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ibooks-author-icon.png
Support for interactive e-books created with Apple's iBooks Author software may be coming soon to the iPhone, based on recent changes to iTunes Store wording noticed by Macworld's Serenity Caldwell. While iBooks Author e-books have been limited to the iPad since the software's January 2012 launch, Mac support will be coming as part of Apple's launch of the full iBooks experience in OS X Mavericks, and iPhone support may also be in the works.
In the past, viewing an iBooks Author-created ebook online or via iTunes displayed the following message under the heading of 'requirements': "This book can only be viewed using iBooks 3.0 or later on an iPad. iOS 5.1 or later is required."

While this message still shows up on the Web, visit an iBooks Author book in the iTunes Store and you'll see the following: "To view this book, you must have an iOS device with iBooks 3.0 or later and iOS 5.1 or later, or a Mac with iBooks 1.0 or later and OS X 10.9 or later." A request for comment from Apple regarding the wording change went unanswered on Wednesday, and as of this writing, the iPhone still can't download iBooks Author ebooks despite the text's claims to the contrary.
ibooks_author_book_ios_device.jpg
Caldwell notes that while the new description certainly is not proof that iBooks Author support is coming to the iPhone, the change to a generic "iOS device" description is intriguing given that it is an inaccurate description under current iBooks compatibility.

As for how iBooks Author books would appear on the iPhone, Caldwell argues that the existing reflowable portrait mode for iPad offers a good basis for adaptation to the iPhone's screen, with resizable text wrapping alongside floating interactive elements that are key features of the iBooks Author format.

A redesigned iBooks app for iOS could be introduced alongside the final unveiling of iOS 7 at next Tuesday's media event, with the updated app presumably becoming available on the same day iOS 7 is released to the public.

Update: Apple has updated the wording on iBooks Author books to once again specify compatibility with just the iPad.

Article Link: Support for Interactive E-Books Made with iBooks Author May Be Coming Soon to iPhone [Updated]
 

musika

macrumors 65816
Sep 2, 2010
1,285
459
New York
This would have to be done really well, due to the lack of screen real-estate. Personally, I find iBooks Author books a little confusing to operate on the iPad as it is sometimes.

Hopefully this is thought through and integrated well.
 

chirpie

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2010
646
183
I always thought with a little tweaking these ebooks are just as worthwhile as half the apps in the store. The downside is, none of my clients want their stuff in the books store, they want it in the app store, so I never get to explore this side of the Apple ecosystem...
 

canman4PM

macrumors 6502
Mar 8, 2012
299
30
Kelowna BC
This would have to be done really well, due to the lack of screen real-estate. Personally, I find iBooks Author books a little confusing to operate on the iPad as it is sometimes.

Hopefully this is thought through and integrated well.

Integration across the entire Apple ecosystem will certainly make the app and its content more useful/usable. But you're right: it's gotta be done right.
 

blue22

macrumors 6502a
Oct 15, 2010
505
18
would be a nice feature...

This would be great to have for the iPhone, but I suspect when the screen jumps up another size level we'll start to see the benefits of this feature taking shape.

And I also agree with a couple of other comments that, either way of it, it needs to be "done right" for it to be a meaningful feature..
 

MattJessop

macrumors regular
Apr 24, 2007
215
43
Manchester, UK
I don't know if it says something about how little I've used such content that I didn't even know you couldn't view them on the iphone, haha...
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,545
6,042
I wish Apple had been a bit quicker with getting publishers on board - as is I only have one semester left in Uni and it looks like I'll never have had a chance to learn required material from an iBook.

Oh well - I have a partially written iBook on programming... Might finish that up and try selling it.
 

Joeldl

macrumors newbie
May 15, 2009
4
1
Portrait mode

I have three interactive textbooks in the iBookstore; I disabled portrait mode on all of them. It was just too confusing to use the interactive elements with the way Apple implemented the UI. And it was twice as much work to do portrait and landscape.
 

DrFreeman

macrumors member
Apr 9, 2010
44
0
AppleTV

What if the intention here is actually Apple TV? imagine having interactive sessions made from iBook author available on your Apple TV that you could move around using gestures (rumoured)?

I know this would be like a grandé web page but I thought it worth considering...
 

macquariumguy

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2002
857
361
Sarasota FL
I wonder if authors will be able to restrict their books to iPads and computers. I have a couple books in the bookstore that would be unreadable on a phone sized screen.
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
This would have to be done really well, due to the lack of screen real-estate. Personally, I find iBooks Author books a little confusing to operate on the iPad as it is sometimes.

Hopefully this is thought through and integrated well.

Could work when the iPod is attached to a TV. iPhone connected to TV screen has plenty of screen space.


