Yesterday’s “iBooks 2.0 and iBooks Author announcements were another evolutionary step toward Apple’s total domination of digital content creation and delivery,” Jason D. O’Grady writes for ZDNet. “The problem is that Apple is artificially limiting its new publishing poster child — iBooks — to iOS in order to squeeze every last cent out of consumers that it can.”
“Back in September 2011, I chose Amazon’s Kindle app over iBooks for one simple reason: it’s available on the desktop,” O’Grady writes. “I know that there are a whole generation of keyboard cutters coming up in the ranks, but I’m not one of them. My iPad will never fully replace my MacBook Air with it’s glorious keyboard, USB ports and external mouse. At least not in the foreseeable future.”
O’grady writes, “Apple makes its money from selling hardware (iPhones, iPads and Macs) and it sells software (apps, music, movies) mostly as a way to move hardware. Apple’s answer to students with MacBook Airs, of course, is to buy an iPad!”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Damn that greedy Apple for giving away iBooks Author, iBooks, and, for that matter, iTunes U for free. Wait, what?
men you totally miss his point!
This guy is in a very, very small minority.
As opposed to a ‘large’ minority? 😉
Seems to me that an iBooks and iTunesU app could sell Macs as well as iPads. I wouldn’t rule that out quite yet.
I agree with the author. I don’t own an iPad. I can use my iMac to get stanford university classes video through iTunes, but because there is no app, I can’t get any of the worksheets etc.
I guess iBooks won’t be coming to Android or Windows either.
Oh well,,,,
Which is exactly why Apple will never dominate the ebook market like it does music. iTunes is available on Windows as well as Mac and iOS. And third party solutions like DoubleTwist have made syncing with an iTunes library a possibility for Android as well. If you want to control the digital market, you have to have availability on multiple platforms.
My take is that Apple is not going after the whole digital ebook market. Instead, it really is just trying to carve off a nice slice of it, with a clear objective to sell more iPads. This is a good strategy, as others already have a very strong foothold in ebooks — realistically Apple isn’t going to dominate this industry like it currently does with music.
Never eh?
Although, he does have a point. iBooks and the new iTunes U looks great. And yes, they give it away for free as a loss leader to sell iOS devices, which is why they won’t make it available for Mac OS. On the other hand, he also has a point that many Mac users will probably, instead of shelling out for an iPad, just stick with buying Kindle books (which, for books I’ve noticed available on both devices, by and large are less expensive for the Kindle edition) and reading them on their Mac. Or they may do what I do, and just stick with iBooks for the iPhone.
My family has two iPads, two MacBooks, and three iPhones. However, the iPads get used by my wife and daughter. I most often consume media on my MacBook Air and I do work on my MacBook Pro. I can read iBooks on my iPhone 4S, but it sure would be nice if Apple released iBooks for Mac OS so I could read my pleasure books on the Air and my reference books on my Pro when I need to refer to them.
As the author of the article states I have kept my book purchases limited the Kindle because of my cross-platform limitation.
I don’t suggest iBooks for Windows, just for Mac OS.
“Case in point: my primary production rig is a MacBook Air connected to a 27-inch Thunderbolt display and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I wrote a reference book about Apple in 2008 and I often refer to it while writing. I purchased my book from the Kindle Store so that I can read and search it from my Mac and my iDevices.
Had I purchased my ebook from the iBookstore, I’d have to switch from my production workstation to my iPad each time I wanted to look something up. This kind of workflow is unpractical, cumbersome and makes researching ebooks on my Mac completely impossible.”
What a clusterfsck. If I was in that situation, I wouldn’t want anything to do with iBooks either.
Apple not bringing iBooks to OS X is a very stupid decision.
So exactly how many people are in your situation? You must make up, what? 0.001% of the customer base that Apple are selling to? If I was in Apple’s position I wouldn’t give a flying fuck about such a tiny, tiny percentage of people either. You are. Just. Not. Significant.
And frankly, reading a book on a laptop screen is such a pain I’d rather not bother, I’ll stick with my phone.
Not the point- I would LOVE to be able to read books on my laptop. If I fly somewhere and need my MBP, why do I also have to take my iPad. In fact, why do I need to own an iPad at all? It’s ridiculous that iBooks is not available for OS X.
I buy a lot of books online, but I’ll only buy from the iTunes store if it’s not available somewhere else for the Kindle. Why?
