iBooks Author: Apple's Mac app to help you make textbooks
By Joanna Sternon January 19, 2012 10:24 am153Comments
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 authors... granted, math doesn't change very often, but it'll still be useful for correcting typos and errata.
iBooks Author is available for free from the Mac App Store starting today.
Computers are more environmental friendly than textbooks, sorry to burst your bubble, toilet paper isn’t a counter example, it represents merely 1% of the wasted paper based products, while paper used on food, books, magazines, newspapers, flyers, etc account for more than. 35%.
horrible proprietary tools. another itunes approach of closing their ecosystem. i will never allow my kids to get into apple. they will have to use linux. this will prepare them for the future instead of making them addicted to a companies eco system.
at least my kids will understand what tcp/ip meas, what it takes to run a webserver, what a client/server protocol is and how to compile from source. if they wanna use apple at one point they know at least what is going on behind the GUI.
putting kids on a non open ecosystem like apple or microsoft is horrible.
I fully support this, your kids will rule the future world!
“Who among us knows what tcp/ip means?” Future Space People will cry, your children shall stand tall and proud, chests out and announce to the world “We do!”
why do all children need to know what those mean and how they work? (incidentally, I’ve used macs all my life and pass your little test.) all of life is about specialization—I don’t know the pharmacokinetics of the medicine I’m taking, or how to rebuild my own transmission, because not everyone needs to know everything and I am neither a doctor nor a mechanic. you’re forcing your hobby and/or occupation on your kids, not preparing them for life as it’s lived.
unless you’re raising an army of slashdot editors or IT pros you’re doing your kids a far greater disservice by not preparing them for what 95% of human beings use. I might think esperanto is a better language than english, but I’ll probably teach my kids the one they can use to talk to people outside of esperanto conventions.
I spoze it’s possible we’ll still be using TCP/IP in a few years. But how are they going to REALLY understand computers without a solid grounding in FORTRAN and COBOL? … without knowing how to wire a pair of 12AT7s to make a flip-flop circuit?
You young whippersnappers pretending to be in the know when you couldn’t even find the knob to re-calibrate your voltmeters make me laugh.
And before you say that my tech is obsolete but yours has been valid since 1974, recognize that you’re just saying that all things have their time and the more successful something is, the more people use it to move on to something else. Including iPads.
Oh, a PS: this old fogey shtick is MINE! Get off my lawn!
So your kids know what a thermionic valve is? How about cars wheere you used a starting handle? I bet they make their own butter, flour and milk? Chop trees to make their furniture?
Enjoy the past while other kids are in the future.
as someone who’s spent a lot of time in academia, there are far less benevolent proprietary money traps with far greater market share taking far more money. at least apple makes a product that’s pleasant to use, which will be a first among academic moneytraps.
Yeah, @bahumbug seems never to have read newspaper reports of the huge graft and corruption scandals to get textbooks approved in places like Texas.
But rather than picking the lesser of two evils, it’d be nice to see this as opening up the market to MORE sunlight. Any news about how the author app can create non-proprietary formats?
- Simple drag and drop controls for laying out pages. Someone just exclaimed “wow!” -
uh? bahahahaha. Adobe Indesign FTW.
So much for the Post PC era….
You responded to a comment about the fact that another creation tool, Indesign, is not free by stating, “You’re comparing a creation platform to a consumption platform…Apples to Oranges.” You were implicitly discussing that, whether you intended to or not.
So… iBooks Author is available only in the MAC App store? Thought they said you could use it right on the iPad ? I don’t see too many schools running out to buy MAC’s to use iBooks Author if that’s the case.
Schools are generally not textbook publishers, This is an app for making textbooks. Therefore, textbook publishers and authors will be the ones using this.
I think iBooks is probably meant more for publishers and authors than schools. While a price of $0 is great I don’t think that was the largest barrier for digital textbook adoption.
I think $500 to buy an iPad is going to be a fairly large barrier for most students to go this route. Then there’s all the textbooks which won’t be available . . . .
I wish I was optimistic about this being a game changer but I just don’t see it changing the game at all.
I agree, tbh I think it would be a bigger game changer if it was on more platforms, then again this is Apple we’re talking about so doubt that’ll ever happen.
