Apple's January 2012 education event: reinventing the textbook
Apple's education focused event on January 19th brought the release of iBooks 2, an updated iPad app that supports its new textbook platform. There was also the release of iBooks Author, a free textbook creation and publishing tool. Catch up with all of the company's announcements and our impressions of these new tools right here.
iBooks Author 1.0.1 EULA clarifies sales stance: works can be sold outside of the iBookstore
When Apple released iBooks Author as part of its education event in January, one element of the End User License Agreement raised some eyebrows: namely, it specified that works created with the tool could be offered for sale only through Apple services such as the iBookstore. Today Apple released a 1.0.1 update to the application — whose sole listed change is a revised EULA — that makes the company's intentions a bit clearer. According to the new language, Apple is only requiring products...
Apple
Apple education event video now available for streaming and download
Apple introduced a number of new products and initiatives at its event in New York this morning, including textbook support in iBooks 2, the iBooks Author content creation tool, and a new iTunes U app for iOS. If our hands-on impressions and liveblog didn't leave you sated, Apple has now posted video of the event itself. It's available for streaming on the company's website, or if you'd rather have a copy for safekeeping, you can download it through iTunes as one of Apple's video podcasts.
iBooks Author restricts all sales to iBookstore, wraps for-pay books in DRM
After iBooks Author's announcement and release today, would-be writers began delving into the tool to see how it worked and what restrictions might be placed on it. Unfortunately, one of those restrictions is relatively onerous: Apple's End User License Agreement stipulates that books created with the tool can only be sold through Apple's iBookstore. As with other content sold through Apple's store, the company takes a 30 percent cut of all sales. Dan Wineman made the initial discovery, which...
Apple iTunes U hands-on pictures and video
The iTunes U desktop app has always provided students and non-students alike with access to lots of higher-education course materials, but it hasn't been accessible or very user friendly. The new iTunes U iPad app changes that, and is so completely chock-full of interesting college course material that it makes me want to be a full-time iTunes U student.
The app itself is extremely straightforward. Apple's Eddy Cue said it was built to look a lot like iBooks, and he wasn't lying: when you...
Apple's iBooks 2 and iBooks Author announcements raise questions about hardware, content
Sitting on the floor of the Guggenheim Museum just following a big Apple event gives you a little time to think. And there was plenty of food for thought here.
The company today began its official upending of the textbook market by launching a suite of new software, including iBooks 2 for iPad and iPhone, iBooks Author, and a new version of iTunes U.
Apple also announced partnerships with major textbook publishers including Houghton Mifflin, Pearson, and McGraw Hill. Those three companies...
Apps & Software
iTunes 10.5.3 adds iBooks textbook syncing to your iPad
Following the launch of its new education suite, Apple just launched a new version of iTunes for syncing your iBooks textbooks to your iPad. It's available for download now on Apple's site. We're not seeing it in Software Update just yet, but it should be good for download there soon.
iTunes 10.5.3 allows you to sync interactive iBooks textbooks to your iPad. These Multi-Touch textbooks are available for purchase from the iTunes Store on your Mac or from the iBookstore included with iBooks 2...
Apps & Software
iBooks Author hands-on: making textbooks in the 21st century
Alright, I just fired up iBooks Author, which is a free download from the Mac App Store. It installed quickly, and after selecting a template I was editing my first-textbook in moments. The single-window interface is just like any other modern iWorks app, and Apple isn't offering it for free for lack of features. Like Josh mentioned in the liveblog, the app is a mix of Keynote and Pages, with drag and drop layout tools and a sidebar of "slides" representing the table of contents.
Of course,...
Apple
iBooks 2 hands-on: Apple's reinvented textbook
We just downloaded our copy of iBooks 2 so we can dig into Life on Earth and give you our first impressions. iBooks 2 installs easily and doesn't have any changes on the surface — but when you flip over to the book store, you're presented with Life on Earth as book of the week and a large banner highlighting the new textbooks store. For now, there's only seven textbooks for $14.99 each as well as the free download of Life on Earth. The books range in size from about 750MB to nearly 3GB for...
