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 the Biology textbook — a full set would take up most of a 16GB iPad's storage.
As for Life on Earth itself, it runs extremely well even on the original iPad we tested it on. Movies load quickly, page turns are smooth, and embedded animations work without a hitch. Images are particularly engaging, as most go full-screen with a tap, and also contain a number of other related images to swipe through as well. The download process was slightly painful, but that could be due to a large number of people hitting Apple's servers all at once.
Each chapter begins with a large image, an overview of each section, and thumbnails of each page for quick access. In the menu bar, there's quick and easy access to the glossary, table of contents, and a new button that takes you directly to your notes, highlighted passages, and the "study cards" section. Unfortunately, due to the way textbooks are laid out, font size appears to be unchangable (unlike the books previously available in the iBookstore).
LIfe on Earth worked well in both portrait and landscape mode, though each provided a different view of the information — landscape was laid out like a traditional book, with each screen as a virtual "page," but portrait was a different affair altogether. Images and video were thumbnails on the left side of the screen, text was presented in the center, and instead of turning pages, you scroll top to bottom like a web page. Overall, the closest comparisons to the new textbooks are probably some of the magazines in Apple's Newsstand app, like Wired, that have sprung up in the last few years — the same embedded media, portrait- and landscape-optimized views, and simple navigation tools exist in both. What remains to be seen is whether the same high-quality experience will be replicated in the future textbooks built and released through iBooks Author.
Why is it not an appropriate comment? Not everyone is going to own an iPad. Not everyone owns a Mac for that matter. They want to see wide-spread adoption to that it looks cool and really interesting to EVERY student, it has to be cross-platform.
There are more than a few school’s which already have iPad’s deployed, i know a few kids with them. It’s nice to see them trying to make the experience better, or at least more than just porn.
There not going to do that for android, just like Google’s never going to make their maps on iOS not a joke.
The poorer schools which can only afford 200 dollar Android tablets or whatever cost Win8 tablets are are screwed…only the more affluent school districts can afford to give each student an iPad…this creates a further divide between the rich and the poor.
I hope this lights a fire under Amazon who has a whole catalog of ebooks with extremely low image quality. I made the mistake of buying Design Patterns from Amazon and I was disgusted to see the pixilated mess they call figures.
Yes it would be great if this were a cross-platform thing. Not surprising that Apple is not bringing a cross-platform thing. There are so many manufacturers in on Android and so many fanboys ravenous for Android I’m surprised someone in THAT CAMP doesn’t come out with SOMETHING else, because Amazon’s current offering is crap compared to this.
Different is not the same as bad. Amazon has entered the tablet arena, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. They’ll probably work on something similar soon.
You wouldn’t know it was Android if no one told you. The Android we picture is Google devices. Amazon better work on something, maybe they have something down the road.
Just because its not the Android you picture doesnt mean its not Android. Amazons market is called “Amazon Appstore for Android”. People savvy enough to use a Kindle Fire can gather that it runs Android apps and is therefore an Android based tablet. Just because Amazon doesnt market it that way doesnt mean it isnt.
You missed the point. It’s not me picturing it. It’s a fact if I showed the Kindle Fire to someone they would not tell me without spending some serious time with it that it was running atop skinned Android. It looks absolutely nothing like Android.
Oh, boo hoo. It is Android at the system level, and it runs Android apps. Common consumer opinion over whether or not it is Android has no barring on whether or not it is ACTUALLY Android. Just because it looks different on the outside doesn’t mean that it is different on the inside.
Who cares if the Kindle Fire is an Android stepchild or not? It is off topic. Amazon has made the Kindle app available across multiple devices and OS’es for some time now.
The Kindle Fire costs less than two Biology textbooks and is a whole lot lighter.
If Amazon decides to compete in the e-textbook market, they have already proven that they can support just about whatever device you want to use.
Oops! I broke my Kindle, I guess I will have to continue reading my book on my laptop, or my phone, or my dektop, or the desktop in the library, or I’ll borrow my friend’s netbook, or …
Do you see the point?
Let’s not forget about Barnes & Noble and the Nook Color/Tablet. They’re already well established in the textbook arena…never know if they’re cooking something up right now as well.
considering the price of textbooks, i think your pretty far off.
I also consider repair prices. iOS has a massive advantage here in they have limited models, but massive numbers shipped. This makes a much bigger 3rd party parts market, so i can fix 3gs and 3g’s for $30, and iPads for about $50.
I can’t agree with locking in a rather expensive educational advantage to one ecosystem.
The consumer market is one thing, but education? Should be criminal.
If this is a new model of content delivery and other platforms are open to adopt it, I’m all for it, but one ecosystem, one product, etc…no..this is NOT good.
And this would be a much different story if we were talking about computer labs.
This leaves the schools with 2 choices, buy iPads for everyone, or force every child to buy and iPad. Even if the cost was not a problem, legally there would be huge ramifications of forcing people to buy one product.
And then the kids, really parents have to buy the text book, that the kid will use for one year and then its useless to them? Of course there would be no reselling under Apples iron fist.
Do you think that giving those iPads away was anything but the start of a plan to help get this type of ipad/ibook system pretty much mandatory within the school systems.
Besides the current Textbook monopoly with only 3 big publishers selling text books at crazy prices is not a “closed” ecosystem at all… right?
Listen… Apple makes products that are desirable. They are now providing an OPTIONAL (OPTIONAL, OPTIONAL, OPTIONAL, can you hear me now?) avenue for education institutions to use this tool to empower their students, using these desiable products that they make.
This is a capitalist nation, and Apple is a business. At least they are putting a good product out there and providing those OPTIONAL tools for the institutions that do want to use them.
I don’t quite see the ’don’t make something unless everyone can have it straight away’ arguament. This gives schools and publishers a chance to trial a brand new technology. when cheap tablets become ubiquitous in a few years then there will be a pre-existant model to work to (with many of the pitfalls ironed out)….then everyone can have it.
Wrong – that iPad users can have. I read elsewhere Apple wants exclusivity, i.e. you sell your textbook in our store, you can’t sell it elsewhere (I am assuming this excludes the printed version).
After digging through the licensing PDF, Leanna thinks she might have found the pesky paragraph in question, namely, section 2.B.(ii).
If your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple and such distribution is subject to the following limitations and conditions: (a) you will be required to enter into a separate written agreement with Apple (or an Apple affiliate or subsidiary) before any commercial distribution of your Work may take place; and (b) Apple may determine for any reason and in its sole discretion not to select your Work for distribution.
That seems to agree with me?
In fact it doesn’t seem to exclude printed books so it’s worse than I thought.
Interesting, and I agree, pretty unnerving. But your book will be in iOS format anyway – so ‘your work’ would have to be rewritten to be distributed in a different format, surely. If that’s all there is, there are endless loopholes in that statement. Apple reserves the right to be an arse, and it wouldn’t be the first time, but I can’t see them forbidding content creators from distributing in other formats; its in their interest to get every possible textbook on the platform ASAP, not to have folks scared to sign an exclusivity agreement.
If Apple are providing the tools to create the books then are they trying to get people to write textbooks that will only appear on their system, i.e. they are becoming more like textbook publishers? So you write a book in iBooks Author and you sell it in iBooks store?
So more like the app store than the music store, i.e. the content creator uploads an app and gets their 70% of sales, but there are still larger publishers of apps, e.g. the bigger game companies like EA or popcap or something.
Imagine if Apple allowed a band to make a song in garageband, then sell it in iTunes, but only if it was an iTunes exclusive. More like that.
Of course, I could just be making it all up but it still concerns me.
What happens if the school dictates a certain textbook but it isn’t available on any device other than in an iPad – not even in printed format?
Wait, EXCUSE ME? Schools that can OLNY afford $200 Android tablets? No schools I no of have any tablets of any sort, even $100 ones. Pretty sure schools that don’t have ridiculous amounts of money don’t have any tablets.
Poorer schools are lucky if they can afford real books and you can’t expect poor families to provide them.
Plus, iPads are not very “kid proof”. – better invest in some durable covers, screen protectors, and replacement insurance.
We’ll have to lay off some more teachers to pay for the iPads. /sarcasm
It is not appropriate cos it says it’s only interesting if not used on an iPad. It doesn’t say it would be good if it were available on other platforms too…
Depends on what you study I guess….apple has a relativel small marketshare still that hasn’t changed for the pc space so your experience is not the norm….most students use windows.
even then, you’d be surprised how many people have Parallel’s Desktop software. I certainly was. I don’t have Parallel’s but when i upgrade i’ll probably get it when Windows 8 comes out. Microsoft looks to be making something spicy ;)
Yep. In the past couple of years, most everyone in my school can be seen using Macs and iPhones. There are even a surprising number of iPads. Even people who used PC laptops in first year have changed to Macs.
These are the people going out into the workforce and they are all Mac users. As long as Apple doesn’t screw up and make stupid decisions especially in the business sector, I think their marketshare is going to rise significantly in the next few years.
Because, like Apple is not allowing iBooks or the iBooks creation tool on non iOS/OSX machines, Google do not allow their document creation tools on the competitors platform (iOS.)
Every major player has their own standard, and file formats are largely supported among them. You’re not missing out on anything if you choose one over the others.
I’m confused, how do they “bork” the website for one platform? Does the iOS browser lack the ability to view the full site and get restricted to the mobile site?
If that’s the case, it sounds like you ARE saying the iOS web browser isn’t good enough to load the page.
Yes, cos the more platforms they offer their services on, the more ads they display but that’s a different business model. Apple doesn’t rely on ads, it’s a software/hardware company.
Why? How exactly do you think ‘standards’ are formed?
A bunch of companies throw their stuff into the market and whichever is the most popular sticks. Popular meaning that teachers/students can actually use it to save time (not to spend it on setting up or waiting till some Droid lagging machine finishes redrawing the screen.)
Standards are never created for all the platforms at first. Photoshop wasn’t some IEEE standard and then Adobe started creating it. It goes the other way around.
And why would Apple help other platforms? Give me one good reason.
As pointed out in other comments in this thread the school district buys the textbooks. If the district dictates that all students must get an iPad there is no longer an option to use the printed book. The biggest problem I see is not using the iPads, it’s Apple saying if you sell your textbook in their store you can’t sell it elsewhere.
For what it’s worth the textbooks could be produced in HTML5 and viewed in any browser on any device, and also coded by anyone with tools to build web sites. I don’t see a need for the proprietary format. HTML is perfect for displaying text/graphics/video/audio, especially HTML5.
You could argue that HTML would lead to piracy, but then I can’t imagine a school district would do that – they’d just pay a per student licence (oddly just like the way MS licences Windows/Office).
The other problem I see if that if a student needs 6 particular books and only 4 are available on the iPad then there would be immense pressure on the publishers of the other books to sign up with Apple, thereby foregoing their right to sell their works elsewhere.
Something just doesn’t sit right with me about the lock-in thing.
“As pointed out in other comments in this thread the school district buys the textbooks. If the district dictates that all students must get an iPad there is no longer an option to use the printed book. The biggest problem I see is not using the iPads, it’s Apple saying if you sell your textbook in their store you can’t sell it elsewhere.”
You just pointed out that the school buys the textbooks…
Somewhere along the line this just seems anti-competitive to me, I don’t know why. I worry that a textbook might become only available as an iBook, and that bothers me. I haven’t quite worked my way through it just yet.
I would prefer if the school just said “you need textbook XYZ” and it was available for anyone. I said in another comment somewhere today that I think this information should be HTML5, which would then be viewable anywhere, and essentially the same experience on any device.
What are you talking about? Even with paper textbooks, if the school said that you need THIS BOOK, it meant one particular book from the publisher ABC. You didn’t have no choice even with the paper books. Only now, if they think the book is the best one on the market, they’re gonna say, “You need book BIO4 from the publisher ABC”. And now, you’re gonna be able to choose whether you want to buy the paper version for $150 or the iPad version for $15.
Do you think this is unfair? Why didn’t anyone else launch e-textbooks like this? Why does everyone else waits, till Apple takes something boring and makes it fun and useful and then they start shit-talking?
And please explain to me, how launching a new product anti-competitive? Mark my words, Google is gonna start ‘competing’ (read: copying) soon with their viagra ad filled ‘open’ textbooks, which come on any Android device.
Are you insane? Since when is launching a new product automatically a matter of anti-trust? The problem is, that if they actually released it into other platforms, piracy would kick in (look at the Droid market) and the publishers wouldn’t get anything.
It isn’t appropriate because the comment doesn’t add anything of value to the conversation. Also, no one else is making a push for textbook on their devices BUT Apple. If any other companies are doing it they aren’t making enough noise and they probably don’t have enough clout to make anything happen at this time. Just because something is available to lots of people doesn’t mean it will catch on or become the standard. It has to be done right and done well.
Done right and done well is something that Apple has proved they can do. Apple makes great hardware and their customers show the highest satisfaction when it comes to their products.
Who else made legal digital music distribution what it is today despite the fact that record labels are stuck in the past? Apple.
Who else has pushed for something like this in the textbook/education industry? Amazon with their years and years of book selling experience (paper and ebook) and all their connections and relationships in the publishing industry haven’t once tried anything like this as far as the public knows. If anyone should have been able to do something it should have been Amazon. But it wasn’t. It was Apple. Did other companies not have the foresight or the care to try this? Who knows.
As far as hardware pricing goes the old phrase. “You get what you pay for” comes to mind. I used regular PC’s running windows from 1997-2005 when I switched to Apple computers. I’ve had far less problems with Apple products and the same will be true for schools that decide to use iPad’s for education. Better quality hardware with less software problems over the years.
Apple has done the legwork here. They’ve partnered with textbook publishers and created free software that lets people create their own textbooks. Who else is offering any of this? Who else even gets the idea that you need to provide a total solution (hardware, software, ecosystem, etc)? So far, no one else. Other companies are JUST NOW trying to copy this.
You are actually still comparing specs when it comes to mobile (tablets,phones) devices? That doesn’t mean anything in the Apple world anymore and hasn’t for years. Apple hardware such as iphone and ipad that have lower specs than other hardware still run better than competitors devices because of the tight integration and forethought when it comes to their OS.
Apple (in advance) makes their hardware and software work so well that the lower specs won’t hinder the user experience. Other companies just try to throw more power at a problem and hope it works (which is usually doesn’t). This is why you still hear (maybe with the exception of the recently released Ice Cream Sandwich) “Android will be better with the next release”, which has been said for years now.
You’re really going to tout 0.2-0.4ghz more processing power or 512mb more RAM as significant spec improvements per buck?