I have an iPhone, an iPad, and a Macbook Pro connected to a 32″ Samsung 1080p TV I use as a monitor. I have the Kindle app loaded on all of them.
When I’m away from home, reading a book on the iPad is fine, but I get tired of holding it. I’ll use my iPhone only as a last resort. When I’m at home, it’s a joy to sit back and read books on that huge display. I will not use my iPad at home unless it’s to read a book that’s only available from the iTunes store.
You may think there are not that many people like me, but you’d be wrong. I know a good dozen people who feel like I do. They’d much rather have the option to read a book on their desktop as well as their iPhone and/or iPad.
You’re far from alone! I’m 59 and I refuse to read books on my iPod Touch or an iPad. I want to read things without squinting on my nice big monitor.
So you wrote this book and yet you don’t have an electronic copy of it on your computer? Really?
lol
Not really..read last sentence, first paragraph. He’s poking Apple for being greedy. Show me any corporate entity that has invested in education as much as Apple, even dating back to Jobs and NEXT, in addition to free authoring tools.
I could see Apple providing a Windows version of iBook Author. They did begin on the Mac platform with iTunes and later offered it for Window.
Now that I don’t see them doing. They’re going to want to remain the dominant platform for content creation. Making a Windows version of iBook Author wouldn’t be like a Windows version of iTunes, it would be like a Windows version of Logic.
That won’t happen until an OS X version is released.
IMO, Apple may be acting cautious about opening it to other platforms, or their own OS until they get the oddities worked out.
I knew it! I hated it when HP and IBM did not make calculators that can type! Or Samsung did not put printer port to their TV so we cannot just print images out of whatever on TV! Damn!
I still buy ebooks on Kindle because my eyesight is so bad I need the huge print on my iMac 27″ screen. Really want everything accessible on my iMac. Still will purchase iPad3 to access these textbooks, iTunes U and make my own books with iBooks Author. Learning is THE way to progress and have a better life so it is worth it.
Isn’t there a way to resize text in iBooks?
Yes.
Resizing doesn’t help on a small screen.
(A 10″ iPad screen is very small comapred to a 27″ screen.)
‘course it does. I had contacts in the other day and forgot my reading glasses so just increased the text size a couple of points so I could read my book.
On my iPhone. Worked fine, and while a 10″ screen is obviously smaller than a 27″ iMac, how, exactly, do you manage with paper books, newspapers and magazines? You can’t resize those, and an iPad screen is about the same size as a hardcover book. You’re just being a pedant and making excuses for your own shortcomings.
This Rorschach character is in the market for a kick up his backside.
How many kicks up the backside does it take before one calls themselves “Pink Twingo”
Totally agree with the author. I should be capable of viewing my content from anywhere … apple or mac at least.
I could see if iBooks was available on the Mac and the Windoze crowd were the ones complaining that they didn’t have a version. But to not even work on OS X? It’s preposterous.
So he’s using a MacBook Air with an awesome multi touch trackpad and he decides to strap on an external mouse? How quaint.
Maybe he’s got a keyboard and large external monitor too. Then the external mouse reference would make sense. That’s how I’ve got my daughter set up at college – MacBook Air with external mouse, monitor and keyboard.
I know, the very definition of ol’ man Crotchety Contradictions. It must be hard living in a world changing so fast, yet be so dead set against it. And against those kids on your lawn.
I have both a trackpad AND a Logitech multi button mouse on my iMac
The trackpad is great, but it’s absolutely horrible at games, angry birds works great though..
And sign me up for iBooks for osx.
Screw windows, but on the Mac there needs to be one.
I agree with R2 above.. If I need to quote a book I have in iBooks, but am doing something on the iMac… I’m opening up the iPad and sending the text to my iMac… Pain in the ass.
Most of these ZDNet guys are ignorant dicks.
Come on, let’s shout out loud what everybody knows is the whispered truth here . . .
WE ALL KNOW MORE THAN APPLE’S BRAIN TRUST HOW TO RUN THIS BUSINESS! WOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
All the anti Apple dweebs have their panties in a wad over this new initiative because they think the publishing industry and education as we now know it will change overnight. Ain’t gonna happen that way.
What you’re looking at is another Apple project to create a sea change in a target area. It will take time. It’s another example of the iPod-ization that happened years ago. Apple created a new generation of kids who became iPod-savvy and Apple savvy. We’re still seeing the results of that today with ever increasing market share, product sales and some new product development.
