This afternoon I had an opportunity to have a live preview of PadWorx Digital Media’s upcoming iPad app Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition.  Based on what I saw, I think the iPad will be a game changer in the ebook industry, with its multimedia capabilities that are absent from traditional e-readers such as the Kindle or Nook.   One of the first ebook applications that took advantage of that was Alice, based on Alice in Wonderland, where there were interactive elements to the story, such as a bottle you could move around the screen.  It was more of an element to play with as you were reading the story.   PadWorx Digital Media will be soon releasing their version of Dracula for the iPad which brings it to an entirely new level.   I had a live demo from Jeff Schechter, director and producer at PadWorx Digital Media, who showed me some of the features of the book.

Dracula is truly an interactive multimedia experience. The reader HAS to interact with the book in order to continue with the story.    An example is on a page where there is talk about the need for a blood transfusion. There is a clear tube running across the text and white space below,  with the tube and needle at the end of it.  The user needs to touch the needle image and hold a finger down, which causes blood to travel slowly through the tube, revealing additional text.   Hold the finger there too long, and the text gets blurry as if the reader has lost too much blood.   In Jeff’s words, “the story needs the reader as much as the reader needs the story”.   The interactivity uses all the iPad’s functionality, which allows for a more powerful experience.   Dracula also contains a number of impressive easter eggs that rivals any DVD, enriching and extending the reader’s involvement with the book.

In an age where television and spending time on the computer often reduces the desire to read a book Dracula will draw users expecting interactive multimedia into the reading experience .   This app is more designed for entertainment versus academic use (there is no place to take notes) or a straight reading of the book(text size and font can’t be changed, and you must go through the interactive elements). As an experience, though, it is gorgeous, cinematic, well-designed and engaging.  Once released, I hope to get my hands on the application to provide a full review.