1.26.16 - From Printed to Digital Text

I would like to focus your attention on Figure 1 of the right hand side of the page. Now I know you are probably thinking that this may be the new Gameboy Deluxe XXL. But this is not. This is the Rocket eBook, which was one of the first devices to be exclusively built as a electronic book, or "e-reader"

for short. In Jay Bolter's book Writing Space, he discusses in Chapter 5 "The Electric Book" how the text has progressed from being read on the papyrus roll to the now portable and lightweight e-book.

Well, maybe not this one at least.

Now for those of us who were born before the age of cassette players, the more familiar version of an e-book can be seen in Figure 2. That's right. The iPad. Not only did it excel in the looks department than the Rocket eBook, but it also includes multiple functions that e-reading only a fraction of what it can

actually do. From checking email, to surfving the web, and even watching Youtube videos, the iPad is one of the ultimate physical platforms to experience "hypertext", which is described as an interactive text that includes hyperlinks to outside sources in order to gain more contextual information.

And in a world where the web is full of information, it's not a bad idea to have access that information with a touch of a button.