Ok. First blush reaction to the latest O’Reilly Press title “Best iPad Apps” was that it although timely it would quickly grow dated and the premise seemed best suited to a periodical magazine or website than a book. But…I was prepared to be convinced that the editors at O’Reilly had made a correct and in fact bold move with this title. The premise of the book is to excite users about the amazing things they can do with their new iPad by identifying the best apps available to take advantage of the revolutionary device.
The book is very high quality, and the prose is wonderfully lively prose – not words that I would typically use to describe a techie publication. The organization of the book is logical, breaking into product categories similar to those in the App Store. categories such as At Work, At Leisure or At Home seem sensible. I am a little unsure though about how At Leisure differs from at Play. Maybe it does, but it’s a rather subtle distinction. What this leads to is the use of the book as a browse rather than search reference. This is not necessarily a bad thing and in fact I would expect that this book is in fact a superb selling device for apps on the store. I would be unsurprised where Apple to license the ebook and make it available to iPad buyers as a catalogue. The tendency however would be to work through the book from start to finish rather than refer to it when one wanted to find a particular app to suit a particular need.
Each page features a separate application featuring a screen shot of the application, a short summary of the application and a couple callouts highlighting the special features of the app. Apps are characterized as being best in their class (unfortunately another aspect I fear will become dated). As a reader/user however, I would appreciate knowing a few of the other contenders for that title so I might investigate an make the decision for myself.
Overall I would describe the experience of this new O’Reilly book as playful. It’s lively, colourful and fun to read. The information contained within is useful and well presented. On the downside it will quickly grow dated as new and more exciting applications are made available.
