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Apple Discontinuing iBooks Author on July 1, Encourages Writers to Transition to Pages
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Madness, I say. Love iBooks Author, loathe Pages. Feels like another step (albeit small) in the continued devolution of Apple. Bring back the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers.
The replacement of the iPhone product will end the iPhone someday. It will have to be some leap frog level mobile device that starts with the "Apple" name.
It’ll just be called “Phone” eventually.
I liked iBooks Author, but it seemed like it hadn’t changed at all since it was introduced. I’m not sure why they didn’t do more with it. Seems like a wasted opportunity.
It’ll just be called “Phone” eventually.
I liked iBooks Author, but it seemed like it hadn’t changed at all since it was introduced. I’m not sure why they didn’t do more with it. Seems like a wasted opportunity.
There was talk of Apple circumventing an iPhone trademark in Brazil I think - by renaming the iPhone the Apple Phone. It's all gone quiet on that front lately though. This started when Apple were forced to call swerve the iTV name due to the UK TV Channel of the same name. If they did make the change they'd have to do the iPad too which is another major thing.
iBooks Author is just another in a long line of Apple products introduced on the stage and quietly allowed to fester and die. Apple really aren't bothered even if it were a popular product, if their focus isn't there it's in danger of being wiped out any time.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
I would love for Apple to rebrand all their consumer stuff that doesn't run macOS with the "i".
It is so iconic (no pun intended).
The iMac Pro should be the Macintosh. I think it should have ALWAYS been that.
Then the consumer iMac would be a Surface Studio-like giant iPad Pro.
Then iBook for consumer laptops, and switch the iPad Pro to Apple Pad. Ehhh, maybe.
I'm spitballing here.
It is so iconic (no pun intended).
The iMac Pro should be the Macintosh. I think it should have ALWAYS been that.
Then the consumer iMac would be a Surface Studio-like giant iPad Pro.
Then iBook for consumer laptops, and switch the iPad Pro to Apple Pad. Ehhh, maybe.
I'm spitballing here.
I thought also it was a cool app, but maybe apple will port the remaining functions into pages.
If apple plans on developing pages more that would be great!
Why not think it might be a good thing? Maybe apple decided to look at their iwork apps again. You never know...
If apple plans on developing pages more that would be great!
Why not think it might be a good thing? Maybe apple decided to look at their iwork apps again. You never know...
I feel like this is a lesson about choosing the software you use wisely. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is sometimes, by far, the best way to go. If the authors decide to ditch it, then someone else can, and often will, take over and continue to develop it. And if no one does, it still exists, the source code still exists (there will be a copy archived away somewhere on the internet), and you can still continue to use it, can still compile it to a new OS etc.
I do. I'm editor for a monthly club magazine and love its ease of use and export quality. I just print each issue as a PDF and send it off to the publisher (who has no trouble printing it out). Pages was problematic during Apple's transition to make the iWork suite work the same on Mac, mobile and cloud. But it's back to the functionality it used to have. I'm quite happy with it. For the heck of it, I tried creating an entire issue solely on the iPad and it turned out great (though it took more effort).
I agree, and I use pandoc a lot, actually (and did norff/troff back in the day), but I also know that writing in a non-WYSIWYG markup language is a skill that not everybody is up for learning.
Although it was long-neglected by Apple, iBooks Author was still a nifty piece of software.
Forget Pages, though. You'll be far better off coding a good old-fashioned reflowable ePub by hand. And don't even think about trying to design a fixed-layout ePub in Pages.
Forget Pages, though. You'll be far better off coding a good old-fashioned reflowable ePub by hand. And don't even think about trying to design a fixed-layout ePub in Pages.
Pages 10 is fantastic. It easily made my over 700 page novel consistent. iBooks Author was better for multimedia publications and massively inferior for technical publications that uses TeXLive.
I just want Apple to add full support for EPub 3.2 inside Pages and iBooks so when you export to ePub it doesn't remove some of your efforts to conform to the 3.0 standard.
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Horse crap. Pages is far better than hand crafting ePub. I did that with Calibre and it's only use now for me is revision coding meta tag so iTunesProducer doesn't think its the same revision 1.0 always--revision history needs to be added to Pages.
Pages produces a far more consistent novel now than Calibre. I won't waste several hundred dollars on a certain application for ePubs.
I just want Apple to add full support for EPub 3.2 inside Pages and iBooks so when you export to ePub it doesn't remove some of your efforts to conform to the 3.0 standard.
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Horse crap. Pages is far better than hand crafting ePub. I did that with Calibre and it's only use now for me is revision coding meta tag so iTunesProducer doesn't think its the same revision 1.0 always--revision history needs to be added to Pages.