I wonder if authors will be able to restrict their books to iPads and computers. I have a couple books in the bookstore that would be unreadable on a phone sized screen.
You can connect an iPhone to a non-phone sized screen. And if there is some information in your book that I need right now, and all I have is my iPhone, why would you want to prevent me from going to the page and zooming in to make it readable?
 

Greenfarmhouse

macrumors newbie
Sep 5, 2013
1
0
Weakness in iBooks Author

No serious academic work will be done in a format that doesn't allow easy footnotes or endnotes, which are bread and butter for university level texts. I know there are workarounds but they are desperately bad - it should be drag and drop from Pages or Word. I couldn't write an e-book for undergraduates on this programme unless it's sorted.
 

Banyan Bruce

macrumors regular
Jun 8, 2009
148
13
Devon, UK
iBooks on ALL platforms...

The real educational world is still dominated the CHEAP and CHEERFUL windows laptops and PC and Tablets.....put iBooks on ALL platforms and give this tool some real educational value rather than a hook for folk to switch to iPads. :confused:

Cash strapped educational organisations simply can't afford to play this game and as a result the educational value of this knowledge collation and sharing tool is lost. iBooks is a great idea and has the potential to kill FLASH for ever, but it needs broader accessibly and a wider platform base. :(
 

jayducharme

macrumors 601
Jun 22, 2006
4,517
5,936
The thick of it
iBooks is a great idea and has the potential to kill FLASH for ever, but it needs broader accessibly and a wider platform base. :(

Agreed. I just completed publication of a book, and I wanted it to be also distributed in ePub format. What a freaking nightmare! Every distributor has their own ePub implementation. It's similar to the early days of the Web, when every browser had its own implementation of HTML. I could easily export an ePub version of the book on my Mac, and it looked great on my iPhone and iPad -- but that ePub version wasn't accepted by any other distributor. The version that was accepted screwed up all my formatting. What a mess.

iBooks Author has the potential (through its simple HTML5 engine) to level the play field. But I expect that other digital publishers would have to be dragged kicking and screaming into cooperating with Apple.
 

Mums

Suspended
Oct 4, 2011
667
559
Agreed. I just completed publication of a book, and I wanted it to be also distributed in ePub format. What a freaking nightmare! Every distributor has their own ePub implementation. It's similar to the early days of the Web, when every browser had its own implementation of HTML. I could easily export an ePub version of the book on my Mac, and it looked great on my iPhone and iPad -- but that ePub version wasn't accepted by any other distributor. The version that was accepted screwed up all my formatting. What a mess.

iBooks Author has the potential (through its simple HTML5 engine) to level the play field. But I expect that other digital publishers would have to be dragged kicking and screaming into cooperating with Apple.

E-book publishing is a total debacle. iBooks Author was so promising but it's lingered and has been allowed to become irrelevant or useless except for iPad. It is by far the best ebook creation software, but for what? You need to be able to sell it on Amazon and Amazon doesn't accept the format, and has a ridiculously low upload size limit - like 20 megabytes or something absurd which prohibits including photographs / graphics / illustrations. Nook is a bit better, but no great solution either.
 

sennekuyl

macrumors regular
Jul 28, 2010
216
0
I wonder if authors will be able to restrict their books to iPads and computers. I have a couple books in the bookstore that would be unreadable on a phone sized screen.

The thing is it is probable there are some that could easily be viewed on an iphone, all it needs is an 'add iphone support' checkbox. The majority (2 out of 3) of the few iBA books I've seen would have no problems being read on an iphone, only one was the images requiring extra display to be valuable. If the box was ticked inadvertantly, 1) lower quality books would be rated lower anyway --- content is king, 2) it shouldn't take much to republish as an update without the check, which a modicum of QA should uncover.

The arbitrary-ness of the device requirements from Apple is frustrating at times. I do a fair amount of reading on the 4S, far more than I thought I would when the device was purchased. I laughed at the idea of reading on such a small screen. Now, I'm frustrated by the limitations that have nothing to do with the device or my capability, but Apple's. :sad panda:
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
No serious academic work will be done in a format that doesn't allow easy footnotes or endnotes, which are bread and butter for university level texts. I know there are workarounds but they are desperately bad - it should be drag and drop from Pages or Word. I couldn't write an e-book for undergraduates on this programme unless it's sorted.

Why would you want footnotes in an eBook?

"Footnote" means there is some text that you don't want in the middle of the main text, but somewhere nearby. In a printed page, "nearby" is at the bottom of the page, or at the end of a chapter. But in an eBook, "nearby" can be a view that pops up when you click on it.
 

charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
The real educational world is still dominated the CHEAP and CHEERFUL windows laptops and PC and Tablets.....put iBooks on ALL platforms and give this tool some real educational value rather than a hook for folk to switch to iPads. :confused:

(

When major school districts find the money to buy iPads, and flat said its because the other choices suck, well Apple is going to see little reason to stress over getting iBooks on all platforms
 
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