Apple Intends To 'Digitally Destroy' Textbook Publishing 396
bonch writes "Apple is expected to announce e-book creation and social interaction tools at their January 19 media event taking place in New York, the heart of the publishing industry. Along with expanded interactivity features such as test-taking, the event is expected to showcase an ePub 3-compatible 'Garageband for e-books' to address the lack of simple digital publishing tools. Steve Jobs reportedly considered textbook publishing to be 'an $8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction' and was directly involved with Apple's efforts in this area until his death."
$.99 Textbooks? Doubtful but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's hope this will loosen the grip of the major publishing companies. Paying $150 for a textbook (at least in the US) because you HAVE to get the newest revision to correct a few spelling mistakes is bullshit!
gasmonso ReligiousFreaks.com [religiousfreaks.com]
Re:$.99 Textbooks? Doubtful but... (Score:5, Insightful)
With the way things would go, we would end up paying $175 for an e-book that would get denied access to upon the end of the semester, or at least pay $150 for something that cannot be resold.
Re:$.99 Textbooks? Doubtful but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's hope this will loosen the grip of the major publishing companies. Paying $150 for a textbook (at least in the US) because you HAVE to get the newest revision to correct a few spelling mistakes is bullshit!
gasmonso ReligiousFreaks.com [religiousfreaks.com]
While I had no love for the whole textbook scam back in college either, nor am I all that comfortable with Apple (or anyone else) "destroying" print textbooks.
Re:$.99 Textbooks? Doubtful but... (Score:5, Insightful)
You know that an industry is way overcharging if buying a $500 tablet to buy cheaper books is a desirable option.
I wonder if the textbook industry... (Score:4, Insightful)
... will now sue Apple for being similar to their products, taking inspiration from an existing product, and causing marketplace confusion in the textbook market.
Don't we already have that? (Score:4, Insightful)
Aren't most e-readers able to display PDF files? I am sure e-PUB has more features, but creating multi-page PDFs or converting docs using Calibre seems to work well.
BTW, If we get rid of publishers, we lose the editor. Get ready for 1,000 page epics about cats.
Re:Doesn't Matter (Score:5, Insightful)
They will still get deals where required books are overpriced and rereleased.
And DRMed so they self-destruct at the end of the semester.
Re:Don't we already have that? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but PDFs are terrible on them typically. PDFs were designed so that a document would look the same and be printed the same in various places. The problem is that they do reflow the text and options for getting them to fit on the page aren't good. You can either scale them or you can zoom in and scroll around, neither of which is particularly desirable.
Re:Overly dramatic title (Score:4, Insightful)
One problem with "self-published homemade works" is that there are few areas where these are yet of any quality.
The internet gives everyone a voice, true. This carries many benefits, but it also weeds out the structure that before prevented kooks and cranks from influencing as many as they do today.
The mechanisms by which this was accomplished are not in and of themselves wholly good, but there was good in the fact that most people with influential voices in media, in medicine, etc. were educated and trained. Today bloggers feel they are journalists and rumors/gossip too often pass for news. Fact checking, not just in media but in people's psyches as a whole, is quickly becoming extinct.
You can look at the growth in general public belief in any number of dubious conspiracy theories, in the emoting against vaccines, and armies of the dumb outraged about breastfeeding and any number of other topics which in the past were inane and not considered social advocacy issues. The internet has amplified many times over the voice of the dumb, while the voice of those qualified to speak on a topic is also amplified, it's often being drowned out.
Self-publishing of educational textbooks is not, in my opinion, going to affect this trend in the right direction.
It was said once that evil will always triumph because good is dumb. Well.. stupid triumphs because the internet age hasn't adapted for it, and smart isn't loud enough.
Re:Magic (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Magic (Score:1, Insightful)
Apple is "exciting" people about "technology" the same way Louis Vuitton is "exciting" people about, you know, apparel design and textile technology. Both companies sell an image and the fashion accessories to build it, and most people buy their products exactly as a fashion accessory.
