Author: vetsch andrew a.

Audiobooks on Smart Devices

Book Proposal

A lot of people do not read because they do not have the time. When it comes to entertainment at home, people prefer to watch something rather than read. After all, it seems that there is less work involved with watching something when reading requires more active effort. There are people who read in spite of that effort. But there are also people who do not want to put in that type of effort.

So how do we counter that? By creating a way for people to read books without making them require that amount of effort. How do we do that? Audiobooks.

Audiobooks are not only effective for giving time for people to read, but they also help improve reading comprehension. Weareteachers.com writes that audiobooks allow school “students to hear explicit sounds and letters and letter patterns that form words.” They help readers engage with the text by improving their vocabulary. A lot of people prefer to watch movies instead of reading books. So, if they can follow stories by seeing and listening to them, then surely audiobooks will make a great alternative for readers.

People enjoy reading audiobooks anyway. Often times, the narrator of an audiobook is the author. If you were an active reader, wouldn’t you like to read books read by the author?

Some people, of course, do not consider listening to audiobooks actual reading. To them, reading is a visual aspect, while audiobooks are a hearing aspect. However, that is not the case. Audiobooks are considered reading because they are a form of processing information. Reading books is about understanding the content of a book. Audiobooks fulfill that rule. A passion for reading should not dictate the rules as to what type of reading counts.

However, audiobooks create a different experience for readers. It is neither better nor worse than physically reading. When readers read books, they look at letters on a page and their brain responds to those letters. Our own brains generate the voices we feel are right for the characters. Reading a physical book is a more personal experience because the reader’s inner voice is responsible for generating emotions. Audiobooks, on the other hand, create an image in the reader’s head. They are envisioning their own reaction of a book as the audiobook plays in the background. They are less a personal experience because there is a physical voice that can be direct towards how a reader is supposed to feel. If the narrator sounds angry, the listener will feel angry. If the narrator feels cheerful, so will the listener.

But the difference between physical reading and actual reading should not deter consumers away from audiobooks. Audiobooks are superior to physical reading to the extent they are can be used for multitasking.

An add-on audiobook feature for Echo is a great way to make consumers read books more. One of the most common reasons readers say they do not have time to read is because they have work to do. Sometimes the amount of work they have will take them all day. But sometimes work gets boring. So when work gets dull, what do people tend to do? They listen to music. Others listen to podcasts. People listen to music or podcasts because they provide them a great way to pass the time. There are plenty of people that are good at multitasking. They can pay attention to both the music and their work. Audible with Alexas capitalizes on this because if people can listen to music or podcasts, why would they hesitate to listen to an audiobook? Audible with Alexa makes time for readers to read because now they can do it while they are doing work. When they read a physical book, readers have to give the book their undivided attention to get the full experience. Now that readers can listen to audiobooks whenever they can, there is no excuse for readers to say they do not have time to read.

Now is work the only time people listen to music or podcasts? Nope. People listen to both music and podcasts when they commute to their jobs. People have listened to the radio almost as early as the invention of the car. Drivers listen to either music or news radio. Sometimes they do both.

They also listen to music or podcasts when doing daily activities. A lot of people like to listen to music when they exercise. Or when they cook. Or how about gardening? Consumers have made it a habit to make sure they are listening to good music to pass the time.

So why not throw audiobooks into the picture?

If there are consumers who can listen to audiobooks, then why should there be doubt this is an ineffective market?

But then what about the actual market for audiobooks? Is this an effective market?

Audiobooks themselves have proven effective to consumers who say they have little to no time to read. Audiobooks have proven to help struggling readers make time to read. They help consumers read as they work, cook, walk, run, rest, or any other daily activities. Even for avid readers, finding time to read is a challenge. As a result, they turn to audiobooks as a convenient alternative to reading a regular paperback. And there is a wide variety of audiobooks for consumers to choose from. It is not like only a selected few books are available in the audiobook format. Every book has its own version on audiobook. Some of them are recorded by their own authors. Lots of readers enjoy reading books narrated by their own authors because it makes them feel as if they are having a conversation with them.

What is another reason people love audiobooks–pronunciation.