In fact… you’re still going to talk about specs like higher specs means better by default. Just look at iOS and Windows phone. Compared to Android they have slightly lower specs (that the high end Android devices) and yet run as, if not more smooth. The reason Android pushes for specs is A) to push spec wars to drive sales and B) because the totally unoptimised OS needs it.
Does anyone actually read what they’re replying to? I’m saying the iPads are both more powerful than needed for educational use, hence more expensive, and under-spec’d as in – no universally standardized connectors etc. Actually, if I were to envision a perfect educational, digital textbook device, the best way to describe it would be “not iPad”.
How is it not? It’s underspec’d (not in terms of processing power, of course, but everything else, mainly connectivity) and overpriced, plus it’s too expensive for universal adoption.
It’s not about the competition, it’s about what the field of education requires. A purpose built system would have to be cheaper, more optimized for those tasks, and supporting universal standards. The only reason Apple is doing this is peddling their own general purpose hardware and basically monopolizing yet another lucrative market.
Your comment about a purpose-built system is incorrect. When a company
builds a device for a specific purpose like you suggest, there are a
couple of factors that immediately limit that product. The first, is
that the market for that product is relatively small, so per-unit
profits must be higher. The second is that manufacturing costs are
much higher because you’re not producing in large volume. Both of
these factors mean that a device designed for one specific purpose
costs the consumer a lot more money than a general-purpose product
like an iPad.
If you don’t believe me, there are a couple of really good examples of
this already. Take a look at Electronic Flight Bags, for example.
These are purpose-built devices made for pilots to carry around
navigational charts and aircraft manuals. They are monumentally
expensive ($5000+), ugly, bulky and not very usable. Some airlines
have already started replacing these with iPads because they are
cheaper, more user-friendly, lighter and overall better-designed.
Another example is medical equipment for children with autism.
Purpose-built communication devices sell for thousands of dollars, but
they don’t work as well and aren’t designed as well as an iPad.
So while I understand that you personally might be averse to Apple’s
work in the education industry, I don’t think that your argument about
purpose-built systems holds any water.
Ad supported textbooks are not such a bad idea if it cuts down on the price. I am sure most college students will appreciate paying 1/4 price or, perhaps, getting free ad supported textbook over paying 400+ per semester.
Sooper_verge12 why the hell are you defending him? He didn’t say ‘can use’. he was flat out being a troll. You really need to read someone’s comment before leaping to his defense with a defense that is completely irrelevant, thus not being a defense.
You can’t very well do this on a Kindle. That’s not Apple fault. I’m sure Goggle will welcome these textbooks onto their tablets. What’s the problem? It’s only just been introduced.
As much as I wish that Apple had made this cross platform, we all know that they’re not much for interoperability of software, iTunes being the notable exception.
You know who should have built something like this a long time ago? Amazon. They started their business selling books online, captured a significant chunk of the ebook market with Kindle and demonstrated a dedication to being on every platform, even those that compete with their hardware, because it’s all about making money off the book sales.
They had a remarkable good position in the market and relationships with publishers. They should have released something like this a long time ago.
I know books aren’t their core business anymore, but few people have the publisher relationships they do and they failed to leverage those relationships effectively. The Kindle Fire would have been a much more attractive proposition had it launched with a textbook framework like this. All of a sudden the 200 dollar tablet becomes a smart investment for students who already get half off Prime.
Then again, I’m not Jeff Bezos and the guy is a lot smarter than I am. I’m sure he had his reasons.
When I first saw Push Pop Press’ Al Gore ebook (Our Choice) I couldn’t wait to see what would become of the ebook industry – particularly the implications for education.
My great worry though was that many publishers would continue to use Adobe’s tools despite the output being inferior or just being PDF dumps because that was what was in their workflow and laziness / cost would make it unattractive to them to make the effort to change.
I had hoped that Apple would have purchased PPP/Meyer and rehired the guys who used to work for them and integrate their work into iBooks and push that as a way to help a genuinely great product realise its potential – but those hopes were dashed when Facebook bought PPP for their talent and scrapped all PPP’s publishing platform work.
Then the rumours of an apple education even rekindled my hopes that perhaps their work had been picked up, improved & integrated, and would find a way into mainstream consciousness.
Being in higher education myself this is everything I could have wished for and hope to see the quality filter through into the rest of the educational experience and that ebooks as a whole move forward beyond just being text outputs or InDesign pdf dumps.
for the TL;DR crowd;
go check out push pop press’s ebook and you’ll understand the potential for what this can do for raising quality of digital reading materials
Sadly, Facebook bought PushPopPress and abandoned their technology. Rather than changing publishing the team are now doing the much more worthy task of making ‘Like’ buttons.
Ever loose a textbook in highschool? I got into a fight with some assholes once. One of them stole my backpack and I was only out 4 books. Luckily the other 6 were still in my locker but that was a $400 hit a broke highschool student could not afford.
More reason to change things. The current model is broken in favor of publishers, not students, just as the music industry was broken in favor of record companies.
To me this looks like Apple is trying to gain some leverage. Think about it, if the next crop of highschool kids all used these iPad textbooks, they’re going to want to continue using them in College. It could also be more of a proof of concept type thing to prove to publishers that this is the future, and it’s time to adapt.
Very true, but all the cards are in the publisher’s hands. Currently they have a model where they can create a new edition of each textbook each year, with minor content changes that break all page number references, forcing students to buy brand new textbooks rather than used, which also makes selling used textbooks harder. They’re not about to abandon that model for something that students buy once for a low price, have access to forever, and can be updated easily.
You’re kidding right? Early adoption is the key to ecosystem buy in and lock in. You get high school kids locked into your ecosystem, you have them for life, through college and post-college. This isn’t about “competition” per se; this is about assimilation. It’s like how tobacco companies “seem” to be marketing to younger audiences. You get them hooked now, they’ll be hooked for life. It’s business.
I think this is Apple’s way of getting a foothold into the textbook business. Once they get some traction I can see them jumping into college textbooks.
The reason they didn’t start with College textbooks is simple:
A high school buys books for all students and they last for many years.
A college makes the students buy the books each year.
Apple wanted HELP from the textbook publishers. Selling new books each year for $15 probably adds up to similar income or better for high school textbooks. Selling new books each year for $15 to a college student represents a significant financial loss.
I think they are trying to make more inroads into education via schools themselves first. In highschool, schools pay for the textbooks unless you lose or deface your copy. If Apple can make a good impression and prove this textbook model works, the whole education sector will take notice and implement the system at which point students will also get the savings.
You didn’t pay for them, but the schools do. If each student needs 6 textbooks at $150/each on average, the $500 cost of a school-issued iPad is a big savings, multiplied over time, as textbooks come out with new editions every few years.
That will obviously come with the added cost of “loaning” a teenager an iPad and trusting them to not damage it, but that’s the same principle that is used with the text books now.
Many seem to frame the cost of this as though the books were going to be free. They of course won’t. This will be an opportunity for publishing companies to move districts from what many of them do now—buy math books this year, econ books the next year… and seven years later buy math books again—to paying a subscription fee for access to the electronic assets desired today. I’m not really sure if this will cost more or less than things do now considering that schools may save money on other computer expenditures, but I do know that it’s going to make for a messsy budget year when a school decides to bite the bullet and move this direction.
iPad 2E will sell for $199 starting in April. This “E” version will have 8GB (holds about 6 textbooks at a time), non-Retina Display, no GPS/3G, slightly smaller battery. That’s the future.
The screen for the iPad2 has a cost of $120, hard to see them getting the rest of the components in there and making a profit on $79. Amazon is losing $10 or so on every Kindle sold using a smaller screen & inferior components selling at $199 and Apple doesn’t do loss leader hardware. You also have to consider at $199 the demand would skyrocket, Apple already has a tough time keeping up with demand when a new model is released a $199 loss leader would impact supplies of common materials. Apple may like education, but they’re not going to negatively impact sales or supplies of a flagship iPad for the sake of the education market.
$399 seems all but inevitable based on Apple’s strategy with the iPhone, $299 next year.
I think it’s more likely that Apple will continue to make the iPad2 (post-iPad3 release) and drop the price. Possibly even make a deal to sell them cheaper to schools.
As an engineering student, I have to spend more $500 on my books every semester. I would LOVE to be able to spend that $500 on an iPad and then $14.95 on each book. I would save several thousand dollars over my college career like that.
I know how that feels, I’m in computer science where books can cost 150-200 each normally… when you have five classes per semester it adds up.
I have an iPad and have a few textbooks which are sometimes 30-50% less than the printed version. 14.95 would be amazing.. provided I’ll be able to buy them in Canada,
Then 20 years down the road people will regret choosing a closed proprietary system that has been deprecated, when they can no longer read such a large portion of the worlds text books and iBooks in general. I would personally like to see this in html5 and an ebook wrapper, to future proof our texts and collective knowledge in an open standard.
Future proof? Publishers own the content and make new editions of print textbooks all the time. A textbook from a few years ago is already depreciated. If a better system becomes available in the future and the iPad goes away (I doubt it), then they’re publish for that system instead.
There are libraries all across the world with books older than many countries and those books still read fine and still provide great value to the reader. Not all books, even books for use in education, are obsolete within a few years or as soon as the publisher releases a new edition.
The beauty of digital text is that it is cheap to update vs reprinting and adding chapters. Creative commons or open source textbooks could thrive and not be encumbered by copyright/publishing permissions and not be tied to a single proprietary ecosystem. Think of the textbook as an evolving document perhaps. I need to read up on the end use rlicense agreement with iBook Author, to see what rights are granted to Apple during and or after being published as an iBook.
Open source textbooks could pose a problem though. If you look at Wikipedia as an example of shared knowledge, it’s very accurate for the most part, but there are certain parts that are blatantly incorrect or unsubstantiated, and it’s impossible to catch every error, despite employing people to write and verify content.
While this is a cool announcement (meaning that textbook companies are embracing the digital age and are realizing the benefits of electronic distribution), I hope I never find an e-textbook that is iPad only when there are many universal formats out there. I don’t think a single device should be the “standard”.
You have a scratch-resistant screen in the iPad 1 and 2 already. Not unbreakable – any more than those shatterproof rulers weren’t shatterproof (used to have a lot of fun proving that as a kid).
Dang! Those little $#!7s should have to lug around a stack of paper books like I did back in my day (2002). I want to go back to College just for this!
Is there an easy way to flip back and forth between pages or items? That’s one of the biggest advantages of papers books. Might be the only one. In college math and physics courses, I would constantly flip between pages to reference examples or formulas.
I wonder if the notes/flashcards portion has a quick flip functionality.
There seems to be a preview of each page at the bottom for quick page access. As for going from one book to another you can 4 finger swipe from book to book like with normal Apps I expect.
To be fair, there’s a difference between typing 140 character text messages and taking notes of any useful level of detail during a lecture or seminar.
One might put up with quite a lot for a short message but even a small annoyance might be come a serious hurdle if you have to spend a more considerable length of time contending with it.
I don’t want to be a downer but Apple should have announced something about donating iPads and computers to schools. Honestly how are schools going to afford this? Some schools barely can afford 1 computer for a student. This seems only useful to the schools that are already financially secure.
Instead of buying new, expensive dead tree books, they would be buying iPads and cheaper digital books. It’s a wash early and saves money in the long run.
Books get lost, stolen, vandalized and outdated. I went to a pretty well off school, and even there the textbooks were falling apart or there weren’t enough for everyone. It’s a dying format.
Rather than just handing the iPads out then, make the students sign them out (like they do with laptops in some schools). The iPad has an engraved number, and if it gets lost or broken, that student is responsible for replacing it.
With the books only being a maximum of $14.99 the school district can pass the savings on to Apple to purchase lots of Ipads. Or more likely they can tell the parents that students now require an Ipad for class and keep the money themselves. Either way it’s a win for Apple.
Oh I agree and most School Districts are not going to pass savings they might get to purchase Ipads for the every enrolled student at the school. In terms of software and usability it looks great but Apple needs to make it an open format not close it off into their tightly controlled ecosystem.
I do wish Apple would have addressed this issue today. Yeah, the technology and book pricing is great. We all get that. The challenge is getting the hardware to the kids.
Nothing for college? That’s where the true disruption is possible.
I’ve had my doubts about college textbook publishers coming on board with something like this, and the fact that Apple hasn’t mentioned that space seems to confirm those doubts
The digital form would eliminate buyback and used book sales. So students would HAVE to buy new every year. Publishing digitally via iBooks may, however, have a greater profit margin. Those two combined could drive lower cost books in the college space. Of course just because they CAN charge a lower price doesn’t mean they will.
“The Next Chapter in Learning” ? Are you #$@$ kidding me?
It may be the next chapter in learning for the few lucky one that can afford to buy Apple product but this is NOT the next chapter in learning for the humanity.
A good laptop can be had now for under $300…and it’ll serve students well (as long as they don’t treat it like a red-headed step-child). They don’t need a Core I7 be productive on a laptop (they’re doing school work, not hardcore gaming). Same goes for desktop computers.
Asus will be coming out with a Quad Core tablet, there’s the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. There’s rumors of Google producing a $200 ICS tablet.
I’m sorry, but anything with a performance remotely close to an Atom netbook is NOT good. And if it doesn’t have a crappy processor it WILL have a slew of other problems… namely being a giant, heavy brick, shitty trackpads, shitty keyboard, horrendous screens (especially if you compare them to iPad’s LED IPS display, Retina be damned)
This would sound like a more humanitarian effort if they opened the specification of the Textbooks file format, so anyone could create those books and distribute them for free through any channel, not just the App Store – otherwise it’s just a monopoly.
Completely agree. We get it Apple, you want to get into education and enterprise. Your prices in this economy hurt the poor. I know families that can’t even put food on the table.
Yeah, those radically cheaper textbooks are certainly heart-breaking…
Look, the U.S. government hasn’t issued an edict that makes buying Apple products for school obligatory, so the schools should figure it out themselves whether or not they can successfully implant it… Besides, you pay something called T-A-X-E-S, and they should be used by the schools to give out iPads, even if just for the people that can’t afford them (republicans can feint now at this outrageous thought…)
Apple isn’t forcing anything down anyone’s throats and ripping money out of your wallets, people… That so many people see it that way is disturbing… They either really hate the company, or want it so much that demonize it for not being able to get it.
Buying these books on the iPad is also not the only option. So those poor souls who cannot afford an iPad will have to pay $1000-$1500 per year on textbooks instead. And the year after that too (when the iPad would still be in use, almost definitely).
With very few exceptions, the media content features of this platform are not substantively different than what Encarta offered more than a decade ago.
