8 ms·

Apple announces iBooks 2, iBooks Author to "reinvent textbooks"

116 points by FluidDjango 15y ago

johnnyn 15y ago
This is such a game changer. Just another great lock-in tool for iBooks and Apple.
- cxz 15y ago
  I don't think these digital textbooks will take off on a closed platform. The iBooks format is based on ePub so I think there's every chance you'll see these books reaching other devices over time.
  - betterth 15y ago
    Don't be so sure, the tablet market is still totally dominated by the iPad, and the education-angle for tablets is all but completely Apple. Now, with all the major textbook publishers behind them, they're moving FAST into education. How long until another platform even has a large enough install base and education push to be competitive? And that competitor will have to get the publishers behind them too, and then that system would have to get bigger than the Apple system... I don't see it, I think Apple is already years ahead of their competition -- most notably because there is no competition for this. Now the competitors have to -start- entering this market, ---start- making competing products, start building those relationships with authors and publishers... It'll be an uphill battle and really only Amazon today seems to have any chance at all, and they've not really expressed too much interest in the market yet.
fredley 15y ago
As it stands, this is not great. The cost of an iPad is $500. It'll probably need replacing every couple of years, and that's assuming your kid doesn't break it all the time (if I'd had one of these at school it would have been smashed up constantly). Each textbook is a minimum of $15. Over the course of a high school education, this is going to cost each child ('s parents) thousands of dollars. This will only benefit kids at the richest schools, which will not fix America's education problem.
- keeran 15y ago
  "We wanted to get started with partners early, so we're starting with high school textbooks priced at $14.99 or less. " edit: source http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/19/live-coverage-of-apples-education-focused-media-event/ http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/19/live-coverage-of-apples-...
- omfg 15y ago
  That's one assumption. The other is that over the course of a 4 year high school or college run. The cost of a 499 iPad + 15 dollar books is significantly cheaper than say 6-7 60+ dollar books per semester. Schools can loan out iPads that they get at a discount from Apple, or colleges can even include them in the cost of tuition. I know quite a few people in college right now that receive a Macbook Pro as part of their college tuition (with no option to decline it and save on tuition). So an iPad would be significantly cheaper than that, and arguably just as useful for most college curriculums.
  - streptomycin 15y ago
    > That's one assumption. The other is that over the course of a 4 year high school or college run. The cost of a 499 iPad + 15 dollar books is significantly cheaper than say 6-7 60+ dollar books per semester. Only if you assume that iPads never break, all textbooks will be published with iPad versions (otherwise you'd need an iPad and some normal textbooks), you can't buy used textbooks, and you can't sell your textbooks when you're done with them.
    - omfg 15y ago
      I'm not sure the need to re-sell a 15 dollar eBook. Damaging the iPad is a concern, so is theft. But there are too many scenarios there to analyze the economics of each. For instance, say an iPad + eBooks replaces a laptop with textbooks, the iPad is cheaper to replace than a laptop. What if you lose your book bag full of 5 new 80 dollar text books, then it's a wash. The cost of 8 semesters worth of textbooks might be more expensive than the cost of 3 499 iPads + eBooks. So forth. Textbooks + iPad versions. More of a problem in college than high school where the schools often have long term contracts with the publishers. All in all, it seems like a step in the right direction. Also, one can imagine that Apple is going to keep the iPad 2 on the market at a reduced cost when the iPad 3 comes out, similarly to what they've done with the iPhone. So over time it'll become even more cost effective.
jstsch 15y ago
Wow, that looks pretty well done. The iBooks App is in the App store right now too. The format is HTML-based, with some proprietary extension ( -ibooks-layout-hint: anchor; in CSS etc). But don't expect an Android reader anytime soon...
- fredley 15y ago
  If Apple really wanted to improve education, they'd make the file format open. That way even schools without tens of thousands of dollars of Apple gear could benefit.
  - runaway 15y ago
    It sounds like it is open. HTML-based with a couple vendor-specific properties that anyone can interpret if they like. Anything I'm missing?
    - fredley 15y ago
      A specification?
      - runaway 15y ago
        The impression I got from the article is that you'd just open it up with whatever HTML editor you want. Particularly where it says "authors can further customize their books with HTML5 or JavaScript". That's pretty well spec'd.
  - johnnyn 15y ago
    From iBooks Author, you can export in iBooks, PDF, or text format. The iBooks format is pretty much a well organized version of the epub format. I just exported one, changed the extension to .epub, and loaded it into an ebook reader.
    - ezy 15y ago
      It's worthwhile to note that PDF export only outputs in a fairly useless landscape, two textbook pages per pdf page form. I have to think that this is done in this horrible way by design. Similar for your .epub "hack", I'm sure that will not be supported by Apple, ever. On the other hand, the textbook makers currently have such a lock on school districts that I don't feel really bad about this. iPads will only get cheaper.. I'm almost positive kids will complain when they get the shitty scratched up hand-me-down iPad2 the school district has had for 5 years when iPad7 is available -- but I've had worse experiences with paper textbooks. :-)
lachyg 15y ago
Does anyone know of a link that explains this well, with pictures and in depth analysis that I can send to the headmaster of my old highschool? He loves this kinda stuff.
- robgough 15y ago
  I would presume that at some point Apple will update their "case studies"/profiles to reflect this new tech. This may not be as in depth as you'd like though. http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/ http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/
  - lachyg 15y ago
    Ah, this is perfect. Apples just updated their site!
gdilla 15y ago
The apple specific nature of this new authoring platform is a departure from the eBook ePub standard, presumably because Apple thought the UX of eBooks could be way better. A similar rationale for why they introduced iOS apps, how it outperforms mobile web, to the ire of many developers who prefer to work with build once, run everywhere environments. If you make a killer textbook in the new iBook Author tool, you can't publish it for the Kindle Fire. Contrast that to ePub, a file you could deliver to B&N, Apple, Amazon (they require some weird conversion process), etc, and it would be more or less available to all.
- archivator 15y ago
  It's worth mentioning that EPUB3 is based on HTML5 and supports scripting - http://idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-overview-20111011.html#sec-scripting http://idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-overview-20111011.html#s... Of course, if you need more reasons for a switch to EPUB3, it also has brilliant accessibility and will be supported by a multitude of readers, not just iDevices.
  - superos 15y ago
    Thanks for that reminder. We might see iBooks versus all other vendors using EPUB3 then.
- maercsrats 15y ago
  I'm probably going to get downvoted for this but I'll say it anyway: there isn't a tablet market, there is only an ipad market. Apple want to make it easier to make books for ipads because: 1. that's what they sell and 2. that's what people are buying. A quick aside, my mom is a 7th grade reading/writing teacher in a small (around 18K in the county) west-TN town. Her little school has an ipad cart. Every student does their writing (typing really) on an ipad. Both kids and teachers love it. The news today will probably thrill all of them.
  - rtrunck 15y ago
    I would have been more inclined to agree until the Kindle Fire came out. That is starting to change things.
baconner 15y ago
+1 for the $15 price cap on textbooks -10 for the cost of devices needed to use them.
- tatsuke95 15y ago
  Exactly. This is great and all, but the easiest solution to the over-priced textbook system is $14.99 textbooks that can be printed and re-printed as needed, not $15 that require a delicate, pricey device to view.
  - thomasjoulin 15y ago
    about $500 for an iPad + 10 iBooks is $649. 10 Text Books would have been about $900...
    - jonhohle 15y ago
      But the textbooks would likely be in circulation longer than the iPad.
    - baconner 15y ago
      Fair point. Total cost may be lower with this approach than the current situation where textbook manufacturers leverage their position and IMO significantly overcharge their often captive audience. So assuming the ipads can be kept in working order as long as paper books its cheaper. But its not as cheap as it could be if the format was open so other device manufacturerers could compete to build the best low cost hardware for schools. As it stands its mainly just moving the lions share of the income from textbook publishers to apple. The right thing to do IMO is to focus on a standard open format so there can be increased competition not just on the cost of the books but on the hardware as well. Schools need sustainable barganing power to get the best materials for their students now and in the future. Vendor lock in takes that leverage away. Such open textbook innovation is already happening without apple. I applaud Apple's effort to innovate on the format to provide richer more teacher customizable content but I can't get behind the lock in even if its somewhat cheaper up front.
