Apple launches iBooks 2 app

The hottest news of the week in the publishing world was the announcement by Apple that they were launching the iBooks 2 app.

This app allows anyone to create their own ebook. It is mainly for authors wanting to create textbook ebooks for studying, with the app allowing them to upload content such as videos, images, Word docs etc into the app, which then works out how best to lay out the content.

This app will potentially lower the amount of huge heavy print books which students have to lug around campus and makes it easier to find what you are looking for. Although i guess you’d need to have an iPad in the first place which isn’t cheap, although if these ebook textbooks are cheaper than the paper versions then maybe you could afford one (or possibly not with the recent hiking up of tuition fees).

Publishers have already made use of the iPad for children’s books, and there are some beautiful ebooks out there for the iPad which i’ve seen and tried out for myself, although i still would be a little reluctant to give my expensive iPad to a small child to use, wouldn’t you? The pictures and animations are really lovely, colourful and appealing, which makes a children’s book more special.

Textbooks seemed like the next obvious target by publishers to try to digitise, as they contain far more content than other books and have always seemed rather dull. I guess with the iPad app we can now create beautiful ebook versions of these textbooks which we can interact with and make learning more enjoyable. We already have seen what can be done with textbook content in apps, the most famous being The Elements app:

Textbook ebooks look like they could be pretty big if done well, and it will be interesting to see how this works.
Here is a video explaining about the iBooks 2 app:

The video points out some interesting points about the old print textbook: They are outdated almost as soon as they are published, as new discoveries are made all the time, and the time-consuming process of publishing a book means that a textbook can be up-to-date upon its induction but by the time it reaches the shop it can be several months out of date. The ability to update the content of an ebook as new information is discovered would allow students to keep on top of developments. It may make it a bit harder to keep track of quotes a student may take from a book if new content is added, making referencing a little bit harder, but we’ll see how this works. Another point is that print textbooks are static, so if you are studying science, then ebooks make it possible to show images as animations so they look more like the real thing they are describing.

However, according to the Guardian, the textbooks will only be available in the US for now, which means the rest of us will have to wait! My main concern is that with tuition fees going up by massive amounts, students will be unable to afford to buy these textbooks, whether or not they have an iPad (and i can’t imagine many will do, i rarely saw them when i was at uni not long ago), so one hopes that libraries will buy them in so students can borrow them, but i guess that in itself will conjure up a load of trouble with lending, as we’ve already witnessed with other ebooks.

These textbooks can open a whole new way of learning, which is an exciting prospect. They look more interesting than print books, and the ability to interact with the content within the book makes it a more compelling reading experience, and if i was learning a subject as heavy and information-packed as medicine or something, i would want a more exciting way of learning about it! And it also makes it easier to take notes by simply highlighting text with your fingers and pasting it into your notes, which seems a lot easier than writing it all down by hand! I only wish i’d had this when i was at school/university, would have made life a lot easier, even though i was only studying literature and language and not science or anything!

I wonder what you think of iBooks 2? Feel free to comment!

Articles consulted:
Telegraph.co.uk: Apple iBooks 2 app lets authors make their own books

Engadget.com: Apple ibooks 2

Guardian.co.uk: Apple unveils ibooks 2 textbooks ipad

JK Rowling launches Pottermore

Recently, JK Rowling unveiled her new website Pottermore.com, which offers a whole new dimension to the Harry Potter series by offering ebooks of all 7 books.

It has delighted her fans, who have been waiting for the ebooks, and offers the possibility of extra stuff about the series, previously unreleased material written by Rowling.

However, it has worried the book industry, with retailers complaining because they are banned from selling the ebooks. Obviously, Waterstones had a huge role in launching the Harry Potter books from their stores at special launch events, which have been attended by huge numbers of fans queuing all night to get their copies of the books at each book launch. Retailers wanted to cash in on the ebook release of the biggest selling books of all time in a similar way to the printed book releases, but JK Rowling’s decision to limit the ebook sales to her website has annoyed a lot of people. She clearly wants to control the ebook sales and protect her material.

The books will be available as ebooks and audiobooks, and in many languages, as it is the only place where the books are available.

I suspect that  the website will crash in October when the ebooks are made available to purchase for the first time, as pretty much every fan will be accessing the website as soon as its announced! It will cause problems i’m sure, as the demand will be ridiculous! Surely it would have been easier to spread the ebook sales around several retailers to ease the predicted congestion and mania of the ebook releases!

Ah well.

