“Last week the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals one of the next chapters for Apple’s iBooks,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“For children’s books, Apple has devised a number of new gesture options to make reading more fun and interactive. One such gesture will allow a child to tap on a word and have an associated picture, animation or video pop-up to make that word come to life. For those learning a foreign language, Apple has devised a gesture to have a word present itself in the student’s native language so as to quicken the learning process,” Purcher reports. “Apple’s ideas also seem to cross over to electronic magazines where tapping on certain words could pop up a related widget. For example, when reading a financial magazine article on Apple, tapping on its NASDAQ symbol would automatically open a financial widget showing Apple’s current stock price.”
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Purcher reports, “Yet where Apple’s patent application really shines is in its description of a new chip that future iOS devices could end up adopting.”
Much more in the full article, including Apple’s patent application illustrations, here.
Minority Report springs to mind again.
That new chip sounds interesting and full of potential from TV to GPS in malls. The ibook update could be great for kids books and students learning a foreign language. C’est bon.
Apple’s new iOS embedded chip is so smart that a 3-D picture of Ballmer will pop up if you flip the bird at the iPhone screen.
Nice find. I expect Apple’s ios devices to take on cutting edge technology and Apple’s one of the few companies that could develop the right apps for it. The race is now on to who will be first with this technology for portables. I’d sure love to be Rosum right now!
Sounds a lot like a hyperlink.
Yeah. Sounds like Hyperlinked *advertising*! WooHooo! Go Apple!
It sounds like you stay on the same page that you’re on so it’s not a classic hyperlink in most cases. Plus it could add audio and video above what you’re reading.