The entire iBooks phenomenon will take a few years to effectively roll out and create a wide, installed user base. Meanwhile the concept has definitely captured the imagination of lots of people who suddenly feel like getting creative and are looking forward to a new and enjoyable way of teaching and learning things.
Give Apple a break and give ’em some time. Your patience will be rewarded. JMO.
There is a very simple reason why iBooks 2 is NOT available on a desktop OS: NO (multi)touch screen!
iBooks 2 App is built on the concept of touch interface. Content that iBooks Author produces is designed to be used exclusively through a touch-based interface.
When a writer writes an old-fashioned, standard book (you know, just words printed on paper / screen, with possible occasional picture, black and white or colour), touch interface is pretty much irrelevant. However, iBooks Author is designed to encourage writers to write interactive multimedia iBooks that contain stuff that can be touched, pinched, squeezed, slid and moved over, which require interface that is simply impossible to replicate on a desktop computer.
This is just one more clue about the direction Apple is taking their desktop computing: iOS, mouse-less, keyboardless, multi-touch 27″ iMacs. And no, no “gorilla arm” syndrome will apply; Apple will put these displays the way humans were used to for centuries — flat (or slightly tilted) on your working surface. About the only remaining problem I can see is working out the issues of detecting when touch is a finger touch, and not a hand/arm resting on the surface.
Mouse is going into the computer history museum soon. So is keyboard (except for serious writers, who will always have those bluetooth ones). We’ll finally again be handling our work directly with our fingers, rather than using an unintuitive, clunky and inconsistent system of mouse, keyboard and display.
There is no need for desktop iBooks as it simply can’t work without multi-touch screen.
Except that multi-touch *is* available on the desktop and on laptops. All of Apple’s laptops support multi-touch through their built-in trackpads, and doesn’t Apple offer the multi-touch capable Magic Trackpad?
No, it is NOT. Multi-touch TRACKPAD is available on desktops (and laptops). This is just a variation of an existing keyboard-mouse-display concept (from 20th century). It certainly does NOT allow you to TOUCH certain elements of your content directly on the screen. Without that, iBook authored content simply won’t work.
There could quite easily be a workaround (i.e. using a two finger gesture to swipe between pages when the arrow is over the book)
Think different Predrag. You’re attempting to make it sound impossible.. it’s not impossible and could be done rather easily.
You’re talking about the old-fashioned, 20th-century ebooks (i.e. static text on white background). If you saw Apple’s video about iBooks, there are animations, videos, 3D images that user can zoom into, rotate, swipe in and out of view… All these can ONLY be done with a touch screen, since there is no mouse pointer.
Agreed – its not about page turning anymore, rather the incorporation of rich media and its manipulation BY TOUCH rather than an hovering cursor that tells you where you are. Much the same line of thinking can be used against those who call for iBooks Author output to be viewable/usable on Android machines. It ain’t gonna happen since the same functionality is not common to both platforms.
Jason O’grady knows as much about this as I do (sic).
And I’ll bet he knows a lot more than you do about what (sic) means.
I, too, would love to see iBooks books on Mac OS X. I’m not giving up the notion that it will happen… but it certainly isn’t happening as quickly as I’d like.
Perhaps a 3rd party software company can do something with the obvious need of this from consumers if Apple never moves on this front?
Well, no… “iBooks” will never come to Mac OS X, because that capability would be integrated into iTunes, if Apple ever decides to allow customers to read purchased ebooks on a computer screen.
Purchased music is played in iTunes. Purchased video is played in iTunes. Purchased ebooks should also be “playable” in an iTunes window, formatted as it would appear on an iPad.
If iBooks content played in iTunes, then it would be on Mac OS X.
“iBooks” is the name of the iOS app used to buy and read ebooks on an iPad. iBooks, the app, will never come to Mac OS X, because that functionality will be part of iTunes (if Apple decides to allow customers to read purchased ebooks on a computer screen).
iBooks Author isn’t a tool for authors, it’s a pair of handcuffs. If you use it to produce an eBook you are forced by Apple to ONLY distribute it through iTunes. That’s not right. Come on Apple, remove this provision from your user agreement. You deserve to take a commission for distributing an author’s work. You DO NOT deserve to dictate where an author sells his/her work.
Apple doesn’t dictate where an author can sell his work only where he can sell Apple’s work. the iBook format is Apple’s work. Nothing prevents an author from taking the same content and placing it in another format and selling it. Nothing prevents anyone from writing conversion software to move an iBook to another format except the fact that you would have to do all the work Apple did in making a format that could support all those functions, Or you can use an existing format and lose some of the functionality that Apple has provided.