I could see that coming. Any publishers out there should be clever enough to work out that this is going to come eventually (if it’s not already possible here now).
That might help with any renegotiations Apple has with them in the future.
Yeah, I don’t live in an English-speaking country, so there are English schools that most teens with enough money go to. And these schools always either lend a laptop per student (but only during the class) or have an electronic board with a pen and connected to a PC. It’s pretty awesome.
I think $500 to buy an iPad is going to be a fairly large barrier for most students to go this route.
Why would you expect students to flip the cost of an iPad? How many kids (excluding college students) are expected to buy their textbooks? Could you imagine how many kids wouldn’t be able to go to school if they had to pay for the 6-8 different textbooks they have to use every semester?
Well, when I said “any school that had the resources,” I was mostly thinking of schools that are not state/city funded, like private schools. I can’t see even a well-off public school really having the time (or faculty) to craft their own textbook, which is still a lot of work to research and to write.
I wonder if we could use iBooks author for books not in the education field. Can we actually do that? Also I don’t see it in Greece’s Mac App store. Something tells me it’s US only?
honestly most authors and illustrators are creative pro’s. Creative pros in any field already have macs, and how is it sneaky?? you must have the device youre making books for.. wth?? thats like making a tv show and having no tvs to watch it on!
They only need to pay 600 USD for a mac mini, assuming they already have a screen. Or, yes, they can pay 1000 USD or more for a Macbook. Of course they will already have an iPad if they are considering building an entire etextbook for it.
And think about. A good author would need to pay (assuming they don’t have any of the gadgets) 1500 USD to craft an ebook to service a population of more than 40 million iPad owners who are willing to pay more for apps than other platforms.
If you aren’t interested in the Mac or iOS platform and have no interest in buying the hardware in the first place, why would this interest enough to read the article and post a comment? Do you go to car enthusiast websites and complain that in order to mod cars, you have to buy in to their overpriced hardware as well?
I just get annoyed that they refer to it as free. I don’t really care about this in particular, but they do the same thing with their development tools.
you don’t need a specific computer for linux… The apple platform is the only one that you need a specific account (which I believe you can only get from buying their product) to develop for..
You simply said you hate stuff being claimed as ‘free’ when it is not as there are others costs to consider. Who those costs are paid to is irrelevant.
My main point was that even if I installed OSX on a PC, without buying an actual Mac, I don’t think I could get the developer tools because you need to have an Apple ID, which I believe requires you to actually buy a Mac at least one time. I could be completely wrong about the Apple ID part though..
Ok, thanks. I stand corrected on that. I had just heard that from some people at a developer event who were going over PhoneGap that can be used to develop for most mobile OS.
1. This is aimed at publishers, odds are they already have mac systems in house. Apple is huge in that sector
2. Nothing is really free when it comes to computers. You still have to have bought the hardware at some point.
What does that have to do with anything? The people creating these textbooks will be enormous publishers, they are not concerned about the price of their tools.
Just like how industry professionals don’t mind that CS5.5 is £1200, because it is worth a hell of a lot more than that to them in work.
If you want to develop a flash application, do you or do you not need to buy Adobes proprietary software to do so? Software that costs nearly as much as the machine that runs it?
I think there is a way to do that with just a text editor, just not easy.. haven’t really done anything in flash, just looked at it a little like 6 years ago.
Looks like you can do at least some Flash with notepad++. There are a lot of developers that use tools like that. Maybe not designers because it isn’t visual.
More specifically probably mobile apps. We have people who use WP7, Android and iOS, but we wouldn’t need new hardware for the others. Maybe not an issue for people making tons of money, but it is for mostly internal apps for a non-profit..
I stand by that point, when people are making money off a product and selling it to large numbers a few grand on hardware/software means nothing to them.
Oh look at me making a real not equal sign on a tech website.
≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠
But unlike other people I don’t usually brag about math skills on a tech site and try to diminish them and bring them down with insults when faced with no arguments on a tech site.
Man, just stop whining. Do understand that by buying ONE Apple computer an author can publish 20 volumes of whatever he/she teaches. And Apple computers work absolutely fine, specially when the app running is made by Apple.
