Opinions about Apple's announcement today?

[heySkippy]

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/19/...d-media-event/

I've been watching the rumors about this and with today's announcement I'm itching to play with the new iBooks Author application. I want to create a set of ebooks that are heavy on pictures and navigation and this looks like just what I've been dreaming about.

But, I'm a complete n00b to this authoring business. I downloaded Sigil a couple weeks ago and played with it some. I also played with Apple's Pages which exports to epub. Both left a lot to be desired for what I want.

So... Opinions? I'd love to hear what people who have actually created ebooks have to say.

[HarryT]

Can you summarize what the announcements are, please? Having to go to another site to find out what you're talking about is not very satisfactory.

Thanks.

[murraypaul]

Looks like combination books/apps, with tools to create them.

- iBooks 2
- These books are amazing, so here is a demo of iBooks 2. Roger Rosner to assist.
- Demoing biology textbook. Dramatic intro movie, multitouch gestures to move through book, 3D models of insides of cells.
- Much more interesting than static sheets of paper. But we need to get it into kids' hands.
- Authors have complete freedom in text and graphics layout. Auto-rotate between portrait and landscape, and we re-layout the content Portrait offers a more traditional text format.
- Pinch to get to table of contents. Easy glossary access and linked index entries.
- Review questions become visual and interactive, and offer immediate feedback.
- Integrated highlighting and notetaking. Automatically turn notes and highlights into study cards. Glossary terms too...can even shuffle the cards.
- How do I get these? New textbook category in the iBookstore. Free samples and one-click purchase.
- Schiller back on stage.
- iBooks 2 available from the App Store for free today.
- So how do you create these books?
- iBooks Author
- Mac application for authoring interactive books. Rosner demoing the book creation process.
- Template chooser sets the stage, and build from there. Drag and drop layout controls.
- Toolbar controls with gallery of available interactive elements. Everything auto-formats into the layout.
- For more custom interaction, drag and drop an entire Keynote presentation right into the layout.
- If you can write code in Javascript and HTML5, you can build your own widgets for embedding in books.
- Demoing easy glossary-building tools.
- "If you've ever been involved in an e-book creation before, you know this is a total miracle."
- Preview function to push the book to an iPad for testing.
- Schiller back on stage.
- "So that's iBooks Author. It is the most advanced, most powerful and yet most fun interactive authoring tool yet created."
- iBooks Author available free on the Mac App Store today.
- So how do we get the textbooks? New category in iBookstore.
- We wanted to get started with partners early, so we're starting with high school textbooks priced at $14.99 or less.
- Books can be kept up to date, and students get to keep their own copies.
- Partnered with Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt...these three companies account for 90% of the textbooks sold in the U.S.
- First books launching today: Biology, Environmental Science from Pearson; Algebra 1, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, Physics from McGraw-Hill.
- DK Publishing is also onboard with kids books...launching four titles today.
- E.O. Wilson Foundation also involved. Exclusive "Life on Earth" coming to the iBookstore. First two chapters free, remaining chapters coming at a reasonable price as they make them.

[HarryT]

Thanks. That's very helpful.

[heySkippy]

edit - Beat like a rug with the list.

Emphasis on interactivity and easy of use. They are aiming this at the textbook market, but that would seem to blend perfectly with what I want to do.

[tubemonkey]

Not into textbooks, so it's no big deal.

[Insalata]

It looks as if it only produces iBooks, text, or pdf - not ePub.

I've just downloaded the app (which is free) and exported one of the sample documents. It tried to open in Sony Reader, but failed. In fact, I don't think there's anything on the computer that can open it. I put it in dropbox, which gave the option of opening it in iBooks on my phone, but it didn't actually open - said it was only suitable for iPad, but I don't know if that's a setting in the document.

It looks as if it will be excellent for producing iPad books, not do ePub, and I don't know yet about iPhone.

[RainingLemur]

- No surprise that students like to learn on iPad. #1 on teens' holiday wish lists this year.

Call it a hunch, but I don't think that a majority of those teens would be using their iPad for "learning."

[fjtorres]

Sounds a lot like Blio in capabilities.
I'm curious to see if it turns out to be epub3 or totally proprietary.
And if it is "epub3" how closely it follows the spec.

Even if it is Apple doing it, it is *good* to see somebody looking beyond recreational reading ebooks. Time is about right for the next wave of ebook mainstreaming.

[Serpentine]

Whee more sly vendor lock-ins.

[murraypaul]

I don't think it is particularly sly, more like brazen
Apple apps and books are and always have been useable only on Apple devices.

[fjtorres]

And if nobody else is serving that market...?
Can't complain if they see an unserved market and make a play for it.

There is lock-in and there is lock-in.
But is lock-in by defaut really lock-in?

[teh603]

Whoop tee doo, more gimmicks and gizmos in the classroom to distract children from actually learning.

[elemenoP]

This is all very interesting to me as I used to work in college textbook production. Everything they announced just leaves me with a lot of questions.

iBooks Author - I guess this is aimed toward the self-publishing crowd? Is it going to help the big textbook publishers get their books onto the ipad? Unless it integrates with inDesign, I don't see how it can. I mean, c'mon KEYNOTE integration? That's just lame. But I do think it's neat as a tool to "level the playing field" and allow people to self-publish textbooks. But (print) textbooks must be approved by the state before they can be used in a school curriculum. Does the same apply to ipad textbooks?

$15.99 for a textbook. HOW did they do that? There are a lot of costs (and several years of work) that go into making a textbook, and printing up the books is just one of them. So I'm wondering how they got that price and whether/for how long the publishers are going to go along with that. I guess they have textbooks from the big publishers with books in the store at that price today, but does that mean that they all have to go along with that price to get in the ibookstore?

Oh and I think Apple is both brilliant and scary to lock this market into iPad. I can definitely see a future, very close at hand, when all students will be required to have an ipad in school (and not some other tablet).

eP

[fjtorres]

Actually, they're looking to lock the teachers in first, with the free iTunes U. Then the school admins with the etextbooks. The kids will fall in line afterwards.