You know when you read a book that contains names you do not recognize. Do you ever wonder if your inner voice is pronouncing the name right? If you read a fantasy book, there are settings and names of spells that readers have to pronounce right. Some readers feel embarrassed about mispronouncing a character’s name because they love them so much.

Audiobooks are a great way for readers to be assured if their inner voice is pronouncing the name of a character correctly. Pronunciations in reading matters because readers need to pronounce words correctly if they are to be good readers. Sometimes the pronunciation of a character’s name can spark debate among a fanbase. Remember when readers debated the pronunciation of Harry Potter’s Hermione Granger. It took J.K. Rowling herself to clarify on Twitter that Hermione’s is pronounced  Her-My-O-Nee, not Hermy-Own.

This is also why audiobooks have proven effective in teaching children to read.

One of the reasons some kids struggle with reading is pronunciation. Elementary school teachers play audiobooks for students because they help them learn how to pronounce the printed words of a book.

Another reason readers love audiobooks–they prefer the sound of someone else’s voice instead of their own. Lots of readers find it cool when authors read their own work. Especially if it is poetry. Listening to different voices expands people’s cognitive sense of how people sound.

The project is an add-on feature to consumer’s voice-controlled personal assistants. Consumer’s Echo or Google Home will be able to play audiobooks at any time they choose to do so. The names of the feature will vary, depending on the device that is being used. For Amazon Echo, it will be Audible with Alexa. For Google Home, the name will be Auto-Reading at Google Home. The remainder of this article will refer specifically to Audible with Alexa.
This is a little similar to Screen time. Screentime helps limit the amount of time users spend on their iPhone, Audible with Alexa will play at a certain time the users set. At that time, Alexa will only read to you unless in the event of an emergency, or if the user places in a different time beforehand. Once the time is set, the smart device will do nothing but read aloud for however long the consumer set. The consumer can cancel the read if he or she needs to make an emergency phone call.

Users can change the volume. They can also change the language of their Alexa to Spanish, French, Chinese, etc. They can even change the type of voice from either a man’s or a woman’s. Some people do not listen to audiobooks because they usually are not in the right voice. For some people, the wrong voice can make listening to an audiobook too irritating. That is why it is imperative that the different types of voices be included in the feature. Audiobook listeners like listening to a well-narrated audiobook because it makes them feel enthusiastic about coming back to it once they are done with their work.

Furthermore, a feature that allows users to control the pacing of an audiobook would also be helpful. People tend to not listen to audiobooks because they worry about the pacing. Sometimes they find it too fast or too slow. Readers tend to prefer reading physical books because they are fast readers. They like to be done with a book so they can read the next one. An audiobook, they argue, can only go at its own pace. An audiobook can take up to six hours to finish. But several readers are already having trouble finding time to read in the first place so they will take a long while to finish reading a physical copy. By the time they finish reading the physical copy to a 300-page book, audiobook listeners will have gone through three books by that time.

Another issue that this resolves is affordability. The feature is a free add-on because consumers are already paying for audiobooks. Audiobooks are expensive. Even libraries find audiobooks too pricey to carry a vast collection for its users. Once users add this feature, they are given the ability to choose three audiobooks for free.

A prominent philosopher proves why people would love this feature. Marshall McLuhan wrote how people use technology as an extension of their bodies. A TV is an extension of the eyes. A radio is an extension of the ear. An Amazon Alexa or Google Home is an extension of the ear and the mouth. Consumers use the home devices by issuing a vocal command and they listen to Alexa’s response.

McLuhan, in Chapter 7 of his novel, Understanding Media, he believed that the medium through which messages are transmitted shapes and structures one’s cognitive experience in the world. In other words, people’s reliance on technologies as extensions of themselves. McLuhan examined the role of electronic media. He provides speculation on how these extensions affect the physiology and psychology of humans. The effects of media on society, McLuhan argued, take place through the interactions of media with the human brain.

People see the Amazon Echo or Google Home as an extension of their bodies. They are an extension of their voices because it works by voice-command. They are an extension of the ear because it can play music. They are an extension of the legs because they help order items from the internet to ship to their home, rather than traveling to the store to purchase them.

As a result, these smart speakers influence humans’ cognitive ability to rely on their devices to perform their work or make them easier.

