E-books may Thrive

The Internet has rendered obsolete a lot of things we held dear in the past.

Email is a convenient replacement for snail mail while land line telephones have been shoved aside by text messaging and BlackBerry devices.

But for some mothers in the city, the rise of e-books has not killed the habit of reading books to their children.

These mothers are carrying on the tradition of familiarizing their children with printed books.

For Erna Yusnita, the mother of 4-year-old Faqih, nothing could replace the traditional way of teaching reading and writing, despite the plethora of teaching aids offered by the Internet and gadgets.

“My son is learning about letters and how to spell, and since I want to develop his interest in books I bought him puzzles and popped-up books to help him learn to read,” she said, adding that she also bought her son storybooks.

Fariq seemed to like the books although he could not read them himself, Erna said.

She said she hoped that with so many books around him, Faqih could develop an interest in books.

Mother of two Ilian Deta also swears by the same method.

She always returns home with picture books so her sons could enjoy them, even if they cannot read them yet.

“They love the pictures in the books and are very fond of me reading out to them,” she said.

A number of educational websites are claiming that to develop reading habits in children, parents should establish a routine of reading them stories.

They claim the method not only increases vocabulary, it makes children want to read by themselves. The habit also trains children to listen to their parents, they add.

Reading books is also essential because not only can it be fun, it also sharpens the child’s eye for spelling.

There are some who voice reservations about promoting early computer literacy, citing negative side effects and the massive amount of information on the internet that could overwhelm children.

Books also have a special place in the heart. It entails a certain romanticism that cannot be replaced by the glaring screen of an iPad or the monochrome Kindle.

Fransisca Yuliasari believes printed books would continue to have loyal readers.

“The advantages of printed books is that they are easily accessed by more people and it is easier on the eyes as well,” she said.

Data from www.internetworldstats.com showed that in 2010, 30 million of Indonesia’s 242 million people in 2010 had access to the Internet, or 12.5 percent of the population.

It may be easier for people in large cities to access information on the Internet, but people living in remote areas may not have such privileges, Francisca said.

“These people in remote areas certainly have access only to printed books,” she said.

But one certainty is that people will have problems collecting e-books, Francisca added.

“Other than the romantic feeling we get from books, printed books can become collector’s items.”

Apple fans line up to buy first batch of iPad 2s

The updated version of Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer went on sale Friday afternoon, and was greeted by the now-familiar lines of buyers outside Apple stores.

The Cupertino company opened online sales of the iPad 2 at 4 a.m. local time, well before they became available in East Coast stores at 5 p.m. They were set to go on sale nationwide at the same hour, local time.

Apple fans, as usual, were eager to get their hands on the device as they waited at the company's Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York. The line of customers, including some who traveled from Japan and Russia, snaked through the street-level plaza above the subterranean store while bystanders gawked at the crowd.

Employees cheered from inside the store as iPad buyers entered. Alex Shumilov, a customer who traveled from Moscow to snag two iPads, emerged first, beaming while holding one tablet in each hand. The trendy device won't go on sale outside the U.S. for another two weeks.

When the original version of the iPad debuted 11 months ago, Apple said it sold more than 300,000 in the first day. It ended up selling more than 15 million in the first nine months, including 7.3 million to holiday shoppers in the October-December quarter.

The new iPad model comes with several improvements over the original version but the same price tag - $499 to $829, depending on storage space and whether they can connect to the Internet over a cellular network. Analysts believe the improvement would make it more difficult for rivals to break Apple's hold on the emerging market for tablet computers.

The iPad 2 looks much like the first iPad, only with a sleeker, lighter body and a curved back. Among changes is the inclusion of cameras for videoconferencing, one on the front and one on the back.

With the original iPad, Apple proved there is a large market for a tablet that's less than a laptop and more than a smart phone, yet performs many of the same tasks. Competitors including Dell Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. have been trying to lure consumers with smaller tablets, without much success. In February, Motorola Mobility Inc.'s Xoom went on sale with a new version of Google Inc.'s Android software designed especially for tablets.

Underscoring the importance of the iPad to the world's most valuable technology company, Apple CEO Steve Jobs emerged from a medical leave earlier this month to unveil the new version to bloggers and Apple enthusiasts. Jobs, 56, announced in January that he would take his third leave of absence in seven years to focus on his health. During that time, he has survived a rare but curable form of pancreatic cancer and undergone a liver transplant.

After its U.S. launch Friday, the iPad 2 goes on sale March 25 in 26 other markets, including Mexico, New Zealand, Spain and other European countries.


From : The Jakarta Post