I have a 2 year old iMac and it’s great quality and no hassle. My brother’s Vaio got fucked up after a year or so and he lost all his hard drive documents. I got no worries.
What I mean is that no author would oppose to paying a thousand bucks (for a great machine that makes a Core2Duo seem more powerful than some i5 PCs) to create content for 50 million iPads.
My 3 year old Gateway and 4.5 year old Dell work fine too.. The Dell is actually almost identical specs to the MacBook Pros then, except a higher resolution screen. My friend got one when I got mine, $1000 more than my Dell and he is on his 3rd graphics card in it.. Even my desktop is over 2 years old, but that was custom built though..stills plays any game on max settings..
Good on you, mate… Before this turns into yet another Mac x PC spec and price flame war, I just mean that most authors wouldn’t rely on any 4 year old computer. They are authors. They write big books and can’t have any HD trouble. Also, they have money.
I was just saying that with something like that there wouldn’t be trouble, even if it was that old because of the quality. I think my friend still uses his as his main computer for grad computer science research. I’ve also upgraded the hell out of mine too, so they are a bit above original specs..
ok, no, it has a 2.5GHz Core2. came with a 2.2GHz one, but upgraded that and pretty much everything else at some point.. used that for some kind of major machine learning stuff in grad school..needed as much power and memory as I could get.
They have some really nifty effects going on in the background. Using two fingers to resize a video or open and close a page gives a very natural card look. And the video continues to play while you’re manipulating it.
Can someone verify if iBooks Author is strictly for textbooks? Will authors of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc. be able to use iBooks Authors to create an iBook that is not a textbook?
I was coming more from the standpoint of an author/writer that operates without an agent or a brick-and-mortar publisher—I’ve looked at creating an e-book before but the process seemed cumbersome. Now, I can WISYWIG my works into the iBook Store. A truly historic day for creative writers! And to think of all the multimedia avenues a writer can take to enhance their work—intersection of humanities and technology indeed.
Supports PDF export, I am going to have to see what the native format is. Looks pretty slick going to download and see. The iTunes U stuff interests me greatly as well.
For universities I think this is going to have problems. I couldn’t find any equations in any of the textbooks demonstrated there. That worries me. This really isn’t going to fly (for me at least) if there isn’t a pretty good equation editor. Without it, you are eliminating math, physics, computer science, chemistry, economics, and anything more advanced in biology and most of the social sciences. That pretty much leaves history and the humanities, which is a pretty narrow subset of the books used at a university.
Yes, that is a possibility. It appears what is displayed there is a end of chapter question or similar. Maybe that means there is built-in equation editing functionality.
You don’t write a textbook with a paper textbook. You can write a textbook with iBooks Author which, as per the title, is the subject of this post and consequently the subject of my comment.
I really think they were spot on software-wise. Basically it was all I expected and hoped for.
But man… how I wanted Apple to announce an ePad at the cost of 300 dollars or something. Anyone who proved they were at school could buy one. Another utopian thought was that Apple would make a sort of agreement with NY schools (and later spreading to all states) to sell thousands of ePads, and every student would be given one until the end of the year or semester, the student would return it and then get it again after vacation. It would have been such a game changer.
I think this makes it much more likely that the iPad 2 sticks around when it comes time to release the high-res 3. probably no lower than $400, though.
Oh goody, a new platform from which Apple can sue PDF, other E-Book formats, and even paper books into bankruptcy with bogus patent law suites.
I can see it now, all Libraries will have to close until such time as the courts can clear up Apple’s claim that they infringe upon their iBook2 patents on the metaphor for mixing words and pictures on a page.
PDF is an open standard as is epub. There won’t be any lawsuits. If you read the actual article you’d see that they are basing this on various open standards.
There are 153 Comments. Add yours.
awesome!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:28 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
The original title was “Kindle Death Machine”
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:28 AM EST reply Recommend (8) Flag actions
Oh man, so the app knocks $300 off the cost of an iPad? Gosh golly gee yowzers, sign me up!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:37 AM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
I would pay for that app.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:48 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
But would you pay $300? I hear they’re bundling it in with the $499 iPad starting immediately.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:50 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
$300 off? where?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:17 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’ll wait for the refurbished one.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:22 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I bet you happily paid more than $300 for your computer though. And the iPad is closer to a computer than it is to a Kindle.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:05 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
eh
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:37 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Photoshop disagrees with you.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:46 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
This is good. For trees especially.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:29 AM EST reply Recommend (12) Flag actions
This nonsense just wont go away, huh?
