User:Goodwrite/miBook

miBook is an electronic book that uses text, video clips, images, and sound to explore subjects. Early miBooks have included cookbooks, pregnancy and parenting guides, and home guides for decorating, gardening, repairs, and projects. miBooks reside on small cards that play on a miBook player, a portable electronic device featuring a full-color 7" LCD screen.

miBooks are related to text-oriented ebooks like those playing on the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and Barnes & Noble Nook since they all move the reading experience to a screen, but they differ in one significant respect. While text-oriented ebooks reproduce the words of a traditional book, miBooks go beyond words, using video clips, images, words, and sounds to create a more multimedia presentation of the subject. While not particularly important in the case of a novel, this type of presentation may help someone more easily grasp how to cook a recipe, play a musical instrument, or comprehend what it's like to fight on the front lines of a war.

miBooks allow users to interact with the subject matter. For example, miBook cookbooks pause automatically after showing a step in a recipe and will continue only after users indicate they've completed that step. Similarly, miBook cookbooks will recommend recipes once users indicate the main ingredient they are in the mood for, their preferred cooking method (grill, bake, etc.), and the amount of time they have available for cooking.

The company producing miBooks has partnerships with book publishers and television networks, including The Food Network, HGTV, DIY Network, and Parents TV, who provide some of the material and celebrities appearing in miBooks. miBooks are distributed by major retailers and e-tailers, including Best Buy and Amazon.

miBooks were first announced in the latter part of 2008. After initial test marketing, the player was enhanced, early miBooks were remastered with a lower compression rate to enhance their visual quality, and the product line was launched in 2009. miBooks are produced by miBook LLC, a consumer electronics company in Ohio. Retails are $19.99 for miBooks and $69.99 for the miBook player.