Multi-touch digital books for iPhone and iPad

Digital books continue to thrive thanks to Amazon’s Kindle and other such devices. However, whereas most e-books still adhere to many of the conventions of reading online, Push Pop Press is a startup that aims to do away with much of that and put multi-touch manipulation at the forefront. Based in San Francisco, Push Pop Press is still gearing up to launch its new digital book line for iPhone and iPad. What it aims to deliver, however, are books that let readers explore photos, videos, music, maps and interactive graphics through a new physics-based multi-touch user interface. There are no status or tab bars taking up space; rather, the entire screen is filled by content, Daring Fireball reports. Users manipulate each book by swiping and pinching; to play a video, they simply tap play and it does so in place, for example. When the user zooms in or out on a video, the zooming tracks the pinching of their fingers “precisely and instantly”. In short, whereas “Kindle and iBooks seem to have the goal of reproducing what is possible in paper books,” Push Pop seeks to discover what can be done “with the idea of a ‘book’ if we eliminate the limitations of ink and paper, rather than mimic them,” the review concludes. Push Pop’s first title will be available for iPad and iPhone later this year. One to get involved in early? (Related: Book-video hybrid delivers a new reading experience — Japanese service enables e-book creation on demand — Free e-book streaming and sharing with ad support.) Spotted by: Jenn Hertzig