel with Sculley makes for thrilling reading.
Interspersed with all these words are some very good videos, some excellent photographs (Woz strumming a guitar while he and Jobs sit on the floor of Jobs’ house!!), every cover of the magazine with Jobs on it, and very handy stats and charts – and all of them look just gorgeous on the iPad’s large screen. Navigation is simple – you just flick your finger to turn the page, or head back to the contents to figure out what you wish to read, or even more simply just check out the small page previews on the bottom of your screen using page viewer and pick the page you want to go to.
All of which makes us believe that “books as apps” are a very good idea, especially for biographies. Yes, we would have liked even more videos. Yes, we would have liked some network sharing options. Heck, we would have liked high-definition versions of the covers of the magazine. But none of this can hide the fact that we had far more fun reading about Jobs through this app than we had in Isaacson’s much-hyped biography. No, we might not have learnt as much about the man himself, but we learnt a fair bit. And were thoroughly entertained.
It ain’t the lightest in byte terms. Nor is it the least expensive in Dollar ones. But if you are interested in technology and want something to read, we would suggest you download this. And if you still believe that conventional e-books work better, download Fortune’s similar attempt designed for the Kindle – All About Steve. Yes, it is lighter and more affordable, but it ain’t half the experience that this is. And we are sure THAT particular comparison would delight the subject of this app, wherever he is.
Get it from: iTunes App Store
Works with: Apple iPad
