Post about "entertainment news"

Ebooks for Children: Good News, Bad News or Both?

I have fond memories of my mother reading me stories of Angus, the little Scottie whose square of sunshine was stolen by the nefarious cat, and Peter Minnie Mouser May, after which my own beloved kitten was named.

And what exactly do e-reading devices have to do with these happy memories?

Absolutely nothing.

Nor do they have any connection to the fun I had reading science fiction at the Bay while my mother did her shopping.

My ten-year-old grandson, an avid reader, professes no preference for either pbooks or eBooks. However, his eleven-year-old cousin claims eBooks are “easier to read.”

One thing for sure, eBooks for children here to stay. According to Digital Book World’s Jeremy Greenfield, 67% of U.S. children aged two to thirteen are reading eBooks. BookNet Canada predicts a surge in e-reading, with parents reporting an average of 6.4 devices per household.

So what do the experts think about this?

In a study quoted in Publishers Weekly, parent-child (three to six years old) pairs read a print book and either an enhanced or basic eBook together. Interestingly, the print book and basic eBook yielded about the same results in terms of discussing the story, whereas those who were reading the enhanced eBook spent more time talking about the device!

When child-parent pairs read enhanced e-books, the children recalled less of the story than when the print version was read. This leads, naturally, to the conclusion that print and basic e-books are better for reading comprehension.

But not all enhanced e-books are the same. Those with cartoons and other such features will, of course, distract children from reading–but how does it work to listen to the story with each word highlighted as it is read?

An interesting study cited by LookTracker.com found that “When a caregiver reads an e-book to a child, nine percent of his/her gaze is focused on the copy vs. 91 percent on the images. When the e-book is read to a child by the application with word highlighting, 41 percent of his/her gaze is focused on the text vs. 59 percent on the images.”

My take on the subject? Cuddle with your child with a print book or basic e-book. When you’re busy, or if your child needs to build his/her word decoding skills, go for the eBook with word highlighting. And for entertainment, go for the enhanced e-book with bells and whistles.

A Brief History of Home Entertainment

The concept of home entertainment and indoor recreational activities changed when home electronics invaded our lives. One can say that access to numerous electronic products at home has revolutionized the idea of what constitutes a complete home entertainment. Nowadays, anyone can have immediate access to every kind of electronic entertainment via different media within the comforts of their homes. They can have their choice of entertainment which may range from the latest DVD players, radios to the wireless internet connection which offers them the convenience of mobility. Advancement in technology has gifted us with loads of home entertainment options ranging from radio, television, CD, DVD players, home theatre system, games consoles and so on.Music has always been one of the most preferred leisure activities. It found its way into our home through the long playing discs and the gramophone. Of course with the coming of radio a decade later made music a more widespread home entertainment. Before the advent of the CD or DVD player, the radio was the most popular home entertainment system available. Though there were some juke boxes available in the local pubs or salons where one could listen to a song of their choice at home there was only the radio. With radio, the choice of listening was however quite limited as people had to listen to the songs that the radio channels would play, even though some of the stations would at times play the selected numbers based on listeners’ requests. But there were no complaints as there wasn’t anything better for decades to come.Initially, when television had not yet become an everyday part of our lives, the visual entertainment strictly meant those theatres which had large screens to view a movie. Things changed dramatically with the invention of the television in the initial phase of the 1950s. The television was a complete wonder in the days when it was discovered. People did not have to restrict themselves anymore to music as their only entertainment at home. They could actually watch a full length movie in the comfort of their own home.Not only movies, this small wonder box started entertaining people with more and more new ideas, programs and techniques. Television has been considered as one of the pioneers in the history of home visual entertainment. Of course it provided more than just entertainment. With news and special documentaries, TV soon became the most important source of amusement. The long playing discs were also a part of home entertainment which was an early discovery. While radios, LPs and television made a permanent place in everyone’s home, the quality of sound in those times essentially required tremendous development.Good sound systems and speakers stared to develop in the mid 1970s. Various technologies were discovered to enhance the quality of sound. And with the music genres like rock, pop and discos coming into being, there was a specific and urgent requirement for good quality sound systems. Thus the electronic giants did not stop producing recorders and put more emphasis on amplifying and equalizing the sound to give it a new dimension.Good quality sound systems were specially designed and created for homes which produced outstanding music. Woofers and subwoofers along with various amplifiers equalizers and multi channel audio were being used to produce crisp stereophonic sounds.However, this concept took a back seat when CD and DVD players came into existence. During the end of the ’70s and early ’80s some of the electronic giants worked in collaboration to develop the world’s first Compact Disc system. Experts proved that this CD player was quite compact and lightweight with its unique durability. For music lovers it was truly a boon. At the same time this CD system opened a new window in the audio equipment industry.Compact discs were more durable than any other long playing discs or tapes. Thus the CDs removed all other music disc and tapes from the market and held prominent position. The 80s and early 90s saw a vast improvement in the technology of compact disc systems. It became very popular with people because of the crystal clear sound it produced and was affordable. These CDs not only stored music, it was versatile enough to store movies, data, pictures or even software.Along with CDs a much improved device which actually revolutionized and changed the entire system of home entertainment is the DVD or digital versatile discs. These discs are powerful and large enough to hold two movies in one. It stores data digitally and is more durable. The scratch proof technology of the DVD players also makes the DVDs last a long time. Both music and movie buffs felt delighted when the DVD player came into the market. Recent survey statistics reveal that the DVD player is the most successful product of home entertainment. It was introduced in the year 1997 and has reached great heights of success ever since.Nowadays, people can have the same effect of a movie theatre in their homes. With the latest DVD players, LCD screens and the sound systems with woofers, sub woofers and multi channel audio systems, anyone can have a fantastic home entertainment system with high quality sound and spectacular visual effects. The plasma and LCD screens are high resolution televisions which started to develop in the latter half of the 1990s and these sleek televisions enabled the viewers to experience digital sound and vision with fantastic picture quality and various advanced features.With the invention of DVDs and a major development in the visual media such as Plasma and Liquid Crystal Display or LCD in the late 90s gave home entertainment its latest technical dimension. With it, the meaning of home entertainment changed significantly with more and more people installing the home theatre systems with newest gadgets and technologies.