No, books arent worse for trees than making ipads and other gadgets like it.
How about you stop using toiletpaper altogether, instead? No? Didnt think so.
Naive people, they outnumber us 100:1.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:46 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
+1. I also hate trees. They get in the way of my view. Especially while hunting in a forest.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:50 AM EST reply Recommend (14) Flag actions
You seem to be missing the point.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:02 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Computers are more environmental friendly than textbooks, sorry to burst your bubble, toilet paper isn’t a counter example, it represents merely 1% of the wasted paper based products, while paper used on food, books, magazines, newspapers, flyers, etc account for more than. 35%.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:55 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Wish I was back in school…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:35 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Thank you Steve/Apple, for bringing HyperCard back and make it much better.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:35 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Wasn’t Gruber saying just the other day that Apple need a new hypercard?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:48 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Love it! This will come in handy.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:36 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
horrible proprietary tools. another itunes approach of closing their ecosystem. i will never allow my kids to get into apple. they will have to use linux. this will prepare them for the future instead of making them addicted to a companies eco system.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:39 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Your kids are already behind then.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:42 AM EST reply Recommend (14) Flag actions
Yes, nothing will prepare your kids for the future like making them use Linux, because the Year of Linux on the Desktop is always next year.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:46 AM EST reply Recommend (15) Flag actions
at least my kids will understand what tcp/ip meas, what it takes to run a webserver, what a client/server protocol is and how to compile from source. if they wanna use apple at one point they know at least what is going on behind the GUI.
putting kids on a non open ecosystem like apple or microsoft is horrible.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:50 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Stop being so narrow minded. OSX and iOS is Unix. The terminal is just a click away.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:54 AM EST reply Recommend (14) Flag actions
On OS X, sure. On iOS, not so much. :P
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:22 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I fully support this, your kids will rule the future world!
“Who among us knows what tcp/ip means?” Future Space People will cry, your children shall stand tall and proud, chests out and announce to the world “We do!”
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:54 AM EST reply Recommend (26) Flag actions
This made me laugh, I applaud you sir.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That’s the kind of comment that shows how awesome the internet is.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:32 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
30 years ago all the kids were raving about this new OS called CP/M, everyone wrote their book reports in Cobol, and 300 baud/s was blazing fast.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:55 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
why do all children need to know what those mean and how they work? (incidentally, I’ve used macs all my life and pass your little test.) all of life is about specialization—I don’t know the pharmacokinetics of the medicine I’m taking, or how to rebuild my own transmission, because not everyone needs to know everything and I am neither a doctor nor a mechanic. you’re forcing your hobby and/or occupation on your kids, not preparing them for life as it’s lived.
unless you’re raising an army of slashdot editors or IT pros you’re doing your kids a far greater disservice by not preparing them for what 95% of human beings use. I might think esperanto is a better language than english, but I’ll probably teach my kids the one they can use to talk to people outside of esperanto conventions.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:55 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Sounds like you’re gonna be forcing your kids to be computing students…. what if they want to dance for a living?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:02 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Sounds like you’re going to Tiger Mom your kids into being programmers. I feel sorry for them.
FYI, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from teaching them what TCP/IP means using Windows or OSX.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:21 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I spoze it’s possible we’ll still be using TCP/IP in a few years. But how are they going to REALLY understand computers without a solid grounding in FORTRAN and COBOL? … without knowing how to wire a pair of 12AT7s to make a flip-flop circuit?
You young whippersnappers pretending to be in the know when you couldn’t even find the knob to re-calibrate your voltmeters make me laugh.
And before you say that my tech is obsolete but yours has been valid since 1974, recognize that you’re just saying that all things have their time and the more successful something is, the more people use it to move on to something else. Including iPads.
