Live Coverage of Apple's Education-Focused Media Event

Thursday January 19, 2012 6:43 am PST by Eric Slivka

Apple today is holding its education-focused media event where it is widely expected to introduce a new push into digital textbooks. The event is scheduled to kick off at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 Pacific.

Apple will not be providing live video coverage of the event to the public, but a number of news sites will be on hand to provide text and photo updates, and we're including links to several of them here. We will also be updating this article with coverage as the media event unfolds and news stories regarding the event announcements will go out through our @MacRumors account.

- The Verge
- Macworld
- Engadget
- CNET
- AllThingsD
- The Loop
- Time/Technologizer
- The Wall Street Journal

Recent News and Rumors

- Apple's Textbook Project Code Named 'Bliss' and Inspired by Al Gore's 'Our Choice'?
- Apple's Textbook Initiative to Feature Strong K-12 Focus, Aid Publishers Large and Small
- iWork VP Roger Rosner Taking Charge of Apple's Digital Textbook Initiative
- Apple to Launch 'Garageband for e-books' on Thursday?
- More on Apple's Textbook Plans for Thursday's Media Event

In one last-minute rumor, Jason O'Grady claims on Twitter and at ZDNet that Apple could launch Pages '12 with enhanced ePub support (perhaps alongside a full iWork '12 update), iBooks 2.0 with support for Mac, and textbook rentals.

Event Updates

- Phil Schiller on stage. "Good morning everyone. I'm pleased to welcome you here in New York. This is really special for everyone at Apple. It's about education."
- Setting the background of Apple's interest in education, challenges facing students, etc. Intro video of educators talking about issues with class sizes, poor facilities, low levels of student engagement, insufficient technology and textbooks.
- Schiller: One place we think we can help is student engagement.
- No surprise that students like to learn on iPad. #1 on teens' holiday wish lists this year.
- Already 20,000 education apps for iPad, and the iBookstore is packed with books. There already over 1.5 million iPads being used in education, but we want to make things even easier for them.
- First of two things: Reinventing textbooks
- Textbooks aren't always ideal: cumbersome, not terribly portable, not durable, not interactive, not searchable, but the content is great. Companies work hard to update, but hard to get the content out to people fast enough.
- iPad can help overcome many of those deficiencies, and that's why we're here today.


- iBooks 2
- These books are amazing, so here is a demo of iBooks 2. Roger Rosner to assist.
- Demoing biology textbook. Dramatic intro movie, multitouch gestures to move through book, 3D models of insides of cells.
- Much more interesting than static sheets of paper. But we need to get it into kids' hands.
- Authors have complete freedom in text and graphics layout. Auto-rotate between portrait and landscape, and we re-layout the content Portrait offers a more traditional text format.
- Pinch to get to table of contents. Easy glossary access and linked index entries.
- Review questions become visual and interactive, and offer immediate feedback.
- Integrated highlighting and notetaking. Automatically turn notes and highlights into study cards. Glossary terms too...can even shuffle the cards.
- How do I get these? New textbook category in the iBookstore. Free samples and one-click purchase.
- Schiller back on stage.
- iBooks 2 available from the App Store for free today.
- So how do you create these books?


- iBooks Author
- Mac application for authoring interactive books. Rosner demoing the book creation process.
- Template chooser sets the stage, and build from there. Drag and drop layout controls.
- Toolbar controls with gallery of available interactive elements. Everything auto-formats into the layout.
- For more custom interaction, drag and drop an entire Keynote presentation right into the layout.
- If you can write code in Javascript and HTML5, you can build your own widgets for embedding in books.
- Demoing easy glossary-building tools.
- "If you've ever been involved in an e-book creation before, you know this is a total miracle."
- Preview function to push the book to an iPad for testing.
- Schiller back on stage.
- "So that's iBooks Author. It is the most advanced, most powerful and yet most fun interactive authoring tool yet created."
- iBooks Author available free on the Mac App Store today.
- So how do we get the textbooks? New category in iBookstore.
- We wanted to get started with partners early, so we're starting with high school textbooks priced at $14.99 or less.
- Books can be kept up to date, and students get to keep their own copies.
- Partnered with Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt...these three companies account for 90% of the textbooks sold in the U.S.
- First books launching today: Biology, Environmental Science from Pearson; Algebra 1, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, Physics from McGraw-Hill.
- DK Publishing is also onboard with kids books...launching four titles today.
- E.O. Wilson Foundation also involved. Exclusive "Life on Earth" coming to the iBookstore. First two chapters free, remaining chapters coming at a reasonable price as they make them.
- Another video of teachers talking about why they teach and why there's no reason students should be receiving outdated information in the same textbook format used since the 1950s.
- Clips of publishing company CEOs, education administrators and teachers talking about what a game-changer the iBooks textbook initiative is.
- Schiller back on stage. "So that's the first thing we wanted to tell you about today."

