Sqweegel in Your Pocket

Apple iTunes has just released the App and iTunes Extras version of Level 26: Dark Origins. Now you can enjoy the Digi-Novel the way nature... and by nature, I mean Anthony E. Zuiker... intended.

I downloaded these yesterday and started playing around with them. The app version is pretty fantastic. (Standard disclaimer: I co-wrote the book, so I'm naturally biased. But I had nothing to do with the design of the app.) The text is easy to read, the pages are easy to flip, the backgrounds and sound effects are creepy without being annoying... and best of all, there's no waiting/punching in codes to watch a cyberbridge. It's all perfectly seamless and kind of addictive. This is what Anthony had in mind all along: a way to marry text and video and art and sound and everything else in a truly new format.

(In fact, it's so new, iTunes didn't quite know where to put it. You'll find it in the "movies" section)

And the iTunes Extras version is more or less the same thing, only you don't need an iPod Touch or iPhone. You watch it through your iTunes program, clicking to flip pages, then sit back to enjoy the cyberbridges.

Each cost $12.99. A little more than most Kindle books, but then again, you're receiving the complete text of the novel, plus 20 cyberbridges, plus a slew of extras.

If any of you do check it out, I'd love to hear what you think. So would Anthony, over at www.Level26.com.