With Apple it can actually get worse -- if you make the Apple device the dominant way you access information. That's fine and dandy, until you consider that when you buy the shiny little toy, you only get permission to access the world through it the way the designers of the technology believe it should be accessed, through their "approved" modes.
Once I heard an expression in a meeting that describes the situation very aptly -- "we're looking at your specs as if through a bent straw", said some desperate developer. If you're using Apple products, that means that you're looking at the world through a very bent straw, and Apple is doing the bending. Is it in your favor? You decide.
Of course, you can choose to be grateful and excited.
So we're to trust apple with publishing ? (Score:4, Insightful)
The very company which is going on suing spree in madness to prevent competitors ? and also famous for walled gardens and overcharging for anything ?
and why havent any of you brought this up until this comment ?
Re:Magic (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone made computers cool for the general public. The horror.
I think some of the Apple hatred stems from the fact that many techies absorb themselves in computers because it gives them a feeling of control that they lack in their daily lives. Mastering a system is gratifying on many levels. When a company offers a platform that doesn't allow or require that kind of micro-management and control, it's really like an attack on the person directly, especially when the product is popular among non-techies--many of the same people who alienated that person in the first place. And so there's resentment.
The only reason I say all this is that concerns like yours don't exist in the general populace; it doesn't even cross their minds that it would be a problem. They see the lack of open-endedness as simplification and refinement that makes the devices easier to use. As Steve Jobs use to say, something "mere mortals" could use. So I say again, I think it's awesome that the public is allowed to be excited about things like "ePub" and "digital distribution" rather than rely on nerds like us to trickle it down to the rest of the population.
Re:Houghton Mifflin responds "Not so fast" (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure some of the bigger textbooks companies pay significant kickbacks to colleges and departments to require the latest editions their overpriced crap.
No. Every time there's a textbook story on slashdot, someone posts this nonsense about "kickbacks." Every time I see it, I post a reply and ask for evidence. None is ever forthcoming.
I teach physics at a community college. I have been approached by many, many textbook reps. None has ever offered me a kickback.
Publishers do not need to offer kickbacks to get instructors to switch to the latest edition. The publisher simply stops selling the older edition, and the prof has no choice but to switch.
Re:Magic (Score:5, Insightful)
many techies absorb themselves in computers because it gives them a feeling of control that they lack in their daily lives
I don't believe you think more than skin-deep about the dangers of the "walled garden" approach. The problem with Apple is very simple -- they have delegated themselves a right to approve how do you use "their" device and a right to charge you a tithe for everything that comes to you on "their" hardware. In effect, you've relinquished ownership, and, unlike some other platforms, you have no legal way out.
Also, software freedom is only a small part of it. Think of other possibilities that the Apple approach prevents. Even if an independent business and an owner of an Apple device both think there is a business mode they both can benefit from, which mode does not go through the Apple-approved system, they cannot achieve it easily, and hence cannot exploit the full potential of the hardware platform to their advantage. This is especially bad for the person who has paid the price for the Apple device.
Re:Magic (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not just that. The reason Apple took off in consumer electronics was the iPod, and the reason it took off was not the device itself, but because Apple hammered out distribution rights with major music publishers. Paid downloads of music were an obvious idea by then, but so what? Nobody else had made it happen (not with major labels most people wanted). Digital textbooks are the same deal - the hardware is almost a given, the content is already there - it's all about distribution rights. And, yes, DRM is part and parcel with distribution rights, because most content producers DO want to get paid. (That said, if a huge customer like the UC system wants to pay for their own content development and then allow free redistribution, I agree that would be even better.)
Re:the lack of simple digital publishing tools? (Score:5, Insightful)
And by "Apple propaganda" you mean "editorialising and guesswork by the summary writer"
All Apple has done is named a place and date and mentioned it's to do with education.
The "lack of publishing tools" thing is not from Apple.
