The best thing about reading a book on a tablet (so far) is how closely it approximates reading a “real” book — which is why the Kindle’s screen is matte like paper rather than luminescent like a laptop. Some (not all) fear for the demise of real reading and writing, but it’s more likely we’re really at the leading edge of an innovation curve that could breathe new life into the written word.
For example: What if those written words were watching you reading them and making adjustments accordingly? Eye-tracking technology and processor-packed tablets promise to react, based on how you’re looking at text — where you pause, how you stare, where you stop reading altogether — in a friction-reducing implementation of the Observer Effect. The act of reading will change what you are reading.
This one's pretty curious. I doubt I'm going to like it too much; my dedicated reading time is before I go to sleep. As I grow more and more sleepy, my ability to focus changes. I sometimes close one eye or the other to focus better on the words. If definitions kept popping up I think I'd go crazy. On the other hand, if the technology was sensitive enough... definitions might help, particularly late at night when I don't feel like hauling myself out of bed to look something up in my gigantic dictionary.
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