Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple's 'Education Announcement' Scheduled for January 19 in New York City

HobeSoundDarryl said:
Anybody want to bet on an announcement of fairly broad availability of academic textbooks for iDevices... but at about the same pricing as existing printed editions?

I bet the pitch is convenience and reducing the (backpack) load over cost savings (including a lack of ability to re-sell the textbooks when the semester ends).

I'm sure some students will love the convenience aspect (and yet another argument to drive whey they need an iPad/iPhone/iPod).
Click to expand...
Honestly, I wouldn't be shocked. Textbooks, and I'm open to being wrong here, are as expensive as they are because of the extra time it takes to get the content together and right and fit into specific studies. So if they're inherently supposed to be more expensive, then why not?

RalfTheDog said:
I would say Digital Ink is technology that is too new. It is not yet capable of doing those things you listed (or not very well).
Click to expand...

I know this is really random and off-topic, but do you know that Apple was named Apple because it was Steve Jobs' favorite fruit, or is your sig just for the sake of the tongue-in-cheek joke?
 
acidfast7 said:
please! no iPad-based textbooks for kids. the glare is horrible and strains the eyes.

if distributing textbooks please use eInk.

think of the kids for God's sake!
Click to expand...

kids sit and stare at a computer or tv most of the day so i don't see this being much different. if schools adopt this maybe they can she energy by lowering the lights.
 
Beware of trolls trying to take over this thread! :eek:


Regarding the original post, the rumor was true. :D

I would add to it the following possibilities, some of these you may have already thought of:

- Apple may provide iPads to students at a reduced price, most likely bundle it with some kind of textbook discount deal.
- Apple may donate iPads to qualifying educational institutions.
- Apple may release new apps aimed at education, including an app for home-schoolers.
- Apple may have expanded iTunes U to provide free educations for school age students, including complementary educations, and even home-schooling.
- Apple may give away iPads and iTunes Gift Cards to students, as a way to motivate them to study.

Let's see what comes a reality... In 8 more days!
 
Amazing Iceman said:
eInk is old technology, good to simulate paper. 21st Century books are interactive, loaded with visual illustrations, video clips, audio, and much more. eInk is incapable to do the above.
Click to expand...

eink isn't old..... Came out in 1997. Not that old. I agree that Eink can't be interactive. But it can be loaded with visual effects, video clips, probably audio, etc. It's just not there yet.

The reason why eink is the future is because it uses way less energy and it mimics text and pictures on paper quite well.

I've seen a video of eink being able to do video clips. It looks just like the scene of Harry Potter with the newspapers.

Now, would you prefer a video clip that looks like it's playing on paper or a regular old LCD screen?
 
This is MacRumors so speculation is okay, right? If iBooks is going all ePub3 (the new spec: http://idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-overview.html), which would make for some dynamic textbooks, might iWork get some new features to do for iBooks what iWeb tried to do for the internet?

I know iWeb was disliked for its bloated code, but it was a very simple way to get content on the web. Perhaps Pages or Keynote might get enhanced ePub export/sharing, or even integration with Newsstand. This could be great for homebrew educators who love to share resources.

My wish, although there's no reason to think that Apple would do this, is for some sort of iPads+Mac+projector/IWB environment for interactive content/assessment, etc. The quality of existing software is so poor (like the shameful SMART Notebook) that if Apple were to produce something like Keynote that worked with any IWB and a bunch of iPads, there would be so much potential. Base it on HTML5 and you've got easy web deployment too.

Back to iBooks; presumably there's got to be some way to read these eTextbooks on a computer (and many iPad owners run Windows) so perhaps Safari will play a part? ePub3 seems to be basically web code anyway.

As an educator, I hope Apple have tons of ambition for education.
 
codyc815 said:
Stop denying that eink is the future!

Oh, and fax machines are coming back, email is too unreliable and staring at a screen is bad for your eyes. Paper is 10x better. Infact, from now on all computer screens should be eink.
Click to expand...

"Look at the pretty colors..."
 
