Opinions about Apple's announcement today?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Or you can create an ePub or Mobi, both of which are easily readable on iOS as well as other platforms and both of which can be sold through other vendors.

For a normal book, yes you could.
For the sort of media-rich, interactive books that iBooks Author is targetting, no you can't. ePub2 does not support the added functionality. ePub3 does not exist in any practical sense, old mobi does not support the added functionality, KF8 is only available for Kindles.

[merscad]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

I guess I just don't understand the whole thing but to each his own.

How many classrooms/teachers/districts are going to use $15 textbooks that are ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE IPAD? If you do that, you've got to make sure every kid in school has an ipad...and doesn't just play Angry Birds during class while wandering the internet and listening to music and 'apple chatting' the girl two rows over while fighting with the kid in the seat next to his over the 120v outlet they had to install so the ipads wouldn't die in the middle of lecture.

Yes, I know that's a silly, congested run on sentence

I second that.

[ldespain]

What I don't understand is why we don't have any hard evidence that learning from an iPad is more effective than learning from a textbook and teacher? I mean, I saw the video (with Macs in the classroom as far as the eye could see) and I even got a little teary-eyed at the end with all the kids looking so hopeful, but Apple provides no evidence or stats that this is a better way to learn. Even before and after test scores would help.

If textbook publishers really wanted to pursue electronic publishing, it would make MUCH more sense to run with a company that allowed varied delivery methods (such as Amazon but with better-than-mobi file types...say, oh, I don't know, ePUB??). Tying the product delivery to a single device, when many schools already have computers in the classroom, is an additional expense that will be hard to justify...especially if there is no clear (proven!) benefit to the student.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by ldespain

What I don't understand is why we don't have any hard evidence that learning from an iPad is more effective than learning from a textbook and teacher? I mean, I saw the video (with Macs in the classroom as far as the eye could see) and I even got a little teary-eyed at the end with all the kids looking so hopeful, but Apple provides no evidence or stats that this is a better way to learn. Even before and after test scores would help.

If textbook publishers really wanted to pursue electronic publishing, it would make MUCH more sense to run with a company that allowed varied delivery methods (such as Amazon but with better-than-mobi file types...say, oh, I don't know, ePUB??). Tying the product delivery to a single device, when many schools already have computers in the classroom, is an additional expense that will be hard to justify...especially if there is no clear (proven!) benefit to the student.

It's a bit difficult to supply evidence concerning something that hasn't actually been done but is a future suggestion...

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Of course they'll all be DRM'd! How else could publishers of $15 textbooks *possibly* make money? And why would anyone want to print sections of a textbook, or copy & paste the text into a report, or read sections of it on an e-ink screen instead?

You're just trying to hold back The Future.

Stopping the students from just doing a textbook copypasta is supposed to be the teacher's job, anyway. If you're stupid enough to let your students use the textbook as a source, then you really should move up to being a counselor or principal.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

For a normal book, yes you could.
For the sort of media-rich, interactive books that iBooks Author is targetting, no you can't. ePub2 does not support the added functionality. ePub3 does not exist in any practical sense, old mobi does not support the added functionality, KF8 is only available for Kindles.

Yeah, but the probability or either EPUB 3 or KF 8 being more widely usable in the future is far higher than for .ibook. Or do you see Apple releasing an ibooks app for android, or linux, or even windows 8?

Originally Posted by elcreative

It's a bit difficult to supply evidence concerning something that hasn't actually been done but is a future suggestion...

Schools have been playing the computers in the classroom game for over 30 years now, using software that is often on equivalent to interactive textbooks. Yet there has been no concrete evidence that computers improve the quality of education, especially with large deployments. Heck, very few teachers even know how to incorporate computers into instruction and the little advice that they do receive often comes on ideological grounds (e.g. the "constructionists") or from vendors (who simply have a product to sell).

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As has been said, though, this program is an alternative to developing a book App, sold through Apple's iTunes Appstore, where you face exactly the same restriction.

The same restriction as what?

[leebase]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Yeah, but the probability or either EPUB 3 or KF 8 being more widely usable in the future is far higher than for .ibook. Or do you see Apple releasing an ibooks app for android, or linux, or even windows 8?

"In the future" is the important part. In the mean time, Apple will have built a market and momentum for the iPad. Which is, you know, their business.

Competition is coming. Heck, Apple is coming into a market that already has entrenched players and politics galore beyond that.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung -- huge competitors with deep resources. I'm sure they will join together to put forth an "industry standard". In time. In the future.

Had either of them moved first....then they'd have done so in the best interest of their own companies, and Apple would be among those joining together to create "industry standards" (can you say ePub)?

Apple in no way is guaranteed to succeed. They are doing what first movers do.

Lee

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Schools have been playing the computers in the classroom game for over 30 years now, using software that is often on equivalent to interactive textbooks. Yet there has been no concrete evidence that computers improve the quality of education, especially with large deployments. Heck, very few teachers even know how to incorporate computers into instruction and the little advice that they do receive often comes on ideological grounds (e.g. the "constructionists") or from vendors (who simply have a product to sell).

Now that's just trying to have things both ways... tablets are different in both physical presence and manner of usage to computers or they're computers and just the same... trying to use what's been believed about computers to tablets is not quite evidence or tending to more anecdotal and comparative...

Put another way, it's a bit different sitting at any desk or relaxing in any seating arrangement whilst working on a tablet compared to sitting in a more formal workstation mousing around and poking at the keyboard...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

The same restriction as what?

The same restriction of having your app declined for sale, or subsequently removed from sale, at Apple's whim.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The same restriction of having your app declined for sale, or subsequently removed from sale, at Apple's whim.

And denying sale by other distributors?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

And denying sale by other distributors?

Yes, considering that there ARE no other distributors. The iTunes Appstore is the only place that you can sell iPad/iPhone apps.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, considering that there ARE no other distributors. The iTunes Appstore is the only place that you can sell iPad/iPhone apps.

But there ARE other distributors for the itextbooks. In fact anybody can distribute them if it is for free. So the same restrictions do not apply.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

But there ARE other distributors for the itextbooks. In fact anybody can distribute them if it is for free. So the same restrictions do not apply.

So less restrictions apply, and that is a bad thing?