That said, I bought a Kindle 1 because I support a move away from the environmental effects of producing and shipping physical books. To the extent that this initiative sparks a move away from printed media in this area, I fully support it.
I’m a public school teacher, and this announcement is phenomenal! Yes, there are kinks to work out on pricing and availability, but those are problems to be solved. The main problem in education is getting content to students, and this is a huge leap forward. Most people are commenting on prices, etc. with no idea what it’s like to run a school. For instance, does anyone know the cost of a textbook to a school? Our annual budget is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars just for them, and for them to be replaced. Managing and prodcuring iPads will be a challenge, but a secondary one. The main problem of improving our students’ achievement has just been dealt a huge blow.
The unique thing about Apple doing this is the convergence of the what I want with what they want. I want content delivered well, and as close to real life as possible, which the iPad really can do well. They want iPads. It’s not often that what I want is what they want, so I’m embracing this. Will there be problems? Yes, but good problems.
I work higher up in schools and this is not a solution….physical books you can take home i know that if my school has ipads these kids will not be allowed to take them home…how will this help
This may not be a surprise, but these textbooks are gigantic in size. I’m talking over 1gb each. If apple is serious about adoption, they need to phase out the 16gb iPad and price the 32gb at $499.
don’t be so shortsighted to think that this is just because of Android.
What the parent is trying to say is that it sucks that a textbook is proprietary and can only be used and produced on one platform. It’s like .doc files all over again. People should not be required to purchase microsoft windows and microsoft word just because the school decided to use that particular tool. I should be able to use OpenOffice on Linux, Pages on Mac or whatever. That won’t be possible if Apple wants to monopolize the file format and only have textbooks working on their platform.
Information wants to be free. Education should not be locked in!
The thing is, corporations won’t change without an opportunity for profit. We tried free with Linux. And a lot of other things. Collaboration tools are different because people contribute (i.e. wikipedia) but when it comes to schools, you need someone to make money on it so that the schools can be sold something. It’s a sad reality. I worked on Linux installs in the school board, they only did them to get discounts from Microsoft on licenses.
I still can’t use OpenOffice in a real office environment because the templates aren’t consistent and coworkers aren’t getting nicely laid-out presentations. Open was great when technology was expensive, but now Pages costs your $20 and it works better then something that’s free. I’d rather pay the $20.
It would be great if you could use the textbooks on an Apple laptop with gestures, Then at least you get the benefit of a physical keyboard to take notes.
I can’t believe with iCloud that this isn’t available. Google Books and Kindles do this and save bookmarks/pages etc.. I guess it helps push hardware sales so they are not making it a priority right now? Think about how much easier it would become to quote text etc on your laptop for your nightly report or history homework?
With Amazon you can use Kindle (for Books), Kindle Fire, any laptop/desktop with internet connection, Android devices AND the iPad. With Apple you’re locked to their hardware (with the exception of music and videos, which can also be used on Windows PCs).
Secondary and primary school kids with iPads? Lol. That might be a good idea in a few schools but not most. I can see that being a train wreck waiting to happen.
Even that whats the point because once there taken home chances are they will break them have no clue how to use them sell them? I dont see a need for this in educatoon other tjan for college
Ahhh, the trove of internet comments. iPads are too expensive, Apple sucks, Android will take over the iPad. All these same things were said when the iPod was released.
The MAIN (but not only) reason the AVERAGE user buys an Android tablet, is because it’s cheaper. Apple’s proven that the iPad owns the “high end” tablet market. Why? because, for the AVERAGE person, iOS is easier to use, more intuitive and much more reliable.
Will people buy an iPad just for textbooks? No. This is aimed at schools. And for families who own an iPad, it’s an added bonus.
Like it or not, iOS is much easier for the AVERAGE person to tie down for their kids. The parental controls are much better.
The biggest thing that Apple has over random Android tablet OEMs is support from the manufacturer (on the software side).
When you buy an Android tablet, it will be dropped by the manufacturer between six months and one year after purchase (you will not get the latest OS updates, your hardware will be obsolete, and so on).
If Apple is serious about this education push, then it will extend iPad support much longer than the two year period that typifies Apple’s mobile products. That’s a big win for consumers – even more so when your consumer is a school district.
“When you buy an Android tablet, it will be dropped by the manufacturer between six months and one year after purchase (you will not get the latest OS updates, your hardware will be obsolete, and so on).”
The Xoom is almost a year old and got ICS and like the OG Droid should continue to get support for up to another year, I’d imagine schools would go for those Google-experience/Nexus devices.
And ANY hardware is obsolete a year later. Could you not describe iPad 1 as being obsolete?
No, I wouldn’t describe the iPad 1 as obsolete. I don’t want to get into an argument about Android device support. An education system is not going to hack their Galaxy Tabs with Cyanogenmod to get the latest OS update when Samsung moves on to the next product. I’m not saying that Android tablets are bad, but it makes no sense to deploy them because of fickle device support, lack of peripherals, and because Android does not offer a comparable ecosystem to what Apple is offering (in terms of education).
No, I wouldn’t describe the iPad 1 as obsolete. I don’t want to get into an argument about Android device support.
But you separated support and hardware in your original comment. iPad 1 is every bit as obsolete as an original Galaxy Tab when it comes down to hardware (heck, the iPad has less RAM)
And I agree, software support is an issue for Android I’m not so sure it’s as big a problem for schools and businesses. They usually test updates to make sure they work before deployment and often take an “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” stance, slow updates don’t really pose an issue in either scenario..
Comparing hardware needed to run iOS vs. Android one to one does not reflect reality. A 2007 iPhone running iOS 3.1.3 (the latest version to support it) is still has a UI way smoother and more responsive than any Android released in say 2010 with vastly more powerful hardware. (FWIW, my 2007 iPhone still gets extended daily use as out universal remote control, cooking timer & alarm clock.)
Claiming that the iPad 1 is obsolete because it has less RAM than some left for dead Android tablet does not reflect reality. iOS products have a much longer real world useful lifespan than Android products. Doubt the opinion of some guy’s comment on the Internet? Look at the used prices on eBay. iOS devices, are way more valuable as they age.
Ipad market share has nothing to do with it….people arw going to have to buy an ipad to get this seems very short sighted to me and only adds to the problem….these children in city schools are way to poor and the cities themselves are way to poor to afford an opad for everyone….especially now that most.school districts use windows as the desktop it just adds to the problem…
Look now. I see where you’re coming from but for those who CAN afford this – why not? Should the entire world be left behind until we figure out how to run the poorest schools in U.S.?
“New editions” should be delta updates. Then if they try to push the latest version on professors, the benefits will have to be very clear! I can’t tell you how many times in college I had to choose between buying the “brand new” 8th Edition for $125, or get last year’s edition for $40, with minimal differences. And of course, the reading assignments didn’t make any sense if your page numbering was different…
Don’t get me wrong. I love Apple products, I own an iPad 2, a iPhone 4S, a Mac Mini, a Macbook Pro, I work in an office that’s 95 percent Mac Pro’s.
But I am also a huge proponent of good education…
Apple’s Education initiative is neat, but the entirely wrong answer. Education is not lacking just because of the lack of tools. There is a fundamental divide between the have and have nots.
The kids who need help go to schools where they’d get stabbed for an iPad. The only students who this will help are the students who don’t need it!
I’d love to see Apple make a sizable donation to multiple education funds. Or make it easier for students to afford iPads (without applying for a high APR Barclaycard credit card).
That all being said, as a privileged middle class white boy… Man this stuff is cool! Wish I was in high school when this stuff was around.
I imagine Apple will subsidize these for educational and student purchases. Part of your Tax dollars go to buying one of these instead of 300 textbooks. I imagine getting shivved for one of these is less likely when you’re entire school is issued one per student.
A nice thought… but lets be honest… after being engaged to someone who’s taught at some of the worst schools in the country (which are actually in our nations capitol!) you realize it’s a pipe dream.
The only schools that will propagate these to their entire student body are the high end public schools, charter schools, and private schools. Meanwhile, the schools struggling with students living in poverty, gangs, and drugs will still be tablet-less.
Yes, tablet-less.
This isn’t an iPad-is-too-expensive debate. These schools with NOT be getting tablets of ANY kind. Not iPads, not Xooms, not Playbooks, not Kindle Fires… They will still be struggling to afford texts books that are dated after 1990.
As I’ve said… it’s the wrong answer to a very… VERY difficult question.
This iBooks 2/Textbooks initiative would’ve been a lot easier to swallow if they at least spoke about donating large sums of money to struggling schools all across America.
DC schools have a lot of problems, and I don’t think that the iPad will solve them. But lack of funding is not one of their problems – they spend $28,000 per pupil…one of the highest rates in the US. They could afford iPads.
Yes, I agree the situation you’re describing (underfunded schools) is an American society/government problem. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t great for the problems it’s intended to address.
There’s more than one problem with schools. Apple’s announcement is not the answer to ALL problems, just SOME problems.
Using the Apple Hate-o-Meter which measures the degree of success of an Apple product by the number of posts by Apple detractors, looks like Apple hit one out of the park again.
Well, the Apple Hate-o-Meter was going pretty strong with appletv and they certainly didn’t hit one out of the park there….even their last venture into taing on amazon hasn’t been a raging success with magazines that we were all told it was going to be…
Sometimes apple just makes “me too” products look great with fantastic marketing and the name apple…this is one…
Sometimes they make great products like the mac air…
Actually the ATV2 is selling VERY well compared to any earlier versions. I know like 4 people with one who were never interested in such a thing before.
Apple making a “me too”? The ATV is a me too product? You can’t be serious.
Also, the ATV is a successful product… for its category. But content providers weren’t helping, so meh… one can hope that this year’s (or the next’s) Apple TV will solve it all*
And become a fighter in the next-gen console scene, courtesy of a >210 GFLOP quad-core Rogue series GPU.
I can see many tech knowledge lacking school boards falling head over heals on this but in reality, there is not much going on except the software side of things…
Tablets are ok I guess but typing on them is a royal pain….
With a real textbook, I will put sticky notes all over and make but if I have to do that with a screen keyboard it kinda is a negative for me…
I’m not sold on the movement away from real books to begin with for many reasons…we just are not there technically yet but eventually we will be…
However, when we do get there with the hardware, let’s make the publsihing standards open so I can use this on any vendor’s platform, not just apple and also deal directly with small publishers, not just the giants…
Problem = “Most students/schools can’t afford iPads.”
Theory = “When Apple releases the iPad 3, they will continue producing the 2 and sell it at a reduced price. For everyone, not just educators”
newProblem = “The timing of the announcement is kind of strange.. why didn’t they just release everything at the same time, or wait until after the iPad 3 is announced. Perhaps they needed some type of press event to hold over shareholders until the iPad 3 is released.. Maybe the iPad 3 won’t be released until later this year because of LTE chipset optimization and screen production difficulties…”
I think the timing is pretty good… iBooks Author is released as of today. Content creation is started. When the iPad 3 is announced, no doubt there will already be a good amount of textbooks available.
I hope I’m not just adding noise, but how in the hell did Apple consider this a good reason to have a press conference type of setting? It may be that I haven’t watched the full keynote (as I will), but still I don’t see how this has as much of a wow-factor as in past times. Regardless, we’ll see.
Honestly I think people make the mistake of expecting that every Keynote should be as good as the MacWorld 2007 Keynote which propelled Apple presentations to legend
god that was a good presentation… miss you steve… Cook is so. damn. boring.
At least in here there has been a lot of talk about making all student material on every level free for the student (until age 16 all material is provided for free currently). I think these sort of solutions would encourage to adopt that approach. I mean, buying a license to download a book digitally for over a hundred thousand students must come more cheaply than buying real books for them. And it’s easier as well to just buy the license. Not to mention how easily these books could be updated; no need to buy a new one just because a few numbers have changed in the last 2 years.
Btw as a grad student I’ve been using my tablet PC to buy and carry most of my books in digital form for the past two years. But it’s good to know that Apple invented it today.
Anyway, I’d be interested to know what kind of deal some publishers get for a digital version of some $250 engineering book. I doubt very much that it will be $14.99.
So which kind of student needs books with nice full-screen pictures and movies? Back in my time, which is not far back, they were 99% text and formulas with the occasional graph. No one needs a gigabyte-large glossy magazine for his studies if he is serious about it.
But what am I saying, design-crazy B students will be all over it and buy second and third iPads because they cannot study without the great pictures and animations and need all the books. Great job, Apple! You’re ruining an education system that is already down…
This is still quite broken until there is a stylus and a decent note-taking application that can work side by side. That would in turn require a bigger or two screens to work effectively.
I echo the commenters who say this might have been better if it rolled out to the college textbook market first. I just finished grad school and there were precious few grad-level books in Kindle, but the ones that were there, I snapped them up. I could study anywhere- on my PC, on my Kindle, on my phone. Each Kindle app saved my bookmarks, my text notes, and allowed me search way faster than looking up an old index. And because grad level textbooks are text-heavy and not graphics heavy, I didn’t miss out on anything over a paper book.
That said, as someone who used to work in an elementary school IT department, I can see the appeal here. Textbook buys mandated by the state in most states occur each year. The cycle goes like this: Year 1 is English, Year 2 is Math, Year 3 is Science, and then the cycle repeats.
For our 7,000 student K-6 district, the spend was about $250,000 for each cycle. Thousands of textbooks were delivered to our warehouse where my friend and lovely coworker spent her summer months tearing open big boxes, and with a few student volunteers, indexed each of them and slapped a barcode on them. I then used data imports from each textbook manufacturer each a different format mind you to populate our student database system.
Only once all that is done, the thousands of textbooks are delivered to each school just in time for the near year. By the end of the next year, 15-25% are lost, damaged, or beyond repair, and the district has to dip into its reserved textbooks, and replace barcode stickers etc. The cycle begins again each summer.
It’s a massive logistical nightmare and thanks to the public always demanding that education cuts occur as far away from the classroom as possible, District staff was always over-worked but did their best.
Now imagine replacing that entire paradigm with iPads. Sure it would come with its own headaches (Where’s the back-end infrastructure to deploy grade-appropriate images to iPads, namely) but aside from that? It’d be a huge bump in efficiency and probably a decrease in costs as long as each District could insure iPads against loss or theft.
I was quite impressed with the announcement but its not cross-platform. Google and Amazon should get some $15 textbooks because Kindle is cross-platform. If every textbook was $15 that would be amazing! I am glad Apple wants to change the evil textbook market. Whats next the cable market?