But still, easier just to bash them based on things they didn't actually say. Carry on.
Re:Magic (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree. I learnt to install Solaris before I have ever installed Dos/Windows. My computer throughout college was my trusty Apple //gs and the OSF/1 box with the huge black and white 21" monochrome monitor - damn, it was a fine monitor. I learnt to manage VMS, UNIX, installed Slackware Linux from 50+ floppies. I am one of the few rare people to have actually bought a copy of WordPerfect for Linux :) Used Gentoo for years and years, building from stage 1 when that was all that was available.
I still run OpenBSD at home as my outside facing server.
And I find Macs easy to use. For the stuff I need to do, it's easy. For the technical stuff, I can get right into the innards of it for the most part. Opensource stuff is downright easy. MacPorts if available. Otherwise, ./configure and make. Built a couple of hackintoshes for fun.
The OP was just being stupid. MP3s have been un-DRM"ed for quite a few years now - Apple was the one pushing for it, but of course, OP conveniently forgets that.
Apple also contributes back - they made so much improvements into KDE's browser that KDE just basically re-absorbed back in the entire webkit, among other things.
Re:the future (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazingly enough, "Apple fans" tend not to claim those things. The'll usually claim that Apple made a particular niche popular - portable music players, all in one computers, tablet computers, online music stores etc. Rarely do they ever claim that Apple "invented" them - because they obviously didn't.
Apple haters, however, will claim that's what Apple fans believe and say, and then "righteously" yell at them for "being wrong".
It's getting old.
Re:Magic (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is "exciting" people about "technology" the same way Louis Vuitton is "exciting" people about, you know, apparel design and textile technology. Both companies sell an image and the fashion accessories to build it, and most people buy their products exactly as a fashion accessory.
I am periodically reminded why headhunters don't lurk on Slashdot to find the next generation of innovating CEOs.
Re:Magic (Score:0, Insightful)
YAY SOCKPUPPETS! Keep breaking them social norms and then complain how everyone is out to get you!
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2625414&cid=38728758 [slashdot.org]
by Overly Critical Guy (663429) Alter Relationship on Tuesday January 17, @03:05PM (#38728758)
Dude, what is wrong with you? You sound like every stereotypically angry PC gamer I've ever met. Drivers really are waste of time on PCs, and someday, the idea that people manually updated drivers and defragmented hard drives and all the other crap they do will seem as archaic as hand-cranking to start a Model T.
I think the cause of reactions like yours is that some people don't have control in their lives, so they seek it in PCs, because mastering the upkeep required for a PC gives you that missing feeling of control. Having that feeling taken away from you by non-PCs threatens you on a core level, reminding you of the lack of control in your real life, so you snap back to protect it. Maybe that's not you, but damn, there are a lot of people like this.
Re:Magic (Score:5, Insightful)
many techies absorb themselves in computers because it gives them a feeling of control that they lack in their daily lives
I don't believe you think more than skin-deep about the dangers of the "walled garden" approach. The problem with Apple is very simple -- they have delegated themselves a right to approve how do you use "their" device and a right to charge you a tithe for everything that comes to you on "their" hardware. In effect, you've relinquished ownership, and, unlike some other platforms, you have no legal way out.
Game consoles have had "walled gardens" (ugh, that term) for decades, approving all software that appears on their devices, and the world hasn't fallen apart. To the contrary, consoles surpassed PCs as the primary gaming platforms several years ago. The world also hasn't fallen apart since Apple began approving software on its devices; in fact, iOS remains #1 in customer satisfaction surveys.
Clearly, non-techies prefer these kinds of platforms. Like I said before, the issues you raise are not even considered a problem outside of tech forums. Normal people don't care if they can't install absolutely everything under the sun, because they wouldn't want to even if they could. Nobody is putting a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to buy an iPad, so the victim angle doesn't work either.
