So why couldn't textbooks be done on a laptop instead of an ipad?

[binary solo]

I think computer hardware companies who's names don't start with "A" and their logo isn;t a half eaten piece of fruit will realise that straight tablets aren't where their success will lie. I think ultrabooks with touchscreens are where the non-fruity hardware makers will see success, they'll be in tablets because they can't leave that to the frutiy company alone. But the fruity company won't put a touch screen on their laptops because that will cannibalise their own tablet market.

My textbook is the world-wide web, esp Google scholar. Schools really should make use of Google scholar and actually subscribe to many of the major research journals. Put students on the cutting edge. Textbooks are always years behind the forefront of research in any subject. And e-textbooks (and i ones too) will be the same.

Textbooks, as such, should become a thing of by-gone ages students should seek out information from diverse sources and come together to talk about what they found and where. What are the controversies on a subject and what are the universally agreed truths. Textbooks don't teach you to think, seek anbd learn, they teach you to memorise and regurgitate.

I defy anyone to write their masters or PhD thesis on a tablet without a keyboard attachment, in which case it's a low powered laptop in drag.