[Alucrid]

Cell biology books would be much easier to learn from with animations.

A lot of textbooks come with online access codes forthat sort of thong

[Shambles]

Index pages are a huge pain in the ass, at least compared to a search function.

You'd rather search through 400 hits on a search function than spend 5 seconds in an index that directs you to the section you're actually looking for?

[enzo_gt]

That's only for high school books. I imagine university/college level textbooks will be priced extortionately.

Which is why I'm not too excited yet. Good thing for Apple though, this is the most interesting announcement for them in years.

My dreams of University textbooks not raping my wallet though will probably stay dreams for now.

[Sentry]

Those instant flash cards seem pretty awesome;

[Ninja Scooter]

Wait so now current high school students will get hand jobs in the bathroom, have sex with teachers AND get an iPad? We got robbed, friends.

[ConvenientBox]

[nel e nel]

For K-12 textbooks... which are normally provided to students for free.

Depends on the school. There was a HS in my hometown where the students had to buy their own books. And this was back in the 80s.


Very intriguing and exciting stuff, but as others have asked: Where are the college textbooks?

[Divvy]

You'd rather search through 400 hits on a search function than spend 5 seconds in an index that directs you to the section you're actually looking for?

I'd rather instantly find the words I want in a textbook than having to flip back and forth from the index. Also to not have to skim and entire page to find a word.

[nel e nel]

A lot of textbooks come with online access codes forthat sort of thong

WHERE DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL AND ARE THEY ACCEPTING?!?!

[bdizzle]

The key point I liked was $14.99 or less per book...

That's probably for the cover. In app purchase of .99c a page is required.

[bengraven]

"Fuck books!"



:/

[Treefingers]

The dumbest thing about this is STILL having no way to read iBooks (especially now textbooks) on a computer. Are they trolling everyone or what?

[Enco]

They get it, in fact they get it more than you. They know you have no other choice than pay what they dictate. Those hundreds of dollars for textbooks isn't because of the paper. Even the digital versions they have now don't even cost 1/3 of printed versions.

They get what the customer wants more than the customer?

They DON'T get it. I don't want to pay their prices and neither does anyone else. Some people pay because of necessity, yes, but that doesn't mean they understand their customers. I suppose they get how to make profit through asshole ways.

[Windu]

this just in, books are not portable or durable.

[badcrumble]

For K-12 textbooks... which are normally provided to students for free.

I had to buy my books at my high school (private school, and yeah they were about $80-100 each). Over the course of my time in high school, a $499 iPad and $15 books would've saved me (well, my parents) hundreds of dollars.

[nel e nel]

They get what the customer wants more than the customer? They DON'T get it. I don't want to pay their prices and neither does anyone else. Some people pay because of necessity, yes, but that doesn't mean they understand their customers. I suppose they get how to make profit through asshole ways.

Methinks that was the point he was making.

[Treefingers]

I had to buy my books at my high school (private school, and yeah they were about $80-100 each). Over the course of my time in high school, a $499 iPad and $15 books would've saved me (well, my parents) hundreds of dollars.

Well OK, I guess this is good for private school students.

[Kinyou]

Sure, but all of your books at once aren't portable.

Thanks to bag™ I can carry multiple books at the same time

[Enco]

Methinks that was the point he was making.

Pretty sure he missed my point.

[Sentry]

Wait so now current high school students will get hand jobs in the bathroom, have sex with teachers AND get an iPad? We got robbed, friends.

so true, so fucking true....

[Veidt]

I can't believe it's come to this. Jesus.

[Souldriver]

Haha, that check list for physical books. So fucking stupid.

[Treefingers]

Are you guys being purposefully obtuse?

An iPad is more portable than a bag full of textbooks, even just one textbook in most cases. Pretty simple to visualise in your head that this is true.

For once someone called out how abysmal textbooks are for studying.

[DoctorWho]

I can't believe it's come to this. Jesus.

I've been saying books are overrated for years.

[Nerdsteve]

EDIT: Damn! Still incompatible with jailbreak. :(

Search for "Corona 5.0.1 Untether" in Cydia and install it.

You're welcome;)

[TheSeks]

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/01/apple-education-liveblog2581.jpg "Fuck books!" :/

Well, they're right. >_>

[Anticitizen One]

Wait so now current high school students will get hand jobs in the bathroom, have sex with teachers AND get an iPad? We got robbed, friends.

who got a hand job in the bathroom?? is there a thread for this?

[tino]

You seriously need two tablets if you are going to digitalize all textbooks.

Ideally a 7" and a 10" both with same resolution would be fine.

But this is pretty lame if Apple doesn't build a homework assignment/submission system around the ebook. I hope somebody else will do a better job.

Testbook's main problem is still that its too expensive.

Also, iPad need an administration mode that force the iPad to run ebooks only during school time.

[enzo_gt]

Are you guys being purposefully obtuse? An iPad is more portable than a bag full of textbooks, even just one textbook in most cases. Pretty simple to visualise in your head that this is true. For once someone called out how abysmal textbooks are for studying.

