The future of travel guidebooks on tablet devices

Whether you are in love with them or utterly indifferent, tablet devices such as the iPad are set to be a significant part of the hardware armoury for consumers in the coming years.

Travel guides and apps are seemingly launching at a rapid rate in 2011, attempting to make use of the touchscreen flexibility of the device and large screens (at least for a “mobile” device).

But has the humble travel guide really made good use of the technology and capability of devices such as the iPad?

Those creating such guides would say yes, of course, but others are sceptical.

Here, in a presentation to the TED conference in March 2011, software developer Mike Matas demonstrates what he claims is the first full-length interactive book for the iPad.

The example used is Our Choice, Al Gore’s sequel to An Inconvenient Truth – but the opportunities for travel guides are extremely obvious, and exciting.

tnooz.com