Apple iTunes U app released
Apple has had its iTunes U offering for quite awhile, which has provided professors a digital hub to communicate with students, but it was only a matter of time before an iPad and iPhone app was released to compliment the service. While Apple's Eddy Cue said the new iTunes U app was designed to look a lot like iBooks 2, the app is strictly a portal for accessing all types of educational materials, including a class syllabus, full course notes and videos, as well as iBooks notes.
The gallery...
Apps & Software
Apple's publishing partners for digital textbooks: McGraw Hill, Pearson, more
At Apple's "Education Event" today at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the company announced a number of new partners for its iPad-based education programs. Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — which together make 90 percent of the textbooks currently available — will be filling the new "Textbooks" category in iBooks 2 with high-school level textbooks, and are piloting the new iBook Author app as well. Their books will cover every subject and level of study for...
Apple
iBooks Author: Apple's Mac app to help you make textbooks
Wondering how in the world publishers will be able to make those fancy new iBooks 2 textbooks? iBooks Author is the answer. Apple has just announced that it will be rolling out a Mac app that assists will make it fairly simple to design and format these new interactive textbooks, allowing users to embed HTML, 3D objects, interactive image galleries, Q&A, and so on — and you can publish to Apple's iBookstore from right inside the app. Additionally, published books can be updated by their...
Apple announces iBooks 2, a 'new textbook experience for the iPad'
Apple has just announced iBooks 2 for the iPad at its education event in New York City, calling them a "new textbook experience." The newly designed books are graphical, interactive, and make use of features like 3D imaging, embedded video, and multitouch gestures. The company seems to be taking cues from several applications which have been available for the iPad such as Frog Dissection and Solar System, both of which Apple called out at the event. They're also beefing up the notetaking...
Reminder: Apple 'Education Event' live blog tomorrow at 10AM ET / 7AM PT!
If all the rumors are correct, Apple is hoping to shake up the textbook publishing market tomorrow morning with a set of ebook creation tools. That may not sound like the most exciting announcement in the world, but as they say, our children's future is at stake — not to mention the width of the pocketbooks that will be funding their education. Plus, this will be Apple's first major event since Steve Jobs passed away, so there will be giant shoes to fill on stage. To watch how Apple does it...
Apple
WSJ: Apple's new ebook initiative to be led by iWork executive
As ever with the days leading up to Apple events, speculation and anticipatory stories are piling up. This time it's the Wall Street Journal, which is reporting that the "GarageBand for ebooks" initiative is to be spearheaded by Roger Rosner, Apple's current VP for productivity applications. The announcement will indeed focus around tools for creating digital textbooks, according to the WSJ, and Mr. Rosner's experience with Apple software such as iWork would certainly seem to make him a...
Apple to announce ebook creation tools Thursday, says Ars Technica
Ars Technica is reporting that Apple's media event in New York on Thursday won't necessarily be about generic education partnerships to release textbooks, but instead be an unveil of a new tools that together are described as "GarageBand for e-books." The new tools are said to make interactive ebook creation much easier than currently-available software tools and may partially be based on the now-defunct iWeb software. Ars says that Steve Jobs himself was directly involved in the project for...
Apple 'Education Event' set for January 19th in NYC
Just as we had heard, Apple's holding an "education event" on January 19th in New York City. Obviously the invite above doesn't reveal too much — unless Apple's planning on revamping the New York skyline — but there have been strong rumors of Apple getting into the textbook distribution game and optimizing educational content for the iPad. We'll let our minds run wild, but expect full, live coverage from the Guggenheim Museum on January 19th starting at 10:00AM EST right here.
Apple planning a non-TV media-related event in New York this month, says All Things D
Apple's planning a media-related event in New York for later this month, says Kara Swisher at All Things D — but it won't be for the iPad 3 or endlessly rumored Apple TV project. Instead, Kara says that it's more likely the event will be be focused on interactive publishing or advertising, as Apple services VP Eddy Cue will somehow be involved. Cue was last on stage in NYC for the launch of The Daily, but if Apple itself is hosting this event just after CES we'd imagine it's working on...