BC2009 said:
I would love it if my kids could carry all their textbooks on iPad. They are in grade school now, but once they move on to middle school and high school this sort of thing should be in full swing. This sure would have been cool to have when I was a kid -- back then we were rocking the Apple IIe in the computer labs until I got to high school and they got the budget to buy the Macintosh IIfx machines for the computer science lab.
Click to expand...

I'd be rather scared.
Kids getting assaulted and brutalized just for their friggin iPads... No thanks. Don't know where you live though... But in some places / countries it'd be a dumb idea !
 
RalfTheDog said:
I would say Digital Ink is technology that is too new. It is not yet capable of doing those things you listed (or not very well).
Click to expand...

New? it's been around for more than 20 years! :eek:
The problem is that it was not designed to refresh quickly, only to passively construct a page. It's currently too slow to refresh, and would consume a lot of energy if it was able to refresh fast enough to play a video at 30fps.
 
soco said:
I know this is really random and off-topic, but do you know that Apple was named Apple because it was Steve Jobs' favorite fruit, or is your sig just for the sake of the tongue-in-cheek joke?
Click to expand...

pomegranate.

RE: the cost of textbooks, how about selling the textbooks for the current cost of the book minus what you would get back selling it to the bookstore. The publishers would make about the same money (eliminating the used market) and you could keep your textbooks for life.
 
RalfTheDog said:
I would say Digital Ink is technology that is too new. It is not yet capable of doing those things you listed (or not very well).
Click to expand...

I agree^ I've seen video playing on eink, I've seen a touch screen eink device. I've seen colors on eink now.

We just have to wait until it gets better.
 
thenerdal said:
I've seen a video of eink being able to do video clips. It looks just like the scene of Harry Potter with the newspapers.

Now, would you prefer a video clip that looks like it's playing on paper or a regular old LCD screen?
Click to expand...

video within a video... that should look a lot like Inception too, doesn't it ?
 
rdowns said:
How does that relate to education?
Click to expand...

Well, downloading the likes of Atlases, Encyclopaedias, all of which would be more interactive than a paper based or web based version, for a start. Kids could use them at home on the family Mac, alongside Pages or Word, while using the iOS based version at school.
 
Amazing Iceman said:
New? it's been around for more than 20 years! :eek:
The problem is that it was not designed to refresh quickly, only to passively construct a page. It's currently too slow to refresh, and would consume a lot of energy if it was able to refresh fast enough to play a video at 30fps.
Click to expand...

Eink has been out since 1997. 15 years. I've seen video playing on eink, so it can refresh quickly now.
 
OmegaRed1723 said:
Can you imagine how expensive textbooks are going to be if Apple still takes its customary 30 percent? I'll stick to scouring eBay & Amazon for used texts at 1/6 the original cost.
Click to expand...

Maybe that will be the big thing: no 30% cut?
 
Amazing Iceman said:
New? it's been around for more than 20 years! :eek:
The problem is that it was not designed to refresh quickly, only to passively construct a page. It's currently too slow to refresh, and would consume a lot of energy if it was able to refresh fast enough to play a video at 30fps.
Click to expand...

Give it time, I know it has been in labs for quite some time. Now that the patents have expired, lots of money is getting dumped into improving it.
 
JPark said:
You mean the kids carrying 30lb backpacks home from middle school, often using one should strap?
Click to expand...

With the obesity problem in this nation they should be carrying 30lb backpacks to keep them in shape.
 
Man I sincerely hope this doesn't open the door for schoolyard thieves and more bullying.

Can you imagine what it's going to be like with most kids walking around with an iPad ?
 
smulji said:
With the obesity problem in this nation they should be carrying 30lb backpacks to keep them in shape.
Click to expand...

And break their backs or give them scholiosis ? I don't think so.

Instead, feed them right, and spend quality time with your kids, so they don't have to live inside their bedrooms listening to music and playing video games to compensate for their feeling of being lonely and ignored.

School lunches are nowhere near healthy and tasty. A lot of parents prefer to give their kids money to buy lunch, rather than preparing a good healthy meal for them to take in a lunch box.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back