You need to understand that it's not a black-and-white situation. Apple platforms may be perfect for other people but not for you. Just because you don't like Apple doesn't mean nobody else should use their platforms and that the world should be rid of their evil. It just means other people use those platforms and you use whatever you use, and the world keeps on turning.
Also, software freedom is only a small part of it. Think of other possibilities that the Apple approach prevents. Even if an independent business and an owner of an Apple device both think there is a business mode they both can benefit from, which mode does not go through the Apple-approved system, they cannot achieve it easily, and hence cannot exploit the full potential of the hardware platform to their advantage. This is especially bad for the person who has paid the price for the Apple device.
If Apple isn't meeting their needs, the independent business can choose to use a different platform. Nobody is forced to use an Apple device, so again, the "freedom" argument is silly and really comes down to techies trying to maintain control in order to feel a sense of mastery over something, in my opinion.
Re:Magic (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't believe you think more than skin-deep about the dangers of the "walled garden" approach. The problem with Apple is very simple -- they have delegated themselves a right to approve how do you use "their" device and a right to charge you a tithe for everything that comes to you on "their" hardware. In effect, you've relinquished ownership, and, unlike some other platforms, you have no legal way out.
Oh don't be such a drama queen. There have been walled garden computers since at least the games consoles of the 1980s. And still the consumers are quite happy with them. There have been open consoles, and they've all failed. Given the choice of gaming on the "walled garden" consoles and open PCs, in the end the walled garden won majority share.
This "open" good; "walled garden" bad thing is ideology. And like all ideologies, it's wrong.
This is especially bad for the person who has paid the price for the Apple device.
Funnily enough the iPhone owner doesn't agree. He's more than happy with his virus free platform where he gets an enormous choice of quality apps in the 99c - $9.99 range.
Freetards amount to about 0.01% of the population. And they're the only ones that have negative views of a "walled garden".
Re:Magic (Score:4, Insightful)
I think some of the Apple hatred stems from the fact that many techies absorb themselves in computers because it gives them a feeling of control that they lack in their daily lives.
The iPhone was loved around here until it became a mass-market product. Once it reached that point a new underdog had to be found. The 'hatred', in many cases, is really just a form of hipsterism.
Re:hammered out distribution rights (Score:5, Insightful)
Odd that this article is specifically about "Textbooks". It should be about "books".
No one yet has really served up the Amazon Killer. But it's lurking. Without going all TinFoil Hat, it's Print On Demand.
Sorry, the reason people want e- text books is for the size and weight savings. I would have killed to be able to carry around my entire semester's reading in one hand.
Re:Magic (Score:5, Insightful)
Quoth siddesu: "In effect, you've relinquished ownership, and, unlike some other platforms, you have no legal way out."
So, you don't think there's any connotation of "freedom" even remotely attached to the above sentence, written by you 40 minutes before your subsequent response ? 'Cos I do; and contrary to your subsequent claim, it seems to me that you're very much making the argument that the user is not free to use the device how (s)he wants to.
So, either you're poorly expressing yourself, you're a bare-faced liar, or you have an agenda. Which is it ?
Simon.
Re:Leave my textbooks alone! (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that Khan Academy is a good indicator that digital education can work when implemented properly. Arithmetic, Algebra, and Calculus instruction shouldn't need to be updated every year. They come out with new editions with the same crap rearranged and reformatted slightly. Not to mention all that information is available for free on Wikipedia. Also, interactive exercises are exactly what those types of books are missing. Textbooks are a sham - they screw K-12 out of taxpayer money and they screw students out of money in higher education. They're just like the music industry - clinging onto a business model that was once necessary to get material out to the masses that is no longer needed given new forms of communication. Just because in the future textbooks won't be the standard educational item they are today (replaced by iPads) doesn't mean that you won't be able to find those types of resources in print. I'll give you a hint: try a library.
Teach a man to fish and he can fish - but if you videotape it and put it on YouTube, you can teach anyone in the world to fish.