Apple's digital textbooks with iBooks 2 were 'vision' of Steve Jobs

2»

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 34
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    I think there are some iOS apps that work only on the iPad -- larger screen, etc.



    I don't think schools (especially K-12) will be as permissive with smart phones in the classrooms as with WiFi-only iPads.



    I guess that is the intended use of iBooks Author, textbooks only. Do you think that Apple will allow us to use the iBooks Author for regular non-textbooks iBooks? I'm sure everyone wants to use the new features for, art books, magazines, comics, everything. The way I look at it, this new iBooks format essentially replaces ePub on iOS entirely.
  • Reply 22 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    I guess that is the intended use of iBooks Author, textbooks only. Do you think that Apple will allow us to use the iBooks Author for regular non-textbooks iBooks? I'm sure everyone wants to use the new features for, art books, magazines, comics, everything. The way I look at it, this new iBooks format essentially replaces ePub on iOS entirely.



    I think that this initial release is tightly focused on the the textbook store, iPad and High Schools.



    I suspect that they will expand support in the future.





    There are some interesting bypasses:



    1) You can create an iBook and email the .ibooks format to anyone -- then they drag it to iBooks and sync to their iPads (no iBook store involved).



    2) You can export to pdf or text format for use on the web or other devices.



    Specific to your question about non-textbooks... you can do that now and I suspect that Apple will approve them for the iBook store.



  • Reply 23 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Haggar View Post


    Understanding the value of your iPad or iPhone does not help if someone bumps into you and knocks it out of your hand. But I suppose it would be your fault for not holding it properly in the first place, as Steve would say.



    And I suppose cars should not have seat belts or airbags because the person driving that car should know how to drive safely.



    And I suppose Apple should not have developed Magsafe power connectors either because your dog should know to stay away from the cord.



    Are you going to come back with a response like "Since you seem to encounter so many dangers every day, how can you even go outside"?



    No, not really! My oldest grandchild got my original 2007 iPhone (SimLess) as a hand-me-down in 2008.



    She was at middle school with the iPhone in her book bag and a kid hit it with a baseball bat cracking the screen... not her fault.



    Later, she was spinning [fooling] around with her Mom's 3GS -- and dropped the phone flat on the kitchen floor, shattering the glass and digitizer... her fault!



    But, she learned from her mistake and takes very good care of her iPad.



    We have 1 extra iPad in the house that often goes with one of the grandkids to a sleep-over or for a friend to play a multiplayer game (in the front yard/driveway)... So far no problems -- they always know where there iPads are!
  • Reply 24 of 34
    I saw this latest Apple Educational Event in my iTunes and I was blown away! Can?t come up with enough compliments!



    Then I read a few articles with some criticism as to the Restrictive Rules, Monopoly, Censorship allegations. Some arguments were pretty convincing, but I am sure with time iBooks 2 Business Model will be adjusted and it?ll settle in...



    Then I mentioned iBooks 2 + iBook Author to a friend who is an educator. Even though he is a huge Apple, he said:



    $500 price will be a barrier

    Are you gonna give each kid iPad so that they break or and lose it, or have it stolen?

    Who pays for it?

    Schools are broke!

    Budget cuts...



    I didn?t have an answer, but I am still in love with iBooks 2 + iBook Author, cause I see it as a Bright Future! But my friend?s comments were hard to argue with!!! I wonder how you would respond to those concerns?



    So maybe this iBooks 2 Revolution won?t happen overnight, but it will happen! Then Google and or others will try to replicate it, and it might be iPhone vs, Android all over again!!! If that is to happen, it would be hard to accuse Apple of being a Monopoly, cause they?ll have competition...



    The Politics of who decides on which book is supposed to be taught in which County, State in the US - that?s not going away anytime soon...



    Still, I was blown away enough to be highly optimistic about iBooks 2 + iBook Author! It?s not a matter of If, but How Fast it?ll happen! How extremely fortunate kids of the future will be! And iBooks 2 + iBook Author will only get better with time, as all else in tech does!



    Here are some other Obvious Questions:



    If most of our reading in general will be done on the screens, How would that effect our Eyes Health?