PS every SDK in existence has licensing terms that forbid you from using it to create competing products, (Adobe,MS,Google)
A principle of copyright law is that the “work” is independent of the medium and vehicle. So if you write a book entitled Pride and Prejudice, that is the “work” – and you retain rights irrespective of whether that “work” is delivered by book, digital, etc. The word “Work” is well defined in copyright law as the content, not just the medium. So far it has been Mac journalists who have been claiming Apple’s EULA is not so restrictive. No, it is restrictive. The word “Work” is well defined in copyright law to mean the content.
With apple touting “use our cloud”, “dot mac and mobile me is going away”, “see all your content on all your devices”, I find it VERY ironic that they omit iBooks from the equation. I have deleted the iBooks app from my other devices because they are useless without being able to look at them on my larger screen on the mac. Are you listening apple?
I am in complete agreement with the author. I use Kindle entirely rather than iBooks because it will also run on MacBook Pro, which I prefer for reading! And, I purchase a lot of ebooks from Amazon as a result, and NONE from Apple. Apple is losing business by not bring iBooks to Macs!
Me too. I’ve bought 100’s of books on Kindle, which I read on an iPhone, iPod touch, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac. As you can see, I have everything except an iPad. A family member has an iPad, and I’ve used it daily to test whether I really use it, and I’ve concluded I don’t need to add an iPad. I want iBooks on OSX. As I said below, the only reasons Apple refuses to offer iBooks on OSX is to make us buy more iPads.
I feel there is a justice in this world. When Apple starts down the road of making choices to make more money, with zero consideration of meeting its customers needs, let’s see where it is in 20 years time. Look how Kodak killed itself by purposely ignoring digital photography so it could make more money. Apple’s greed will be its downfall. Please mark your calendars for 20 years to see if Apple survived its own greed.
And again, you are wrong. As I had said before, iBooks are not the same as the oldfashioned ebooks (whichever format they’re delivered in — kindle, EPUB, kobo, PDF, whatever). Apple’s iBook format allows creation of interactive content that REQUIRES multi-touch display. It simply cannot work on a non-touch display, with a mouse (or a trackpad, multitouch or not).
There are plenty of formats that allow you to read static, 20-century-style, black-ink-on-white-paper content in electronic format, on a 20-century-style computing device (a display, a keyboard, a pointing device). iBook simply isn’t that by a long shot. It is a 21st-century format that provides full interactivity. Old devices simply can’t work with it.
Think different predrag.. think about holding the mouse cursor over content and then doing the multi-touch gesture. iBooks content could easily be used on a Mac. If you can’t comprehend this, sorry.
correctu, I agree that in principle Apple could cobble conventions that would simulate – crudely – emulation of the iOS multitouch environment, just as you suggested.
But if you think that environment could be completely and satisfactorily replicated using a trackpad and gestures, you may believe that a dancing bear could become the next star of the ballet.
Children can immediately grasp the UI of iOS devices. But a trackpad using gestures introduces abstractions to emulate what seems natural in iOS. Those abstractions, and the issue that a bewildering number of gestures may need to be learned, would change the user experience. I don’t think that’s where Apple wants to go, at least with current Mac hardware and operating systems.
“But if you think that environment could be completely and satisfactorily replicated using a trackpad and gestures, you may believe that a dancing bear could become the next star of the ballet.”
This is the whole point: NOT replicating the iOS interface to a tee, but instead simply making iBooks books usable on Mac OS X. No yer right I don’t think they can replicate iOS via Mac OS X. I DO believe they can make an app on Mac OS X that makes iBooks usable on it.
In other words, the iPad will be the best way to use iBooks. But, you could use Mac OS X for the purpose if needed.
Could one not mirror the video or use AirPlay to use a larger screen area? As large as a TV even?
When using my iPad on my lap for reading, it turns out to offer twice the viewing angle than my 40in TV, which sits at approx 7 ft from my couch. Therefore, using a TV screen for consuming eBooks isn’t so great. Besides, you don’t want to hijack the TV set if you want to remain on friendly terms with the other members of your household.
The reason a big screen iMac IS more useful, is because you are looking at it from up close, AND you can have a mixebd workflow.
Hint, Apple, hint!
You people who side with APPL, saying, if they give it free, Apple can limit it however it wants. Obviously you don’t study anymore.