So it isn’t cross-platform? Did anyone really expect it to be? Does it matter? It is at the core of Apple’s mission to provide software and hardware together. It wouldn’t make sense for Apple to outsource iBooks to Kindle or Android devices because Apple likes to control the user experience, and wouldn’t want the software running on hardware that can’t handle it. And that’s not neccessarily a bad thing.
As for expecting each kid to drop $500 on a new iPad… I don’t think that is the expectation, at least not for elementary school kids. If the textbooks are $15 and less, it makes sense for schools to buy iPads with eTexbooks over the paper textbooks that cost way more, are heavier and can’t be updated easily. And if every kid has an iPad, then there’s no incentive for theivery, etc. except from outsiders, and schools already take safety measures against outside threats.
All of that being said, there are certainly negative aspects of this announcement. I downloaded a few samples of these eTextbooks on my original iPad and had a mixed experience. At times, the books were quick and responsive, and at other times not so much. The experience reminds me a lot of Push Pop Press’s “Our Choice,” but with slightly less polish. Hopefully Apple can continue to refine textbooks and polish them up more so that they are closer to the level of “Our Choice.”
I’m a full time college student so I really hope to see textbook publishers at the university level take advantage of iBooks 2 by the time I’m out of school in about 3 1/2 years. I wish that Apple could have revamped a couple of other things besides just adding textbooks in iBooks 2.0. PDF viewing could use a lot of work, adding highlighting for one. I also would love to see simple additions to “regular” books in iBooks such as being able to highlight with one swipe and see all of my notes in a better format than what is currently offered.
I’m also hopeful that Apple will update it’s iWork suite soon… as it didn’t happen today.
As much as I disagree or dislike most of Apple’s “revolutionary” devices or services, this is actually pretty cool. I wouldn’t say it “reinvents” the textbook, but it’s a really nice integration and implementation of software or services that already have existed in third parties. Honestly, this might be the first thing that actually makes the iPad seem like more than a pointless toy to me. Good job, Apple.
This is an interesting announcement, and their authoring software seems to be pretty well thought out. And I do think that e-books will, eventually, be the future of textbooks.
But I’m pretty skeptical about the advantages of interactive texts, which can easily turn into nothing more than gimmicks. While the examples that they used in their sample book are pretty good, that book isn’t anything near the size of a real textbook. And I’m not sure that a full textbook would benefit by having many more interactive examples than the ones they’ve already demoed.
To paraphrase Kurt Gödel, every sufficiently expressive formal system is capable of turning on itself. Counting down to the first interactive Bible to be created in iBook 2 format…
This is really just the next step (in a long line of steps!) to get technology to be ubiquitous. Soon the conversation will change from one of scarcity to one of abundance…. get ready to start answering “Now What?”
I installed the free E.O. Wilson Life on Earth to try out the new iBooks. Also installed a couple other free samples. Overall it’s pretty average capabilities, far short of other iPad textbook products such as Inkling. Happy as heck to see Apple step in with a product, but lots more has to be done to make it competitive. Here’s what I encountered;
Took me 2 days on 3 different networks to get the book installed. It’s so large (1.01Gig), wouldn’t install on 3 different wifi’s. Would error out. I had to kill the iBooks task over and over again to get it to restart. Finally had to install the book on my mac in itunes. But then took a number of attempts to get it synced to my iPad. Wireless sync failed, even direct cable took a few tries. Note this is 1.01 Gig for only 2 chapters, maybe 60 pages worth of content. So not even close to a single textbook worth. No way a student could store a semester of text books on the device.
Finally got it running, usability of the book is nice. Portrait/Landscape views are optimized and different. Can easily increase font size, a must for my poor eyesight. Glossary and search are very nice. Didn’t really try out note taking. iBooks 2 enables any rich content type to be embedded through an open ‘widget’ approach. Only saw videos used in this book. One other sample book I tried had a 3d modeling widget.
I dug into the file format some, pretty easy to do. After installing a book with iTunes, just search in finder for the title. You’ll find a folder, then in the folder a big file with ‘.ibooks’ extension. Add a ‘.zip’ to the end of the file name and mount it. Then just browse around all the html, xml and assets, it’s all pretty open. Right away with the Wilson book you see that 800Meg is taken just for the dozen video clips, storage of the text isn’t so bad.
Apple needs to:
Have chapter level content management, so user can make the best use of their space. Hopefully I could read a chapter, take notes, delete the content, but still have all my notes for studying.
Maybe this is already supported, but would like to sync notes between devices but not content. Can’t put textbooks on my iPhone, but would want the notes from my iPad there for reference.
Get more reasonable video sizes, taking 100meg for a couple minutes of video is too wasteful.
Footnotes, references, …… many other features of course.
There are 363 Comments. Add yours.
Cool. Looks really interesting.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:54 AM EST reply Recommend (30) Flag actions
Only if you use it on something other than an iPad
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
Couldn’t let even the most mundane comment go, huh?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:16 AM EST reply Recommend (63) Flag actions
Why is it not an appropriate comment? Not everyone is going to own an iPad. Not everyone owns a Mac for that matter. They want to see wide-spread adoption to that it looks cool and really interesting to EVERY student, it has to be cross-platform.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:47 AM EST reply Recommend (22) Flag actions
There are more than a few school’s which already have iPad’s deployed, i know a few kids with them. It’s nice to see them trying to make the experience better, or at least more than just porn.
There not going to do that for android, just like Google’s never going to make their maps on iOS not a joke.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:53 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
The poorer schools which can only afford 200 dollar Android tablets or whatever cost Win8 tablets are are screwed…only the more affluent school districts can afford to give each student an iPad…this creates a further divide between the rich and the poor.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:56 AM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
How many good Android tablets are under $200 dollars?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:59 AM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
Kindle Fire, for one. Yes, it is a good tablet.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:08 PM EST reply Recommend (8) Flag actions
I hope this lights a fire under Amazon who has a whole catalog of ebooks with extremely low image quality. I made the mistake of buying Design Patterns from Amazon and I was disgusted to see the pixilated mess they call figures.
Yes it would be great if this were a cross-platform thing. Not surprising that Apple is not bringing a cross-platform thing. There are so many manufacturers in on Android and so many fanboys ravenous for Android I’m surprised someone in THAT CAMP doesn’t come out with SOMETHING else, because Amazon’s current offering is crap compared to this.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:29 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Oh really, can you access the Android Market on the Fire? But wait, I thought you said it was an Android tablet?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:19 PM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
It is an Android based tablet. Just because it doesnt come preloaded with Android Market doesnt mean it isnt Android. How is that hard to comprehend?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:47 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
Skipping the point. Android without Google is a very different experience.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:56 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Different is not the same as bad. Amazon has entered the tablet arena, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. They’ll probably work on something similar soon.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:21 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
You wouldn’t know it was Android if no one told you. The Android we picture is Google devices. Amazon better work on something, maybe they have something down the road.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:37 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Just because its not the Android you picture doesnt mean its not Android. Amazons market is called “Amazon Appstore for Android”. People savvy enough to use a Kindle Fire can gather that it runs Android apps and is therefore an Android based tablet. Just because Amazon doesnt market it that way doesnt mean it isnt.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:21 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
You missed the point. It’s not me picturing it. It’s a fact if I showed the Kindle Fire to someone they would not tell me without spending some serious time with it that it was running atop skinned Android. It looks absolutely nothing like Android.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:38 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Oh, boo hoo. It is Android at the system level, and it runs Android apps. Common consumer opinion over whether or not it is Android has no barring on whether or not it is ACTUALLY Android. Just because it looks different on the outside doesn’t mean that it is different on the inside.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:05 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Where in this entire thread, did I say it was NOT Android? Read it again. Thanks.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 2:09 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Who cares if the Kindle Fire is an Android stepchild or not? It is off topic. Amazon has made the Kindle app available across multiple devices and OS’es for some time now.
The Kindle Fire costs less than two Biology textbooks and is a whole lot lighter.
If Amazon decides to compete in the e-textbook market, they have already proven that they can support just about whatever device you want to use.
Oops! I broke my Kindle, I guess I will have to continue reading my book on my laptop, or my phone, or my dektop, or the desktop in the library, or I’ll borrow my friend’s netbook, or …
Do you see the point?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:40 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Let’s not forget about Barnes & Noble and the Nook Color/Tablet. They’re already well established in the textbook arena…never know if they’re cooking something up right now as well.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:23 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So tell Amazon to start developing a decent textbook platform then, instead of complaining that someone else did it first.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
HP TouchPad :P
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:42 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
actually….
that could have saved the OS had they pushed the touchpad for education..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:24 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
and still had the firesale
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:24 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Maybe the TP2, not the one that I bought. It’s a bad tablet.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:56 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Not with ICS on it. Its great!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:59 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
more like how many good android tablets are there?
(hint: not many)
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 2:23 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
considering the price of textbooks, i think your pretty far off.
I also consider repair prices. iOS has a massive advantage here in they have limited models, but massive numbers shipped. This makes a much bigger 3rd party parts market, so i can fix 3gs and 3g’s for $30, and iPads for about $50.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:59 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
I can’t agree with locking in a rather expensive educational advantage to one ecosystem.
The consumer market is one thing, but education? Should be criminal.
If this is a new model of content delivery and other platforms are open to adopt it, I’m all for it, but one ecosystem, one product, etc…no..this is NOT good.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:04 PM EST reply Recommend (16) Flag actions
so you write to your representatives when you walk into a fully mac or fully windows computer lab?
Should they triboot? lol.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:06 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
tell me how many of the more impoverished school districts have decent computer labs…
thanks for proving my point.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:07 PM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Wait so you actually do think schools should have Mac and Windows?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:09 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yes.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:44 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
And this would be a much different story if we were talking about computer labs.
This leaves the schools with 2 choices, buy iPads for everyone, or force every child to buy and iPad. Even if the cost was not a problem, legally there would be huge ramifications of forcing people to buy one product.
And then the kids, really parents have to buy the text book, that the kid will use for one year and then its useless to them? Of course there would be no reselling under Apples iron fist.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:28 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
how in any way does that prove your point? Yeah, apple are such dicks all the time.
if they have no money, they are locked into whatever they get, which will probably be generations old equipment.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:17 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Do you think that giving those iPads away was anything but the start of a plan to help get this type of ipad/ibook system pretty much mandatory within the school systems.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:30 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Yeah, I’m so glad no one in education is using the proprietary Microsoft Office!
/s
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:21 PM EST reply Recommend (9) Flag actions
You win dude.
Besides the current Textbook monopoly with only 3 big publishers selling text books at crazy prices is not a “closed” ecosystem at all… right?
Listen… Apple makes products that are desirable. They are now providing an OPTIONAL (OPTIONAL, OPTIONAL, OPTIONAL, can you hear me now?) avenue for education institutions to use this tool to empower their students, using these desiable products that they make.
This is a capitalist nation, and Apple is a business. At least they are putting a good product out there and providing those OPTIONAL tools for the institutions that do want to use them.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:57 PM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
That’s all we can ask from a business. Any more is practically donation.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Thanks. That needed to be said.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:14 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
You are welcome. I still wish we had an edit button for my nerdrage typos :-)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:31 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
People always say this, but I’ve never had a problem with Office documents being opened in other Open Source editors.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:44 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You mean, like Windows did?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:31 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Well, it’s only evil if Apple does it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:06 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
I think you’ll find the general population is more inclined to see MS as evil, and Apple not. So the opposite of what you said.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:18 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I don’t quite see the ’don’t make something unless everyone can have it straight away’ arguament. This gives schools and publishers a chance to trial a brand new technology. when cheap tablets become ubiquitous in a few years then there will be a pre-existant model to work to (with many of the pitfalls ironed out)….then everyone can have it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:21 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Absolutely. We shouldn’t try to stunt every student to the lowest possible facilities.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:14 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Wrong – that iPad users can have. I read elsewhere Apple wants exclusivity, i.e. you sell your textbook in our store, you can’t sell it elsewhere (I am assuming this excludes the printed version).
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:55 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think that’s bogus – they haven’t done it with apps, or albums, or movies, or books – I can’t see they’d do it with textbooks.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:17 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I found this here – http://www.imore.com/2012/01/19/ibook-author/
That seems to agree with me?
In fact it doesn’t seem to exclude printed books so it’s worse than I thought.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:22 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Interesting, and I agree, pretty unnerving. But your book will be in iOS format anyway – so ‘your work’ would have to be rewritten to be distributed in a different format, surely. If that’s all there is, there are endless loopholes in that statement. Apple reserves the right to be an arse, and it wouldn’t be the first time, but I can’t see them forbidding content creators from distributing in other formats; its in their interest to get every possible textbook on the platform ASAP, not to have folks scared to sign an exclusivity agreement.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:26 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I just had a bit more of a think about this.
If Apple are providing the tools to create the books then are they trying to get people to write textbooks that will only appear on their system, i.e. they are becoming more like textbook publishers? So you write a book in iBooks Author and you sell it in iBooks store?
So more like the app store than the music store, i.e. the content creator uploads an app and gets their 70% of sales, but there are still larger publishers of apps, e.g. the bigger game companies like EA or popcap or something.
Imagine if Apple allowed a band to make a song in garageband, then sell it in iTunes, but only if it was an iTunes exclusive. More like that.
Of course, I could just be making it all up but it still concerns me.
What happens if the school dictates a certain textbook but it isn’t available on any device other than in an iPad – not even in printed format?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:36 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Wait, EXCUSE ME? Schools that can OLNY afford $200 Android tablets? No schools I no of have any tablets of any sort, even $100 ones. Pretty sure schools that don’t have ridiculous amounts of money don’t have any tablets.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 8:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Is that really the stuff you want to be putting into your child’s hands?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 9:35 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Poorer schools are lucky if they can afford real books and you can’t expect poor families to provide them.
Plus, iPads are not very “kid proof”. – better invest in some durable covers, screen protectors, and replacement insurance.
We’ll have to lay off some more teachers to pay for the iPads. /sarcasm
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 10:07 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I dont see kids with them teachers yes but i havent seen kids first hand…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:29 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You do realize that Google doesn’t make the maps app on iOS right? Apple develops the app using the standard Maps API.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 1:30 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It is not appropriate cos it says it’s only interesting if not used on an iPad. It doesn’t say it would be good if it were available on other platforms too…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:57 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
as a college kid i can tell you most of the people i know own a Mac or iPad. It’s the norm for students and Apple knows that.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:11 PM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
Depends on what you study I guess….apple has a relativel small marketshare still that hasn’t changed for the pc space so your experience is not the norm….most students use windows.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:33 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
They are the leading vendors in education….
