Push Pop Press drops iPad ebooks after being acquired by Facebook

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Push Pop Press, a startup led by former Apple engineers with the goal of delivering dynamic books as iOS titles aimed at Apple's iPad, has been acquired by Facebook and will abandon its publishing platform plans.



Founded by Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris, Push Pop aimed to build a platform for creating digital books using Apple's native Cocoa Touch, resulting in titles that were more dynamic than those built using basic web standards, such as the epub format Apple itself is using to deliver content in its own iBooks Store.



Tsinteris originally worked at Apple as an engineer working on Mac OS X and on the Maps app for iPhone, while Matas was hired by Apple from Delicious Monster in 2005 at the age of 19 to to help develop the visual style of Mac OS X and iOS user interface designs.



After creating a reference title with Apple board member Al Gore, a digital adaptation of Gore's "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis," the startup began working to deliver a platform to enable other publishers to bring their content to the App Store as immersive iOS apps.



Al Gore's Our Choice Guided Tour from Push Pop Press on Vimeo.



Instead, the publisher was bought up by Facebook, resulting in an announcement by Push Pop that "we're taking our publishing technology and everything we've learned and are setting off to help design the world's largest book, Facebook."



Rather that continuing Push Pop's original mission to deliver dynamic books, Facebook will be using the startup's talent and technology to upgrade the publishing tools within its own product, "giving people even richer ways to share their stories."



The group stated, "Al Gore's 'Our Choice' will remain available for purchase, and we've decided that our future profits from the book will be donated to The Climate Reality Project. There are no plans to continue publishing new titles or building out our publishing platform that was in private beta. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported and expressed interest in Push Pop Press."



The move will reduce competition between Apple's own epub-based iBooks, and the proprietary formats for ebooks used by Amazon and other publishers. Apple itself has remained committed to expanding upon the sophistication of epub, adding features such as the ability to create read-along titles for children in the latest version of IBooks.



Unlike the platform Push Pop Press was working on, Apple's use of the industry standard epub allows anyone to create digital books aimed at iPad, iPhone, and other mobile devices. The epub format is essentially a self contained web site, using HTML, JavaScript and CSS to deliver dynamic content, digital publications.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    Sell meets out. Happy trails, Push Pop Press.

    I'm still not joining Facebook.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    Bummer -- seemed like they might have done some cool stuff. But maybe the recent interest in html5 tools by Adobe made them reconsider their chances for success.
  • Reply 3 of 18
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    [...] Matas was hired by Apple from Delicious Monster in 2005 at the age of 19 to to help develop the visual style of Mac OS X and iOS user interface designs. [...]



    yeesh. if he was at all responsible for the bloatware that is now delicious library then facebook just wasted some cash.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    Money talks, innovation walks. Pity...
  • Reply 5 of 18
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    The terms are not disclosed.

    I assume it had to be a good chunk of cash, since they will now have to work at Facebook, on Facebook dreck for the next x years. What a nightmare.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DESuserIGN View Post


    I assume it had to be a good chunk of cash, since they will now have to work at Facebook, on Facebook dreck for the next x years. What a nightmare.



    Yeah, I mean the only common thread is the word "publish" - and that's a huge stretch for Facebook's wall posts and comments. That's like a book publisher selling out and raving about how he's joining the up-and-coming 'Post-it' market, 'cause that's the real future.
  • Reply 7 of 18
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    What I wanted is for Apple to do the whole Newsstand thing, but using their own publishing platform via an Aquisition of Push Pop. And as a result magazines would actually be cool on iOS. Creating a cohesive and amazing magazine platform on iOS. Newspapers could be separate Apps. Then people would actually consider magazine subscriptions on iOS as they would be compelling, interesting, intuitive, cool and consistent. And Apple would set the direction, style, tone and provide the tools.



    I don't like FB.
  • Reply 8 of 18
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    What I wanted is for Apple to do the whole Newsstand thing, but using their own publishing platform via an Aquisition of Push Pop. And as a result magazines would actually be cool on iOS. Creating a cohesive and amazing magazine platform on iOS. Newspapers could be separate Apps. Then people would actually consider magazine subscriptions on iOS as they would be compelling, interesting, intuitive, cool and consistent. And Apple would set the direction, style, tone and provide the tools.



    I don't like FB.



    Newsstand is the one feature of IOS 5.0 that I have yet to test. I can easily see myself subscribing to magazines, newspapers and other periodicals if they can make a concessive and slick format, not just background OTA updates of your subscriptions.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Preparing for thread hijack by climate change debaters in 3, 2, 1...
  • Reply 10 of 18
    I agree this is a sad day. I was really looking forward to where Push Pop could take publishing. Now I don't care.



    It seems silly to me that many people are viewing this move as a talent acquisition by Facebook, but my understanding is that while Intellectual Property does convey with the purchase of a company, the actual intellect does not. Seems like a convoluted way to hire someone.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    lostkiwilostkiwi Posts: 639member
    Nooooo!

    Well that sucks. I bought the book to see this new format and I was very impressed. What a great start!



    Why is it the world seems to reward mediocrity and short sighted thinking? It should be the other way around.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    Too bad Apple didn't buy them... That way they may could have made it into a New Standard for iOS, instead or in addition to E-Pub....



    The irony of Al Gore being their 1st customer, or so, and helped to put them on the map - that is hard to overlook, and hard to figure out...



    Apple could have outbid anyone in acquiring this company, but maybe Apple has something even better up their sleeve? We can only hope so...
  • Reply 13 of 18
    joshajosha Posts: 901member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Sell meets out. Happy trails, Push Pop Press.

    I'm still not joining Facebook.



    Yes sounds good for Push Pop Press, but I also won't be going on ugly FaceBook to see their work.

    Oh well, some other startup will take over their objectives. Perhaps it will be some of them, when they get tired of FB and bored spending their easy money.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    The Our Choice app is easily the best ebook on the iOS platform, providing a far superior experience than any e-pub book I've seen in any of the ebook readers. I was looking forward to updates to the app to incorporate new scientific findings.



    I too hope some other developers pick up Push Pop's abandoned baton and continue their first-rate efforts with Our Choice, as well as create other content-dedicated ebook apps.



    As talented as the Push Pop guys clearly are, I won't be going to Facebook.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    jpdlvmhjpdlvmh Posts: 72member
    3,2,1... here we go

    It is obvious that the Gorish chap with his climate b******t has difficulty getting his message across. So he had to buy a platform...
  • Reply 16 of 18
    gustavgustav Posts: 827member
    No need for all the sour grapes - it just opens the door for someone else to do it. There's nothing unique in the platform that couldn't be done elsewhere.
  • Reply 17 of 18
    MichaelM8000, we hardly knew ye.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    Facebook is evil
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