CourseSmart Looks Ahead at eTextbooks on Apple's Tablet

[Lesser Evets]

"...so you can look at your comments even after your book expires..."

Boooo! I hope this fails very spectacularly.

I thought the same thing.
Now, we don't own books, we don't have our own libraries: we are granted access to publications with a pay-to-play system. Another great thing for the government to control one day.

 

[Marcusjlang]

Piracy

Am I the only one hoping someone will crack the DRM? As a student I pay way too much for God damn text books. And me buying textbooks that expire and 15 dollar study guides... please. College students are broke. If we are going to splurge on this tablet, then we better get something out of it textbook wise.

How likely do you think it is that this will lead to the piracy of text books, and hopefully the fall of textbook companies exploiting students.

 

[alent1234]

The problem that needs to be addressed is the price of electronic downloads. For example, that biology book is $93.33 through Coursesmart. At this price, it is good for 365 days after which it will expire.
Through my bookstore it is $113 new without taxes. The $20 difference doesn't make it worth it. This way I get a physical book that I can have open and type notes on my laptop. But honestly, who buys all the books brand new? I don't know how many times I've bought an older version or bought it used cheaper from another student.
They need to be more competitive on the price especially since the downloads are only good for a year. If they want to charge that much, hopefully someone will crack them so we can rip off the publishing companies for a change. I'm sick of seeing updated version that are 99% word for word identical and then if i am lucky, include only new problems. Sorry, someone had to say it.

but now they are going to be 98% identical, so you will have to buy it online

 

[str1f3]

The point i was trying to make with the laptop was that not everyone NEEDS a laptop in school. Yet, they still buy it. This possible tablet might be a middle solution like the ipod touch/iphone is. I know several people that purchased the ipod touch at my school just because of the wifi abilities/app store. All of them had previous ipods, but they still spent the money on the ipod touch. I see your point too that some people become excessive in their habits, but a $700 devise isn't much when that is your one splurge purchase for the year. Heck, some tax returns might pay for most of it. All I'm trying to say is it will be the features that determine the success. It doesn't have much to do with parents giving kids money or students irresponsibly spending money.

They may not need a laptop, I'm not sure. Sooner or later though everyone needs to do an essay now and then. Or a presentation. My point is that with a few hundreds bucks more you can get a laptop and know that you won't need anything else for the next four years. With this tablet, you can't honestly say that. The rumored idea behind the tablet is that it's made to be a content consuming device which is, in effect, a media player.

If it's your one splurge for the year, I'd say get a cheap car for a little more. I'd say get the necessities in school and save up your money to go have a good time, within reason.

There is another post on this page that says college students are broke and is looking already for a DRM crack. I know that feeling. Don't go and buy things that you may regret. Use some time to reason it out and question whether you really need it.

 

[Flavioparentiq]

They may not need a laptop, I'm not sure. Sooner or later though everyone needs to do an essay now and then. Or a presentation. My point is that with a few hundreds bucks more you can get a laptop and know that you won't need anything else for the next four years. With this tablet, you can't honestly say that. The rumored idea behind the tablet is that it's made to be a content consuming device which is, in effect, a media player.

If it's your one splurge for the year, I'd say get a cheap car for a little more. I'd say get the necessities in school and save up your money to go have a good time, within reason.

There is another post on this page that says college students are broke and is looking already for a DRM crack. I know that feeling. Don't go and buy things that you may regret. Use some time to reason it out and question whether you really need it.

amen

 

[MrFusion]

"...so you can look at your comments even after your book expires..."

Boooo! I hope this fails very spectacularly.

Seconded!
Everything was great and desirable until I heard that sentence.

 

[raybo]

Used Texbooks/Licensing

When the i-textbook becomes the standard in a pilot school (maybe by 2010-2011), anyone taking a course will have to pay an additional fee to use the assigned i-textbook (or maybe it will be included in the course price somehow). It won't matter if you get to keep the version forever - anyone who takes the course will have to pay the fee. Paper textbooks (new and used) will become waste.

Ray

 

[zed2]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

All I can do is shake my head...kids these days have it so much easier than we did. Any they don't even know how good they've got it.

+ 1,000

Thank God somebody said it! LOL I can remember going to the library to check out a book I really needed for a report only to find that somebody had already checked it out and I had to wait days for them to return it! I can remember waiting months to see a single movie on television. At least it was easy to find said movie because there were only 4 or 5' freakin channels!

Eh...these youngsters will never understand how good they have it. How could they?

4 or 5 channels. Well young grass hopper when I were a lad we only had 3 channels. And they shutdown at night!!