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:38 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
And “hasn’t changed” is really quite laughable.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:39 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
even then, you’d be surprised how many people have Parallel’s Desktop software. I certainly was. I don’t have Parallel’s but when i upgrade i’ll probably get it when Windows 8 comes out. Microsoft looks to be making something spicy ;)
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 12:48 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
As a college kid myself I dont see any ipads or macs but then again I am not at a ritzy school
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:30 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
i’m at community college…with baseline 13" Macbook Pro, i’m not “ritzy” this was my graduation present.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 12:50 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yep. In the past couple of years, most everyone in my school can be seen using Macs and iPhones. There are even a surprising number of iPads. Even people who used PC laptops in first year have changed to Macs.
These are the people going out into the workforce and they are all Mac users. As long as Apple doesn’t screw up and make stupid decisions especially in the business sector, I think their marketshare is going to rise significantly in the next few years.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 9:37 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Completely agree, especially now that Autodesk works on Mac now, and that the Mac has an App Store.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 12:51 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If Google offered this service do you think they would make it iOS compatible?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:30 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yes.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:33 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Like they did with Docs right?
Oh wait…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:41 PM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
This is comparable… how exactly?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:27 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Because, like Apple is not allowing iBooks or the iBooks creation tool on non iOS/OSX machines, Google do not allow their document creation tools on the competitors platform (iOS.)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:32 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Every major player has their own standard, and file formats are largely supported among them. You’re not missing out on anything if you choose one over the others.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:39 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Actually the Docs app really suck, so you’re not really missing out. I use Docs all the time on the desktop but I wouldn’t touch it on my Android.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:44 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Except you can still access Docs via the web on any device.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:45 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Wait, are you saying that the iPhone doesn’t have a web browser, or that the iOS web browser isn’t good enough to load the webpage?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:45 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Do your research before attempting to bash a product. Google have borked the iOS webapp so that you can’t edit or create, only read.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:38 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
I’m confused, how do they “bork” the website for one platform? Does the iOS browser lack the ability to view the full site and get restricted to the mobile site?
If that’s the case, it sounds like you ARE saying the iOS web browser isn’t good enough to load the page.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 2:43 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Try using the Docs app on Android and you’ll realise iOS isn’t missing anything..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:18 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yes, cos the more platforms they offer their services on, the more ads they display but that’s a different business model. Apple doesn’t rely on ads, it’s a software/hardware company.
Posted on Jan 25, 2012 | 7:26 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Why would Apple release iBooks 2 for all tablet platforms? Seriously.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:00 PM EST reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
They won’t. But it shouldn’t be made into some kind of “standard” either.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:28 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Why? How exactly do you think ‘standards’ are formed?
A bunch of companies throw their stuff into the market and whichever is the most popular sticks. Popular meaning that teachers/students can actually use it to save time (not to spend it on setting up or waiting till some Droid lagging machine finishes redrawing the screen.)
Standards are never created for all the platforms at first. Photoshop wasn’t some IEEE standard and then Adobe started creating it. It goes the other way around.
And why would Apple help other platforms? Give me one good reason.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:06 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
This is one area where Apple’s one device approach is the perfect approach.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:59 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
One good reason? Antitrust.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
How? You can go buy textbooks.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
As pointed out in other comments in this thread the school district buys the textbooks. If the district dictates that all students must get an iPad there is no longer an option to use the printed book. The biggest problem I see is not using the iPads, it’s Apple saying if you sell your textbook in their store you can’t sell it elsewhere.
For what it’s worth the textbooks could be produced in HTML5 and viewed in any browser on any device, and also coded by anyone with tools to build web sites. I don’t see a need for the proprietary format. HTML is perfect for displaying text/graphics/video/audio, especially HTML5.
You could argue that HTML would lead to piracy, but then I can’t imagine a school district would do that – they’d just pay a per student licence (oddly just like the way MS licences Windows/Office).
The other problem I see if that if a student needs 6 particular books and only 4 are available on the iPad then there would be immense pressure on the publishers of the other books to sign up with Apple, thereby foregoing their right to sell their works elsewhere.
Something just doesn’t sit right with me about the lock-in thing.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
“As pointed out in other comments in this thread the school district buys the textbooks. If the district dictates that all students must get an iPad there is no longer an option to use the printed book. The biggest problem I see is not using the iPads, it’s Apple saying if you sell your textbook in their store you can’t sell it elsewhere.”
You just pointed out that the school buys the textbooks…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:41 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Somewhere along the line this just seems anti-competitive to me, I don’t know why. I worry that a textbook might become only available as an iBook, and that bothers me. I haven’t quite worked my way through it just yet.
I would prefer if the school just said “you need textbook XYZ” and it was available for anyone. I said in another comment somewhere today that I think this information should be HTML5, which would then be viewable anywhere, and essentially the same experience on any device.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 1:27 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
What are you talking about? Even with paper textbooks, if the school said that you need THIS BOOK, it meant one particular book from the publisher ABC. You didn’t have no choice even with the paper books. Only now, if they think the book is the best one on the market, they’re gonna say, “You need book BIO4 from the publisher ABC”. And now, you’re gonna be able to choose whether you want to buy the paper version for $150 or the iPad version for $15.
Do you think this is unfair? Why didn’t anyone else launch e-textbooks like this? Why does everyone else waits, till Apple takes something boring and makes it fun and useful and then they start shit-talking?
And please explain to me, how launching a new product anti-competitive? Mark my words, Google is gonna start ‘competing’ (read: copying) soon with their viagra ad filled ‘open’ textbooks, which come on any Android device.
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 3:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Are you insane? Since when is launching a new product automatically a matter of anti-trust? The problem is, that if they actually released it into other platforms, piracy would kick in (look at the Droid market) and the publishers wouldn’t get anything.
No wonder “An Droide” means “To Steal” in Latin.
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 3:18 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Bah. The word “Android” was coined from the Greek root ἀνδρ- ‘man’ and the suffix -oid ‘having the form or likeness of’. Piracy exists on iOS too…
Posted on Jan 25, 2012 | 7:31 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It isn’t appropriate because the comment doesn’t add anything of value to the conversation. Also, no one else is making a push for textbook on their devices BUT Apple. If any other companies are doing it they aren’t making enough noise and they probably don’t have enough clout to make anything happen at this time. Just because something is available to lots of people doesn’t mean it will catch on or become the standard. It has to be done right and done well.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:08 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
So “done right and well” is monopoly by the most restrictive platform and company, with the most expensive hardware?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:30 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ok, so you hate Apple. We get it. But that’s not what discussions under tech articles are about.
Wait, what?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:09 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Most expensive? No. You get what you pay for.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:59 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Done right and done well is something that Apple has proved they can do. Apple makes great hardware and their customers show the highest satisfaction when it comes to their products.
Who else made legal digital music distribution what it is today despite the fact that record labels are stuck in the past? Apple.
Who else has pushed for something like this in the textbook/education industry? Amazon with their years and years of book selling experience (paper and ebook) and all their connections and relationships in the publishing industry haven’t once tried anything like this as far as the public knows. If anyone should have been able to do something it should have been Amazon. But it wasn’t. It was Apple. Did other companies not have the foresight or the care to try this? Who knows.
As far as hardware pricing goes the old phrase. “You get what you pay for” comes to mind. I used regular PC’s running windows from 1997-2005 when I switched to Apple computers. I’ve had far less problems with Apple products and the same will be true for schools that decide to use iPad’s for education. Better quality hardware with less software problems over the years.
Apple has done the legwork here. They’ve partnered with textbook publishers and created free software that lets people create their own textbooks. Who else is offering any of this? Who else even gets the idea that you need to provide a total solution (hardware, software, ecosystem, etc)? So far, no one else. Other companies are JUST NOW trying to copy this.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:12 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Actually right now WP7 is the highest rated satisfaction among consumers. There’s just less of them in the study.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:46 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The most expensive hardware?
Look at tablet prices, the iPad is totally competitive with the rest of the market.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:40 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Spec per buck? Not really.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You are actually still comparing specs when it comes to mobile (tablets,phones) devices? That doesn’t mean anything in the Apple world anymore and hasn’t for years. Apple hardware such as iphone and ipad that have lower specs than other hardware still run better than competitors devices because of the tight integration and forethought when it comes to their OS.
Apple (in advance) makes their hardware and software work so well that the lower specs won’t hinder the user experience. Other companies just try to throw more power at a problem and hope it works (which is usually doesn’t). This is why you still hear (maybe with the exception of the recently released Ice Cream Sandwich) “Android will be better with the next release”, which has been said for years now.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:22 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
By “spec” I mean everything from connector type to “gigahurtz”, FYI.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:56 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
“Spec per buck”? Seriously?
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 2:14 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Nothing compares to the Apple A5. Not even Tegra 3.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You’re really going to tout 0.2-0.4ghz more processing power or 512mb more RAM as significant spec improvements per buck?
In fact… you’re still going to talk about specs like higher specs means better by default. Just look at iOS and Windows phone. Compared to Android they have slightly lower specs (that the high end Android devices) and yet run as, if not more smooth. The reason Android pushes for specs is A) to push spec wars to drive sales and B) because the totally unoptimised OS needs it.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 1:38 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Does anyone actually read what they’re replying to? I’m saying the iPads are both more powerful than needed for educational use, hence more expensive, and under-spec’d as in – no universally standardized connectors etc. Actually, if I were to envision a perfect educational, digital textbook device, the best way to describe it would be “not iPad”.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 2:34 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Where in the phrase “Spec per buck? Not really.” is ANY of what you just said implied?
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 9:43 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
How is it not? It’s underspec’d (not in terms of processing power, of course, but everything else, mainly connectivity) and overpriced, plus it’s too expensive for universal adoption.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 6:37 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
And as I said, how is it overpriced? look at the competition.
In fact, how is it underspec’d? All it lacks that the competition have is microUSB.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 7:20 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It’s not about the competition, it’s about what the field of education requires. A purpose built system would have to be cheaper, more optimized for those tasks, and supporting universal standards. The only reason Apple is doing this is peddling their own general purpose hardware and basically monopolizing yet another lucrative market.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 10:23 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Your comment about a purpose-built system is incorrect. When a company
builds a device for a specific purpose like you suggest, there are a
couple of factors that immediately limit that product. The first, is
that the market for that product is relatively small, so per-unit
profits must be higher. The second is that manufacturing costs are
much higher because you’re not producing in large volume. Both of
these factors mean that a device designed for one specific purpose
costs the consumer a lot more money than a general-purpose product
like an iPad.
If you don’t believe me, there are a couple of really good examples of
this already. Take a look at Electronic Flight Bags, for example.
These are purpose-built devices made for pilots to carry around
navigational charts and aircraft manuals. They are monumentally
expensive ($5000+), ugly, bulky and not very usable. Some airlines
have already started replacing these with iPads because they are
cheaper, more user-friendly, lighter and overall better-designed.
Another example is medical equipment for children with autism.
Purpose-built communication devices sell for thousands of dollars, but
they don’t work as well and aren’t designed as well as an iPad.
So while I understand that you personally might be averse to Apple’s
work in the education industry, I don’t think that your argument about
purpose-built systems holds any water.
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 12:28 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
The reply below says it all for me.
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 4:52 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Don’t worry, Google will copy it poorly within a year and take 5 years to get it right.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:33 PM EST reply Recommend (9) Flag actions
hahaha.. Textbooks with adsense in them. awesome.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:02 PM EST reply Recommend (8) Flag actions
Ad supported textbooks are not such a bad idea if it cuts down on the price. I am sure most college students will appreciate paying 1/4 price or, perhaps, getting free ad supported textbook over paying 400+ per semester.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:37 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Pepsi! Partial Credit.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:58 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Advertisers won’t pay much to advertise to broke college students.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:29 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Android still sucks b/c Google refuses to do a rewrite from the ground up. It will always suck.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:28 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Don’t have an iPad, then this isn’t for you.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:00 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It’s not an appropriate because Coolius didn’t say, “Not everyone owns an iPad. I want to see wide-spread adoption”.
Coolius was trolling and said “Only if you use it on something other than an iPad” for something that is exclusive to the iPad.
Bad form bro. Why would you even defend that?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:06 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Sooper_verge12 why the hell are you defending him? He didn’t say ‘can use’. he was flat out being a troll. You really need to read someone’s comment before leaping to his defense with a defense that is completely irrelevant, thus not being a defense.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:02 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
I have a feeling that…. APPLE don’t care. It’s up to the competitors to follow up.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 11:25 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You can’t very well do this on a Kindle. That’s not Apple fault. I’m sure Goggle will welcome these textbooks onto their tablets. What’s the problem? It’s only just been introduced.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:21 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
As much as I wish that Apple had made this cross platform, we all know that they’re not much for interoperability of software, iTunes being the notable exception.
You know who should have built something like this a long time ago? Amazon. They started their business selling books online, captured a significant chunk of the ebook market with Kindle and demonstrated a dedication to being on every platform, even those that compete with their hardware, because it’s all about making money off the book sales.
They had a remarkable good position in the market and relationships with publishers. They should have released something like this a long time ago.
I know books aren’t their core business anymore, but few people have the publisher relationships they do and they failed to leverage those relationships effectively. The Kindle Fire would have been a much more attractive proposition had it launched with a textbook framework like this. All of a sudden the 200 dollar tablet becomes a smart investment for students who already get half off Prime.
Then again, I’m not Jeff Bezos and the guy is a lot smarter than I am. I’m sure he had his reasons.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:19 PM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Apple has a habit of leapfrogging established industries. Although I would not be surprised of Amazon released something similar.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:00 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
When I first saw Push Pop Press’ Al Gore ebook (Our Choice) I couldn’t wait to see what would become of the ebook industry – particularly the implications for education.
My great worry though was that many publishers would continue to use Adobe’s tools despite the output being inferior or just being PDF dumps because that was what was in their workflow and laziness / cost would make it unattractive to them to make the effort to change.
I had hoped that Apple would have purchased PPP/Meyer and rehired the guys who used to work for them and integrate their work into iBooks and push that as a way to help a genuinely great product realise its potential – but those hopes were dashed when Facebook bought PPP for their talent and scrapped all PPP’s publishing platform work.
Then the rumours of an apple education even rekindled my hopes that perhaps their work had been picked up, improved & integrated, and would find a way into mainstream consciousness.