Oh, a PS: this old fogey shtick is MINE! Get off my lawn!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:47 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
So your kids know what a thermionic valve is? How about cars wheere you used a starting handle? I bet they make their own butter, flour and milk? Chop trees to make their furniture?
Enjoy the past while other kids are in the future.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:51 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Um, forcing them to use something else is kind of a closed ecosystem. >.> Just sayin…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:16 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
HEY. We don’t need that kind of logic around here.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:36 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Hahahahahahahaha. That’s the problem with common sense these days. Its not very common.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:23 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Hahahahahahahaha. That’s the problem with common sense these days. Its not very common.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:29 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
like we were to windows???
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:44 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Your poor kids, I don’t care if it’s Apple or Microsoft they use but limiting them to Linux is not going to be fun for them.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:01 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Did you build your car yourself too or did you use some awful proprietary car from a manufacturer like Ford or Toyota? For shame!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So in a nutshell:
Buy our hardware and then you can buy iBooks for 14.99 or less.
So much for open education. Dive into another proprietary money trap that wont let go of you so easily…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:43 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
as someone who’s spent a lot of time in academia, there are far less benevolent proprietary money traps with far greater market share taking far more money. at least apple makes a product that’s pleasant to use, which will be a first among academic moneytraps.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:47 AM EST reply Recommend (14) Flag actions
Amen
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yeah, @bahumbug seems never to have read newspaper reports of the huge graft and corruption scandals to get textbooks approved in places like Texas.
But rather than picking the lesser of two evils, it’d be nice to see this as opening up the market to MORE sunlight. Any news about how the author app can create non-proprietary formats?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:54 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
But using $400 copies of Microsoft Office is perfectly acceptable!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Just get a college student to buy a copy for like seven bucks and stop whining.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:03 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
- Simple drag and drop controls for laying out pages. Someone just exclaimed “wow!” -
uh? bahahahaha. Adobe Indesign FTW.
So much for the Post PC era….
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:46 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
So besides TPB where can I get Indesign for $0?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:49 AM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
Besides the iPad where can I read my iTextbooks?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:07 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
In any PDF reader you want.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:21 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
You’re comparing a creation platform to a consumption platform…Apples to Oranges.
That’s like coming into an argument about Arri vs RED cameras and saying “and where am I supposed to watch this film?”
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:05 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
When did PCs become free consumption platforms?
For that matter, when did theaters become free consumption platforms?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:24 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
…why are you bringing up things being free? I never mentioned pricing at all?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:09 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You responded to a comment about the fact that another creation tool, Indesign, is not free by stating, “You’re comparing a creation platform to a consumption platform…Apples to Oranges.” You were implicitly discussing that, whether you intended to or not.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:02 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yeah I was saying it is stupid to compare content consumption platforms with creation platforms/tools,
What does either being free have to do with it? They are totally different things in every way.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 1:35 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I use InDesign every day and I don’t even know what you’re getting at here.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:51 AM EST reply Recommend (11) Flag actions
Anyone hoping that a new iWork would come out??
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:01 AM EST via mobile reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
yah seriously, this seems to be the kind of event to announce it
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So… iBooks Author is available only in the MAC App store? Thought they said you could use it right on the iPad ? I don’t see too many schools running out to buy MAC’s to use iBooks Author if that’s the case.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:02 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
What the hell is a MAC?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
Schools are generally not textbook publishers, This is an app for making textbooks. Therefore, textbook publishers and authors will be the ones using this.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:08 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
I think iBooks is probably meant more for publishers and authors than schools. While a price of $0 is great I don’t think that was the largest barrier for digital textbook adoption.
I think $500 to buy an iPad is going to be a fairly large barrier for most students to go this route. Then there’s all the textbooks which won’t be available . . . .
I wish I was optimistic about this being a game changer but I just don’t see it changing the game at all.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:17 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I agree, tbh I think it would be a bigger game changer if it was on more platforms, then again this is Apple we’re talking about so doubt that’ll ever happen.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:19 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I think it would be a game changer if I could iBooks Author to create books for iBooks & other book stores like the Kindle, etc..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:04 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I could see that coming. Any publishers out there should be clever enough to work out that this is going to come eventually (if it’s not already possible here now).