I’m not sure i will be buying the ebooks, as i have the paper books already, sitting proudly on their bookshelf in all their colourful glory! Unless i can afford to buy an Ipad or something by October of course! But i will definitely be looking at the Pottermore website when its launched properly to see what its like… although i might leave it a few weeks because i suspect i won’t be able to access it right away if the sheer volume of traffic crashes the site!

My current reading habit

Image via Wikipedia

Interestingly, the last two days i have found i got bored with the internet and my computer and have ended up resorting to reading an actual printed book for once!

I’m currently trying to finish The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, after reading it on and off for about 2 months! It’s actually getting better now, i was struggling to keep going with it, but yesterday i picked it up and finally got hooked and havent put it down since!

It’s also nice to find i can still sink into the reading mentality, where i tune out everything going on around me and my sole ambition in life is to finish reading the book! For someone who multi-tasks all the time, its quite refreshing to just do one thing!

I just don’t think i could abandon paper printed books totally, i love books too much! They don’t require as much maintenance as, say, a Kindle, which still needs power of some kind! A paper book will just sit nicely on a shelf, or be used as a door-wedge! Or, in my case, the top of my latest read is where my mobile phone lives because then it doesn’t vibrate so loudly! Some people may say, OMG you can’t use a book as a door-wedge, its sacrilege! Well, you can say that, but are you really going to use your Kindle as a door-wedge? No, thought not!

Oh dear, here’s me banging on about my love of paper books again!

I felt i should mention paper books though, because lately i’ve been all technical, checking out the Ipad and its accessories, and looking at alternative tablet computers! Finding myself drooling over them now! I really want one, but my current finances suggest i will have to wait a few months! At least by then i will have decided which to actually buy!

So, now i will get back to my book, and i will be back as soon as i finish it to write my review of it!

The Wallee – a wall-mount for the Ipad

I found this strange contraption today while surfing the internet, the Wallee.

It is a hardback case for the Ipad, which can be mounted on the wall with a special bracket.

Now, i find this a bit odd, as the point of the Ipad is that it is a portable computer, and attaching it to a wall kind of defies the point. Still, i guess it could be useful if you are using your Ipad for recipes and have nowhere to put it while cooking, or if you don’t want it lying around on your desk or something… but this wouldnt really work if you’re watching films on your Ipad…. its still too small to be a good viewing from a distance! There are photos on the their website of it being attached to the dashboard of a car, but i think that just adds danger to the product, as it wouldn’t be any safer than using a mobile phone in the car while driving.

I have to say, it looks kind of tacky in the colours available!

You decide what you think! See this product for yourself at The Wallee website.

Or watch the Youtube video manual:

I want an Ipad! (or: Other tablets are available)

Lately i’ve found myself wanting one of the tablet devices available on the market at the moment. I’ve physically held an Ipad twice, and i have to admit it is fairly cool!

I was originally put off touchscreen after having bought a touchscreen phone last summer and it dying on me so many times over the weekend i had it, that i sent it back and bought myself the QWERTY keypad version of that same phone model, fed up with the technical hitches i had with the touchscreen. Maybe it was just a faulty phone, but i was so excited about owning a touchscreen phone that it ruined it for me!

Of course, with one of these special touchscreen tablet devices, maybe i will find some satisfaction in the touchscreen, something i was unable to enjoy before. However, i am stuck with the problem of which tablet to choose from, because although we only ever hear about the Ipad (let’s face it, Apple is the big rich guy of technology and therefore has more means of promoting its products), there are plenty of other devices out there on the market.

(I’m not going to describe the Ipad, i think it has enough airtime as it is! It would be boring to harp on and on about it when most people know about it anyway! and for my earlier posting on the Ipad see Ipads in Society)

The list of Tablet Devices which i found on the market:

1) Samsung Galaxy Tab

• 7 inch touchscreen
• Two cameras (3.2 megapixels and 1.9 megapixels)
• runs Android 2.2
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Adobe Flash support
• Weighs 380g
• Looks slick and smart, looks rather like a bigger version of their Samsung Genio Touch phone… same Samsung style, which is fairly attractive.
• This one seems to be a serious contender, and is the one which i would choose to buy if i don’t go for an Ipad!