  - 15y ago
martingordon 15y ago
For those commenting on the price of iPads, I suggest you wait for the other shoe to drop in a few weeks when Apple makes their iPad 3 announcement. I think Apple will likely employ a similar strategy to that of the iPhone and keep the iPad 2 around as a lower-cost alternative to the new iPad.
- beatle 15y ago
  I agree with this. iPad 3 499 iPad 2 399 Refurbed iPad 1 $99-$299
  - ChrisLTD 15y ago
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Apple actively manufactures or sells the first generation iPad.
    - beatle 15y ago
      You're correct. Edited.
    - martingordon 15y ago
      They don't manufacture them anymore, but they do sell leftover stock as refurbs (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad). The only first generation model they currently have is a 64 GB WiFi going for $499, or $200 off of original retail. I don't see them firing up iPad 1 production in order to hit the $299 price point, but I can see them keeping the iPad 2 around at $299 when the iPad 4 hits, similar to the current 3GS/4/4S phone lineup. The economies of scale of extending a year-long manufacturing cycle to three years is too great to be ignored and it gives Apple the added benefit of being able to hit lower prices without sacrificing the quality of their product.
  - swilliams 15y ago
    I did download the new iBooks and some sample textbooks on my iPad 1. It's definitely on the slow side, but not terrible. Though that may change over time as future iOS versions are released.
wisty 15y ago
I love Apple, but the Kindle is so much better as a reader. It can't play Angry Birds, and the slow refresh rate makes it harder to flick back and forwards, forcing you to focus.
- peteretep 15y ago
  And this is the reason that I as a Mac fanboi still don't have an iPad. However, I have no trouble reading the Kindle on my iPhone when I forget my real Kindle, leading me to believe I'm going to enjoy reading on an iPad 3, a lot, especially NYT and The Economist, which suck on Kindles.
  - betterth 15y ago
    Kindle is better for TEXT only. iPad is incomparably better for anything that uses more than straight text. Even today's textbooks would be very poor on Kindle compared to iPad. But today's bestsellers are much better on Kindle than iPad, in my opinion. I like the e-ink for long periods of text reading.
- ceejayoz 15y ago
  > I love Apple, but the Kindle is so much better as a reader. It can't play Angry Birds, and the slow refresh rate makes it harder to flick back and forwards, forcing you to focus. All of which is fine for a bog standard textbook, but Apple's working to make these things more useful - full color interactive experiments, video, etc.
- roc 15y ago
  What makes for a good reader doesn't necessarily make for a good textbook reader. Very few textbooks are read linearly. All would benefit from solid interactivity, search and annotating capabilities.
  - masklinn 15y ago
    Exactly. The basic reading experience is better on a Kindle, but once you use the glossary, take notes (and get them back as small cards, that was beautiful) and build interactivity into the text (from search up to interactive tests, video content, image slideshow or even 3D models and micro-applications) it starts creaking under the weight. Random access speed (when going to a specific page, or to return a list of results) is also nice for a textbook, while it's not very useful for a novel. nb: the more I think about it, the more those e-textbook sound like modern Hypercard stacks.
wallflower 15y ago
Perhaps iBooks 2 is a continuing step towards the bringing the fictional Young Lady's Illustrated Primer of Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" towards reality. The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is an adaptive AI tutor. To realize TYLIP, hard AI problems will need to be solved. Yet, it is possible the iPad 3/iBooks 2 is a step towards a simpler Primer. "TYLIP is...a book that is powered by a computer so advanced it’s almost magical, and it teaches children everything. It does this through a fully interactive story. It teaches you how to read, how to do maths, it teaches you morals, ethics, even self-defense." http://mssv.net/2006/05/01/the-young-ladys-illustrated-primer/ http://mssv.net/2006/05/01/the-young-ladys-illustrated-prime... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cU8NFy0sa_Y/TuWAj8ZBMVI/AAAAAAAABlg/zuHvbmyEp1E/s1600/A+Young+Lady%2527s+Illustrated+Primer.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cU8NFy0sa_Y/TuWAj8ZBMVI/AAAAAAAABl...
- pstuart 15y ago
  This has been on my mind as well -- my oldest child has just become a bookworm and I'm intending to get all my kids iPads this year if they can be more than just for games and movies. While strong AI would be nice, well crafted content alone could take one very far. Then add in what Khan Academy is doing for tracking learning and you might be 90% there.
  - davidw 15y ago
    Kindles (the eInk ones, not the Fire) might be a good push in the "for reading" direction. You really can't do much else with them, but they're really great for reading, as well as super light, and have amazing battery life. I got a Kindle Fire, and reading on it is just not the same as with the 'real' Kindles - you always have 'other things' like email and Facebook lurking just a few clicks away. And the battery life is something you have to keep in mind, and of course an LCD screen just isn't as nice for reading.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- danilocampos 15y ago
  I thought the primer was driven by an actor in a booth, not an AI. Should I re-read?
mfringel 15y ago
I would like to thank Apple for providing school bullies with a single high-value target.
pflats 15y ago
This is an outstanding value-add for iPads. There are a ton of school administrators/school boards out there that love to try new technology in the classroom. They've been chomping at the bit to buy iPads for a while now, just waiting for the right reason. I'd venture that being able to present it to the general public as both a cost-cutting measure and a technology initiative will greatly increase adoption.
- stuntmouse 15y ago
  It's "champing at the bit."
  - ceejayoz 15y ago
    Chomping has 20x the Google results. It may be wrong, but it's the common usage these days.
palebluedot 15y ago
I see many comments about the cost of an iPad - that is not the real issue here. The real issue is these textbooks and knowledge will be funneled through DRM, and a single provider (Apple). Even if Apple gave away the iPads, I will still have issues with DRM on textbooks. And even if these books end up being DRM-free, will they still be proprietary to Apple's platforms? If most/all schools adopt this and require it, and the books are DRM hindered to a proprietary platform, then that means that it will become a defacto requirement for every student to own an Apple device, in order to receive education. It may work, and would certainly be good for Apple... but I don't like it.
- masklinn 15y ago
  School could very well distribute DRM-less texbooks (iBooks works as a regular eBooks reader, and I expect the ibooks 2 format is just EPUB3 with a few extensions), though I really doubt publishers will ever be on board with the idea. The DRM would also be added by the ibookstore, so you should be able to get a non-DRM'd ebook out of the author application thing: a commenter noted he'd exported an ibook, changed the extension and had no trouble loading it into a non-apple ebook reader (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3485150 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3485150)
  - palebluedot 15y ago
    Yes, I agree - Many public schools charge a 'book fee' each year, for textbooks. Just roll it into that - who cares if the textbooks are shared then, because each student is paying for it, regardless. And if it is in a non-proprietary format, that would alleviate the other concern of lock-in. But one article mentioned that students could not resell the books - which implies DRM. Outside of high school and into college, the publishers obviously want to prevent reselling/sharing of the books.
    - cwe 15y ago
      This has been the biggest problem with ebooks in general in my mind. Kindle books are DRM'ed, I couldn't sell them once I'm done with them, which keeps me buying physical books. So I see it as the problem that really needs to be figured out (and is why I was hopeful for bitcoin at one point, it seemed to have a DRM system that allowed for transfer of ownership). Apologies if this is slightly off topic.
yequalsx 15y ago
Unless the books published by iBooks Author can be played on devices not made by Apple I don't see how this is a big deal. I know books can be exported to PDF but a PDF doesn't have the same capabilities as an iBook2 on an iPad. I tried creating a document in iBooks Author and I'm disappointed. It doesn't allow one to embed a Youtube video. One can get around this by creating a Dashcode widget and using the widget to play a Youtube video but this seems like too much work. As a teacher, why would I go through all this trouble just to create a book than can only be properly viewed on Apple devices? I'm not requiring my students to by Apple products. I must be missing something. What?
- jonhendry 15y ago