Pages produces a far more consistent novel now than Calibre. I won't waste several hundred dollars on a certain application for ePubs.
Apple is getting quite a reputation for abandoning software applications. And often when they are quite well-liked. Aperature, iWeb, Quartz Composer, Shake, and iBook Author to name just a few. I really like the ecosystem, but they really do tend to cr*p on their users every few years, and it's getting a bit tiresome. It's too bad they don't "donate" the applications to the software community by letting them go Open Source. Had they done that with Aperature, it would still be alive and well today.
"Apple is getting quite a reputation for abandoning software applications."
What do you mean 'getting'? Apple has always dumped software when they get bored with it. Claris Resolve. Claris Impact, Clarisworks/Appleworks, MacDraw, MacPaint, them dumping software goes way back. I'm surprised they keep Filemaker going.
They write software only to show off the hardware. Once it's outlived that purpose, it gets dumped and they are on to whatever they think is the next hot thing. And they have been honest about it; they are a hardware company.
I have an OS-9 box I keep going in case I need an old Appleworks file again. My dissertation was in Claris Impact and made heavy use of publish and subscribe. Good thing it's printed out.
What do you mean 'getting'? Apple has always dumped software when they get bored with it. Claris Resolve. Claris Impact, Clarisworks/Appleworks, MacDraw, MacPaint, them dumping software goes way back. I'm surprised they keep Filemaker going.
They write software only to show off the hardware. Once it's outlived that purpose, it gets dumped and they are on to whatever they think is the next hot thing. And they have been honest about it; they are a hardware company.
I have an OS-9 box I keep going in case I need an old Appleworks file again. My dissertation was in Claris Impact and made heavy use of publish and subscribe. Good thing it's printed out.
Using Calibre is not the same as coding by hand. Not by a long stretch.
But I can see where Pages would be useful to self-published authors who don't have the time, money, or know-how to code by hand.
Regarding Pages. I use it extensively. I find it a great word processor, even working in the MS world. A few minor hitches sharing with Word users but doable. Keynote is another incredible, corporate orientated piece of software.
I agree with the people who lement the demise of their software. Because they are a hardware company, they make no bones about dumping ( or not updating) really good software.
As a teacher I used iweb with students ( loved it, easy to use and easy to teach). Photographers loved Aperture. IBook Author is fantastic. Pages and Keynote are strong pieces of software. Apple Notes has become a strong option for Evernote etc ( if they keep improving it!)
The downside of Apple software is - will they keep updating or improving it. I certainly hope so.
I agree with the people who lement the demise of their software. Because they are a hardware company, they make no bones about dumping ( or not updating) really good software.
As a teacher I used iweb with students ( loved it, easy to use and easy to teach). Photographers loved Aperture. IBook Author is fantastic. Pages and Keynote are strong pieces of software. Apple Notes has become a strong option for Evernote etc ( if they keep improving it!)
The downside of Apple software is - will they keep updating or improving it. I certainly hope so.
Almost as though they had plans for the iBooks name
Good catch, sublunar.
I hear what you're saying...
Azrael.
I'm quite a fan of Pages, but hard to see the interactivity coming there. Same goes for cross-platform publishing, that would be essential.
For digital publishing H5mag is pretty awesome. Cross platform and web based. Looks nice too, example: https://explorer-mag.nationalgeographic.org/adventurer_january_february_2019/cover
For digital publishing H5mag is pretty awesome. Cross platform and web based. Looks nice too, example: https://explorer-mag.nationalgeographic.org/adventurer_january_february_2019/cover
iWeb was so easy to use. One of those tent pole 'i' pieces of software they dumped. Shame.
iBook showed promise.
Aperture has its fans. (Or had...)
I like using Apple notes. I peck into it all the time on iPhone.
Pages and Keynote. I love those. (My iMac's fans don't kick up when I use those...)
Azrael.
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I use Pages. Decent software. I like it and keynote.
But they didn't drape themselves in glory going from the old version to the new.
Azrael.
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I wish Apple would make a decent suite. They had the iTools and the making of their M$ 'office' suite.
I do wish they'd kept iWeb...and iBooks...
But they've never really....
Azrael.
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Are there any people here that are familiar with Kindle in Motion books? There aren't too many of them but the sole Harry Potter book that has been made is the single most beautiful digital book I've ever seen. I haven't seen anything from iBooks that is that nice.
I wonder if the capabilities of iBooks has been surpassed by Kindle in Motion books. It is all proprietary software but Kindle has a dominant marketshare in the USA.
I wonder if the capabilities of iBooks has been surpassed by Kindle in Motion books. It is all proprietary software but Kindle has a dominant marketshare in the USA.