Penguin Looking to Reinvent eBooks on iPad With Interactive Media
paidContent:UK reported earlier this week on a presentation from Penguin Books CEO John Makinson showing his company's vision for the future of eBooks on the iPad. Makinson's presentation highlighted Penguin's goal of embedding interactive content such as audio and video into its eBooks, as well as the inclusion of even more advanced features such as chats between readers.
Interestingly, Penguin is even looking to push things beyond what the EPUB format used for Apple's iBookstore can support, meaning that the company is planning to launch much of its content as applications rather than eBooks. It is unclear how that strategy will mesh with Apple's plans for its centralized iBookstore.
"We will be embedding audio, video and streaming in to everything we do. The .epub format, which is the standard for ebooks at the present, is designed to support traditional narrative text, but not this cool stuff that we're now talking about.
"So for the time being at least we'll be creating a lot of our content as applications, for sale on app stores and HTML, rather than in ebooks. The definition of the book itself is up for grabs."
In addressing Penguin's relationships with Apple and other eBook distributors, Makinson noted that the 30% revenue sharing split with distributors pushed by Apple as an extension of its existing App Store is better than the 50% split seen for print agencies, indicating that his company is happy with the arrangements. That happiness apparently has not stopped book publishers from noting that it could be argued that Apple should have to pay them for content based on its need to drive device sales, although that tactic has obviously not worked.
A video of the demo played during Makinson's presentation has also been posted.
Popular Stories
iOS 18.1 will be released to the public in the coming weeks, and the software update introduces the first Apple Intelligence features for the iPhone. Below, we outline when to expect iOS 18.1 to be released. iOS 18.1: Apple Intelligence Features Here are some of the key Apple Intelligence features in the iOS 18.1 beta so far: A few Siri enhancements, including improved understanding...
Things are firming up for a big Halloween week for Apple, with the company's next operating system updates reportedly coming early in the week and hardware launches coming a few days later. Ahead of those hardware launches, we've recently seen what appears to be one of the most significant physical product leaks in years, while some of the new features in Apple's recent software updates have ...
While the iPhone 16 series was released just a few weeks ago, there are already many rumored features for the iPhone 17 models, and especially for the Pro models. Below, we recap five key new features rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max so far: 24MP front camera for all iPhone 17 models: All four iPhone 17 models will feature an upgraded 24-megapixel front-facing camera, according...
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the unprecedented leak of Apple's M4 MacBook Pro models and the company's rumored move to more staggered hardware and software releases. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Multiple leaks surrounding Apple's unannounced 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip recently surfaced online. The leaks began with unboxin...
In iOS 18.1, there is a new option to set a "Primary" email address in the Settings app, which means it is easier to change the main email address associated with your Apple Account. The Primary email address is the one that is visible to other people when collaborating on and sharing documents, sending calendar invites, and more. Apple did not previously make it easy to change an Apple...
Apple today stopped signing iOS 18.0, preventing iPhone users who have upgraded to iOS 18.0.1 from downgrading to iOS 18. Apple released iOS 18.0.1 a week ago on October 3. It is not unusual for Apple to stop signing older versions of iOS within a week or two after a new version of iOS is released. When Apple stops signing an update, it can no longer be installed on an iPhone due to a...
Rumors strongly suggest Apple will release the seventh-generation iPad mini in November, nearly three years after the last refresh. Here's a roundup of what we're expecting from the next version of Apple's small form factor tablet, based on the latest rumors and reports. Design and Display The new iPad mini is likely to retain its compact 8.3-inch display and overall design introduced with...
Apple often releases new Macs in the fall, but we are still waiting for official confirmation that the company has similar plans this year. We're approaching the middle of October now, and if Apple plans to announce new Macs before the holidays, recent history suggests it will happen this month. Here's what we know so far. As of writing this, it's been 220 days since Apple released a new...