chip cullen graphics freelancer

Since everyone and their brother seems to know what Apple will unvail tomorrow; I figure i should join the fun.

I hear from the guy standing next to me on the Metro that his cousin saw the device in a dream and that it shoots unicorns out the front. Then I remembered that I should probably keep my headphones in.

I think that one of the most compelling nuggets of information floating around is that Apple has made content deals with book publishers like HarperCollins. The obvious application is that the tablet would be a device for e-books. $8.99 – here’s that novel you never read in 11th grade.

What I think would be more compelling is a premium fee for all of the books in a given imprint. $199 and you can read all of the romance books you can stomach. Seriously, though – what if there is a whole series of technical reference books that could suddenly have at your fingertips? Browser-based versions of just such a service exist; but the UX leaves a lot to be desired.

As a designer, the related facet of this idea of e-books is how they are designed. Right now, on devices such as the Kindle, e-books are little more than copy/paste jobs. If this is a full color tablet – imagine what layouts could look like. I’m sure typography will be a tricky issue, but not moreso than it is currently on the web. But step by step illustrations would suddenly be much more compelling. Why not embedded video, too?

What could be most intriguing is how much will it affect the way we consume information. I can’t wait to find out.