David Tennant's face of the day

Source: thepondwhowaited.tumblr.com

Because I love you, you get two. I also just really like the way the pictures are softened.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

Source: jmak.tumblr.com

So, if you don't already know by now, Steve Jobs died earlier today. I've never bought a Mac, I love my PC and am too familiar with it to want to give that up, but I own an iPhone which I love to death, and an iPad which I would die of boredom with out. Though, like many people out there, I don't know him personally, I still can't help but feel sad at his passing. Despite whatever grievances I might have with Apple products, there's no denying that Steve Jobs (though clearly he wasn't the only one in the company doing so) introduced the world to so many innovations and technological progressions that we now use and love, and in some cases, consider a base standard (such as the graphical user interface...i.e. those little icon things that I don't even want to know how we operated without) True, he didn't think of it first, but he did commercialize it/refine it, and he presented these products with passion and enthusiasm, which a lot of CEOs seem to lack (no offence Jeff Bezos, still love Kindle and Amazon).

At the end of the day a great, charismatic mind was lost to the world, because, honestly, who knows wot else he could have come up with. 

Kindle Fire and Touch

Source: amazon.com

The new Kindle tablet, the Kindle Fire, was announced today in New York along with the new Kindle e-readers the Touch and Touch 3G and they look incredible. People are saying that the Fire, which has an Android operating system, is going to be a great new competitor for the iPad, which I can see happening considering the specs and the price, but as someone who already owns an iPad, I never had more of curious draw to the announcement of the fire. The thing that I was highly anticipating, though it's announcement was never more than an assumption, is the Kindle Touch.

It's a damn e-ink reader, same eye friendly, sun glare preventing, smooth, 6 inch, paper-like technology of the original Kindle, but instead of having that incredibly awkward keyboard that even minuscule ants had a hard time pressing, it's going to be touch screen.

November 21st can't come soon enough, but despite my desire to just click on pre-order now, I think I'm going to do the smart thing and wait a little bit for user reviews, or CNET reviews. I mean, the Kindle I have right now still works fantastically and I do hold a strong belief that there is no point in buying updated models of products you own if the originals work perfectly fine (especially if it's not that much of a drastic change), so unless it decides to spontaneously combust (like my phone did this summer, after four years of a marvellous, though occasionally frozen, friendship) I think I can hold off a little bit.

Demibooks: Composer, books at a whole new level

He's just here to lure you in

So for my Interactive Media class (which I actually adore to death, readings and all) we're supposed to post up articles about new media and digital advances, mostly those relating to books and magazines and such, but other ones that might be interesting to. Yesterday, while trying to find something good to post, I ran across and article about the company Demibooks and a new app they have released for the iPad.

Basically, the digital publishing company Demibooks, has released an app specifically for the iPad (called Composer) which will allow authors to create interactive apps for their books without having to use or create complicated codes.

Don't get me wrong, I love print books and all their physical glory. My bookshelf is slowly overflowing with books, and that doesn't include all the books I have at my grandmother's house, or the books I've bought on my Kindle (love of physical books or not, there's no way I'm carrying 5 giant fantasy novels around while on vacation, sorry Jordan and Martin). But on the other hand, I also can't help but really love the idea of authors being able to add little interactive features, such as demonstrating gravity or layered audio, into their works (if they so chose). Interaction with books is a great way for children to learn and be engaged, and just as there are pop-up books, and books you can touch to feel textures, and books that have animal noises included, I feel like Demibook's Composer is just the natural and highly convenient next step when it comes to digital books. A step that will undoubtedly allow authors to expand their story and add a layer of creativity that a physical book by itself could never have contained.

For those of you who are interested in writing and creating interactive children's books (and have an iPad), the app is supposed to be free for a limited time, which is quite cool.