For more information see Samsung Galaxy Tab @ Samsung.com

2) Blackberry Playbook Tablet

• 7 inch touchscreen
• front and rear mounted cameras (3-megapixel and 5-megapixel)
• runs RIM’s  QNX OS
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Another smart and sleek device! Blackberry’s phones are hugely popular, so I think maybe that could sway many people to buy it.
• Doesn’t seem to be available yet, but seems to be due to be released at some point within 2011

For more information see Blackberry Playbook Tablet @ Blackberry.com

3) Dell Streak

• 5 inch touchscreen
• 5.0M Rear-Facing Auto-Focus Camera + VGA Front-Facing Camera
• runs Android 1.6 or 2.2
• Dimensions - 6 x 3.1 x 0.4 inches
• It seems to be a hybrid, basically a mix of smartphone and tablet
• Smaller than other tablets available, seems more like the size of an IPhone…  but a bit bigger – it works as a mobile phone, but is a bit on the big side!
• Literally just seems like a supped up touchscreen smartphone, isn’t as cumbersome as most tablet devices. It is being marketed as being the pocket tablet which actually will fit in your pocket, so maybe that will benefit those who want a tablet but not a big clunky thing like the Ipad!

For more information see Dell Streak @ Dell.com

4) Advent Vega tablet

• 10.1 inch touchscreen
• runs Android 2.2
• Wi-fi
• Weighs 700g-750g
• Dimensions - 13.6 x 275 x 178mm
• Looks like it has a fairly simple system for a tablet
• Looks fairly attractive and simply designed

Advent Vega @Adventcomputers.co.uk

So there you go, a selection of alternatives to the Ipad, some of which are probably better than others, but i can’t be too selective over which is best because i have never tried any of the above!

With any luck, in a few months i’ll be able to afford to buy one of these, but for now i can just dream!

Thanks for reading!

Ipads in society

Image via Wikipedia

I was in a restaurant a few nights ago (celebrating my graduation from university, might i add!) with my parents, and my mum spotted a woman on a table behind us who had brought her Ipad with her to dinner.

Now we thought this to be quite an interesting, but odd sight, particularly as it was only the second time i had been in a room with someone who actually owns one of these devices. For some reason she kept wandering round the restaurant with her Ipad, maybe she was showing it off, i don’t know! We thought it was a bit strange to bring such a huge device into a restaurant,  as it barely fitted into her handbag!

My mum pointed out that anyone could see what she was doing on it, what with her waving it around for the whole restaurant to see and the fact the screen was quite bright and therefore stood out in the dimly-lit restaurant.

I wonder how practical these Ipads really are, as they are quite large and cumbersome…. its not like an Iphone which is smaller and more practical.

To be fair, anyone who can afford to buy an Ipad while they are still uncommon in everyday life is bound to show it off, even at the risk of showing everyone what they are doing on this stupidly expensive and large device. And showing off is exactly what this woman was doing, parading it around the restaurant. She was with a fairly big  group of people, so why she had brought it with her i don’t know. I would have thought a restaurant was hardly the sort of place where you need to check on stuff like emails and so on, its more a place where you want to relax and enjoy your dinner without worrying about stuff.

No-one else seemed to need gadgets at the dinner table (there was the odd person on their mobile but that’s fairly common these days), and it seemed like the woman was distracted and a bit distant from her group because of this device which made her stand out. This doesnt seem like a good thing, and i for one would be annoyed if someone i was dining with decided to bring their Ipad and fiddle with it all through the meal, when i want to talk to them with their full attention focused on our conversation.

I really hope that Ipads don’t start to invade our lives too much, as they are only isolating people from real life, and at the moment they are so expensive that very few can afford one comfortably, and once people have got used to them, i’m sure the novelty will wear off.

I am quite divided because Ipads do seem more practical and less cumbersome than a laptop, but less practical than a mobile phone. I think its ok if you want to use it purely for working or whatever while travelling, but they shouldnt really be used in restaurants and other places where you don’t really need them.

What does everyone else think of this?

Going Digital: Is it all it’s cracked up to be?

Image via Wikipedia

Is going digital all its cracked up to be?

Like everything else, digital does has its downsides, and although the following are more speculation than anything else, they are things to think about if we carry on down this path.

How empty is our world going to be in the future, if we no longer have books cluttering up our bookshelves?? If books are replaced by Ebooks, the world will seem very strange.

Maybe one day every human will have one machine that does and has everything:

• Able to read any book in existence as an Ebook, whether its the Bible or the latest bestseller.
• Able to watch videos of anything in any place
• Able to listen to music from anywhere in the world
• Able to access TV channels and programmes from anywhere in the world
• Aable to order stuff from anywhere
• Able to access news and information from anywhere about anything

and the list goes on!