  " As a teacher, why would I go through all this trouble just to create a book than can only be properly viewed on Apple devices? I'm not requiring my students to by Apple products." You might create a book if you worked for a school district that as policy provides iPads to the students. That's the value proposition Apple is offering: schools spend a ton of money on buying textbooks and buying new editions every so often. If Apple can make it cheaper to use iPads, then the school benefits by switching to iPads.
  - yequalsx 15y ago
    That's a fair point. I'm in higher education and our school doesn't buy books. I've created video lectures using Camtasia using a Wacom tablet and pen. The notes are in PDF format and I've created my own exercises. Students for one of my classes don't need to buy a book because I've got everything done for that course. I'd like to use something like iBook Author but only if I can export it in a device independent way.
- masklinn 15y ago
  > It doesn't allow one to embed a Youtube video. One can get around this by creating a Dashcode widget and using the widget to play a Youtube video but this seems like too much work. > [...] > I must be missing something. What? That what you're doing is, sorry to say, absolutely stupid. Embedding a youtube video? Why not just frame wikipedia pages while you're at it? You're trying to embed not only content which may not last in time, but content which will bring down your network when 30 students launch the video at once. And you're creating a book which requires an internet connection, which is bloody terrible. Why don't you just embed the video itself, which is surely supported?
nirvana 15y ago
People have been talking about the economics of the iPad seemingly implying that it is more expensive. For schools right now textbooks are really expensive and textbook management is expensive as well (a lot of bulk to move around and account for, etc.) Since school districts have to pay for all this, lets do some rough numbers.... Lets assume you're talking about a high school, they have four grades, 9, 10, 11 & 12 and are on a semester system. How many classes does each student take a semester? 10? 7? (My high school was run like a college so my experience isn't typical. We took 10 classes each semester and had 2.5 textbooks per class (english classes often had 6-7 books) Each class requires how many text books? 1.2? 2? If we assume lower numbers for a typical high school, 4 grades, 1.2 text books per class, 2 semesters per year, 7 classes per semester and a textbook cost of $80 is 4 x 1.2 x 2 x 7 x 80 = $5,376 in text books to put one student thru the whole four years. Alternatively, the school could buy one iPad, and with an average textbook cost of $15 and everything else the same the calculation is: 4 x 1.2 x 2 x 7 x 15 + $500 = $1,508. We can assume in both cases, the iPad and the Texbooks last 3 years (6 semesters, and 6 different students) before having to be replaced. To me, the iPad solution looks cheaper, and all the other benefits- less weight, more interactivity, etc, come for free. Edit: Left out a term in the second calculation, so corrected, and using asterisks for multiplication resulted in bad formatting, so fixed.
- Zakuzaa 15y ago
  Plus you also get an ipad for life.
  - nirvana 15y ago
    That would be the case if we were talking about college, where, 20 years ago textbooks were easily $100, and you had more of them per class. I think the economics work even better there... But I'm using High School as the example and assuming the district is paying the costs and keeping textbooks and iPads on average for 3 years. Some people have claimed that iPads won't last very long... but Apple offers AppleCare+ (at least for the iPhone, I expect they'll offer even better warrantees for school districts.) AppleCare+ will replace a damaged device up to three times for $49 over the course of 3 years, IIRC. I think the economics are great for high schools, but positively spectacular for colleges (and I'm assuming college textbooks are no longer as cheap as $100, and that the resell situation is as bad- we'd be lucky to get $15 on resale, and the books were bound with glue designed to fall apart over the course of a single semester.)
neovive 15y ago
How does this apply to the publishing of non-textbooks? Can you create interactive storybooks? It seems that this is clearly textbook focused, but are there restrictions on using this for other types of books?
- johnnyn 15y ago
  I believe you could potentially publish any type of book to the iBookstore. Here's the Help section for "publishing to iBookstore": https://gist.github.com/1641657 https://gist.github.com/1641657 And this is from the iBooks Author homepage: "Available free on the Mac App store, iBooks Author is an amazing new app that allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could."
mdellavo 15y ago
While I am envious that upcoming generations will not know the absolute joy of lugging around Chemistry, Physics and Math tombs, I am a little weary that this plan will eliminate the used text book market. I, for one, certainly bought more than one used textbook for less than 50% of the price of a new text. I also had professors recommend going to the off-campus, unaffiliated book store for used texts rather than going to the for-profit on-campus book store in the student union.
- jonhendry 15y ago
  If a new e-textbook is under $15, what's the point of seeking a used one? Even if that were an option, you wouldn't save much, and I would expect e-textbooks to be updated more frequently, so you might be missing something if you bought last year's e-textbook. I suspect with lots of students they sell their old textbooks to save space as much as to recoup some of the cost (or get some money for beer).
- Hemospectrum 15y ago
  The used textbook market was on shaky ground well before ebooks arrived on the scene. Every year, publishers force new editions on the market, making changes to the exercises (so old editions are incompatible with new ones) but making no substantial changes to the actual learning material. Some instructors prefer to assign old editions so their students can find cheaper copies, but most don't care, and others are even contractually obligated (via the school) to use only the newest edition.
twodayslate 15y ago
I love the $15 price for textbooks. That is great and would really help keep prices down for students as most books are $100+ now. My question is, can these be put onto a Kindle? Also, is there an iBook app for Windows/OSX?
shmerl 15y ago
All this are just dirty tactics from Apple to lock users into their iTunes infrastructure. One wouldn't be able to use those textbooks anywhere outside iTunes, therefore it's defective by design and authors shouldn't fall for it.
mladenkovacevic 15y ago
I apologize if this might sound like a naive question: but why haven't textbooks been published on the internet all these years? I mean why couldn't some non-profit organization theoretically have created some HTML standard and template for textbooks with the ability to do videos, interactive input, notes...etc other bells and whistles...then hired expert textbook writers, and just cranked out a few online quality textbooks for use in high schools, colleges or whatever. Then all you'd need to consume the content is any kind of HTML reader/browser on any type of computing device. What has really been preventing this from happening? I just don't get what business Apple has in "reinventing" textbooks or e-book formats or why we had to wait all these years for them to do it (and lock it into their ecosystem).
- jdminhbg 15y ago
  For high schools, the main cost in production is lobbying the state standards board. For colleges, buying decisions are made by people (professors) who don't have to actually spend the money. There's no advantage to undercutting someone on price.
  - mladenkovacevic 15y ago
    But does the Apple/iPad/iBooks solution somehow circumvent those nuisances?
    - jdminhbg 15y ago
      I don't know. I'm a lot more sure that those are the reasons that nobody's created a bunch of open source textbooks than I am that Apple can somehow break through. I guess there's a chance that the Apple aura is enough of a draw to break through the established system?
grantheaslip 15y ago
Imagine if the company behind this was, say, Microsoft — I’m guessing there would be a lot less defense of propriety, DRM-laden educational material. Really, imagine an HN thread discussing a proprietary Microsoft-backed textbook platform. Besides the level of polish, what’s the fundamental philosophical difference? Don’t get me wrong, this looks really neat, and I think this is a glimpse into the future of education. I’m just a bit sick of Apple getting a free pass on things that people would be up in arms about if they came from almost any other tech company.
- milesskorpen 15y ago
  They've actually announced the format is very similar to ePub 3, so not exactly proprietary.
superos 15y ago
I tried to follow this announcement through the web today and I noticed a few things I would like to comment on as an educational technologist. 1. It did not impress me (iBooks). Looked like gorgeous Apple design on 'CDROM' type educational software we used to have in the old days. 2. I liked the glossary and notes/annotations that turned into summary cards for learning. 3. Interactive features are added using Keynote(?) or 4. You need to know 'HTM5' and Javascript to do interactive stuff (this is not GarageBand for eLearning as someone told me it would be). 5. The way iBooks Textbooks are now part of iTunes U does add a lot to iTunes U. Now it can disrupt LMS (Learning Management Systems) vendors as well. 6. I still love eInk. Then some worries. 7. What happened to epub and similar standards? 8. Is this new format a lovely zip file we can extract and inspect? 9. Is it possible to read iBooks on other devices/platforms? 10. Am I allowed to share my iBooks with friends and relatives? 11. Will my grandchildren be able to read my iBooks in 50 years time?