Being in higher education myself this is everything I could have wished for and hope to see the quality filter through into the rest of the educational experience and that ebooks as a whole move forward beyond just being text outputs or InDesign pdf dumps.
for the TL;DR crowd;
go check out push pop press’s ebook and you’ll understand the potential for what this can do for raising quality of digital reading materials
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:19 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Sadly, Facebook bought PushPopPress and abandoned their technology. Rather than changing publishing the team are now doing the much more worthy task of making ‘Like’ buttons.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:48 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
i hit recommend not only because i agree, but for the irony.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:54 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
This is so very similar to PPP, I’m curious as to whether Facebook got the talent, but maybe Apple purchased their Book Tech.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:13 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Interesting rumour on this situation over at AppleInsider.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:47 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ten years down the line, nay, 5 years down the line, people are going to wonder how the world existed without this system.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:56 AM EST reply Recommend (20) Flag actions
people thought the same thing yesterday when wikipedia was blacked out
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:00 AM EST reply Recommend (9) Flag actions
We all know digital is the future. I just don’t think Apple’s digital on $500 tablets is the future.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:02 AM EST reply Recommend (11) Flag actions
Yeah, I mean $500 is like two conventional textbooks!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend (32) Flag actions
I never had to pay for textbook in high school. If Apple can cut the iPad 2’s price to $199 when the iPad 3 comes out, it will change everything.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Ever loose a textbook in highschool? I got into a fight with some assholes once. One of them stole my backpack and I was only out 4 books. Luckily the other 6 were still in my locker but that was a $400 hit a broke highschool student could not afford.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
Let me guess, one of the lost textbooks was English. (Sorry, couldn’t resist)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:18 PM EST reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
Oh, snap!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:19 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think this is better for college. I remember some semesters when I spent ~$500 or more on used books – then sold them for a loss.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Agreed. I don’t know why Apple didn’t start with college textbooks.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:11 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
There’s more competition there.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:11 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
More reason to change things. The current model is broken in favor of publishers, not students, just as the music industry was broken in favor of record companies.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:13 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
To me this looks like Apple is trying to gain some leverage. Think about it, if the next crop of highschool kids all used these iPad textbooks, they’re going to want to continue using them in College. It could also be more of a proof of concept type thing to prove to publishers that this is the future, and it’s time to adapt.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:50 AM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
Agreed. Kids now, teens later.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:55 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Its a scary thought. The next generation of workers will have grown up using Apple products. Getting them while they’re young.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:17 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Maybe they will be less bitter than the generation that has grown up using Windows…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:14 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Why is it scary? It just is.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:22 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Very true, but all the cards are in the publisher’s hands. Currently they have a model where they can create a new edition of each textbook each year, with minor content changes that break all page number references, forcing students to buy brand new textbooks rather than used, which also makes selling used textbooks harder. They’re not about to abandon that model for something that students buy once for a low price, have access to forever, and can be updated easily.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:41 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I publishers have a current system that favours them, then why opt in to this one? I saw somewhere else there are 8 textbooks in the system at launch.
Music was different, the companies were already losing to piracy and had to do something – are textbook publishers losing to piracy?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:28 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You’re kidding right? Early adoption is the key to ecosystem buy in and lock in. You get high school kids locked into your ecosystem, you have them for life, through college and post-college. This isn’t about “competition” per se; this is about assimilation. It’s like how tobacco companies “seem” to be marketing to younger audiences. You get them hooked now, they’ll be hooked for life. It’s business.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:50 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think this is Apple’s way of getting a foothold into the textbook business. Once they get some traction I can see them jumping into college textbooks.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:51 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
they are doing something with college as well as k-12.
major publishers are on board so the idea of competition scaring them of doesn’t seem to apply.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:02 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The reason they didn’t start with College textbooks is simple:
A high school buys books for all students and they last for many years.
A college makes the students buy the books each year.
Apple wanted HELP from the textbook publishers. Selling new books each year for $15 probably adds up to similar income or better for high school textbooks. Selling new books each year for $15 to a college student represents a significant financial loss.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:34 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think they are trying to make more inroads into education via schools themselves first. In highschool, schools pay for the textbooks unless you lose or deface your copy. If Apple can make a good impression and prove this textbook model works, the whole education sector will take notice and implement the system at which point students will also get the savings.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 9:41 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You didn’t pay for them, but the schools do. If each student needs 6 textbooks at $150/each on average, the $500 cost of a school-issued iPad is a big savings, multiplied over time, as textbooks come out with new editions every few years.
That will obviously come with the added cost of “loaning” a teenager an iPad and trusting them to not damage it, but that’s the same principle that is used with the text books now.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:19 AM EST reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
Many seem to frame the cost of this as though the books were going to be free. They of course won’t. This will be an opportunity for publishing companies to move districts from what many of them do now—buy math books this year, econ books the next year… and seven years later buy math books again—to paying a subscription fee for access to the electronic assets desired today. I’m not really sure if this will cost more or less than things do now considering that schools may save money on other computer expenditures, but I do know that it’s going to make for a messsy budget year when a school decides to bite the bullet and move this direction.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:59 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
It was spelled out very clearly in Apple’s announcement: All books were $14.99 or less and the purchaser owned the book. No rental, no subscription.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:12 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That’s because your parents paid the taxes that went towards your expensive textbook.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:26 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Now they get to pay for iPads!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:50 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
High school? This idea is even more useful in college. Where you have to buy books, often really heavy and expensive ones..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:45 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
iPad 2 at 199 would be awesome but I guess quite unrealistic as well.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:55 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m hoping for 299; 199 does seem quite unrealistic.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:18 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Isn’t the content the expensive part?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:13 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
People forget that most high school textbooks are used for many, many years.
Publishers are thinking that they’ll save money on printing and shipping, and will be able to charge for each book annually.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:25 AM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
iPad 2E will sell for $199 starting in April. This “E” version will have 8GB (holds about 6 textbooks at a time), non-Retina Display, no GPS/3G, slightly smaller battery. That’s the future.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Where can I get one of those magic crystal balls?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Bookmark my comment. Then come back in two months and read it again. You will be blown away.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:13 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yeah… There’s not going to be a $199 10 inch from Apple.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:15 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
That’s what she said.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:15 AM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:17 AM EST reply Recommend (11) Flag actions
Ooh! Lotto numbers next please!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:10 AM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
The screen for the iPad2 has a cost of $120, hard to see them getting the rest of the components in there and making a profit on $79. Amazon is losing $10 or so on every Kindle sold using a smaller screen & inferior components selling at $199 and Apple doesn’t do loss leader hardware. You also have to consider at $199 the demand would skyrocket, Apple already has a tough time keeping up with demand when a new model is released a $199 loss leader would impact supplies of common materials. Apple may like education, but they’re not going to negatively impact sales or supplies of a flagship iPad for the sake of the education market.
$399 seems all but inevitable based on Apple’s strategy with the iPhone, $299 next year.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:41 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
With a 7" display, running an A2 processor as well right? Not going to happen. Even Apple’s educational discounts are a joke.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:51 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think it’s more likely that Apple will continue to make the iPad2 (post-iPad3 release) and drop the price. Possibly even make a deal to sell them cheaper to schools.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:56 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Looks like the books are ~2GB each which means more like 3 textbooks on an 8GB iPad. Not a chance.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:28 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
iPad doesn’t come in 8gb.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 5:12 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
As an engineering student, I have to spend more $500 on my books every semester. I would LOVE to be able to spend that $500 on an iPad and then $14.95 on each book. I would save several thousand dollars over my college career like that.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:03 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
I know how that feels, I’m in computer science where books can cost 150-200 each normally… when you have five classes per semester it adds up.
I have an iPad and have a few textbooks which are sometimes 30-50% less than the printed version. 14.95 would be amazing.. provided I’ll be able to buy them in Canada,
Posted on Jan 27, 2012 | 2:01 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
$400 in a few months. Even less in another year. Even less in 2 years. Even less in 5 years.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:31 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Then 20 years down the road people will regret choosing a closed proprietary system that has been deprecated, when they can no longer read such a large portion of the worlds text books and iBooks in general. I would personally like to see this in html5 and an ebook wrapper, to future proof our texts and collective knowledge in an open standard.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:08 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Future proof? Publishers own the content and make new editions of print textbooks all the time. A textbook from a few years ago is already depreciated. If a better system becomes available in the future and the iPad goes away (I doubt it), then they’re publish for that system instead.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:47 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
There are libraries all across the world with books older than many countries and those books still read fine and still provide great value to the reader. Not all books, even books for use in education, are obsolete within a few years or as soon as the publisher releases a new edition.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:54 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The beauty of digital text is that it is cheap to update vs reprinting and adding chapters. Creative commons or open source textbooks could thrive and not be encumbered by copyright/publishing permissions and not be tied to a single proprietary ecosystem. Think of the textbook as an evolving document perhaps. I need to read up on the end use rlicense agreement with iBook Author, to see what rights are granted to Apple during and or after being published as an iBook.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Open source textbooks could pose a problem though. If you look at Wikipedia as an example of shared knowledge, it’s very accurate for the most part, but there are certain parts that are blatantly incorrect or unsubstantiated, and it’s impossible to catch every error, despite employing people to write and verify content.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:59 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Wiki textbooks suck though. They’re so generic and useless.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:32 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Isn’t ePub an open standard?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:20 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
While this is a cool announcement (meaning that textbook companies are embracing the digital age and are realizing the benefits of electronic distribution), I hope I never find an e-textbook that is iPad only when there are many universal formats out there. I don’t think a single device should be the “standard”.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:20 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
When Apple releases the iPad academic version with a scratch-resistant/unbreakable screen and rubberized body that withstand a 3ft drop.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:32 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You have a scratch-resistant screen in the iPad 1 and 2 already. Not unbreakable – any more than those shatterproof rulers weren’t shatterproof (used to have a lot of fun proving that as a kid).
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Apple iPads are pretty tough, my cats who still have nails play with my iPad and it still doesn’t have any scratches.
Posted on Jan 27, 2012 | 2:04 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Dang! Those little $#!7s should have to lug around a stack of paper books like I did back in my day (2002). I want to go back to College just for this!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:00 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
I know right? 23 is the new 70.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:01 AM EST reply Recommend (14) Flag actions
Is there an easy way to flip back and forth between pages or items? That’s one of the biggest advantages of papers books. Might be the only one. In college math and physics courses, I would constantly flip between pages to reference examples or formulas.
I wonder if the notes/flashcards portion has a quick flip functionality.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:00 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
There seems to be a preview of each page at the bottom for quick page access. As for going from one book to another you can 4 finger swipe from book to book like with normal Apps I expect.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:23 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I tried using my ipad for school and i couldnt stand it, went back to pen and paper :(
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:00 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
I don’t see students taking a lot of notes on such a keyboard.. and physical keyboard+vertical orientation is meh :(
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
And I didn’t think people would put up with T9 for texting… Kids will be more willing than stuffy adults to use an iPad.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:27 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
To be fair, there’s a difference between typing 140 character text messages and taking notes of any useful level of detail during a lecture or seminar.
One might put up with quite a lot for a short message but even a small annoyance might be come a serious hurdle if you have to spend a more considerable length of time contending with it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:05 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Check out the app Notes+, it uses pen entry so you are basically writing notes on digital paper. It works pretty well.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:08 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Works super well when paired with a adonit jot stylus :D best accessory invention ever for touch screens.
Posted on Jan 27, 2012 | 2:05 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I don’t want to be a downer but Apple should have announced something about donating iPads and computers to schools. Honestly how are schools going to afford this? Some schools barely can afford 1 computer for a student. This seems only useful to the schools that are already financially secure.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:02 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Books currently cost 100s of dollars, it might make some sense if the books on the iPad only cost 14.99.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
It’s not so much the cost of the textbook, but the actual iPads.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Instead of buying new, expensive dead tree books, they would be buying iPads and cheaper digital books. It’s a wash early and saves money in the long run.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:17 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Not to mention that you’d be buying those new books for each student every year, whereas 1 iPad can last a few years with the same student.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:20 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
What schools have you seen that replace every book every year?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:54 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Books get lost, stolen, vandalized and outdated. I went to a pretty well off school, and even there the textbooks were falling apart or there weren’t enough for everyone. It’s a dying format.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:50 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m all for digital media but: iPads are even easier to steal, vandalize and actually break down (unlike a book). Just saying…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:46 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Rather than just handing the iPads out then, make the students sign them out (like they do with laptops in some schools). The iPad has an engraved number, and if it gets lost or broken, that student is responsible for replacing it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:56 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
How do you know it will be cheaper?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:06 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Math.
Posted on Jan 27, 2012 | 1:58 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yes but the iPad itself is still $500 and I can’t see the schools just letting the kids take them home anytime they want.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:06 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That’s very true. They said “14.99 or less”, I wonder if its really that cheap… but maybe they will split books into chapters?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:07 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I actually did laugh at this.
“OK, children, open up Math Volume 7 to page 12 – last page today! Don’t forget to load Math Volume 8 for tomorrow!”
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:35 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
With the books only being a maximum of $14.99 the school district can pass the savings on to Apple to purchase lots of Ipads. Or more likely they can tell the parents that students now require an Ipad for class and keep the money themselves. Either way it’s a win for Apple.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The majority of the schools in the US don’t have the luxury knowing parents can buy iPads for their kids.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:06 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Oh I agree and most School Districts are not going to pass savings they might get to purchase Ipads for the every enrolled student at the school. In terms of software and usability it looks great but Apple needs to make it an open format not close it off into their tightly controlled ecosystem.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:17 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I do wish Apple would have addressed this issue today. Yeah, the technology and book pricing is great. We all get that. The challenge is getting the hardware to the kids.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:18 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Nothing for college? That’s where the true disruption is possible.
I’ve had my doubts about college textbook publishers coming on board with something like this, and the fact that Apple hasn’t mentioned that space seems to confirm those doubts
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I was suprised by that too. I’m sure university textbooks will be available eventually but they’re going to have to be heavily discounted as well.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:08 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
College textbook publishers make too much with new editions every year.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:08 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The digital form would eliminate buyback and used book sales. So students would HAVE to buy new every year. Publishing digitally via iBooks may, however, have a greater profit margin. Those two combined could drive lower cost books in the college space. Of course just because they CAN charge a lower price doesn’t mean they will.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:20 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
which makes this announcement null and void
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:05 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
“The Next Chapter in Learning” ? Are you #$@$ kidding me?
It may be the next chapter in learning for the few lucky one that can afford to buy Apple product but this is NOT the next chapter in learning for the humanity.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
Lol, this^
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Are you being intentionally obtuse or are you just really shortsighted?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:49 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:57 AM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
I don’t understand that, both a (good) Android-tablet and a (good) computer is more expensive than an iPad..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:51 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
What qualifies as a good Android tablet? There are already plenty of good ones under $500. And that will soon include quad-core ($249 ASUS anyone?)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:02 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
What qualifies good?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:23 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
A good laptop can be had now for under $300…and it’ll serve students well (as long as they don’t treat it like a red-headed step-child). They don’t need a Core I7 be productive on a laptop (they’re doing school work, not hardcore gaming). Same goes for desktop computers.