I study on my Mac. I search the internet, I have ebooks displayed on screen, I write essays using my keyboard, and everything is on the Mac’s screen. I don’t want my textbook on the iPad, with no ability to copy and paste quotations from the iPad to the essay I am writing on the Mac.
This is 100% just a limitation imposed so Apple can make more money selling iPads. There is 0% thought on how to meet the needs of users.
Think about that MDN, next time you give a glib support for anything Apple. It’s clear that you’re the communist version of an Apple supporter. Anything Apple you go along with. People like you are dangerous, because that mentality seeps into the rest of your life.
Once again, NO. This limitation is there because Mac screens are NOT multi-touch displays. iBook Author is a tool that allows creation of INTERACTIVE, multi-media content, well beyond static, black-text-on-white-background eBooks of today. There is no way to manipulate content designed for a multi-touch display on a standard computer. Not even with a multi-touch track pad. How exactly do you know WHERE to touch, pinch, stretch and move that trackpad in order to manipulate a specific object on the screen???
There is nothing sinister, greedy or evil about this decision. Desktop computing represents technology of last century. Apple is launching tools for this century, where we won’t need mice (or keyboards) to interact with content on our computing devices.
Excellent point. However, I’m not sure it would be all that difficult to overcome touch limitations with Apple’s trackpads. Mouseovers could be created in code for a desktop version of iBooks. I don’t use a kindle reader on my laptop, or on my iMac when I had one. I can’t even imagine reading more than a short story on an actual computer. Writing novels, it’s difficult for me to edit a complete manuscript because of the length.
However, lacking an emulator to preview an iBook on a desktop is a major drawback. It’s a disconnect to look from your monitor to another one while actually editing. That situation makes the trial-and-error changes difficult be it’s not a true side-by-side comparison.
I think the real reason Apple is slow doing this is they don’t to create an emulator that would be immediately hacked. The iOS is still long enough away from MacOS, that’s the real problem, in my opinion.
I’m not talking about the interactive part. Let’s say you write a 10,000 word textbook – which is regarded as the “Work” – and in the iPad environment you add some interactive diagrams to help students learn.
Now, the big issue is whether the author can take those 10,000 words – minus the interactive parts – and publish it as a paperbook or on Kindle. From the looks of it, he cannot, because it is the same “Work”.
We can’t be certain on this, but you cannot assume the author will be free to do so.
You paid for a keyboard when you bought a Mac. Buy a keyboard for your iOS device if a keyboard is so vital to your work flow.
Apple is creating the cheap textbook. If you want cheap, interactive textbooks get an iPad. If you don’t want cheap, interactive textbooks buy expensive, paper ones and use your Mac.
WTF is the problem?
None of those things are possible on what Apple wants to replace, the printed textbook. And considering that the books are better and prices are less than $15, instead of the $60-$80 the printed books cost, it doesn’t take much more than a couple of semesters to pay for the iPad with the difference. And it’s still a complete iPad, not just a book reader.
And you can bet that Apple will give *big* discounts to school districts that want to adopt it across the curriculum. Getting these into the hands of school children will produce a more educated populus. Fewer things are more important than that.
O’Grady is a turd for suggesting that Apple restricts iBooks to mobile devices “to squeeze every last cent out of consumers that it can”. How do people like this get jobs as “Apple experts”? Unbelievable!
O’Grady has been touting all things Apple for years.
The trouble is he is no longer self employed. He now works for ZDNet. Yes, he has gone over to the dark side. If the Editor/Boss wants a hit piece on iBooks2, the Editor/Boss gets a hit piece on iBooks2.
Seriously, though, if Angry Birds can be reformatted to run on everything from a Crappy Android Phone™, to a Mac, to a iOS device, to a Windows PC, then the authors can reformat their IP for any other device as well.
the big issue is whether the author can take those 10,000 words – minus the interactive parts – and publish it as a paperbook or on Kindle. From the looks of it, he cannot, because it is the same “Work”.
We can’t be certain on this, but you cannot assume the author will be free to do so.
I work in publishing, both electronic and print and you can be certain. The words are not the “work” in this EULA. Don’t get hung up by this word. The author has inalienable rights to his to her words unless they are deliberately and specifically signed away (i.e. the ‘alienation’ has to be active, it cannot be passive). The “work” here is the product of using iBooks Author. No-one can annul your rights to your words with an EULA. Relax.
Met Jason O’Grady once. Total asshole.