- efields 15y ago
  (edited for readability) 1. Go to an Apple store and use it. Its nothing like a CDROM encyclopedia. Encarta comes to mind. The richness of Apple's Textbook experience is definitely immersive and, like most of their products, can't be perceived until you actually use it for a while. 3. Interactive features can be a movie, HTML(5), 3D, or, yes, a Keynote presentation. Imagine a richer image gallery type experience, but with text, transitions, effects, etc. All this can be done w/ Keynote (and a little bit of visual design know-how) right now. 4. Not basic Keynote-style interactive stuff like I described above. You need to be able to produce and edit movies to add a movie. You need to be able to use 3-D software to make a 3-D model. This is obvious stuff. Multiple disciplines go into making even paper textbooks. 6. eInk IS great... for long-format reading. K-12 and Undergrad textbooks never really involve that much long-format reading. Plus Apple is trying to really show that there are alternative ways to learn besides reading. Getting immersed in the subject matter — whether that's through video, audio, games, text, or anything — is the real threshold to learning. 7. iBook is based on the ePub3 standard. I think they're one in the same, but with different headers. 8. See above. 9. No. Never will be. 10. No. Probably will never be able to. 11. No. Textbooks won't exist in 50 years as all knowledge will grow into your brain from a bionano parasite injected into all humans upon birth. OK, now to take 9,10, and 11 more seriously: As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, textbooks are hugely expensive and are NOT designed to last forever. They contain proprietary information owned by a publisher who has the right to let you not share it. I'm sure some version of these books will be stored in the Library of Congress forever. And much of the material is probably available online or at the library in one way or another. Isn't that fine? Apple is ushering in a new wave of education materials reform that costs LESS than the current model and is practically weightless. Who cares that you can't pass it on or share it. Its practically disposable.
gfodor 15y ago
It's hard to overstate how important I think this is. There are a few reasons. First, this brings a focused, clear path for educational content on the iPad. By opening the Books marketplace to more rich multimedia applications, Apple has made it possible for many of the dreams of interactive learning advocates to go mainstream. Imagine learning math by interacting with functions directly or doing symbolic manipulation directly. Or learning to code by actually doing it alongside a narrative. It's hard to imagine an area of study that would not benefit from creative use of technology in teaching it. (No, just adding videos and audio is not enough.) Second, it opens the door to getting iPads in every classroom. By making it so there is a clear incentive for schools to buy iPads for all their students (cheaper, more useful textbooks) you get an iPad in the hands of every child. It goes without saying this is a big deal. Finally, it opens the door for real competition for textbooks. By capping the price of textbooks at $15.00, students can easily decide to have several different treatments of the same topic on their iPad. If you manage to create content that is more clear, enjoyable, or even correct, parents and students will be one tap away from getting access to it, cheaply, if their officially-sanctioned book is not doing the job. This turns traditional textbook publishing on its head, because it empowers parents to overturn the textbook choices their school makes from the bottom up. If the entire math class has switched over to using an alternative textbook to learn a topic (just through word of mouth), this might tip the scales so the best content ends up being adopted by schools. Creative, upcoming authors will find that usurping the mainstream textbooks is now possible. I can imagine maverick publishers basically taking the same table of contents from a mainstream textbook and modernizing the treatment of the topic, so students have an easy way to move forward in their class at the same pace but with a much better learning tool. And this is just what is on the top of my head, before forward thinking content creators have gotten their hands on this new platform.
- r00fus 15y ago
  I agree with everything you said but worry about the market dynamics of capping the price at $15. As far as I've seen, Apple has never done this before (putting a price floor of $0.99 for paid apps is quite different). Will this result in each "chapter" being $15 eventually? Will this favor the rich student over the poor one in terms of coverage (underfunded school wants basic book that covers entire course, but marketplace offers much better books that are more surgical in coverage - rich kid gets better content while poor kid does not).
ugh 15y ago
Yes, the education angle seems appropriate given what this event was all about, but can I also say that it’s extremely boring? What’s much cooler are the books that are possible with the tools Apple provides now. They are like Al Gore’s Our Choice (whose UI was phenomenally awesome), only even better (when looking at some details), also better integrated and (at least nearly) standards based. Oh, and their authoring tool makes it easy for nearly everyone to make books like that and easily distribute them. That’s just cool, independent of any education bullshit that’s going on.
americandesi333 15y ago
If you are interested, check out the comparision of Inkling Textbook vs. Apple Textbook http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qo3nYQu6FM&start1=85&video2=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_f7G921RY4&start2=15&authorName=Apple+iText+Vs.+Inkling http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http://www.youtube.com/wat...
proofpeer_com 15y ago
It seems the textbook category is not available in the UK. Or is it?? I can't see it.
drewda 15y ago
Another case of Apple trying to crush Adobe, which already offers an e-book platform: http://www.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/ebook/ http://www.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/ebook/
arafalov 15y ago
It is interesting the number of arguments around the lock-in factor and how it is great for Apple at the expense of everybody else. The fact is that the format underneath should be ePub3 with extras. ePub3 (with various extras) is and be available on various platforms. For a traditional publisher to switch to a digital/interactive workflow is a lot of hard-core changes. Target platform and the part of the workflow Apple has has announced is - probably - not that big. They will have a lot more issues around decided the type of content to migrate, kinds of assets/widgets to use, information design of an interactive eBook, firing the track driver company, etc. If somebody later provides a good alternative technological solution, the change required would be on the last 20% of the production pipeline. And several companies tried to provide a solution earlier, they just did not catch on because they did not have enough of a pieces to make it compelling (enTourage eDGe anyone?). Of course, in a meanwhile, Apple will massively benefit from the early bird factor and may create de-facto lock-in by just being the first to actually offer a good solution (which includes democratization of the publishing tools by making the Author application free). This was the payoff of all the costs that went into making iPhone, the developers went to it, therefore the iPad already had huge momentum behind it from day one. Now Author builds on iPad's momentum. But that's different from a real lock-in, such as Windows (temporarily) not sharing the details on how to make a browser to be default and making IE browser a default for all web-related stuff. Or the lock-in of the secure boot.
Kilimanjaro 15y ago
Just downloaded iBooks Author and let me tell you how easy it is to create books from the templates they provide. Great piece of software indeed. Spent no more than ten minutes doing copy/paste and now I have a beautiful digital edition of "War is a Racket" in my iPad. I'll do the same for my whole collection of Sherlock Holmes books I got from the gutenberg project. Believe me it is that simple.
- Kilimanjaro 15y ago
  Btw, this same software can be used to create beautiful magazines, which I believe can be a whole new market on itself, even to compete with newsstand or at least to provide renewable content by subscription.
neilparikh 15y ago
This is pretty innovative, but one big issue come to mind. You're going to have to make sure students don't use this to browse the internet and/or play games during class. Let's say the teacher is giving the students a lecture, and refers them to a page in the textbook for more information. They're not going to be able to check if ever student is gaming or browsing the web on their iPad. Right now students can still play games using their other devices, but in that case, the teacher can take it away for the day. Here, the iPad contains all their textbooks. If they take away, the student can longer use their textbooks. Obviously, not every student is going to to do this, but it brings in another opportunity for the student to not pay attention.
serge2k 15y ago
About the only thing I can think of that would be worse than the current textbook industry is a textbook industry controlled by a company like Apple.