Asus will be coming out with a Quad Core tablet, there’s the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. There’s rumors of Google producing a $200 ICS tablet.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:37 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m sorry, but anything with a performance remotely close to an Atom netbook is NOT good. And if it doesn’t have a crappy processor it WILL have a slew of other problems… namely being a giant, heavy brick, shitty trackpads, shitty keyboard, horrendous screens (especially if you compare them to iPad’s LED IPS display, Retina be damned)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:48 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
yeah, and they both have shitty OSs. deal with it.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 2:18 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This would sound like a more humanitarian effort if they opened the specification of the Textbooks file format, so anyone could create those books and distribute them for free through any channel, not just the App Store – otherwise it’s just a monopoly.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
I believe that’s called the internet.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:22 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Completely agree. We get it Apple, you want to get into education and enterprise. Your prices in this economy hurt the poor. I know families that can’t even put food on the table.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:29 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Exactly let alone dress for the cold weather
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:01 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Yeah, those radically cheaper textbooks are certainly heart-breaking…
Look, the U.S. government hasn’t issued an edict that makes buying Apple products for school obligatory, so the schools should figure it out themselves whether or not they can successfully implant it… Besides, you pay something called T-A-X-E-S, and they should be used by the schools to give out iPads, even if just for the people that can’t afford them (republicans can feint now at this outrageous thought…)
Apple isn’t forcing anything down anyone’s throats and ripping money out of your wallets, people… That so many people see it that way is disturbing… They either really hate the company, or want it so much that demonize it for not being able to get it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:54 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Buying these books on the iPad is also not the only option. So those poor souls who cannot afford an iPad will have to pay $1000-$1500 per year on textbooks instead. And the year after that too (when the iPad would still be in use, almost definitely).
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 2:42 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Why do you take all your screen shots on old products? It drives me mad.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:07 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Sorry – it’s what I have available! :/
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:17 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
You need something bigger to worry about.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:30 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
With very few exceptions, the media content features of this platform are not substantively different than what Encarta offered more than a decade ago.
That said, I bought a Kindle 1 because I support a move away from the environmental effects of producing and shipping physical books. To the extent that this initiative sparks a move away from printed media in this area, I fully support it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:09 AM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m a public school teacher, and this announcement is phenomenal! Yes, there are kinks to work out on pricing and availability, but those are problems to be solved. The main problem in education is getting content to students, and this is a huge leap forward. Most people are commenting on prices, etc. with no idea what it’s like to run a school. For instance, does anyone know the cost of a textbook to a school? Our annual budget is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars just for them, and for them to be replaced. Managing and prodcuring iPads will be a challenge, but a secondary one. The main problem of improving our students’ achievement has just been dealt a huge blow.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend (11) Flag actions
This is by far not the first digital textbook system, though.
But hey, at least Apple has more pull than Kno.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:11 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The unique thing about Apple doing this is the convergence of the what I want with what they want. I want content delivered well, and as close to real life as possible, which the iPad really can do well. They want iPads. It’s not often that what I want is what they want, so I’m embracing this. Will there be problems? Yes, but good problems.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:56 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Yeah, and Apple didn’t invent the smartphone etc. etc.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:26 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
I work higher up in schools and this is not a solution….physical books you can take home i know that if my school has ipads these kids will not be allowed to take them home…how will this help
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:59 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
By allowing to take them home….
Rules will change. Someone will get a $20 insurance bill, and it’ll be covered.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:39 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
u must be joking if you think that putting textbooks on ipads, whether they’re interactive or now, will make the achievement level of students better.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 9:47 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
This may not be a surprise, but these textbooks are gigantic in size. I’m talking over 1gb each. If apple is serious about adoption, they need to phase out the 16gb iPad and price the 32gb at $499.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:10 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Most students are not using more than 5-10 books at once, right?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:32 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
They will with the iPad 3. Not having a memory bump with the iPad 2 was weird already, it’s 80% certain that they’ll increase storage this year.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:56 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Make the format open and its a win, if not then its more locked up crap from Apple
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:10 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So you’re mad that Apple is not building tools to help Android and are trying to make a business out of it while changing education? Terrific.
Don’t worry I’m sure Google will have a textbook offering with ads for Viagra in your science textbook really soon.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:37 AM EST reply Recommend (12) Flag actions
don’t be so shortsighted to think that this is just because of Android.
What the parent is trying to say is that it sucks that a textbook is proprietary and can only be used and produced on one platform. It’s like .doc files all over again. People should not be required to purchase microsoft windows and microsoft word just because the school decided to use that particular tool. I should be able to use OpenOffice on Linux, Pages on Mac or whatever. That won’t be possible if Apple wants to monopolize the file format and only have textbooks working on their platform.
Information wants to be free. Education should not be locked in!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:57 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
These are problems that are pervasive with all large companies. They want you to use their product whether it be Apple, Google or MS.
Chances are it will not matter what device a student wants to use but rather what the school wants you to use.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:12 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The thing is, corporations won’t change without an opportunity for profit. We tried free with Linux. And a lot of other things. Collaboration tools are different because people contribute (i.e. wikipedia) but when it comes to schools, you need someone to make money on it so that the schools can be sold something. It’s a sad reality. I worked on Linux installs in the school board, they only did them to get discounts from Microsoft on licenses.
I still can’t use OpenOffice in a real office environment because the templates aren’t consistent and coworkers aren’t getting nicely laid-out presentations. Open was great when technology was expensive, but now Pages costs your $20 and it works better then something that’s free. I’d rather pay the $20.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:42 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Well, Apple already provides free design services to Samsung, so it’s not like they are above helping the competition…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 5:41 PM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
do all of these textbooks have to be used in landscape mode?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:11 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The demo showed portrait mode, which laid out a bit differently.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:12 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
thanks didn’t catch it.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:14 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Seems perfect expect reliance on the apple eco-system. I would be head over heels if this were amazon.
I was planning on a Windows 8 arm tablet and i have friends who only have budgets for a $200 tablet.
still pretty cool.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:11 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yeah I don’t see a locked solution working out with a bring your own device system.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:13 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It would be great if you could use the textbooks on an Apple laptop with gestures, Then at least you get the benefit of a physical keyboard to take notes.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:16 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Doesn’t iBooks work on a MacBook or MacBook Air? You store the books in the cloud to whichever device you’re using.?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:12 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
There’s no version of iBooks for Mac yet, unfortunately.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:36 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I can’t believe with iCloud that this isn’t available. Google Books and Kindles do this and save bookmarks/pages etc.. I guess it helps push hardware sales so they are not making it a priority right now? Think about how much easier it would become to quote text etc on your laptop for your nightly report or history homework?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:59 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So being locked into Amazon’s ecosystem is somehow different for you?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:30 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Amazon really doesn’t lock you in to much of anything though. View your content where you want on what you want.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:34 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
With Amazon you get Amazon lock-in. With Microsoft you get Microsoft lock-in. With Apple you get Apple lock-in.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:26 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
With Amazon you can use Kindle (for Books), Kindle Fire, any laptop/desktop with internet connection, Android devices AND the iPad. With Apple you’re locked to their hardware (with the exception of music and videos, which can also be used on Windows PCs).
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:59 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
leave our kids alone apple. go make your money somewhere else but don’t sell your products in school like a drug dealer. thank you!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:23 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
They are not selling drugs. They are selling books. This is a good thing.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:33 AM EST reply Recommend (10) Flag actions
This post makes me want to watch Idiocracy again.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:39 AM EST reply Recommend (10) Flag actions
Why? Personally you just need a mirror.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
God forbid Apple tries to fix the broken education system! Shame, Apple! Shame on you!
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:48 AM EST reply Recommend (12) Flag actions
Digital books aren’t going to fix the system.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:03 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Exactly tgis is not helpong set a standard it just makes more of a problem i wish apple would of thought of the bigger picture
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:54 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Because if something doesn’t fix the entire problem immediately it isn’t worth pursuing. Excellent rationale.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:17 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Keep waiting on the government to fix the education system….
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:44 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I think what you meant to say is: Apple putting out a ton of free services is going to hurt our already pathetically bad education system.
Oh right. That would be an idiotic thing to say.
facepalm
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 9:18 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
A) Books are good, drugs are bad
B) If it bothers you that much, don’t let your kids use it.
Simple.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:34 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Right. Next they’re gonna be selling music players to teenagers.
!!!!
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 9:17 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Secondary and primary school kids with iPads? Lol. That might be a good idea in a few schools but not most. I can see that being a train wreck waiting to happen.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:28 AM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
It might not be too bad if the iPads were locked so that you could only access iBooks 2.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:47 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Even that whats the point because once there taken home chances are they will break them have no clue how to use them sell them? I dont see a need for this in educatoon other tjan for college
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:52 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Have you ever seen a kid with an iPad? They know how to use them better then adults.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:45 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Well you could just not download other apps and not tell whoever the apple ID password.
Posted on Jan 27, 2012 | 2:33 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Hahaha… once my kids HAVE to use iPads for homework, maybe they won’t like them anymore and they’ll leave mine alone!! :)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:48 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ahhh, the trove of internet comments. iPads are too expensive, Apple sucks, Android will take over the iPad. All these same things were said when the iPod was released.
The MAIN (but not only) reason the AVERAGE user buys an Android tablet, is because it’s cheaper. Apple’s proven that the iPad owns the “high end” tablet market. Why? because, for the AVERAGE person, iOS is easier to use, more intuitive and much more reliable.
Will people buy an iPad just for textbooks? No. This is aimed at schools. And for families who own an iPad, it’s an added bonus.
Like it or not, iOS is much easier for the AVERAGE person to tie down for their kids. The parental controls are much better.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:55 AM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
The biggest thing that Apple has over random Android tablet OEMs is support from the manufacturer (on the software side).
When you buy an Android tablet, it will be dropped by the manufacturer between six months and one year after purchase (you will not get the latest OS updates, your hardware will be obsolete, and so on).
If Apple is serious about this education push, then it will extend iPad support much longer than the two year period that typifies Apple’s mobile products. That’s a big win for consumers – even more so when your consumer is a school district.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:01 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
“When you buy an Android tablet, it will be dropped by the manufacturer between six months and one year after purchase (you will not get the latest OS updates, your hardware will be obsolete, and so on).”
The Xoom is almost a year old and got ICS and like the OG Droid should continue to get support for up to another year, I’d imagine schools would go for those Google-experience/Nexus devices.
And ANY hardware is obsolete a year later. Could you not describe iPad 1 as being obsolete?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
No, I wouldn’t describe the iPad 1 as obsolete. I don’t want to get into an argument about Android device support. An education system is not going to hack their Galaxy Tabs with Cyanogenmod to get the latest OS update when Samsung moves on to the next product. I’m not saying that Android tablets are bad, but it makes no sense to deploy them because of fickle device support, lack of peripherals, and because Android does not offer a comparable ecosystem to what Apple is offering (in terms of education).
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:20 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
But you separated support and hardware in your original comment. iPad 1 is every bit as obsolete as an original Galaxy Tab when it comes down to hardware (heck, the iPad has less RAM)
And I agree, software support is an issue for Android I’m not so sure it’s as big a problem for schools and businesses. They usually test updates to make sure they work before deployment and often take an “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” stance, slow updates don’t really pose an issue in either scenario..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:32 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Comparing hardware needed to run iOS vs. Android one to one does not reflect reality. A 2007 iPhone running iOS 3.1.3 (the latest version to support it) is still has a UI way smoother and more responsive than any Android released in say 2010 with vastly more powerful hardware. (FWIW, my 2007 iPhone still gets extended daily use as out universal remote control, cooking timer & alarm clock.)
Claiming that the iPad 1 is obsolete because it has less RAM than some left for dead Android tablet does not reflect reality. iOS products have a much longer real world useful lifespan than Android products. Doubt the opinion of some guy’s comment on the Internet? Look at the used prices on eBay. iOS devices, are way more valuable as they age.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:31 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Where are you getting this drop support in six months crap?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:44 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
I suppose that’s a rhetorical question?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:59 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Actually, I would buy an iPad just for textbooks (if this was not just about school textbooks, of course) – I am talking about real books here :)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:03 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ipad market share has nothing to do with it….people arw going to have to buy an ipad to get this seems very short sighted to me and only adds to the problem….these children in city schools are way to poor and the cities themselves are way to poor to afford an opad for everyone….especially now that most.school districts use windows as the desktop it just adds to the problem…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:50 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Look now. I see where you’re coming from but for those who CAN afford this – why not? Should the entire world be left behind until we figure out how to run the poorest schools in U.S.?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 10:23 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
“New editions” should be delta updates. Then if they try to push the latest version on professors, the benefits will have to be very clear! I can’t tell you how many times in college I had to choose between buying the “brand new” 8th Edition for $125, or get last year’s edition for $40, with minimal differences. And of course, the reading assignments didn’t make any sense if your page numbering was different…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:58 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Don’t get me wrong. I love Apple products, I own an iPad 2, a iPhone 4S, a Mac Mini, a Macbook Pro, I work in an office that’s 95 percent Mac Pro’s.
But I am also a huge proponent of good education…
Apple’s Education initiative is neat, but the entirely wrong answer. Education is not lacking just because of the lack of tools. There is a fundamental divide between the have and have nots.
The kids who need help go to schools where they’d get stabbed for an iPad. The only students who this will help are the students who don’t need it!
I’d love to see Apple make a sizable donation to multiple education funds. Or make it easier for students to afford iPads (without applying for a high APR Barclaycard credit card).
That all being said, as a privileged middle class white boy… Man this stuff is cool! Wish I was in high school when this stuff was around.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 11:59 AM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
I imagine Apple will subsidize these for educational and student purchases. Part of your Tax dollars go to buying one of these instead of 300 textbooks. I imagine getting shivved for one of these is less likely when you’re entire school is issued one per student.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:17 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
A nice thought… but lets be honest… after being engaged to someone who’s taught at some of the worst schools in the country (which are actually in our nations capitol!) you realize it’s a pipe dream.
The only schools that will propagate these to their entire student body are the high end public schools, charter schools, and private schools. Meanwhile, the schools struggling with students living in poverty, gangs, and drugs will still be tablet-less.
Yes, tablet-less.
This isn’t an iPad-is-too-expensive debate. These schools with NOT be getting tablets of ANY kind. Not iPads, not Xooms, not Playbooks, not Kindle Fires… They will still be struggling to afford texts books that are dated after 1990.