Books are old, they're a thing of the past, no way they can be current! Also, I now fully expect the iPad 3 to sustain the full wrath of my juice box exploding and my textbook falling out of my hands 100 times because of it's amazing durability.

The entire checklist is obtuse.

[Divvy]

So... is there any way to sell off these digital textbooks after you're done with them?

[mxgt]

I'd rather read a book off paper than an ipad screen.

e-ink or bust

[Opus Angelorum]

Well, they're right.

Apple are always right.

[Futureman]

Is it still iOS only?

[The Faceless Master]

Thanks to bag™ I can carry multiple books at the same time

no way, at one point in my brother's high school, they gave the kids in his class 2 of each book, 1 for at school and 1 for at home so they didn't have to carry them every day because of how fucking heavy they all were. he was in Honors/AP classes, but still... it was a lot of books!

[Psychotext]

For once someone called out how abysmal textbooks are for studying.

I don't know if it's just my generation, but I don't absorb information from a screen nearly as well as I do from books. I put it to the test on some certifications I was doing... and completely fucked up the subject I studied via a screen.

Same books, very similar subject, just a different way of getting the info. Not sure if it was just that I was more comfortable or less distracted when using books, but it worked so much better for me.

You can pry them from my cold dead hands.

[The Faceless Master]

So... is there any way to sell off these digital textbooks after you're done with them?

non-transferable license!

[ConvenientBox]

Are you guys being purposefully obtuse? An iPad is more portable than a bag full of textbooks, even just one textbook in most cases. Pretty simple to visualise in your head that this is true. For once someone called out how abysmal textbooks are for studying.

While my back and I agree, carrying 14 textbooks is annoying, but the books I had didn't break or shatter when I dropped them, nor did they run out of batteries on long study sessions.

[Treefingers]

Books are old, they're a thing of the past, no way they can be current! Also, I now fully expect the iPad 3 to sustain the full wrath of my juice box exploding and my textbook falling out of my hands 100 times because of it's amazing durability. The entire checklist is obtuse.

No a textbook from a few years ago is in many cases not current. A digital textbook can be updated without having to buy a new book. Maybe you didn't quite get what they meant by that point.

The only thing that's debatable in that list is durability. And it depends on what part of the textbook you're looking at.

So no the entire list is not obtuse.

[Divvy]

non-transferable license!

Oh.. okay... That's a lot less desirable then. I sold off almost all of my textbooks when I was done with them, so they didn't really cost that much in the end.

[Alucrid]

They get what the customer wants more than the customer? They DON'T get it. I don't want to pay their prices and neither does anyone else. Some people pay because of necessity, yes, but that doesn't mean they understand their customers. I suppose they get how to make profit through asshole ways.

Lol. They don't give a rats ass about what you want to pay. They know you're buying and they're the only ones selling. Unless apple can get schools to pick up the textbooks available from them I can't see this doing anything but failing and I don't see publishers giving up their 300 textbooks for 15 downloads.

[Psychotext]

A digital textbook can be updated without having to buy a new book.

Is that what they're going to do though, or are they just going to sell you a new version like they do now?

[Steelrain]

Looks pretty damn dumb.

[Windu]

You'd rather search through 400 hits on a search function than spend 5 seconds in an index that directs you to the section you're actually looking for?

With online textbooks today (which are basically PDFs) you have a search function to search for words etc but you still have the index like the paper versions. Both have their uses.

[Duane Cunningham]

Search for "Corona 5.0.1 Untether" in Cydia and install it. You're welcome;)

Hell yes! Thank you sir!

(actually, I'm untethered already as I'm on a 3GS, buy I was unaware that there was a new Redsn0w with the iBooks fix released three days ago. Thanks for leading me to find that out!)

[Kinitari]

Some old fogies in this thread. Bro's - it was bound to happen, and I think this is an important and functional step in the right direction. The idea that kids learn better with interactive content isn't a crazy one, and specifically, if this is done right I think it can have a great net-positive effect on the education of youngin's.

[ConvenientBox]

Is that what they're going to do though, or are they just going to sell you a new version like they do now?

Just like everything else digital, they'll find a way to monetize it. Book companies are too used to putting out new versions, what's to stop them from charging digitally?

[Divvy]

No a textbook from a few years ago is in many cases not current. A digital textbook can be updated without having to buy a new book. Maybe you didn't quite get what they meant by that point.

How often do you need an updated textbook though? Almost all of my textbook were applicable for one semester. I guess this is more for grad students.

[Foob]

oh ya also pop up books are interactive apple you dipshits

[jon bones]

The key point I liked was $14.99 or less per book...

YES. in college my text books were insanely expensive, even after re-selling them the next semester

[ymmv]

Not durable? A century from today people will still be able to read any book published this year, but any iPod, iPad or whatever will have broken down a long, long time ago. It's questionable whether our current digital content will have survived 100 years from now. The infrastructure to publish digital books will have vanished, digital files stored on 2012 HDs and USB sticks will have perised, encrypted files will have become unreadable, etc etc.

If you want to preserve information for posterity, digitalization is not a solution but a trap.