116 points by FluidDjango 15y ago

johnnyn 15y ago

This is such a game changer. Just another great lock-in tool for iBooks and Apple.

cxz 15y ago
I don't think these digital textbooks will take off on a closed platform. The iBooks format is based on ePub so I think there's every chance you'll see these books reaching other devices over time.
- betterth 15y ago
  Don't be so sure, the tablet market is still totally dominated by the iPad, and the education-angle for tablets is all but completely Apple. Now, with all the major textbook publishers behind them, they're moving FAST into education. How long until another platform even has a large enough install base and education push to be competitive? And that competitor will have to get the publishers behind them too, and then that system would have to get bigger than the Apple system... I don't see it, I think Apple is already years ahead of their competition -- most notably because there is no competition for this. Now the competitors have to -start- entering this market, ---start- making competing products, start building those relationships with authors and publishers... It'll be an uphill battle and really only Amazon today seems to have any chance at all, and they've not really expressed too much interest in the market yet.

fredley 15y ago

As it stands, this is not great. The cost of an iPad is $500. It'll probably need replacing every couple of years, and that's assuming your kid doesn't break it all the time (if I'd had one of these at school it would have been smashed up constantly). Each textbook is a minimum of $15. Over the course of a high school education, this is going to cost each child ('s parents) thousands of dollars. This will only benefit kids at the richest schools, which will not fix America's education problem.

keeran 15y ago
"We wanted to get started with partners early, so we're starting with high school textbooks priced at $14.99 or less. " edit: source http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/19/live-coverage-of-apples-education-focused-media-event/ http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/19/live-coverage-of-apples-...
omfg 15y ago
That's one assumption. The other is that over the course of a 4 year high school or college run. The cost of a 499 iPad + 15 dollar books is significantly cheaper than say 6-7 60+ dollar books per semester. Schools can loan out iPads that they get at a discount from Apple, or colleges can even include them in the cost of tuition. I know quite a few people in college right now that receive a Macbook Pro as part of their college tuition (with no option to decline it and save on tuition). So an iPad would be significantly cheaper than that, and arguably just as useful for most college curriculums.
- streptomycin 15y ago
  > That's one assumption. The other is that over the course of a 4 year high school or college run. The cost of a 499 iPad + 15 dollar books is significantly cheaper than say 6-7 60+ dollar books per semester. Only if you assume that iPads never break, all textbooks will be published with iPad versions (otherwise you'd need an iPad and some normal textbooks), you can't buy used textbooks, and you can't sell your textbooks when you're done with them.
  - omfg 15y ago
    I'm not sure the need to re-sell a 15 dollar eBook. Damaging the iPad is a concern, so is theft. But there are too many scenarios there to analyze the economics of each. For instance, say an iPad + eBooks replaces a laptop with textbooks, the iPad is cheaper to replace than a laptop. What if you lose your book bag full of 5 new 80 dollar text books, then it's a wash. The cost of 8 semesters worth of textbooks might be more expensive than the cost of 3 499 iPads + eBooks. So forth. Textbooks + iPad versions. More of a problem in college than high school where the schools often have long term contracts with the publishers. All in all, it seems like a step in the right direction. Also, one can imagine that Apple is going to keep the iPad 2 on the market at a reduced cost when the iPad 3 comes out, similarly to what they've done with the iPhone. So over time it'll become even more cost effective.

jstsch 15y ago

Wow, that looks pretty well done. The iBooks App is in the App store right now too. The format is HTML-based, with some proprietary extension ( -ibooks-layout-hint: anchor; in CSS etc). But don't expect an Android reader anytime soon...

fredley 15y ago
If Apple really wanted to improve education, they'd make the file format open. That way even schools without tens of thousands of dollars of Apple gear could benefit.
- runaway 15y ago
  It sounds like it is open. HTML-based with a couple vendor-specific properties that anyone can interpret if they like. Anything I'm missing?
  - fredley 15y ago
    A specification?
    - runaway 15y ago
      The impression I got from the article is that you'd just open it up with whatever HTML editor you want. Particularly where it says "authors can further customize their books with HTML5 or JavaScript". That's pretty well spec'd.
- johnnyn 15y ago
  From iBooks Author, you can export in iBooks, PDF, or text format. The iBooks format is pretty much a well organized version of the epub format. I just exported one, changed the extension to .epub, and loaded it into an ebook reader.
  - ezy 15y ago
    It's worthwhile to note that PDF export only outputs in a fairly useless landscape, two textbook pages per pdf page form. I have to think that this is done in this horrible way by design. Similar for your .epub "hack", I'm sure that will not be supported by Apple, ever. On the other hand, the textbook makers currently have such a lock on school districts that I don't feel really bad about this. iPads will only get cheaper.. I'm almost positive kids will complain when they get the shitty scratched up hand-me-down iPad2 the school district has had for 5 years when iPad7 is available -- but I've had worse experiences with paper textbooks. :-)

lachyg 15y ago

Does anyone know of a link that explains this well, with pictures and in depth analysis that I can send to the headmaster of my old highschool? He loves this kinda stuff.

robgough 15y ago
I would presume that at some point Apple will update their "case studies"/profiles to reflect this new tech. This may not be as in depth as you'd like though. http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/ http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/
- lachyg 15y ago
  Ah, this is perfect. Apples just updated their site!

gdilla 15y ago

The apple specific nature of this new authoring platform is a departure from the eBook ePub standard, presumably because Apple thought the UX of eBooks could be way better. A similar rationale for why they introduced iOS apps, how it outperforms mobile web, to the ire of many developers who prefer to work with build once, run everywhere environments. If you make a killer textbook in the new iBook Author tool, you can't publish it for the Kindle Fire. Contrast that to ePub, a file you could deliver to B&N, Apple, Amazon (they require some weird conversion process), etc, and it would be more or less available to all.

archivator 15y ago
It's worth mentioning that EPUB3 is based on HTML5 and supports scripting - http://idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-overview-20111011.html#sec-scripting http://idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-overview-20111011.html#s... Of course, if you need more reasons for a switch to EPUB3, it also has brilliant accessibility and will be supported by a multitude of readers, not just iDevices.
- superos 15y ago
  Thanks for that reminder. We might see iBooks versus all other vendors using EPUB3 then.
maercsrats 15y ago
I'm probably going to get downvoted for this but I'll say it anyway: there isn't a tablet market, there is only an ipad market. Apple want to make it easier to make books for ipads because: 1. that's what they sell and 2. that's what people are buying. A quick aside, my mom is a 7th grade reading/writing teacher in a small (around 18K in the county) west-TN town. Her little school has an ipad cart. Every student does their writing (typing really) on an ipad. Both kids and teachers love it. The news today will probably thrill all of them.
- rtrunck 15y ago
  I would have been more inclined to agree until the Kindle Fire came out. That is starting to change things.

baconner 15y ago

+1 for the $15 price cap on textbooks -10 for the cost of devices needed to use them.

tatsuke95 15y ago
Exactly. This is great and all, but the easiest solution to the over-priced textbook system is $14.99 textbooks that can be printed and re-printed as needed, not $15 that require a delicate, pricey device to view.
- thomasjoulin 15y ago
  about $500 for an iPad + 10 iBooks is $649. 10 Text Books would have been about $900...
  - jonhohle 15y ago
    But the textbooks would likely be in circulation longer than the iPad.
  - baconner 15y ago
    Fair point. Total cost may be lower with this approach than the current situation where textbook manufacturers leverage their position and IMO significantly overcharge their often captive audience. So assuming the ipads can be kept in working order as long as paper books its cheaper. But its not as cheap as it could be if the format was open so other device manufacturerers could compete to build the best low cost hardware for schools. As it stands its mainly just moving the lions share of the income from textbook publishers to apple. The right thing to do IMO is to focus on a standard open format so there can be increased competition not just on the cost of the books but on the hardware as well. Schools need sustainable barganing power to get the best materials for their students now and in the future. Vendor lock in takes that leverage away. Such open textbook innovation is already happening without apple. I applaud Apple's effort to innovate on the format to provide richer more teacher customizable content but I can't get behind the lock in even if its somewhat cheaper up front.
- 15y ago

martingordon 15y ago

For those commenting on the price of iPads, I suggest you wait for the other shoe to drop in a few weeks when Apple makes their iPad 3 announcement. I think Apple will likely employ a similar strategy to that of the iPhone and keep the iPad 2 around as a lower-cost alternative to the new iPad.

