Two weeks ago I started Italian lessons which was organised via work and an external tutor. For the course we were following a book called Talk Italian by BBC Active. I found a very good deal on the book from Amazon for £7.44 which included the book and the 2 course CDs and free delivery.
3 lessons on and 2 weeks later I am still waiting on delivery for item which was expected to arrive on 16 December. I know that eventually it will be delivered and this blog post is not a rant about the UK, lack of infrastructure and being unable to cope with snow.
But it got me thinking. I own several electronic devices such as an iPhone, iPad and MacBook and previously had an ebook reader. However I could not find for the life of me either a digital version of the course book or an mp3 download of the CDs as a legal purchase or torrent which I could have used on the course as I have all of the peripherals put them on.
I can see christmas 2011 being different from this year as 2010 has shown one thing about online shopping. You are still at the mercy of the weather and local delivery companies. For one thing next year I will prepare a lot earlier when purchasing presents or elect to purchase gifts that don't rely on local infrastructure for delivery.
As we move to a more connected world with devices to enjoy media such as the kindle for books, ipad for media consumption and the ipod for music. The major companies who control the actual content need to drastically change and not hold back and allow it to be used on all of these devices. Prices need to become more realistic to reflect that there is no physical item for example ebooks costing more than their paper counterparts. They also need to ensure that older content is available digitally. People will always want the physical content as it feels like they have purchased something that they can hold. Whereas if it was digitally available it could be delivered even in adverse weather conditions and at times like now when I really need it and can really benefit from using it whilst on my course.
I now get all of my magazine subscriptions via zinio, use google reader for my news catchup and twitter for news alerts. I cannot remember the last time when I purchased a magazine to read and am already contemplating another iPad as my other half uses the one we currently have.
There's nothing special about the iPad, it is a large iPhone but as a package I just works. There will be many more tablets next year such as the palm pad, the blackberry pad and numerous android tablets. Irrespective which side of the fence you are on, one thing that will happen is they will change the way we consume media but only and I stress only if we can get hold of it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
3 lessons on and 2 weeks later I am still waiting on delivery for item which was expected to arrive on 16 December. I know that eventually it will be delivered and this blog post is not a rant about the UK, lack of infrastructure and being unable to cope with snow.
But it got me thinking. I own several electronic devices such as an iPhone, iPad and MacBook and previously had an ebook reader. However I could not find for the life of me either a digital version of the course book or an mp3 download of the CDs as a legal purchase or torrent which I could have used on the course as I have all of the peripherals put them on.
I can see christmas 2011 being different from this year as 2010 has shown one thing about online shopping. You are still at the mercy of the weather and local delivery companies. For one thing next year I will prepare a lot earlier when purchasing presents or elect to purchase gifts that don't rely on local infrastructure for delivery.
As we move to a more connected world with devices to enjoy media such as the kindle for books, ipad for media consumption and the ipod for music. The major companies who control the actual content need to drastically change and not hold back and allow it to be used on all of these devices. Prices need to become more realistic to reflect that there is no physical item for example ebooks costing more than their paper counterparts. They also need to ensure that older content is available digitally. People will always want the physical content as it feels like they have purchased something that they can hold. Whereas if it was digitally available it could be delivered even in adverse weather conditions and at times like now when I really need it and can really benefit from using it whilst on my course.
I now get all of my magazine subscriptions via zinio, use google reader for my news catchup and twitter for news alerts. I cannot remember the last time when I purchased a magazine to read and am already contemplating another iPad as my other half uses the one we currently have.
There's nothing special about the iPad, it is a large iPhone but as a package I just works. There will be many more tablets next year such as the palm pad, the blackberry pad and numerous android tablets. Irrespective which side of the fence you are on, one thing that will happen is they will change the way we consume media but only and I stress only if we can get hold of it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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