    Are Glossy Screens less Healthy than Anti-Glare Screens?

    Reading outdoors in the day light on iPads vs. Kindle and other Screens, How will Apple solve that?
  • Reply 25 of 34
    It has all his hallmarks. The last few projects of a dying man. This, iPad 3 and iPhone 5 and whatever else in 2012 will be all about Steve's very last great visions that he's been closely involved in.



    Sure, beyond 2012 there'll be Steve-inspired stuff, but 2012 will see the stuff he was last *closely involved* in.



    I'm just floored by how the dots connect, like I said, for Apple, but also for me personally.
  • Reply 26 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macologist View Post


    Reading outdoors in the day light on iPads vs. Kindle and other Screens, How will Apple solve that?



    I still don't get this argument. You're outside with a portable device. If there's direct sun glare, MOVE. IT'S PORTABLE.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    ?iPhone 5?



    Oh, not you, too!



    Sentiment agreed, though.
  • Reply 27 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macologist View Post


    $500 price will be a barrier

    Are you gonna give each kid iPad so that they break or and lose it, or have it stolen?

    Who pays for it?

    Schools are broke!

    Budget cuts...



    I didn’t have an answer, but I am still in love with iBooks 2 + iBook Author, cause I see it as a Bright Future! But my friend’s comments were hard to argue with!!! I wonder how you would respond to those concerns?



    What you must understand is that the Education stuff is the trojan horse. What this really is, is

    HyperCard for iPad



    This is massive. This is basically Authorware, Director and Flash for iPad. In it's very infancy. Once they make it more interactive over the next few years, you will see Apps as a way to do certain things (ie. more functional-oriented), and iBooks as a way to do Apps in massively easier way for more content-oriented things.



    This is the start of the next iGold rush. This is huge. Mark my words. Some of y'all know this already. There's something stirring in you knowing that this is the start of the next phase of iPad. Content creation for iPad is no longer limited to Apps and Xcode.



    Education is just the classic Apple "hook", part of Steve and Apple's extremely brilliant marketing plan, "killing you softly" as always. It's the "bling" on an actually very attractive person.



    Also, HTML widgets with Javascript = Xcode bypass
    . Prepare for extremely large influx of web developers dying to get onto iPad, like me.
  • Reply 28 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tallest skil View Post


    oh, not you, too!

    Sentiment agreed, though.



    llll



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tallest skil View Post


    I still don't get this argument. You're outside with a portable device. If there's direct sun glare, MOVE. IT'S PORTABLE.



  • Reply 29 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    Lots of possibilities to improve learning [education]



    Dick, HyperCard. I know people are going to get sick of me repeating it, but I know you get it. HyperCard is back, babyyy. And... Authorware. When I first saw that in high school work experience in 1993, wow.



    The memories are flooding back thick and fast. That was also around the time of my first date (I was 15). Let's just say the date went real bad but I've improved my "skills" in that area over a (long, long, long) time.
  • Reply 30 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Demitod View Post


    Now if they can just invent a break-proof screen, so it doesn't cost $400 every time the kid drops it on the ground.



    It's called AppleCare+.

    Or you could beat your kid silly until they learn.
  • Reply 31 of 34
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by malax View Post


    Huh, I just finished the book a couple weeks ago and I don't remember anything about reinventing photography.



    I just searched the Steve Jobs book on my Kindle for "photography" and that word appears a grand total of 3 times.



    The keyword to search with is 'photographs' and you will find a short section in 'Round Three, The Twilight Struggle' where Isaacson writes:



    Jobs had many other ideas and projects that he hoped to develop. He wanted to disrupt the textbook industry and save the spines of spavined students bearing backpacks by creating electronic texts and curriculum material for the iPad. He was also working with Bill Atkinson, his friend from the original Macintosh team, on devising new digital technologies that worked at the pixel level to allow people to take great photographs using their iPhones even in situations without much light. And he very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant. “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” he told me. “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.” No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”
  • Reply 32 of 34
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    I am beginning to wonder if iBooks Author was actually a project approved by Jobs. For all the crap he dished out on Adobe for Flash being proprietary and buggy, this iBooks Author application is just like Flash.