McLuhan also wrote that we view technology as a landscape that grows, changes, and evolves. Almost any form of technology is an evolution of a preexisting invention. The Echo, therefore, could be an evolution of the radio. An Amazon Echo may as well be a radio with a voice command.

Smart devices work by generating data from consumers. One common feature people use the Google Home for is to change the temperature of the house at different times. It does this by analyzing the temperatures throughout the day and computes them into data. That way, the devices know the temperature it needs to set to satisfy the needs of the consumer.

This helps with the add-on feature because the device will collect data on the time consumers will listen to their audiobook, how fast they want the narrator to tell the story, the type of voice they want to listen to.

An add-on audiobook feature for smart devices is a great, effective way to get consumers to read more. Reading is an important skill everyone needs to have. But it is not like people can just read a few books and say they are readers. They need to be more proactive. They need to keep up with reading books not because they need to be able to join discussions or keep up with the general public. But because reading will help strengthen everyone’s cognitive abilities, expand their vocabulary, and make them better writers.

Audiobooks count as reading because, even though they are a different experience than physical reading, they are effective alternatives to reading books. They are a great addition to people that like to read. Listening to audiobooks is not solely an alternative. It can be. But listening to audiobooks on top of physically reading is a great way for readers to make time to read more books. Audiobooks make people better readers because it broadens the ways they interact with art.

WORKS CITED:

  • Lee, Dana. “Audiobooks vs Reading: The Rules Are, There Are No Rules.” BOOK RIOT, 22 Nov. 2018, bookriot.com/2018/07/10/audiobooks-vs-reading/.
  • Louise, Gretchen. “Top 10 Reasons We Love Audiobooks.” Gretchen Louise, 2 Jan. 2018, gretchenlouise.com/why-audiobooks/.
  • McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. MIT Press, 1997.

 

Visiting Writer

I am unable to attend the actual event of Carlos Hernandez due to a night class. However, since my creative capstone class is offering us to have lunch with the writer, I believe that will suffice.

Gerald S. Majer sets up the lunch gathering for us students so that we have the opportunity to ask an author questions about from learning to express creativity to getting published. It is at 1 p.m. at the world languages room over at Greenspring.

As the students munch on potatoes and salad, they ask Carlos Hernandez about how he became a writer as well as his upcoming short story collection with Disney Hyperion. He discusses the conflicts he had with other publishers about his work and learning to approach story elements from different angles.

Then, Carlos has us write down ideas for a story. Ideas that drive us. Ideas that ignite our inner creativity. I look at my sheet. What drives my creativity? Something that makes me excited to write? Carlos wants us to write something science-fiction related. Well, I think to myself, there is this one science fiction element I have had on my mind. I take my pencil and jot that one idea–artificial intelligence.

Now, what would make a good story surrounding artificial intelligence? Where would I take this idea? Something about the person that creates A.I.? Something that is about how we give away our identities, our protection?

Unfortunately, I fail to come up with something good by the time Carlos has the students share what we wrote.

One student wrote robots. Another wrote empathy. They get to me. I tell Carlos I wrote down artificial intelligence, but I failed to come up with a direction to take the idea.

“That is a great topic”, he says.

“So, then what drew you to the topic?”

I look at my sheet of paper and brush my hair in frustration.

“Security. How we become increasingly reliant on it,” I say.

“Okay,” he says. “Why don’t you work on that. It’s a great topic.”

I stay silent and nod my head.

Then Carlos dismisses us.

My experience with Carlos was interesting. It was impressive that I got to talk to a published author about writing. It gave me a good insight on how to write compelling fiction.

Writing compelling fiction is not about putting your weight on a compelling premise. It is about doing something with the idea you create. In other words, Hernandez taught me that it is not what a story does, it is how it executes its ideas.

Stationery Printing

Stationery printing helped shrink the world by making it more efficient by helping to spread new ideas across the globe.

Stationers were originally developed by the Egyptians. They developed the form of parchment, which was made from very thin animal skins. Only the wealthy could afford parchment paper at the time. It also had its drawbacks; the parchment was limed but not tanned like leather. As a result, the parchment easily split and did not handle humidity. So the Egyptians turned to papyrus (“Papyrus”). Papyrus held up better than parchment because it did not mold and held up better in humidity. Papyrus would go on to be used throughout Europe in the 12th century. But papyrus was very costly because it had to be imported (James “History”).