As I’ve said… it’s the wrong answer to a very… VERY difficult question.
This iBooks 2/Textbooks initiative would’ve been a lot easier to swallow if they at least spoke about donating large sums of money to struggling schools all across America.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:29 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
DC schools have a lot of problems, and I don’t think that the iPad will solve them. But lack of funding is not one of their problems – they spend $28,000 per pupil…one of the highest rates in the US. They could afford iPads.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 2:31 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yes, I agree the situation you’re describing (underfunded schools) is an American society/government problem. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t great for the problems it’s intended to address.
There’s more than one problem with schools. Apple’s announcement is not the answer to ALL problems, just SOME problems.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:30 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Using the Apple Hate-o-Meter which measures the degree of success of an Apple product by the number of posts by Apple detractors, looks like Apple hit one out of the park again.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:02 PM EST reply Recommend (8) Flag actions
Well, the Apple Hate-o-Meter was going pretty strong with appletv and they certainly didn’t hit one out of the park there….even their last venture into taing on amazon hasn’t been a raging success with magazines that we were all told it was going to be…
Sometimes apple just makes “me too” products look great with fantastic marketing and the name apple…this is one…
Sometimes they make great products like the mac air…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:06 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Actually the ATV2 is selling VERY well compared to any earlier versions. I know like 4 people with one who were never interested in such a thing before.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:31 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Apple making a “me too”? The ATV is a me too product? You can’t be serious.
Also, the ATV is a successful product… for its category. But content providers weren’t helping, so meh… one can hope that this year’s (or the next’s) Apple TV will solve it all*
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 7:03 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I can see many tech knowledge lacking school boards falling head over heals on this but in reality, there is not much going on except the software side of things…
Tablets are ok I guess but typing on them is a royal pain….
With a real textbook, I will put sticky notes all over and make but if I have to do that with a screen keyboard it kinda is a negative for me…
I’m not sold on the movement away from real books to begin with for many reasons…we just are not there technically yet but eventually we will be…
However, when we do get there with the hardware, let’s make the publsihing standards open so I can use this on any vendor’s platform, not just apple and also deal directly with small publishers, not just the giants…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:04 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
They’ve definitely reinvented iBooks. Not sure about textbooks.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:05 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If Apple stated “We have reinvented the digital textbook” then I could definitely agree with that..
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:12 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Crazy how everywhere I go there are Amazon e-textbook banner ads now.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:07 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Problem = “Most students/schools can’t afford iPads.”
Theory = “When Apple releases the iPad 3, they will continue producing the 2 and sell it at a reduced price. For everyone, not just educators”
newProblem = “The timing of the announcement is kind of strange.. why didn’t they just release everything at the same time, or wait until after the iPad 3 is announced. Perhaps they needed some type of press event to hold over shareholders until the iPad 3 is released.. Maybe the iPad 3 won’t be released until later this year because of LTE chipset optimization and screen production difficulties…”
If(Theory = TRUE)
Problem = actualProblem;
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:09 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It appears I have a logic error in my code..
It’s an alpha build.. so that happens sometimes
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:10 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think the timing is pretty good… iBooks Author is released as of today. Content creation is started. When the iPad 3 is announced, no doubt there will already be a good amount of textbooks available.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:17 PM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Battery life.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:20 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Will be fine? It’s an iPad.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:24 PM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
I’m really sad this won’t be available for college level textbooks.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:24 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
$500 for an iPad is easily worth not having to carry around 4 500+ page textbooks with me everyday.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:25 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Hes saying the text books will most likely not be available ….especially sincr colleges use so manu different books and therr is no standard
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:38 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Android folks b*tch too damn much.
If you don’t like it, create your own model and give away the tablet and software for free. After all, Android is “open”, correct?
Wine and cheese.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:27 PM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
Its a good idea i just dont think the execution is right or good
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:36 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Enlighten us, then.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 7:04 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
This is the future of course, but in one generation this will be meh. Textbooks are textbooks. Textbooks are boring to their required readers.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:41 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
My thoughts exactly.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:05 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I hope I’m not just adding noise, but how in the hell did Apple consider this a good reason to have a press conference type of setting? It may be that I haven’t watched the full keynote (as I will), but still I don’t see how this has as much of a wow-factor as in past times. Regardless, we’ll see.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:58 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ugh, no editing still? How many schools will be getting this within five to seven years is my question….
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:00 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Honestly I think people make the mistake of expecting that every Keynote should be as good as the MacWorld 2007 Keynote which propelled Apple presentations to legend
god that was a good presentation… miss you steve… Cook is so. damn. boring.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 7:07 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
.
.
.
FU Apple! I knew you will require Lion for installing the iBook Author.
.
.
.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:58 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Copy of Microsoft Semblio. So what was reinvented? When it comes just to software Apple is not company of reinventors. :(
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 12:59 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Am I supposed to be blown away? This is just a way for them to profit on eTextbooks that have existed for quite a while now.
Oh wait. This is optimized for the iPad. This. Changes. Everything.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:23 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
At least in here there has been a lot of talk about making all student material on every level free for the student (until age 16 all material is provided for free currently). I think these sort of solutions would encourage to adopt that approach. I mean, buying a license to download a book digitally for over a hundred thousand students must come more cheaply than buying real books for them. And it’s easier as well to just buy the license. Not to mention how easily these books could be updated; no need to buy a new one just because a few numbers have changed in the last 2 years.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:25 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It kept crashing on my iPad 1….oh well. Don’t have any of my textbooks yet.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:26 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
DOESN’T
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 7:47 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Btw as a grad student I’ve been using my tablet PC to buy and carry most of my books in digital form for the past two years. But it’s good to know that Apple invented it today.
Anyway, I’d be interested to know what kind of deal some publishers get for a digital version of some $250 engineering book. I doubt very much that it will be $14.99.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 1:50 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Which engineering book needs glossy pictures?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:38 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
As a grad student, you should be more literate.
Did Apple claim to have invented the digital textbook?
No.
Do you think that K-12 uses $250 engineering textbooks?
(Hint: No.)
So what do dishonest comments add to the discussion?
(Hint: Nothing. In fact, they detract from it.)
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 2:36 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
just my two cents, my friend had trouble getting the demo book to work on his iPad one without crashing.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:22 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Prediction – the iPad 3 will not come in a 16GB model.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:25 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Somewhere, millions of eye doctors and glasses makers are rejoicing.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Personally I find this eye strain a complete bull. I get eye strain much easily with books because of the hard-to-adjust light conditions.
… and just maybe because I’ve been using computers since I was 4. (I’m young BTW)
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 7:10 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
OMG! Apple invented the digital textbook!
Anyone told the guys at CourseSmart yet that what they’ve been doing for years didn’t exist before Apple announced it today…?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:36 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yadda yadda, Apple didn’t invent touchscreen phones, yadda yadda…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 7:10 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
So which kind of student needs books with nice full-screen pictures and movies? Back in my time, which is not far back, they were 99% text and formulas with the occasional graph. No one needs a gigabyte-large glossy magazine for his studies if he is serious about it.
But what am I saying, design-crazy B students will be all over it and buy second and third iPads because they cannot study without the great pictures and animations and need all the books. Great job, Apple! You’re ruining an education system that is already down…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:37 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Your negativity is certainly helping our education system.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 3:34 PM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
This is still quite broken until there is a stylus and a decent note-taking application that can work side by side. That would in turn require a bigger or two screens to work effectively.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:40 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I echo the commenters who say this might have been better if it rolled out to the college textbook market first. I just finished grad school and there were precious few grad-level books in Kindle, but the ones that were there, I snapped them up. I could study anywhere- on my PC, on my Kindle, on my phone. Each Kindle app saved my bookmarks, my text notes, and allowed me search way faster than looking up an old index. And because grad level textbooks are text-heavy and not graphics heavy, I didn’t miss out on anything over a paper book.
That said, as someone who used to work in an elementary school IT department, I can see the appeal here. Textbook buys
mandated by the state in most statesoccur each year. The cycle goes like this: Year 1 is English, Year 2 is Math, Year 3 is Science, and then the cycle repeats.For our 7,000 student K-6 district, the spend was about $250,000 for each cycle. Thousands of textbooks were delivered to our warehouse where my friend and lovely coworker spent her summer months tearing open big boxes, and with a few student volunteers, indexed each of them and slapped a barcode on them. I then used data imports from each textbook manufacturer
each a different format mind youto populate our student database system.Only once all that is done, the thousands of textbooks are delivered to each school just in time for the near year. By the end of the next year, 15-25% are lost, damaged, or beyond repair, and the district has to dip into its reserved textbooks, and replace barcode stickers etc. The cycle begins again each summer.
It’s a massive logistical nightmare and thanks to the public always demanding that education cuts occur as far away from the classroom as possible, District staff was always over-worked but did their best.
Now imagine replacing that entire paradigm with iPads. Sure it would come with its own headaches (Where’s the back-end infrastructure to deploy grade-appropriate images to iPads, namely) but aside from that? It’d be a huge bump in efficiency and probably a decrease in costs as long as each District could insure iPads against loss or theft.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:49 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Actually check that, the spend was $750,000 each cycle. And I didn’t mean to cross text out.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:52 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I was quite impressed with the announcement but its not cross-platform. Google and Amazon should get some $15 textbooks because Kindle is cross-platform. If every textbook was $15 that would be amazing! I am glad Apple wants to change the evil textbook market. Whats next the cable market?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 2:52 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I literally can’t believe how many comments this article has, it’s not exactly a big deal?
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:21 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
reinvention by taking EULA ownership of any and everything produced. Well done old chaps.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 4:28 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Apple changing the EULA in 3… 2… 1…
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 7:11 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So it isn’t cross-platform? Did anyone really expect it to be? Does it matter? It is at the core of Apple’s mission to provide software and hardware together. It wouldn’t make sense for Apple to outsource iBooks to Kindle or Android devices because Apple likes to control the user experience, and wouldn’t want the software running on hardware that can’t handle it. And that’s not neccessarily a bad thing.
As for expecting each kid to drop $500 on a new iPad… I don’t think that is the expectation, at least not for elementary school kids. If the textbooks are $15 and less, it makes sense for schools to buy iPads with eTexbooks over the paper textbooks that cost way more, are heavier and can’t be updated easily. And if every kid has an iPad, then there’s no incentive for theivery, etc. except from outsiders, and schools already take safety measures against outside threats.
All of that being said, there are certainly negative aspects of this announcement. I downloaded a few samples of these eTextbooks on my original iPad and had a mixed experience. At times, the books were quick and responsive, and at other times not so much. The experience reminds me a lot of Push Pop Press’s “Our Choice,” but with slightly less polish. Hopefully Apple can continue to refine textbooks and polish them up more so that they are closer to the level of “Our Choice.”
I’m a full time college student so I really hope to see textbook publishers at the university level take advantage of iBooks 2 by the time I’m out of school in about 3 1/2 years. I wish that Apple could have revamped a couple of other things besides just adding textbooks in iBooks 2.0. PDF viewing could use a lot of work, adding highlighting for one. I also would love to see simple additions to “regular” books in iBooks such as being able to highlight with one swipe and see all of my notes in a better format than what is currently offered.
I’m also hopeful that Apple will update it’s iWork suite soon… as it didn’t happen today.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 6:35 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
As much as I disagree or dislike most of Apple’s “revolutionary” devices or services, this is actually pretty cool. I wouldn’t say it “reinvents” the textbook, but it’s a really nice integration and implementation of software or services that already have existed in third parties. Honestly, this might be the first thing that actually makes the iPad seem like more than a pointless toy to me. Good job, Apple.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 7:35 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I don’t know if it has been said but since you haven’t edited the review: it is possible to change font size – but only while in portrait mode.
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 | 9:58 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think they just re-invented books, dude.
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 9:12 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This is an interesting announcement, and their authoring software seems to be pretty well thought out. And I do think that e-books will, eventually, be the future of textbooks.
But I’m pretty skeptical about the advantages of interactive texts, which can easily turn into nothing more than gimmicks. While the examples that they used in their sample book are pretty good, that book isn’t anything near the size of a real textbook. And I’m not sure that a full textbook would benefit by having many more interactive examples than the ones they’ve already demoed.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 2:44 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
To paraphrase Kurt Gödel, every sufficiently expressive formal system is capable of turning on itself. Counting down to the first interactive Bible to be created in iBook 2 format…
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 8:01 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This is really just the next step (in a long line of steps!) to get technology to be ubiquitous. Soon the conversation will change from one of scarcity to one of abundance…. get ready to start answering “Now What?”
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 3:11 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I installed the free E.O. Wilson Life on Earth to try out the new iBooks. Also installed a couple other free samples. Overall it’s pretty average capabilities, far short of other iPad textbook products such as Inkling. Happy as heck to see Apple step in with a product, but lots more has to be done to make it competitive. Here’s what I encountered;
Took me 2 days on 3 different networks to get the book installed. It’s so large (1.01Gig), wouldn’t install on 3 different wifi’s. Would error out. I had to kill the iBooks task over and over again to get it to restart. Finally had to install the book on my mac in itunes. But then took a number of attempts to get it synced to my iPad. Wireless sync failed, even direct cable took a few tries. Note this is 1.01 Gig for only 2 chapters, maybe 60 pages worth of content. So not even close to a single textbook worth. No way a student could store a semester of text books on the device.
Finally got it running, usability of the book is nice. Portrait/Landscape views are optimized and different. Can easily increase font size, a must for my poor eyesight. Glossary and search are very nice. Didn’t really try out note taking. iBooks 2 enables any rich content type to be embedded through an open ‘widget’ approach. Only saw videos used in this book. One other sample book I tried had a 3d modeling widget.
I dug into the file format some, pretty easy to do. After installing a book with iTunes, just search in finder for the title. You’ll find a folder, then in the folder a big file with ‘.ibooks’ extension. Add a ‘.zip’ to the end of the file name and mount it. Then just browse around all the html, xml and assets, it’s all pretty open. Right away with the Wilson book you see that 800Meg is taken just for the dozen video clips, storage of the text isn’t so bad.
Apple needs to:
Have chapter level content management, so user can make the best use of their space. Hopefully I could read a chapter, take notes, delete the content, but still have all my notes for studying.
Maybe this is already supported, but would like to sync notes between devices but not content. Can’t put textbooks on my iPhone, but would want the notes from my iPad there for reference.
Get more reasonable video sizes, taking 100meg for a couple minutes of video is too wasteful.
Footnotes, references, …… many other features of course.
Posted on Feb 01, 2012 | 2:44 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
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