    The .ibooks format is really buggy and iBooks made with the Author crash a lot. The "Life on Earth" title crashes often for me on iPad 1. And the binary file format is totally not open standards friendly like Steve was always preaching. In fact, iBooks is almost identical to Flash in every way except the application is free. Apple has a different model to monazite it. But other than that it is totally like Flash. You have to use Apple's dashcode, Apple's Quartz composer and the only video is .m4v.



    I think Steve may have wanted to change the way we buy and read textbooks, but I'm not sure this was his vision. It looks like it has been in the works for a long time but also looks like it was rushed out the door as well. Maybe Steve nixed it but the new Apple resurrected it.
  • Reply 33 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    The "Life on Earth" title crashes often for me on iPad 1.



    Oh, good. It's not just me. I haven't even gotten the stupid thing to open; all it ever shows is the book opening and then flashes to the light grey variant of Linen and stays there, frozen. It renders my version of iBooks completely useless unless I load up my own book that I'm making in iBooks Author (which supersedes the commands from the currently-open book) or delete iBooks from my iPad entirely. That's completely unacceptable.



    Quote:

    In fact, iBooks is almost identical to Flash in every way except the application is free. Apple has a different model to monazite it. But other than that it is totally like Flash. You have to use Apple's dashcode, Apple's Quartz composer and the only video is .m4v.



    I like that assessment. I would have greatly preferred iBooks Author exporting to .ePub files but use a new enough standard that only iDevices can open them.
  • Reply 34 of 34
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post




    I still don't get this argument. You're outside with a portable device. If there's direct sun glare, MOVE. IT'S PORTABLE. Oh, not you, too! Sentiment agreed, though.



    ! I agree, but then shade is not always available, so "moving" is not always an option! Waiting till shade is available is a different story!



    Ideally, it'd be nice if the All Screens were Anti-Glare, Not Glossy, and Simulated Nice Paper as closely as possible!!! The Added advantage is that, unlike paper, with iPads one can read at night, and, if it's Anti-Glare, Non Glossy Screen, it's even healthier for our eyes, I suspect, and it's not just a matter of Taste/Preference!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    What you must understand is that the Education stuff is the trojan horse. What this really is, is

    HyperCard for iPad



    This is massive. This is basically Authorware, Director and Flash for iPad. In it's very infancy. Once they make it more interactive over the next few years, you will see Apps as a way to do certain things (ie. more functional-oriented), and iBooks as a way to do Apps in massively easier way for more content-oriented things.



    This is the start of the next iGold rush. This is huge. Mark my words. Some of y'all know this already. There's something stirring in you knowing that this is the start of the next phase of iPad. Content creation for iPad is no longer limited to Apps and Xcode.



    Education is just the classic Apple "hook", part of Steve and Apple's extremely brilliant marketing plan, "killing you softly" as always. It's the "bling" on an actually very attractive person.



    Also, HTML widgets with Javascript = Xcode bypass
    . Prepare for extremely large influx of web developers dying to get onto iPad, like me.



    I like this reply, cause it projects a lot of OPTIMISM, which is always nice!



    As expected, there are always critics when something NEW comes around in general, and so Apple New Products Introductions are always going to have skeptics! That is why Optimism is nice to have! Thanks!



    BTW, I spoke that same friend of mine, the educator, again, and his concerns are still there, based upon Budget Cuts, teachers being laid off etc. This educator is a huge Apple Fan, like me..., but he is on the "front lines" of Academia/Education and so I can't argue with him. Worse yet, he is in so-called Good School District, so God help all those who are in a more poor areas, where schools are a lot worse!



    But then, who say that iBooks = Text Books and iPads Only!!! Maybe they will be extended to Macs too, so that on laptops or with Magic Trackpad, the Interactivity would be almost, if not completely, the same the iPad Touch Experience!



    HTML 5 is getting closer too, so maybe it'll play into this whole iBooks 2/iAuthor Revolution/Reinvention... Hey, whatever makes a better product, I am for it!!!



    I'll take Optimism anywhere I can find it... ! Thanks you guys for your Replies! That's why I enjoy Apple Insider!
Sign In or Register to comment.