QBook made its New Zealand Television début on Monday 15th Feb on TV3’s breakfast show Sunrise. Roger Shakes, VP of Business Development, talks QBook for the iPhone and iPad with Carly Flynn and Oliver Driver.

QBook is designed to enhance reading comprehension and help with early literacy development for young children. For more information email Kiwa Media.

Linda Hickin the voice of Milly, Molly QBooks recently spoke with Vice President Roger Shakes about reading QBooks, her background and what it takes to prepare for a recording session. Born in Hawaii, USA Linda has been living in New Zealand for 9 Years.

With a colourful background in acting and having studied theatre, Linda ventured into voice lessons for both speaking and singing. Fortunately for us, it led her to Kiwa Media and we are very proud to have her.

Linda has what she terms a generic American accent and puts a lot of preparation into her work. "It’s not just a matter of turning up and speaking, most of the work is done prior to the actual recording," explains Linda. "The book is read several times over before reading it aloud to get into character and really get into the story and find out their mood."  For Linda, a great picture book is simply; "One that speaks to the children, and with QBook you have that!"

You can hear the excitement in Linda’s voice when talking about the QBook iPhone Apps and what it can offer children. "Just when you think technology has reached its plateau something comes along and you rediscover how exciting it is." says Linda,  "QBook allows children to touch words and hear them spelt out, giving the child a much greater understanding. Combine this, and Apple’s recent release of the iPad, makes it exciting times for the digital publishing world."

Apple has finally revealed their latest creation, the iPad which is sure to change the landscape of ebooks and digital publishing. A cross between an iPhone, iMac and eBook reader. iPad has a 9.7inch screen, weighs 1.5 pounds, is Wi-Fi enabled and claims to have 10 Hours battery life. The enlarged screen you get with the iPad is surely going to enhance user experience. The words and pictures are going to be bigger, more defined, giving iPad users a superior experience.

Kiwa Media has already begun preparing for the iPad with VP of Technology Luke Tomes excited at the prospect and potential.

"Our existing QBook iPhone Apps are already running on the iPad simulator and we can’t wait for people to see QBook on a real iPad," he says "It’s the perfect device for children’s books and our QBook titles. QBooks already in the iTunes App Store will work on the iPad when it becomes available and we're already optimising future releases to take full advantage of this industry changing device."

The iPad is sure to improve the experience for users of QBook, giving them the ability to hold the book and feel it in their hands plus a much bigger display/touch area.

Check out the great Milly, Molly QBooks and our latest titles from Penguin Publishing.

QBook and iPad, a match made perfect for children’s books.

Multi-language eBooks

Kiwa Media provides the largest dubbing facility in the South Pacific and has been involved with language translations for over 15 years. It’s against this background that QBook has developed its multi-language capabilities into its e-books. QBook can offer over 65 languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese.

Language Development

Having multiple language options in QBook simply expands the market for QBook and in the digital world, opening up new territories. There are now over 34 million Spanish speakers in the USA alone and English speakers in China now exceed 10 million. Supporting language and literacy development in any language is important, but with QBook children who speak a second language experience huge benefits as we’ve witnessed with New Zealand English and Maori.

Literacy Development

The ability to support language and literacy development in secondary languages is another reason why we see multiple languages as important. It gives children a foundation to work from while creating competency in their secondary language. The interactivity of QBook as both an ebook and a learning device will help aid this development through its interactivity in touch, see and hear. In the US alone 34 million people speak Spanish providing Kiwa with the ability to assist and develop bi-language speakers who use digital books. QBook isa great learning tool on its own or as part of a structured reading program.

The shift to ‘Global Talk’ where consumers access e-books in multiple languages is set to become a standard option opening the way for QBook to establish a leading role in digital publishing and e-books in multiple languages. Sebastian's Tail and Milly, Molly and the Tree Hut include English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Maori. We’ll be adding Chinese and Japanese to these e-books in a few weeks.

QBook iPhone Apps

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