beatle 15y ago
I agree with this. iPad 3 499 iPad 2 399 Refurbed iPad 1 $99-$299
- ChrisLTD 15y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Apple actively manufactures or sells the first generation iPad.
  - beatle 15y ago
    You're correct. Edited.
  - martingordon 15y ago
    They don't manufacture them anymore, but they do sell leftover stock as refurbs (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad). The only first generation model they currently have is a 64 GB WiFi going for $499, or $200 off of original retail. I don't see them firing up iPad 1 production in order to hit the $299 price point, but I can see them keeping the iPad 2 around at $299 when the iPad 4 hits, similar to the current 3GS/4/4S phone lineup. The economies of scale of extending a year-long manufacturing cycle to three years is too great to be ignored and it gives Apple the added benefit of being able to hit lower prices without sacrificing the quality of their product.
- swilliams 15y ago
  I did download the new iBooks and some sample textbooks on my iPad 1. It's definitely on the slow side, but not terrible. Though that may change over time as future iOS versions are released.

wisty 15y ago

I love Apple, but the Kindle is so much better as a reader. It can't play Angry Birds, and the slow refresh rate makes it harder to flick back and forwards, forcing you to focus.

peteretep 15y ago
And this is the reason that I as a Mac fanboi still don't have an iPad. However, I have no trouble reading the Kindle on my iPhone when I forget my real Kindle, leading me to believe I'm going to enjoy reading on an iPad 3, a lot, especially NYT and The Economist, which suck on Kindles.
- betterth 15y ago
  Kindle is better for TEXT only. iPad is incomparably better for anything that uses more than straight text. Even today's textbooks would be very poor on Kindle compared to iPad. But today's bestsellers are much better on Kindle than iPad, in my opinion. I like the e-ink for long periods of text reading.
ceejayoz 15y ago
> I love Apple, but the Kindle is so much better as a reader. It can't play Angry Birds, and the slow refresh rate makes it harder to flick back and forwards, forcing you to focus. All of which is fine for a bog standard textbook, but Apple's working to make these things more useful - full color interactive experiments, video, etc.
roc 15y ago
What makes for a good reader doesn't necessarily make for a good textbook reader. Very few textbooks are read linearly. All would benefit from solid interactivity, search and annotating capabilities.
- masklinn 15y ago
  Exactly. The basic reading experience is better on a Kindle, but once you use the glossary, take notes (and get them back as small cards, that was beautiful) and build interactivity into the text (from search up to interactive tests, video content, image slideshow or even 3D models and micro-applications) it starts creaking under the weight. Random access speed (when going to a specific page, or to return a list of results) is also nice for a textbook, while it's not very useful for a novel. nb: the more I think about it, the more those e-textbook sound like modern Hypercard stacks.

wallflower 15y ago

Perhaps iBooks 2 is a continuing step towards the bringing the fictional Young Lady's Illustrated Primer of Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" towards reality. The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is an adaptive AI tutor. To realize TYLIP, hard AI problems will need to be solved. Yet, it is possible the iPad 3/iBooks 2 is a step towards a simpler Primer. "TYLIP is...a book that is powered by a computer so advanced it’s almost magical, and it teaches children everything. It does this through a fully interactive story. It teaches you how to read, how to do maths, it teaches you morals, ethics, even self-defense." http://mssv.net/2006/05/01/the-young-ladys-illustrated-primer/ http://mssv.net/2006/05/01/the-young-ladys-illustrated-prime... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cU8NFy0sa_Y/TuWAj8ZBMVI/AAAAAAAABlg/zuHvbmyEp1E/s1600/A+Young+Lady%2527s+Illustrated+Primer.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cU8NFy0sa_Y/TuWAj8ZBMVI/AAAAAAAABl...

pstuart 15y ago
This has been on my mind as well -- my oldest child has just become a bookworm and I'm intending to get all my kids iPads this year if they can be more than just for games and movies. While strong AI would be nice, well crafted content alone could take one very far. Then add in what Khan Academy is doing for tracking learning and you might be 90% there.
- davidw 15y ago
  Kindles (the eInk ones, not the Fire) might be a good push in the "for reading" direction. You really can't do much else with them, but they're really great for reading, as well as super light, and have amazing battery life. I got a Kindle Fire, and reading on it is just not the same as with the 'real' Kindles - you always have 'other things' like email and Facebook lurking just a few clicks away. And the battery life is something you have to keep in mind, and of course an LCD screen just isn't as nice for reading.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
danilocampos 15y ago
I thought the primer was driven by an actor in a booth, not an AI. Should I re-read?

mfringel 15y ago

I would like to thank Apple for providing school bullies with a single high-value target.

pflats 15y ago

This is an outstanding value-add for iPads. There are a ton of school administrators/school boards out there that love to try new technology in the classroom. They've been chomping at the bit to buy iPads for a while now, just waiting for the right reason. I'd venture that being able to present it to the general public as both a cost-cutting measure and a technology initiative will greatly increase adoption.

stuntmouse 15y ago
It's "champing at the bit."
- ceejayoz 15y ago
  Chomping has 20x the Google results. It may be wrong, but it's the common usage these days.

palebluedot 15y ago

I see many comments about the cost of an iPad - that is not the real issue here. The real issue is these textbooks and knowledge will be funneled through DRM, and a single provider (Apple). Even if Apple gave away the iPads, I will still have issues with DRM on textbooks. And even if these books end up being DRM-free, will they still be proprietary to Apple's platforms? If most/all schools adopt this and require it, and the books are DRM hindered to a proprietary platform, then that means that it will become a defacto requirement for every student to own an Apple device, in order to receive education. It may work, and would certainly be good for Apple... but I don't like it.

masklinn 15y ago
School could very well distribute DRM-less texbooks (iBooks works as a regular eBooks reader, and I expect the ibooks 2 format is just EPUB3 with a few extensions), though I really doubt publishers will ever be on board with the idea. The DRM would also be added by the ibookstore, so you should be able to get a non-DRM'd ebook out of the author application thing: a commenter noted he'd exported an ibook, changed the extension and had no trouble loading it into a non-apple ebook reader (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3485150 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3485150)
- palebluedot 15y ago
  Yes, I agree - Many public schools charge a 'book fee' each year, for textbooks. Just roll it into that - who cares if the textbooks are shared then, because each student is paying for it, regardless. And if it is in a non-proprietary format, that would alleviate the other concern of lock-in. But one article mentioned that students could not resell the books - which implies DRM. Outside of high school and into college, the publishers obviously want to prevent reselling/sharing of the books.
  - cwe 15y ago
    This has been the biggest problem with ebooks in general in my mind. Kindle books are DRM'ed, I couldn't sell them once I'm done with them, which keeps me buying physical books. So I see it as the problem that really needs to be figured out (and is why I was hopeful for bitcoin at one point, it seemed to have a DRM system that allowed for transfer of ownership). Apologies if this is slightly off topic.

yequalsx 15y ago

Unless the books published by iBooks Author can be played on devices not made by Apple I don't see how this is a big deal. I know books can be exported to PDF but a PDF doesn't have the same capabilities as an iBook2 on an iPad. I tried creating a document in iBooks Author and I'm disappointed. It doesn't allow one to embed a Youtube video. One can get around this by creating a Dashcode widget and using the widget to play a Youtube video but this seems like too much work. As a teacher, why would I go through all this trouble just to create a book than can only be properly viewed on Apple devices? I'm not requiring my students to by Apple products. I must be missing something. What?