Interestingly, the mobile phone started as a huge brick-like contraption (just like the first computer was huge too), and has gradually shrunk over the years as technology has improved. However, now touchscreens are the big thing and seem to be getting bigger and bigger in size! The Iphone is pretty big as it is, but then we have been introduced to the Ipad and the other copycat devices, all with large touchscreens. Maybe one day there will be a touchscreen which is the size of a wall!

The possibilities seem to be endless.

But one wonders if we are spending too much time and effort on these technologies.

For one thing, we are losing out in other areas, for example music records, LPs, and CDs are being phased out….we are losing the actual physical object which we can hold and have signed by the artist. The same thing is happening with books, with each Ebook that is released, we are losing the physical object.

Another worry is that we are becoming increasingly dependant on devices which need a whole lot of energy, and that energy isnt all coming from green sources. I can’t imagine how much fuel is needed to make the electricity to charge these devices. Poor Mother Nature must hate us for our greedy sucking-the-Earth-dry approach to living. What happens when the fuel sources run out? What happens when there’s long term powercuts and we will no longer be able to access all this information on our phones and various other devices?

Something else to consider is that with all this technology, we are slowly losing our ability to think creatively, and losing our imagination. I think that maybe digital technology could destroy the creative mind and not allow the brain to construct mental images as you read a book.

Is our evolution as a species being prevented by this abundance of technology which we rely on? We humans haven’t changed or evolved in thousands of years!

There is also the worry that our ability to interaction with other people in real time is being affected because we can find out so much about people from their online profile, such as Facebook, and the use of email and IM means we don’t see each other’s reactions. The way we interact with our children is different now, with mobiles and computers taking us away from each other, and computer games and so on making us less inclined to sit and chat properly with each other.

It could be that the introduction of special enhanced Ebooks for children – with features such as being able to record the parent/grandparent/carer’s voice reading the story and pictures and games – could destroy the vital bonding between the parent and child,  especially if the parents just leaves the child with the ebook to read by themself, while the parent goes off to bed or work (obviously the child won’t be fully abandoned, i just mean, that the interaction will be much less).

I’m not saying that these things are definite, but it is important to consider the implications and potential consequences of our actions now.

It’s something to think about, certainly, and i wonder what others think of these, and if you have any issues to add to the list.

Ebooks: Good and Bad

Image via Wikipedia

With all this fuss about Ebooks, i thought i would just sum up the main points about Ebooks, both the good and the bad, just in case people don’t understand all the fuss and debate around them.

Advantages of Ebooks:

• They can be accessed on pretty much any device these days, whether its a mobile phone, computer, Ipad, etc.
• They are becoming more and more widely available every day.
• You get better access to a wider range of books.
• Students can get hold of books in digital form much easier than in a library where there is often demand for the same book.
• It solves the problem of having to travel to a bookstore to buy a book, or waiting for your order from Amazon or any other online seller.
• They give you the opportunity to interact more with the book, or at least they are slowly being developed into something much more sophisticated. ( See Enhanced Editions.com for the amazing future of Ebooks)
• It is now possible to take your whole home library (or indeed, anybody else’s on the planet) with you when you go on holiday, particularly useful for staying within your flying allowance of luggage.
• They may not be so cheap now, but if the MP3 revolution in music sales is anything to go by, eventually prices will come down.
• The author can sell Ebooks direct to the customer if they want to.
• They are more environmentally friendly (no paper, no ink, no chemicals, no emissions from manufacturing or distribution).

Problems with Ebooks:

• If an author writes an Ebook and then constantly updates it, how hard is it going to be for academics to reference citations and quotes from that Ebook? Anyone who has done research will understand how much of a pain referencing is, and Ebooks could make it much more difficult.
• Not everyone can read long portions of text for long periods of time on a screen.
• It may make your eyesight deteriorate if you stare at a screen for a long time. (See above point)
• Its harder to swap and share books with friends. (Although, its not impossible, and the digital people are working on solving this)
• Ebooks have the potential to put many people out of a job.
• Bookshops are going out of business already, but even more will disappear with Ebooks being sold online.
• Not everyone can access a computer or other Ebook-reading device, for example the elderly who rely on their local library, etc.
• Ebooks are still relatively expensive, in most cases they are around the same price as the hardbook edition.

So there you are, a few points about the Ebook! I hope i have enlightened you!

For a really good video demonstration of how awesome Ebooks could be, see this!