That might help with any renegotiations Apple has with them in the future.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
schools will loan them out. duh?? some schools already loan out laptops.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:51 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Yeah, I don’t live in an English-speaking country, so there are English schools that most teens with enough money go to. And these schools always either lend a laptop per student (but only during the class) or have an electronic board with a pen and connected to a PC. It’s pretty awesome.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:12 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Why would you expect students to flip the cost of an iPad? How many kids (excluding college students) are expected to buy their textbooks? Could you imagine how many kids wouldn’t be able to go to school if they had to pay for the 6-8 different textbooks they have to use every semester?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:28 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It’s probably going to be $400 for an iPad 2 once the iPad 3 comes out.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 9:25 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Do you really expect the schools to be the ones creating the textbooks? The content providers will be the ones who do that.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
They mostly won’t. BUT, this gives them the power to consider it, which would be huge for any school that had the resources to do it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:29 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Then they can get one single Mac, in the grand scheme of things a grand or so for a single machine isn’t exactly anything to worry about.
For an individual consumer it is a significant purchase, for a business, less so.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:09 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
More likely they won’t due to state requirements. I can see them using this for other things though besides textbooks.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:26 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Well, when I said “any school that had the resources,” I was mostly thinking of schools that are not state/city funded, like private schools. I can’t see even a well-off public school really having the time (or faculty) to craft their own textbook, which is still a lot of work to research and to write.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I wonder if we could use iBooks author for books not in the education field. Can we actually do that? Also I don’t see it in Greece’s Mac App store. Something tells me it’s US only?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Replying my own question. Yep it’s available in other countries. Now only thing I need to know is if this can be used for other things than education.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:06 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
yes—the app store description lists cookbooks, history books, picture books, etc. looks like a free-for-all.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:07 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Well that is really interesting! Going to the support site to see if there’s more info there.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:10 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
“Free” (after you pay $1000+ for our overpriced hardware)…just like their dev tools…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
tanstaaftb
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:10 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
what
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:43 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Well you have to buy an iMac or Macbook ($1000+) plus an iPad to test it out on ($500) so yeah I can see how they are sneakily making you waste money.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:11 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
honestly most authors and illustrators are creative pro’s. Creative pros in any field already have macs, and how is it sneaky?? you must have the device youre making books for.. wth?? thats like making a tv show and having no tvs to watch it on!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:55 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If you use the tv analogy, it is more like “you can only watch the tv show on our brand on tvs”.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:02 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
They only need to pay 600 USD for a mac mini, assuming they already have a screen. Or, yes, they can pay 1000 USD or more for a Macbook. Of course they will already have an iPad if they are considering building an entire etextbook for it.
And think about. A good author would need to pay (assuming they don’t have any of the gadgets) 1500 USD to craft an ebook to service a population of more than 40 million iPad owners who are willing to pay more for apps than other platforms.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Wrap it up Apple! Korn1699 has you idiots bang to rights!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:13 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If you aren’t interested in the Mac or iOS platform and have no interest in buying the hardware in the first place, why would this interest enough to read the article and post a comment? Do you go to car enthusiast websites and complain that in order to mod cars, you have to buy in to their overpriced hardware as well?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:22 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I just get annoyed that they refer to it as free. I don’t really care about this in particular, but they do the same thing with their development tools.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:42 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
In which case Linux isn’t free.
…you need a computer to run it on.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:08 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
you don’t need a specific computer for linux… The apple platform is the only one that you need a specific account (which I believe you can only get from buying their product) to develop for..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So? That is nothing to do with my, or your point.