Ts’ai Lun is credited for inventing paper. He utilized the inner bark of a mulberry tree and combined this with bamboo fibers (James “History”). He then mixed water with the bark and fibers, pounded them, and left them on a woven cloth for the water to drain. Eventually, the Chinese replaced wood and bamboo with linen fibers. The linen fibers were higher in quality (“Papyrus”).

Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the printing press. His machine eliminated the process of writing by hand as a reproduction of documents could be handled more proficiently. This created a substantial demand for paper (James “History”).

By the early 1800s, the United States had over 180 paper mills. This created hundreds of jobs such as stationery printers. As the USA became more proponent through mining, oil drilling, and lumber processing, there was an increase in wealth. As a result of the increase in wealth, the desire for supplies of a higher quality standard of printing became higher. The stationery consisted of many different items such as monogrammed paper. A monogrammed paper was used for letters, notes, and announcements. People used monogrammed paper to request wedding invitations, birth announcements, and other documents (James “History”).

As technological advances continued through the 1900s in the United States, stationery printing became more proponent. One way stationery printing adapted to the technological advances was color printing. Stationery printing expanded to produce greeting cards, color paper, event announcements, sales documents, and calling cards. By the mid-19th century, stationery printers were sophisticated enough to produce their documents faster and efficiently. Stationery printers began to produce brochures, flyers, and business cards (James “History”).

Today, stationery printers are now considered printing companies. They offer full-service printing, including digital processing (“Papyrus”). Marketing plans are dependent on printed materials produced by stationery printers. Consumers also use stationery printers to produce albums, books, signage, tablets, cards, magazines, and school supplies.

In the modern world, stationery printing comes in various forms.

One form of stationery printing is letter printing. Letter printing is one of the oldest forms of stationery printing. It has been used as early as the 15th century for printing pamphlets, books, pictures, and other printed documents. The process of letter printing consists of using molds of letters and designs along with ink to press them onto thick paper, leaving the paper indented. However, letter printing is not frequently used as it is one of the most costly printing methods (Ashleigh, “7 Types”).

Another form of stationery printing is offset printing. Offset printing, also referred to as flat printing, is similar to digital printing; it creates a flat but detailed end result. The process is done by stamping the image onto the paper using ink on a metal, paper or rubber plate. Flat printing is considered very resourceful because it can be used with several different types of paper (Ashleigh, “7 Types”).

Engraving is a form of stationery printing that, like stationery printing, has been around for centuries. Engraved printing is made when ink is applied to etched indents on copper plates known as “dies”. Paper is then placed over the dies and thousands of pounds of pressure press the paper into the etched design. The etched design transfers the ink and raises the paper, thus engraving it. Engraving is the most expensive form of stationery printing, but it is very precise and recognizable in its printing (Ashleigh, “7 Types”).

Thermography creates a textured end-product that is meant to be like engraving. During the process, wet ink is used to create designs. The powder is then applied to paper. The printer attaches the powder to the ink with resin, then heats the stationery and cools it to allow the powder and resin to set into the paper (Ashleigh, “7 Types”).

CITATIONS

Apple II

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started Apple in their family garage in 1976. The name Apple came from an apple orchard Steve Jobs worked at when he became a vegetarian in India.

Their first computer was the Apple I. It was a $25 MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor running at 1 MHz (MegaHertz) on a single-circuit board with 256 bytes of ROM. However, it lacked a case, keyboard, or display and was priced at $666.66. The need to purchase a separate keyboard caused the Apple I to have low sales. As a result, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak decided to remodel the Apple I and call it a new computer: the Apple II.

The Apple II was developed in 1977 be Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. It was Apple’s first mass produced microcomputer product. The purpose of the computer was to enhance their previous creation, the Apple I. The introduction of the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire in June 1977 sparked the boom in personal computer sales, establishing Apple a formidable marketing company in the world of computers.

Steve Jobs also believed that appearance mattered to convince the consumer into purchasing a product. Steve wanted to make the Apple II more presentable and easily marketable to boost the sales for a product that should not be difficult to use. The Apple II was eventually advertised as a “complete, ready to use computer”. The advertisement convinced consumers that computers could be something they did not have to be a businessman or an accountant to work on.

