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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
And while I can see Apple's intent as a sensible enough thing-- I mean, if people are going to be reading this content anyway, it makes sound business sense that Apple would want to be in possession of the best tool to deliver it-- I just don't see an Apple-provided (and presumably DRM-laced) solution for a moribund medium doing anything to stall the move toward omnipresent, free content available online. The textbook concept is cool, but I doubt the electronic versions of those books would be priced low enough to completely offset the anticipated price of this thing. Which, to be fair, has yet to be suggested... but I'm going to wager it will be formidable.
10/01/09
10/01/09
as it was clearly stated in the above article, Apple could care less about "the average kid" and is persuading publishers that electronic textbooks are:
1) cheaper to produce while maintaining the exorbitant price, and
2) can be DRMed for one-time usage, hence no beer money at the end of semester.
All while having people camp out for THE Tablet of Life.
10/01/09
I'm glad they're making the switch to digital because:
1. All DRM is crackable.
2. There will be more digital copies of my textbooks that I can pirate.
Thanks Apple.
09/30/09
Call me ludite but there's something facinating about holding a book in your hands. Granted, school text book may not qualify but I have several books from 1800's, including Robin Hood, Shakespeare among other classics. These fine objects have a feel, smell, binding, and it is magical. I adore books and dread the day when we as a society will flip entirely to digital format.
Already, most of the books made today are unattractive, disposable, recyclable objects made to be single use. Today's youth is trained to use digital media and holding a book instead of a mouse and keyboard seems foreign and un-natural to them.
I grew up in a house that had a massive library of old books and I recall the smell of paper that filled the room, the artful and hand-crafted lithography, and all other things that made books magical. Today's society is growing up too A.D.D. to appreciate it. No one wants to bother with linear structure of the book: "give me hypertext, give me search capability, give me flash, give me rich media, keep my intrest for longer than 30 seconds, jump into action from first paragraph, keep my characters as shallow and 2-dimensional as... me!"
Sorry, this is not an advancement - we're setting ourselves up for intellectual extinction. Should something happen to our precious electricity, all this gadgetry will be totally useless and lost...
09/30/09
that's a way to redefine things a bit.
09/30/09
09/30/09
I generally give Giz the benefit of the doubt. But there is no way on God's Fucking Green Ass Earth, that you can possibly justify this headline with any sort of fact.
09/30/09
"The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static."
That's somewhat redefining a newspaper, if it includes interactive content on a touchscreen device that also holds hundreds or thousands of other volumes of (formerly) print media.
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
-- Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple
-- Steve Jobs is on the board of Disney and is Disney's largest shareholder
-- Disney bought Pixar whose CEO was Jobs
-- Disney bought (or is in the process of buying) Marvel Entertainment (Spiderman, X-Men, etc.)
-- Apple used the name MacBook Pro for the new 13-inch Apple laptops and MacBook for the plastic 13-inch MacBook and did NOT use the name Apple iBook.
-- Andy Ihnatko article connects digital comic books to the rumor of an Apple Tablet.
-- Gizmodo's article connects digital books and newspapers to the rumor of an Apple Tablet.
-- TODAY Disney announced the first-ever digital children's book platform with a digital subscription business. NOT available on Kindle. Disney "says it's waiting for e-Readers to offer color and sound." [www.cnbc.com]
The NEW Apple iBook (i.e.Tablet) could be here before you know it?
09/30/09
09/30/09
1. Steve Jobs is vegetarian.
2. He doesn't eat meat
3. The other meat is pork
4. Pork is a pig
5. Bacon is made out of a pig
6. ZOMG Kevin Bacon!!!!
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
1. Gather class notes into a reader that can be purchased for $5-10.
2. Tell us that the previous edition of a textbook is just fine. In this case, I've gotten an older edition for less than $20 online while the new edition at the bookstore was ~$115. It was only one edition older, too.
Additionally, I've had "international" versions imported from Amazon.co.uk at 50-70% LESS than the "American" edition. There was absolutely ZERO difference between them. The cover said "Not for sale in the United States" but someone bought it from me anyway on Half.com. I easily saved $80 and passed on the savings to the second buyer.
Book weight isn't an issue as I have never had a professor say, "OK, crack open your books to page..." They already have a lesson plan derived from the chapter readings and tell us to read the chapter at home.
09/30/09
Now, how did you say I protect that big pretty screen from - oh....everything?
09/30/09
@squishyalt:
09/30/09
Sorry to dust off such a coarse cliché, but I feel it was warranted...
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
2) The problem with the Kindle is two-fold: a) eInk doesn't support color/high refresh rates yet and b) there's no pen input for note taking/annotations. Essentially, the Kindle is a product that has come before it's time. Once Amazon can get out a "real" Kindle, it will absolutely decimate whatever Apple has to offer unless Apple can get ahold of all the publishers, newpapers, etc. that are already signed with Amazon.
09/30/09
09/30/09
Of course, I would like the publishing industry to look at this fact and recognize the futility of DRM. I posted this here not to disagree with you but for people who may have content they think can't be archived and migrated to other formats just so they realize there are ways around it. This being Gizmodo, they probably do already.
@blash: I agree about the Kindle hardware. It's nice for reading novels and such but it's going to have to get a whole lot better if it's going to be a good academic/business device or appeal to the other large market segment in question: people who want multimedia and multifunction, who read magazines and blogs but may not big book readers. Since I am a big reader of novels, it's a worthwhile tool for me but I'll look back on it in a few years as quaint. However, I don't think Amazon is necessarily committed to being in the hardware business long term. They've already stated their willingness to partner.
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
I've seen this argument for everything from music to videos to mass-market books. I have yet to see any actual lower prices for the end user manifest on any of those products. Why would textbooks be any different?
09/30/09
09/30/09
You can't do that on a Kindle or any e-ink devices. That's how Jobs intends to garner 70%+ market share in the print device business. Amazon et al, bend over and kiss your asses goodbye.
09/30/09
... Maybe so, but if the tablet is backlit, many e-ink device users will not be compelled to replace it with this. I am like broken record on this topic, but backlit readers/computers suffer from various aspects:
1) Less read time. More energy used for the backlight and CPU. E-ink only requires energy to "turn" pages.
2) Backlit Display. Harder on eyes over extended periods. Not as readable in bright/sunlit conditions.
3) Functions other than reading. Small thing, but excess applications, video, web access, etc., make for distractions from reading itself. Minimally functional readers which focus on the simplicity of reading and mimic actual books (minus web, e-book library access and reading related apps). Too many apps make for ADHD ridden people who cannot sit for 30 minutes without having to "connect".
4) Cost. $800-900 tablet versus $400 (and soon to be much less ) large format e-reader with 3G. Again, comparing apples and oranges, but which e-reader would you rather lose? Which would take more abuse?
Just because something can be made more complex and "technological" does not make it better suited for a given task. E-ink slaps the silliness out of backlit color screens in terms of actual readability in all lighting conditions over extended periods. FACT. And, you can't even read backlit screens outside (broken record).
E-readers should NOT be misconstrued as lower forms of tablet computers. The Apple tablet is not an e-reader, it is a tablet computer that you can read on.
If Apple wants to impress me with an e-reader then they should make an OLED/e-ink hybrid that can reproduce amazing colors in sunlight and use 90% of the energy required for LCD. True digital paper in surreal vibrant color that will let me see brilliant reproductions of rare prints, art and graphics. AND it should be able to roll up in a tube so I can unfurl it like a monk with a scroll.
Impress me Apple!
Word up.
10/01/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
How is a "mid-2010" release "far away" when this device is expected to debut next June (which, oh wow is mid-2010 too!!)?