You simply said you hate stuff being claimed as ‘free’ when it is not as there are others costs to consider. Who those costs are paid to is irrelevant.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:25 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Saying you have to pay for a computer is a lot different than saying you have to pay for a specific brand for something to be free.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
No, it’s pretty much the same. You have to pay someone to use the product, whatever platform it’s on. Just let it go.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:35 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If you have ANY existing computer hardware you don’t… That’s my point…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:39 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You mean, if you already paid the cost. You’re point is totally incoherent.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:58 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
No it isn’t. You still have to be able to pay money to use the apparently free product, ergo, neither are truly free by your definition.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:40 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You don’t pay the linux distributor for it..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:44 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m just going to continue to point back to my and MayorBloombergs replies…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
My main point was that even if I installed OSX on a PC, without buying an actual Mac, I don’t think I could get the developer tools because you need to have an Apple ID, which I believe requires you to actually buy a Mac at least one time. I could be completely wrong about the Apple ID part though..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:20 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
https://appleid.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MyAppleId.woa/
Have fun.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:31 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ok, thanks. I stand corrected on that. I had just heard that from some people at a developer event who were going over PhoneGap that can be used to develop for most mobile OS.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:35 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Well two things here.
1. This is aimed at publishers, odds are they already have mac systems in house. Apple is huge in that sector
2. Nothing is really free when it comes to computers. You still have to have bought the hardware at some point.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:38 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m pretty sure the average Joe isn’t the people the textbook creation tool is targeted at.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So people that it is target for don’t buy top of the line hardware? Apple hardware is good, but you can get/make a PC with a lot better hardware…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:19 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
What does that have to do with anything? The people creating these textbooks will be enormous publishers, they are not concerned about the price of their tools.
Just like how industry professionals don’t mind that CS5.5 is £1200, because it is worth a hell of a lot more than that to them in work.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:23 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
price != performance || quality…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:28 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
What is your point again? Is someone making you create textbooks on Apple hardware?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:36 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Not textbooks, but maybe develop for it or their devices.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:40 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Develop what?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:48 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Applications…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:52 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If you want to develop a flash application, do you or do you not need to buy Adobes proprietary software to do so? Software that costs nearly as much as the machine that runs it?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:05 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I think there is a way to do that with just a text editor, just not easy.. haven’t really done anything in flash, just looked at it a little like 6 years ago.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:17 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The answer you’re looking for is ‘no’.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:19 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Looks like you can do at least some Flash with notepad++. There are a lot of developers that use tools like that. Maybe not designers because it isn’t visual.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You’d still need flash to create the assets. Sure you can write the code in a text editor, you could write code for any language in notepad.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:29 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ok, I think might have some open source version of that, like most other languages have.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:31 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
More specifically probably mobile apps. We have people who use WP7, Android and iOS, but we wouldn’t need new hardware for the others. Maybe not an issue for people making tons of money, but it is for mostly internal apps for a non-profit..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Speak English please, I don’t understand your language of explanation marks and equals signs.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:39 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
lol
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:40 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You’re not going to then? You’re just going to quietly exit the conversation?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:44 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This is a tech site and you don’t even know VERY BASIC logic expressions? (!= is not equal to… || is or)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:46 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ok so “price is not equal to performance or quality”
…what is your point, what is in no way a response to what I said, at all.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:49 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
“they are not concerned about the price of their tools”
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:51 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ok..what about it?
I stand by that point, when people are making money off a product and selling it to large numbers a few grand on hardware/software means nothing to them.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Oh look at me making a real not equal sign on a tech website.
≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠
But unlike other people I don’t usually brag about math skills on a tech site and try to diminish them and bring them down with insults when faced with no arguments on a tech site.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:59 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
was only replying to “Speak English please, I don’t understand your language of explanation marks and equals signs.”
and “You’re not going to then? You’re just going to quietly exit the conversation?”
I’ve seen them used a lot on other sites without people being confused, so I didn’t think it would be an issue here either.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:03 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Man, just stop whining. Do understand that by buying ONE Apple computer an author can publish 20 volumes of whatever he/she teaches. And Apple computers work absolutely fine, specially when the app running is made by Apple.
I have a 2 year old iMac and it’s great quality and no hassle. My brother’s Vaio got fucked up after a year or so and he lost all his hard drive documents. I got no worries.