jonhendry 15y ago
" As a teacher, why would I go through all this trouble just to create a book than can only be properly viewed on Apple devices? I'm not requiring my students to by Apple products." You might create a book if you worked for a school district that as policy provides iPads to the students. That's the value proposition Apple is offering: schools spend a ton of money on buying textbooks and buying new editions every so often. If Apple can make it cheaper to use iPads, then the school benefits by switching to iPads.
- yequalsx 15y ago
  That's a fair point. I'm in higher education and our school doesn't buy books. I've created video lectures using Camtasia using a Wacom tablet and pen. The notes are in PDF format and I've created my own exercises. Students for one of my classes don't need to buy a book because I've got everything done for that course. I'd like to use something like iBook Author but only if I can export it in a device independent way.
masklinn 15y ago
> It doesn't allow one to embed a Youtube video. One can get around this by creating a Dashcode widget and using the widget to play a Youtube video but this seems like too much work. > [...] > I must be missing something. What? That what you're doing is, sorry to say, absolutely stupid. Embedding a youtube video? Why not just frame wikipedia pages while you're at it? You're trying to embed not only content which may not last in time, but content which will bring down your network when 30 students launch the video at once. And you're creating a book which requires an internet connection, which is bloody terrible. Why don't you just embed the video itself, which is surely supported?

nirvana 15y ago

People have been talking about the economics of the iPad seemingly implying that it is more expensive. For schools right now textbooks are really expensive and textbook management is expensive as well (a lot of bulk to move around and account for, etc.) Since school districts have to pay for all this, lets do some rough numbers.... Lets assume you're talking about a high school, they have four grades, 9, 10, 11 & 12 and are on a semester system. How many classes does each student take a semester? 10? 7? (My high school was run like a college so my experience isn't typical. We took 10 classes each semester and had 2.5 textbooks per class (english classes often had 6-7 books) Each class requires how many text books? 1.2? 2? If we assume lower numbers for a typical high school, 4 grades, 1.2 text books per class, 2 semesters per year, 7 classes per semester and a textbook cost of $80 is 4 x 1.2 x 2 x 7 x 80 = $5,376 in text books to put one student thru the whole four years. Alternatively, the school could buy one iPad, and with an average textbook cost of $15 and everything else the same the calculation is: 4 x 1.2 x 2 x 7 x 15 + $500 = $1,508. We can assume in both cases, the iPad and the Texbooks last 3 years (6 semesters, and 6 different students) before having to be replaced. To me, the iPad solution looks cheaper, and all the other benefits- less weight, more interactivity, etc, come for free. Edit: Left out a term in the second calculation, so corrected, and using asterisks for multiplication resulted in bad formatting, so fixed.

Zakuzaa 15y ago
Plus you also get an ipad for life.
- nirvana 15y ago
  That would be the case if we were talking about college, where, 20 years ago textbooks were easily $100, and you had more of them per class. I think the economics work even better there... But I'm using High School as the example and assuming the district is paying the costs and keeping textbooks and iPads on average for 3 years. Some people have claimed that iPads won't last very long... but Apple offers AppleCare+ (at least for the iPhone, I expect they'll offer even better warrantees for school districts.) AppleCare+ will replace a damaged device up to three times for $49 over the course of 3 years, IIRC. I think the economics are great for high schools, but positively spectacular for colleges (and I'm assuming college textbooks are no longer as cheap as $100, and that the resell situation is as bad- we'd be lucky to get $15 on resale, and the books were bound with glue designed to fall apart over the course of a single semester.)

neovive 15y ago

How does this apply to the publishing of non-textbooks? Can you create interactive storybooks? It seems that this is clearly textbook focused, but are there restrictions on using this for other types of books?

johnnyn 15y ago
I believe you could potentially publish any type of book to the iBookstore. Here's the Help section for "publishing to iBookstore": https://gist.github.com/1641657 https://gist.github.com/1641657 And this is from the iBooks Author homepage: "Available free on the Mac App store, iBooks Author is an amazing new app that allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could."

mdellavo 15y ago

While I am envious that upcoming generations will not know the absolute joy of lugging around Chemistry, Physics and Math tombs, I am a little weary that this plan will eliminate the used text book market. I, for one, certainly bought more than one used textbook for less than 50% of the price of a new text. I also had professors recommend going to the off-campus, unaffiliated book store for used texts rather than going to the for-profit on-campus book store in the student union.

jonhendry 15y ago
If a new e-textbook is under $15, what's the point of seeking a used one? Even if that were an option, you wouldn't save much, and I would expect e-textbooks to be updated more frequently, so you might be missing something if you bought last year's e-textbook. I suspect with lots of students they sell their old textbooks to save space as much as to recoup some of the cost (or get some money for beer).
Hemospectrum 15y ago
The used textbook market was on shaky ground well before ebooks arrived on the scene. Every year, publishers force new editions on the market, making changes to the exercises (so old editions are incompatible with new ones) but making no substantial changes to the actual learning material. Some instructors prefer to assign old editions so their students can find cheaper copies, but most don't care, and others are even contractually obligated (via the school) to use only the newest edition.

twodayslate 15y ago

I love the $15 price for textbooks. That is great and would really help keep prices down for students as most books are $100+ now. My question is, can these be put onto a Kindle? Also, is there an iBook app for Windows/OSX?

shmerl 15y ago

All this are just dirty tactics from Apple to lock users into their iTunes infrastructure. One wouldn't be able to use those textbooks anywhere outside iTunes, therefore it's defective by design and authors shouldn't fall for it.

mladenkovacevic 15y ago

I apologize if this might sound like a naive question: but why haven't textbooks been published on the internet all these years? I mean why couldn't some non-profit organization theoretically have created some HTML standard and template for textbooks with the ability to do videos, interactive input, notes...etc other bells and whistles...then hired expert textbook writers, and just cranked out a few online quality textbooks for use in high schools, colleges or whatever. Then all you'd need to consume the content is any kind of HTML reader/browser on any type of computing device. What has really been preventing this from happening? I just don't get what business Apple has in "reinventing" textbooks or e-book formats or why we had to wait all these years for them to do it (and lock it into their ecosystem).

jdminhbg 15y ago
For high schools, the main cost in production is lobbying the state standards board. For colleges, buying decisions are made by people (professors) who don't have to actually spend the money. There's no advantage to undercutting someone on price.
- mladenkovacevic 15y ago
  But does the Apple/iPad/iBooks solution somehow circumvent those nuisances?
  - jdminhbg 15y ago
    I don't know. I'm a lot more sure that those are the reasons that nobody's created a bunch of open source textbooks than I am that Apple can somehow break through. I guess there's a chance that the Apple aura is enough of a draw to break through the established system?

grantheaslip 15y ago

Imagine if the company behind this was, say, Microsoft — I’m guessing there would be a lot less defense of propriety, DRM-laden educational material. Really, imagine an HN thread discussing a proprietary Microsoft-backed textbook platform. Besides the level of polish, what’s the fundamental philosophical difference? Don’t get me wrong, this looks really neat, and I think this is a glimpse into the future of education. I’m just a bit sick of Apple getting a free pass on things that people would be up in arms about if they came from almost any other tech company.

milesskorpen 15y ago
They've actually announced the format is very similar to ePub 3, so not exactly proprietary.

