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twesterm on 01 February 2010
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famousringo said:
twesterm said:
famousringo said:
@ twesterm

Is approval really such a barrier? Apples approving almost 10,000 apps a month. My employer has it's own app, our content management server has a client app. Custom apps seem pretty easy to make and get approved to me. I think that the amount of control Apple exerts over the App Store is highly overstated.

I thought this thread was going to be about students transforming 100 lbs of textbooks into 1.5 lbs of iPad. As a digital distro cheerleader, I'm excited at the prospect of rich content books and periodicals being offered online.

I have no idea what the approval process it, I just know it can't be as quick and effecient as not having to go through the approval process.

Believe me, I love the idea of digital distro but I would never want my textbooks on the iPad.

  1. Since the iPad doesn't have a stylus, I couldn't write and make notes in them
  2. Hello eye strain
  3. I can't sell the textbooks back (though if they're cheaper, it might be worth it)

Anyways, what professor's make you bring books to class and how many books do you have to carry per day?

I was a computer science major and rarely had to carry a book to class, it was mainly just notes.  The wife did computer science, math, and English and she had to have books for English class, but nothing too bad.  She's a small person and handled it pretty well.

1. Can you type? Details are thin on what Apple's iBooks will be able to do, but I'm hoping to see a note function not unlike the one available in MS Word. I'm not sure how easy it will be to type with a touchscreen, but even two-finger pecking should be good enough to compete with what fits in the margin of a book.

2. Not much that can be done about people who have problems reading off an LCD. E-ink displays can't effectively display the colour needed for rich content like graphs and pictures, which is a big restriction for educational print. Luckily, there is a device which may allow people who can't move away from the hardcopy to enjoy some of the benefits of digital distro:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso_Book_Machine

3. This is always a sticking point with digital distro in any medium. It's no secret that the textbook publishers want to kill used book sales even more than game publishers want to kill used games, so they'd better be prepared to sacrifice some revenue to the consumer. They stand to save a lot in publication costs, overruns and returns, but they won't earn those savings if they don't deal the consumer in on the savings.

How many books you haul around in school has a lot to do with what you study and your own personal study habits. It's true that most classes don't require a textbook, but a lot of people would like to have the textbook there anyway. Others take their books with them so that they can study in-between or after classes. Whether or not it's strictly necessary, you see a lot of people running around campus hauling sacks full of books, and it can cause health issues. The iBook Store offers a way for students to take all their books with them without warping their spine.

I also expect the files to be available on more devices that just the iPad, so if the student feels that an iTunes-equipped laptop would allow them to get more work done, or that an iPod Touch is easier to bring along, their textbooks will be avilable on those platforms too.

1.  You can type on the iPad, but not quickly enough to make note taking worthwhile.  I assume you can make notations and highlight text in its eBooks (I know the nook lets you, I assume the Kindle does too), but it's generally slow and unwiedly.  I can't imagine the iPad keyboard making that better.

2.  I'm pretty sure everyone gets eye strain from LCD, that's just the way our eyes work.  Virtual ink can't do colors yet, or at least not anything you can really buy.  They're already heavy at work on that and we're actually expected to have the Harry Potter newspapers in 5-ish years using the virtual ink.  Also, I don't need color to read text...

Also, my nook can display pictures, they're just in grayscale and they don't actually look bad at all.

I agree carrying books vary from person to person, but that's just really up to the person.  The iPad as it is isn't useful for a full day of classes anyways because I would love to see someone get a full days worth of reading, notes, ect on that things battery. 

Anyways, where was I, ah, yeah, only idiots carry that many books on them and obviously haven't actually put any thought in their schedule.  I knew people that carried all their books with them and they totally didn't have to.  There were *numerous* places all around campus where people could put their books, they just didn't take advantage of that because they would rather carry their overflowing backpack and complain.

Again, as it is, the iPad just isn't good for the typical college student--

  1. The book has to be on the book store
  2. I had many professors that would print their own books and require you to buy those, good luck seeing those on iTunes.
  3. You don't get to buy back
  4. You can't effeciently take notes on the iPad.  Every report I've read of the keyboard says it's about as easy to use as the iPhone.  It gets the job done, but it's not good for much beyond texts and short emails.

Don't get me wrong, I think digital is the future but I don't think the iPad is the thing that's going to get us there.  I don't think it's even a good first step.  It does a lot of stuff and fills a lot of shoes, but for the price it's just a terrible gadget.