Apple's Education Event: On the Road to Vendor Lock-in
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 19th Jan 2012 17:41 UTC
Apple Apple's education event just ended, and just as Ars Technica said, Apple announced better support for textbooks, as well as a textbook authoring tool. The textbook authoring tool is heavily inspired by Keynote and Pages, and hence, I already know it's going to be top-notch and very pleasant to use. In addition, the company also repositioned iTunes U as a Blackboard competitor. As great as all these new tools are, several large red flags went up in my mind: I remember what it was like being the only student who didn't use Windows. Update: "Any e-textbook author that wants access to the iPad-toting masses must make his or her work an exclusive to iBooks 2."
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Books?
by MOS6510 on Fri 20th Jan 2012 23:45 UTC
MOS6510
Member since:
2011-05-12

Actually, these interactive books are more like websites or educational apps than they are like books.

I mean, a book is text and perhaps some pictures, they are in a certain order and that order can be viewed as the index. What I have seen from these interactive books is that you seem to jump from place to place. There is text, but also videos, slideshows, presentations, probably sounds. And as it can be updated it will be harder to say something is on page X, because it may very well not be if someone else is not at the same version.

While this is all probably a good idea, I don't agree that they are "books".

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