“Apple’s special media event reportedly set for this month in NYC “will involve an initiative related to iBooks in education, presumably with some sort of tie-in to iTunes U,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD, citing “sources close to the company.”
“Details beyond that are slim, though we’re told that this is an effort in which Jobs was involved prior to his death,” Paczkowski reports. “That could mean that it’s the textbooks-on-iPads plan that the late Apple executive famously discussed with biographer Walter Isaacson.”
Read more in the full article here.
Clayton Morris reports via his blog, “This event will focus on iTunes University and Apple in education. This initiative has been in the making for years. The announcement will be small in size but large in scope: a big announcement in a demure space. Steve Jobs was intinimately involved with this project before his passing.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GetMeOnTop ” for the heads up.]
This would be great for me.
It’ll take a while for authors to learn how to use the new paradigm effectively. But then it’ll be “Wow!”
Let me start by saying that I love books: the tactile feel of the paper, the weight of the book, the smell of the printer’s ink. The many books I own are generally ones printed on the right feeling paper, with the comfortable looking typeface and the correct content. I am content with my books having these prerequisites.
Enough of that; I’m here to write about libraries and their future, their shift shaping, or maybe their demise.
I believe that libraries, in their past and current form should soon go the way of the ‘Dodo’.
These bricks and mortar; or more likely, these granite and steel edifices to political payback or ego. These power gulping, dust gathering, union sustaining relics need to be gently led to pasture. Then we can achieve a future full of technology and thoughtful use of the great inventiveness of man. (women are also welcome).
We now have access to information in ways unheard of just ten short years ago. Access that is at our fingertips, in our pockets; in living, moving color. Smart phones, iPads, touchy-feely techie tools to take us anywhere imaginable. So why be stuck with books in their past and present form?
For many years now, I have envisioned being able to go to a book designing facility, where I could find the perfect book model for my taste. A book that looked great, weighed the right amount, was printed with the correct size and style of typeface on the best paper. All of those things that I myself deem to be a great book. This ‘MyBook’ would have no content, but I could take it home and via some future firewire or wifi I could download any book that had ever been published onto the perfect pages of my ‘MyBook’.
I can hear the, “That’s ridiculous,” “That’s a stupid idea,” comments coming from the MDN readers right now. Hey! If someone can think of it, someone can make it. There are companies today who have already made thin, paper-like flexible computer screens. Take it further to the ‘MyBook’ and there’s no telling what the result may be. Students wouldn’t have to lug great spine-numbing backpacks of heavy books around, they would require just one ‘MyBook’. The content would change with the class they were taking. One book is all anyone would ever need. If the user got tired of that style they could always trade it in for a new style with a different feel. This basic concept can be achieved right now, today, with an iPad. Just imagine what tomorrow can bring?
Far less cutting down the forests to make paper pulp, to make it into paper, to ship to a factory, to print books, to ship to stores so that people could drive to the store to buy another book
If the readers of this piece have the desire and the time to investigate the enormous amount of taxes it takes to sustain the State library infrastructure in its present form, they are going to be blown away with the colossal amounts of money spent. It’s in the $billions.
If there are to be libraries in our future, that is: besides those national monuments to pride and self-aggrandizement like the Reagan or the Clinton or the upcoming Obama library; then they could be humble, comfortable, affordable buildings with desks having built-in ‘MyBooks’, or today they could have built-in iPads.
No offense to the publishers of today, or the library builders, or the librarians; but I feel your days are numbered. Now back to my iPad. No! No! Where is that great book I was reading?
Great thought. I say it’s still wise to have physically tangible library.
A brick n’ mortar library full of “physically tangible”, I’d like to see the Dewey Decimal for that.
A local Library is a community asset, besides allowing you to borrow or read a book, magazine, CD, DVD’s, or a game, they are also excellent places to study / research.
@Jean Poole, your dream is very likely to occur. However, while libraries do cost money to run, as all public services do, they actually repay the community for every $ spent.
(I know I have used the “community” I must be a pinko! a red under the bed, a dirty filthy lefty) but let us contemplate and determine the word in a mature and sophisticated fashion.
community
noun
1 work done for the community: public, general public, populace, people, citizenry, population, collective; residents, inhabitants, citizens.
2 a suburban community: district, region, zone, area, locality, locale, neighborhood; informal neck of the woods, hood.
3 concerns in the immigrant community: group, body, set, circle, clique, faction; informal gang, bunch.
4 a monastic community: brotherhood, sisterhood, fraternity, sorority, sodality; order, congregation, abbey, convent.
community |kəˈmjuːnɪti|
noun ( pl. -ties)
1 a group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership : a community of nuns.
• all the people living in a particular area or place : local communities.
• a particular area or place considered together with its inhabitants : a rural community.
• ( the community) the people of a district or country considered collectively, esp. in the context of social values and responsibilities; society : preparing prisoners for life back in the community.
• [as adj. ] denoting a worker or resource designed to serve the people of a particular area : community health services.
2 [usu. with adj. ] a group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other particular characteristic in common : Rhode Island’s Japanese community | the scientific community.
• a body of nations or states unified by common interests : [in names ] the European Community | the African Economic Community.
3 a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals : the sense of community that organized religion can provide.
• [in sing. ] a similarity or identity : writers who shared a community of interests.
• joint ownership or liability : a commitment to the community of goods.
4 Ecology a group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat : communities of insectivorous birds.
• a set of species found in the same habitat or ecosystem at the same time.
PHRASES
the international community the countries of the world considered collectively.
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French comunete, reinforced by its source, Latin communitas, from communis (see common ).
Who would’ve thunk it.
Folks tend to get edgy about the word “community” when it’s in a phrase with “activist” or “organizer”. Otherwise they seem to be OK with it
Exactly, and many different kind of ‘tablet experiences’ will be available. When I saw the ‘innovative’ rem koolhaas museum in Seattle, I immediately thought, why are they building this. They will end up with a warehouse, or multi purpose office building, with a lot of sloped floors. Why no one could see this coming, I don’t know. I suppose it is the human desire for icons.
And by the way, these are false icons.
It would be great if Apple’s Pages app to make into a magazine or iBook instead using high end apps like Indesign and Quark Xpress with outrageous fees!