What I mean is that no author would oppose to paying a thousand bucks (for a great machine that makes a Core2Duo seem more powerful than some i5 PCs) to create content for 50 million iPads.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:46 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
My 3 year old Gateway and 4.5 year old Dell work fine too.. The Dell is actually almost identical specs to the MacBook Pros then, except a higher resolution screen. My friend got one when I got mine, $1000 more than my Dell and he is on his 3rd graphics card in it.. Even my desktop is over 2 years old, but that was custom built though..stills plays any game on max settings..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Good on you, mate… Before this turns into yet another Mac x PC spec and price flame war, I just mean that most authors wouldn’t rely on any 4 year old computer. They are authors. They write big books and can’t have any HD trouble. Also, they have money.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I was just saying that with something like that there wouldn’t be trouble, even if it was that old because of the quality. I think my friend still uses his as his main computer for grad computer science research. I’ve also upgraded the hell out of mine too, so they are a bit above original specs..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:13 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Your 4.5 year Dell runs an i7?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:20 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
where did i7 come from?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:21 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
My mistake, I thought you were comparing a 4.5 year old Dell with a current MBP.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:28 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
ok, no, it has a 2.5GHz Core2. came with a 2.2GHz one, but upgraded that and pretty much everything else at some point.. used that for some kind of major machine learning stuff in grad school..needed as much power and memory as I could get.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:30 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
They have some really nifty effects going on in the background. Using two fingers to resize a video or open and close a page gives a very natural card look. And the video continues to play while you’re manipulating it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:16 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
People were thinking of the newspapers in Harry Potter when they first saw the iPad, maybe that will become the norm!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:24 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
$14.99!? I might have to buy some. (Im weird and like to read textbooks for fun, sometimes)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:26 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Can someone verify if iBooks Author is strictly for textbooks? Will authors of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc. be able to use iBooks Authors to create an iBook that is not a textbook?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:26 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It can be used for any type of book
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:44 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That’s a good point. I can totally see this being a great tool for creating development books with animated UI examples, etc.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:56 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I was coming more from the standpoint of an author/writer that operates without an agent or a brick-and-mortar publisher—I’ve looked at creating an e-book before but the process seemed cumbersome. Now, I can WISYWIG my works into the iBook Store. A truly historic day for creative writers! And to think of all the multimedia avenues a writer can take to enhance their work—intersection of humanities and technology indeed.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:00 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Supports PDF export, I am going to have to see what the native format is. Looks pretty slick going to download and see. The iTunes U stuff interests me greatly as well.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:36 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
For universities I think this is going to have problems. I couldn’t find any equations in any of the textbooks demonstrated there. That worries me. This really isn’t going to fly (for me at least) if there isn’t a pretty good equation editor. Without it, you are eliminating math, physics, computer science, chemistry, economics, and anything more advanced in biology and most of the social sciences. That pretty much leaves history and the humanities, which is a pretty narrow subset of the books used at a university.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:53 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Paper textbooks don’t have equation editors. But, I’m there is something available … maybe, using JavaScript.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:58 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
First gallery on this page:
http://www.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/
Last photo shows SOME equations… but it looks like it’ll be limited to interactive sections.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:02 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yes, that is a possibility. It appears what is displayed there is a end of chapter question or similar. Maybe that means there is built-in equation editing functionality.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:28 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Every Mac has an app called Grapher that generates beautiful equations. You can copy and paste those into any app, such as iBook Author.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 5:01 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You don’t write a textbook with a paper textbook. You can write a textbook with iBooks Author which, as per the title, is the subject of this post and consequently the subject of my comment.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I really think they were spot on software-wise. Basically it was all I expected and hoped for.
But man… how I wanted Apple to announce an ePad at the cost of 300 dollars or something. Anyone who proved they were at school could buy one. Another utopian thought was that Apple would make a sort of agreement with NY schools (and later spreading to all states) to sell thousands of ePads, and every student would be given one until the end of the year or semester, the student would return it and then get it again after vacation. It would have been such a game changer.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:56 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think this makes it much more likely that the iPad 2 sticks around when it comes time to release the high-res 3. probably no lower than $400, though.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:11 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Oh goody, a new platform from which Apple can sue PDF, other E-Book formats, and even paper books into bankruptcy with bogus patent law suites.
I can see it now, all Libraries will have to close until such time as the courts can clear up Apple’s claim that they infringe upon their iBook2 patents on the metaphor for mixing words and pictures on a page.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:25 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
PDF is an open standard as is epub. There won’t be any lawsuits. If you read the actual article you’d see that they are basing this on various open standards.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:03 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
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