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History states the Apple II worked by using a “MOS 6502 chip for its central processing unit”. New features in the Apple II that the Apple I lacked were color display, eight internal expansion slots, and a case with a keyboard. The Apple II was one of the first computers that featured a color display and to have a built-in BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) language, so it was ready to run as soon as the customer placed it on the table.

The most prominent feature of the Apple II was its eight expansion slots. Up to that point, no other computer had this kind of flexibility or expansion possibilities. The top of the computer is not even attached to the keyboard. It lifts off with little effort, allowing simple access to the system motherboard and expansion slots. Dozens of different expansion cards were made by Apple and other manufacturers to add to the Apple II’s capabilities. These capabilities included memory expansion, floppy disk controllers, PASCAL and CP/M emulator cards, parallel, serial, and SCSI cards, processor accelerators, and video cards. The success of the Apple II enabled Jobs and Wozniak to move the headquarters of Apple from their garage to an office in Cupertino.

Apple Computer delivered its first Apple II system for $1295. By October 1979, 500,000 units of the Apple II were sold, trumping the sales of the Apple I, and smashed all competitors of the computer market. By 1982, the Apple II had sold 750,000 units. Due to the number of sales, Apple was forced to get large-scale production.

What made the Apple II successful was the new spreadsheet program known as the VisiCalc. Like Microsoft Excel, VisiCalc added columns and rows of data and instantly gives users results. This caused the Apple II to become successful for business companies because they were able to calculate sales at a faster rate than a handheld calculator.

Two updates followed the Apple II: The Apple II Plus in 1979 and the Apple IIe in 1983.

The Apple II series was finally replaced by Apple Machintosh in 1993. However, the Apple II did not end immediately. It continued well after Apple’s introduction of the Macintosh because it was the company’s main source of revenue. The Apple II is one of the most successful and recognizable computers in history. The marketing campaign that Steve Jobs headed to emphasis the low price for a highly valued product made the computer popular for consumers and businesses, causing it to become the first computer widely used across American schools and colleges, operating as the de facto standard computer for education.

CITATIONS

McLuhan on extensions

“All media are extensions of some human faculty-physic or physical.”

McLuhan believed that it is in our nature to be obsessed to obtain more than what we already have. For instance, most of us are obsessed with fashion and vehicles because it makes us feel like we stand out in a crowd. McLuhan considered these things “extensions” because they enhance certain aspects about humans. The car, for example, is an extension of our foot because the car enhances our transportation.

People of wealth have a tendency to show off their wealth through the cars they drive, or the clothes they wear. But rarely do humans consider the negative aspects. Some of these clothes are made from factories that devalues their workers. Driving cars enhance pollution, hastening global warming. But humans forego these negative aspects in favor standing out.

 

Career Services Entrepreneurial Panel

As of this post, I am unsure about my career goals.

I currently have an internship at a book publishing company. Through this internship, I am learning the process of how books become published, as well as marketing methods to make the books we publish bestsellers.

I enjoy reading so I feel that the publishing industry is something to look into despite feeling unsure about reading books all day to determine their suitability for publications is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

The Career Services’ Entrepreneurship Panel consisted of an hour-long Q&A session with aspiring entrepreneurs about how they learned to find their career passions. Over the course of the panel, the students asked the panelists how they found and pursued their career passions. They advised the students that it is all about how they seize the opportunities they are presented with. It was delightful hearing Andy Brown, the founder of a pizza company, discuss how he found his passion in entrepreneurship by selling candy in his high school only to be sent a cease-and-desist letter by the company that produced his school’s vending machines.

This panel related to my class, Remixing the Book, mainly through another panelist, Andrew Murphy, who was the owner of Flying Frog Publishing, a company that produces educational books for children. He was in charge of the drawings they implemented within the books to entertain their audience, which is little kids. Andrew Murphy’s career in publishing directly correlates with the subject of my course, which examines the history of how books were published. While he did not discuss the methods of publishing within his company, he discussed how publishing and drawing became his passion.

While I can’t say that this solves my difficulty in determining the direction of my life, I feel that this helps me understand the value of pursuing the passions I do have. It encourages me to try different things until I find a career I can settle into.