Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2010 Issue

iPad: Avenue to the Attention Age?

The iPad, with an example of the on-screen keyboard displayed

The iPad, with an example of the on-screen keyboard displayed

In my previous article, I started to talk about the Attention Age. People are participating with the Internet, rather than just watching and taking. It is also going mobile. Laptops have been around for a long time now. Smartphones have already taken the corporate world and with the help of the iPhone, are moving to consumers. And now, Apple has announced a product that continues the mobile trend. I'm talking about the iPad.

I decided to write about the iPad specifically because I believe it has a clear place for the demographic that dominates the Americana Exchange. I'm 23, so I'm referring to the generation or two preceding mine. The Attention Age is taking off around the world, but until now there's been a semi-steep learning curve for those just getting a feel for it. I think the iPad could bring in the stragglers behind and on the fringes of the movement.

While the iPad hasn't been released, and thus I haven't put my hands on one, it does run the iPhone operating system which I've had much experience with being a first and second-generation iPhone customer.

To catch anyone up who doesn't know, the iPad Apple announced resembles an oversized, more squared-off iPhone or iPod Touch. It is a touch-screen only (no built-in keyboard) tablet computer. It's 9.56" tall by 7.47" wide; with a viewable screen size 9.7" diagonally. It weighs 1.5 lbs. So it's smaller and lighter than the average laptop, and obviously bigger than a phone. It'll fit into a largish purse and obviously briefcases and other bags.

Let's talk about screen size first. An iPhone has a 3.5" diagonal screen. This is also on the larger size for smartphones - my own Blackberry Curve's screen is maybe half that? Compared to the iPad's 9.7", I can tell you which platform either of my parents would prefer. Here's a hint: they both wear glasses for either distance or reading. The iPad also packs the iPhone & iPod Touch's multi-touch (aka multi-finger touch-screen gestures which produce different results) technology so zooming in when needed is a cinch: take two fingers and spread them in opposite directions.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Bibliotheca Brookeriana:
    A Renaissance Library. The Aldine Collection D-M
    18 October 2024
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Herodianus Syrus, Herodiani Historiarum, Venice, Heirs of Aldo & Torresano, 1524, Parisian binding for Jean Grolier by Jean Picard, ca. 1540
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Musaeus, Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, Venice, Aldo, 1495 (Greek text), interleaved with 1497–1498 (Latin text), English olive morocco by Charles Lewis, the Botfield copy
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Horatius Flaccus, Horatius, Venice, Aldo, 1501, Bolognese brown goatskin (between 1501 and 1503), arms of Mino Rossi and illuminated initials throughout
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Lucretius, De rerum natura, Venice, Aldo, 1500, English early eighteenth-century red morocco, the Fletcher copy
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Dante, Le terze rime, Venice, Aldo, 1502, illuminated, contemporary Bolognese morocco binding
  • Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: CATESBY, MARK. 1683-1749. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. $100,000 - $150,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES. 1785-1851. The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: ADAMS ON HIS PEAR TREES AND A LOST PORTRAIT BY SALEM ARTIST HANNAH CROWNINSHIELD. ADAMS, JOHN. 1735-1826. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: EARLIEST MAP DEVOTED TO NORTH AMERICA. FORLANI, PAULO. fl.1560-1571. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: HAMILTON DEFENDS THE CONSTITUTION. HAMILTON, ALEXANDER. 1757-1804. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION BROADSIDE. Boston, September 14, 1768. $5,000 - $8,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: ONE OF THE EARLIEST ILLUSTRATIONS OF A SURGICAL PROCEDURE. BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: RICHARD FEYNMAN'S ANNOTATED COPY, WITH TWO EARLY FEYNMAN AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN COMPUTING. TURING, ALAN MATHISON. 1912-1954. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: FINE OIL PORTRAIT OF ALBERT EINSTEIN BY EUGEN SPIRO. $40,000 - $60,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: PENICILLIN MOLD MEDALLION INSCRIBED BY ALEXANDER FLEMING. FLEMING, ALEXANDER. 1881-1955. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: APPLE "TWIGGY" MACINTOSH PROTOTYPE USED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMONSTRATION SOFTWARE. $80,000 - $120,000
  • Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 24:
    A Superb Extra-illustrated Copy of Nicolay and Hay’s Work About Lincoln. $50,000 – 70,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 24:
    The First Volume of De Bry's Great Voyages, Thomas Hariot's Description of Virginia. $50,000 – 70,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 24:
    An autographed cabinet card of Custer as lieutenant colonel. From his last sitting. $800 – 1,200.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 24:
    The Congressional Committee, Lincoln's Funeral Springfield Illinois, 3 May 1865. $4,000 – 6,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 25:
    A remarkable ninth plate daguerreotype of an interracial couple. $30,000 – 50,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 25:
    What may be the earliest known images of an identified plantation and enslaved African Americans posed with their owner. $20,000 – 30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 25:
    Through Tickets to All Principal Points West Via Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad For Sale at This Office. $20,000 – 30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 25:
    15th New York Infantry / Regiment of Engineers GAR regimental colors. Ca 1880. $1,500 – 2,500.
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    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
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    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
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