 

[JAT]

The beauty of the e-ink (black/gray) technology is that you can read for long periods of time without eye strain. When you try to read on a color monitor, my eyes hurt after a few minutes. Apple will need to address this if the tablet is to be a success. Any thoughts?

Find the brightness control. Match it to your ambient light. Is it really that hard? The ranting on and on of people saying, "you can't read on xxx device" is getting sad. Learn something, geez. Turn your TV brightness down, too.

You're basing this on the idea that it can replace a laptop which every single rumor says right now that it's not. You have no reason to believe right it is a laptop replacement. If it is then go buy it.

It would have to be a replacement for the laptop for most students or it won't be worth it, that's the only reason to bother talking about it. If it can't do that it's just a competitor for the iPod Touch. Most students just need a basic PC to write, surf, and email, this kind of device should be able to replace a Macbook or lower-end laptop. And hey, surprise! There isn't actually an Apple tablet on the market today. Wonder why....

More advanced technical subjects (needing power for video, CAD, etc.) would require a real computer, so a MBP or other high-level laptop is more appropriate, anyway. But that's already $2000 vs "normal" $500-1000 laptops.

 

[SandynJosh]

Wouldn't making books for the Kindle be a better idea?

Kindle is only black and white... no photos, especially no color photos. Text only is no way to deliver information for a text book. That would be about as bad as reading only the text balloons in a comic.

 

[SandynJosh]

4 or 5 channels. Well young grass hopper when I were a lad we only had 3 channels. And they shutdown at night!!

I totally remember those days. We watched those channels in black and white too... and the snow was terrible unless someone wanted to go outside and grab the antenna mast and rotate the antenna toward the station. This made channel surfing a real chore: My sister would crawl over to the TV to get to the channel knob, clunk it to the channel of choice, holler out the window to let me know which way to turn the mast and then back up away from the TV so she could see the picture and let me know when it was coming in best.

 

[InfoSecmgr]

That would suck!

One thing I didn't like was that books "expire" lol! If they expire the prices better be pretty cheap!

Sometimes I like to keep my textbooks for future reference.

Do we really think the likes of McGraw hill, etc, would let ANY type of textbook, electronic or otherwise, be less than current prices? They won't let anything cut into their bottom line, so of course the books will be just as expensive. However you wouldn't have to deal with sold out books or damaged books. BUT you wouldn't be able to sell them back either, so there goes the entire used books for less category another plus for the publishers. That is why they are pushing the concept of eBooks so hard. (I am currently working on my M.S., so I've been around for awhile when it comes to school and buying books).

Edit: And now (possibly) with the release of the tablet, the book publishers will have sex appeal on their side driving sales as well (that "omg gotta have it because its from Apple" appeal).

 

[InfoSecmgr]

When the i-textbook becomes the standard in a pilot school (maybe by 2010-2011), anyone taking a course will have to pay an additional fee to use the assigned i-textbook (or maybe it will be included in the course price somehow). It won't matter if you get to keep the version forever - anyone who takes the course will have to pay the fee. Paper textbooks (new and used) will become waste.

Ray

And also destroy the used textbook market, +1 for the publishers (in a bad way for students).

 

[InfoSecmgr]

Am I the only one hoping someone will crack the DRM? As a student I pay way too much for God damn text books. And me buying textbooks that expire and 15 dollar study guides... please. College students are broke. If we are going to splurge on this tablet, then we better get something out of it textbook wise.

How likely do you think it is that this will lead to the piracy of text books, and hopefully the fall of textbook companies exploiting students.

Seconded. As I've mentioned I am working on my M.S., so I've been buying books for an awfully long time now. And...we will NOT get anything out of it. I posted earlier about the publishers not allowing their bottom lines to be affected. If anything eBooks will be more expensive for the "convenience" (ala TicketMasters convenience fee or my schools technology fee).

 

[thecartoonguy]

That would suck!

One thing I didn't like was that books "expire" lol! If they expire the prices better be pretty cheap!

Sometimes I like to keep my textbooks for future reference.

I think they called it a "rental" if I remember correctly. As a grad student I could see renting a book for a class. That is if they offer the textbook for a reasonable price. I know I can't stop laughing either...text book reasonable price.....LMAO

 

[diamond3]

They may not need a laptop, I'm not sure. Sooner or later though everyone needs to do an essay now and then. Or a presentation. My point is that with a few hundreds bucks more you can get a laptop and know that you won't need anything else for the next four years. With this tablet, you can't honestly say that. The rumored idea behind the tablet is that it's made to be a content consuming device which is, in effect, a media player.

If it's your one splurge for the year, I'd say get a cheap car for a little more. I'd say get the necessities in school and save up your money to go have a good time, within reason.