superos 15y ago

I tried to follow this announcement through the web today and I noticed a few things I would like to comment on as an educational technologist. 1. It did not impress me (iBooks). Looked like gorgeous Apple design on 'CDROM' type educational software we used to have in the old days. 2. I liked the glossary and notes/annotations that turned into summary cards for learning. 3. Interactive features are added using Keynote(?) or 4. You need to know 'HTM5' and Javascript to do interactive stuff (this is not GarageBand for eLearning as someone told me it would be). 5. The way iBooks Textbooks are now part of iTunes U does add a lot to iTunes U. Now it can disrupt LMS (Learning Management Systems) vendors as well. 6. I still love eInk. Then some worries. 7. What happened to epub and similar standards? 8. Is this new format a lovely zip file we can extract and inspect? 9. Is it possible to read iBooks on other devices/platforms? 10. Am I allowed to share my iBooks with friends and relatives? 11. Will my grandchildren be able to read my iBooks in 50 years time?

efields 15y ago
(edited for readability) 1. Go to an Apple store and use it. Its nothing like a CDROM encyclopedia. Encarta comes to mind. The richness of Apple's Textbook experience is definitely immersive and, like most of their products, can't be perceived until you actually use it for a while. 3. Interactive features can be a movie, HTML(5), 3D, or, yes, a Keynote presentation. Imagine a richer image gallery type experience, but with text, transitions, effects, etc. All this can be done w/ Keynote (and a little bit of visual design know-how) right now. 4. Not basic Keynote-style interactive stuff like I described above. You need to be able to produce and edit movies to add a movie. You need to be able to use 3-D software to make a 3-D model. This is obvious stuff. Multiple disciplines go into making even paper textbooks. 6. eInk IS great... for long-format reading. K-12 and Undergrad textbooks never really involve that much long-format reading. Plus Apple is trying to really show that there are alternative ways to learn besides reading. Getting immersed in the subject matter — whether that's through video, audio, games, text, or anything — is the real threshold to learning. 7. iBook is based on the ePub3 standard. I think they're one in the same, but with different headers. 8. See above. 9. No. Never will be. 10. No. Probably will never be able to. 11. No. Textbooks won't exist in 50 years as all knowledge will grow into your brain from a bionano parasite injected into all humans upon birth. OK, now to take 9,10, and 11 more seriously: As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, textbooks are hugely expensive and are NOT designed to last forever. They contain proprietary information owned by a publisher who has the right to let you not share it. I'm sure some version of these books will be stored in the Library of Congress forever. And much of the material is probably available online or at the library in one way or another. Isn't that fine? Apple is ushering in a new wave of education materials reform that costs LESS than the current model and is practically weightless. Who cares that you can't pass it on or share it. Its practically disposable.

gfodor 15y ago

It's hard to overstate how important I think this is. There are a few reasons. First, this brings a focused, clear path for educational content on the iPad. By opening the Books marketplace to more rich multimedia applications, Apple has made it possible for many of the dreams of interactive learning advocates to go mainstream. Imagine learning math by interacting with functions directly or doing symbolic manipulation directly. Or learning to code by actually doing it alongside a narrative. It's hard to imagine an area of study that would not benefit from creative use of technology in teaching it. (No, just adding videos and audio is not enough.) Second, it opens the door to getting iPads in every classroom. By making it so there is a clear incentive for schools to buy iPads for all their students (cheaper, more useful textbooks) you get an iPad in the hands of every child. It goes without saying this is a big deal. Finally, it opens the door for real competition for textbooks. By capping the price of textbooks at $15.00, students can easily decide to have several different treatments of the same topic on their iPad. If you manage to create content that is more clear, enjoyable, or even correct, parents and students will be one tap away from getting access to it, cheaply, if their officially-sanctioned book is not doing the job. This turns traditional textbook publishing on its head, because it empowers parents to overturn the textbook choices their school makes from the bottom up. If the entire math class has switched over to using an alternative textbook to learn a topic (just through word of mouth), this might tip the scales so the best content ends up being adopted by schools. Creative, upcoming authors will find that usurping the mainstream textbooks is now possible. I can imagine maverick publishers basically taking the same table of contents from a mainstream textbook and modernizing the treatment of the topic, so students have an easy way to move forward in their class at the same pace but with a much better learning tool. And this is just what is on the top of my head, before forward thinking content creators have gotten their hands on this new platform.

r00fus 15y ago
I agree with everything you said but worry about the market dynamics of capping the price at $15. As far as I've seen, Apple has never done this before (putting a price floor of $0.99 for paid apps is quite different). Will this result in each "chapter" being $15 eventually? Will this favor the rich student over the poor one in terms of coverage (underfunded school wants basic book that covers entire course, but marketplace offers much better books that are more surgical in coverage - rich kid gets better content while poor kid does not).

ugh 15y ago

Yes, the education angle seems appropriate given what this event was all about, but can I also say that it’s extremely boring? What’s much cooler are the books that are possible with the tools Apple provides now. They are like Al Gore’s Our Choice (whose UI was phenomenally awesome), only even better (when looking at some details), also better integrated and (at least nearly) standards based. Oh, and their authoring tool makes it easy for nearly everyone to make books like that and easily distribute them. That’s just cool, independent of any education bullshit that’s going on.

americandesi333 15y ago

If you are interested, check out the comparision of Inkling Textbook vs. Apple Textbook http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qo3nYQu6FM&start1=85&video2=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_f7G921RY4&start2=15&authorName=Apple+iText+Vs.+Inkling http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http://www.youtube.com/wat...

proofpeer_com 15y ago

It seems the textbook category is not available in the UK. Or is it?? I can't see it.

drewda 15y ago

Another case of Apple trying to crush Adobe, which already offers an e-book platform: http://www.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/ebook/ http://www.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/ebook/

arafalov 15y ago

It is interesting the number of arguments around the lock-in factor and how it is great for Apple at the expense of everybody else. The fact is that the format underneath should be ePub3 with extras. ePub3 (with various extras) is and be available on various platforms. For a traditional publisher to switch to a digital/interactive workflow is a lot of hard-core changes. Target platform and the part of the workflow Apple has has announced is - probably - not that big. They will have a lot more issues around decided the type of content to migrate, kinds of assets/widgets to use, information design of an interactive eBook, firing the track driver company, etc. If somebody later provides a good alternative technological solution, the change required would be on the last 20% of the production pipeline. And several companies tried to provide a solution earlier, they just did not catch on because they did not have enough of a pieces to make it compelling (enTourage eDGe anyone?). Of course, in a meanwhile, Apple will massively benefit from the early bird factor and may create de-facto lock-in by just being the first to actually offer a good solution (which includes democratization of the publishing tools by making the Author application free). This was the payoff of all the costs that went into making iPhone, the developers went to it, therefore the iPad already had huge momentum behind it from day one. Now Author builds on iPad's momentum. But that's different from a real lock-in, such as Windows (temporarily) not sharing the details on how to make a browser to be default and making IE browser a default for all web-related stuff. Or the lock-in of the secure boot.

Kilimanjaro 15y ago

Just downloaded iBooks Author and let me tell you how easy it is to create books from the templates they provide. Great piece of software indeed. Spent no more than ten minutes doing copy/paste and now I have a beautiful digital edition of "War is a Racket" in my iPad. I'll do the same for my whole collection of Sherlock Holmes books I got from the gutenberg project. Believe me it is that simple.

Kilimanjaro 15y ago
Btw, this same software can be used to create beautiful magazines, which I believe can be a whole new market on itself, even to compete with newsstand or at least to provide renewable content by subscription.

neilparikh 15y ago

This is pretty innovative, but one big issue come to mind. You're going to have to make sure students don't use this to browse the internet and/or play games during class. Let's say the teacher is giving the students a lecture, and refers them to a page in the textbook for more information. They're not going to be able to check if ever student is gaming or browsing the web on their iPad. Right now students can still play games using their other devices, but in that case, the teacher can take it away for the day. Here, the iPad contains all their textbooks. If they take away, the student can longer use their textbooks. Obviously, not every student is going to to do this, but it brings in another opportunity for the student to not pay attention.

serge2k 15y ago

About the only thing I can think of that would be worse than the current textbook industry is a textbook industry controlled by a company like Apple.