There is another post on this page that says college students are broke and is looking already for a DRM crack. I know that feeling. Don't go and buy things that you may regret. Use some time to reason it out and question whether you really need it.

I agree with what you are saying. I just get tired of everyone assuming that if you have a laptop or this tablet in the future, its because of your parents or that you are recklessly spending money you don't have. Everyone has a different perception on the true value of an object. It is impossible to say right now if it is worth the price that we do not know about a tablet that we are not for sure what it even does.

 

[Shin3r]

All I can do is shake my head...kids these days have it so much easier than we did. Any they don't even know how good they've got it.

Kids may have it easier in some ways, and in other ways it is much harder. Are you referencing school specifically? Or life in general? your statement is a bit naive and assumes you know what kids these days experience, which of course you don't. This is one of those judgmental statements that can never be truly qualified.

For Example: Basing it on how many TV channels kids have these days is ridiculous. In my experience, having more channels is actually worse for kids. The parents tend to use TV as babysitters, or distractors so then our kids grow up learning who to be from the television rather than from the family, which I would say is at least a part of what is eroding society. I would say the adults are having it way too easy. It's all about perspective.

 

[irun5k]

It is amazing to see so many people already trying to align their content with something that hasn't even been announced yet. For all intents and purposes, at this moment for 99.999999999% of everyone on the planet, there effectively is no Apple "tablet."

For this thing to succeed I do think it needs to be different from existing products in ways that we can't dream up (or else we'd all be making a fortune working for Apple as designers.)

Anyway, should be interesting. Most of us don't really need/want another gadget, but perhaps some of us could be tempted to substitute this device for a Macbook. We have one Macbook at our house that is used all the time, but only for things like checking email and surfing the net. Potentially this is a candidate to be replaced.

 

[NAG]

Just a reminder. Quite a few of the iPhone rumors preannouncement were very much off (scroll wheel with a flip out number pad?). So to start writing it off because it won't have enough functionality and the price is too high is short sited. The only thing we're pretty sure of is that Apple will probably show off something like a tablet in late January. Thats it.

 

[raybo]

Textbook Replacement Market is Huge

How many students take how many courses each year? Lots. This means there is a captive market for whoever gets the electronic textbook right. Apple has a pretty good track record for owning certain markets. There is enough momentum to carry this product on the shoulders of the textbook replacment market alone - saving the shoulders of students.

Ray

 

[objc]

"...so you can look at your comments even after your book expires..."

Boooo! I hope this fails very spectacularly.

Time for a link:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

That's exactly what the publishers want. That way they can fleece students even more!

 

[objc]

And hopefully they won't cost $500 as e-books!

They'll probably cost just as much, but of course you won't be able to sell them to other students once you're done. And, as the video says, they expire! So you're really just renting information!

 

[objc]

saving the shoulders of students.

Ray

And picking their pockets.

 

[pixelcruncher]

UGGGHHH! Do any of these companies actually have STUDENTS testing these? Where's the ability to scribble in the margins? Draw arrows between important points or characters? Quickly sketch an important equation? Diagram complex concepts? Circle/highlight keywords in the context of their use? Permanently highlight passages in their original context? Where are the hot links to dictionaries or glossaries? These people think learning is a sterile process between words on a page/screen and a student's brain. Learning is far more dynamic than that. This product (and others like it - Kindle I'm looking in your direction) do very little to actually excite the learning mind. And the book, and I quote, "EXPIRES"? Anyone ever look at a previous year's textbook to refresh your memory or get ready for a standardized test? This is WORSE than a book in my opinion - unless you're a publisher.

 

[zerofiftysix]

I thought the video was a little contrived. I mean, its a great concept and they're going in the right direction with moving everything over to a digital state. It's just that, as a college student, I doubt I would use the iSlate (in regards to studying) in that manner. It feels too artificial for me to study with.

I guess as a person who grew up studying over a textbook (and doodling) I feel as if having something solid in front of me is more conducive to my studies (and I'm sure the doodling is as well!)

Perhaps a newer generation of people will prefer to study from a tablet will crop up?

All I can do is shake my head...kids these days have it so much easier than we did. Any they don't even know how good they've got it.

Please, spare me. I'm tired of you oldheads complaining that us youngsters have every thing in the whole world. This is as good as it gets, huh? It's naive of you to think that there's no problems that we have to face.

Fact - get used to it - the world changes. Every generation has a different set of problems as well as rewards. We have our thousand channel TV and our iSlates but we have to deal with HIV, rising health care costs and global warming concerns and whatever the else is coming our way.

Besides, think of what the people before you would say about your generation. Are you that humble?