- Eddy Cue on stage for the second announcement.
- Talking about helping teachers reinvent their curriculums. Highlighting iTunes U....1,000 universities using it, world's largest catalog of free education content, 700 million downloads from iTunes U.
- New iTunes U app for iPad that lets teachers do everything they need to do for a class.
- Jeff Robbin on stage for demo. Overview section offers easy access to teacher details, syllabus, office hours, etc.


- Assignments can send students directly to a section within iBooks.
- Link out to video clips, stream or download lectures, etc.
- Easy access to notes and materials.
- Over 100 courses have already been created...all available for free on iTunes U.
- K-12 schools can also now sign up for iTunes U.
- iTunes U app available for free today in App Store.
- Schiller back on stage summarizing Apple's dedication to education. Quickly mentioning iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U apps.
- "We're really proud of what the teams have done. They've worked so hard on this. They do it because all of us at Apple know you can empower people through learning. And tech has a role to play in that — that's one of the best things that's built into the culture."
- Thanks for joining us. Press headed to hands-on demos.

[ 309 comments ]

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japanime
105 months ago
As a book publisher, I'm super-excited about this. :)
Rating: 9 Votes
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dscuber9000
105 months ago
It's astonishing how many people in here have absolutely no idea how schools run.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Lesser Evets
105 months ago
If arranged properly, the iPad could free grade schoolers from time restraints. They could easily rocket ahead of curriculum and move onward through their own initiative. I think the iPad, specifically, could free kids from educational institutions, since it already is a huge research engine in a tiny package.

We'll see where this goes.
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
milo
105 months ago


In college, I would attend a few classes each day (usually 3-4) and most had at least 1 hour or more between classes...


How nice for you. There are college campuses large enough (and with shorter breaks between classes) that there simply isn't time to walk all the way back to a dorm room (or parking lot for those living off campus) between classes, so all books have to be carried around all day.

but again, backpacks (not just for books you know...billions of hikers use them) are designed to not only CARRY 40+ pounds of material, but to make that weight COMFORTABLE while walking.


So you never had to carry many books around but now you insist that carrying around more than forty pounds on a regular basis is "comfortable"? And eliminating the need to do that is of absolutely no benefit?

Seems like you're either really out of touch with anything outside your own personal experience, or flat out desperate to find anything to criticize about these announcements.
Rating: 7 Votes
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nOw2
105 months ago

I can read a book that is 500 years old but I can't even read my floppy disks anymore. Food for thouhgt. This is not for education, this is for consumation.

Dude, you mean "consumption", right?..
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
wovel
105 months ago

Textbooks aren't always ideal: cumbersome, not terribly portable, not durable, not interactive, not searchable, but the content is great. Companies work hard to update, but hard to get the content out to people fast enough.

Wha????

1)How are textbooks cumbersome?! For comparison, there are no buttons (unlike an iPad), no cords, no dead batteries, no crashing, etc.

2)NOT PORTABLE?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Having graduated high school and college, I can say that I never, ever, found a texbook that was not portable. Sure, maybe if I tried to carry all 15 home in 1 bag at the end of the year...but that's it. Total joke on this point, Apple.

3)Not durable? Again, a joke, Apple.

4)Not searchable? Well, kinda true...but all textbooks are broken up into Chapters and there is that thing called, um, oh, THE TABLE OF CONTENTS in the beginning...and typically an index in the back for topics and sub topics. Very very rarely did I find it hard (gee, I had to spend 5 minutes) to locate a topic in a book. And how many times in Search Engines (either web-based or built into software products) have I spent more than 5 minutes trying to find something...often enough (exception: Google)

5)Can't get the content out fast enough? Mmmmm, last time I checked at textbook was good for a Semester or longer...typically 3-9 months worth of a topic. Other than Science and Biology, textbooks are not years out of date. Typically new Editions come out every year with fixed typos, extra or new examples, and every blue moon a new topic. Lets not forget that textbook companies have been screwing kids for decades by releasing a new "edition" every year which thus makes the old edition worthless on the used market...we've all been there.


It will be interesting to see what Apple has to offer, but this opening statement is a complete joke and the biggest Marketing spin I've ever heard of.

Other comments Apple will likely make against textbooks:

1)You can get papercuts
2)Classmates can draw on them and ruin your pages
3)They are heavy and can cause scoliosis if carrying with a backpack
4)Paper can trigger nasty allergy attacks
5)That "new book smell" can cause brain tumors
6)Bullies throw textbooks at their victims


You really mastered being contrary for the sake of being contrary.
Rating: 6 Votes
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stordoff
105 months ago

I went to college for 4 years...majored in Computer Science with Business Applications. I had lots of computer books, science, and math. Yes, each was well over 300 pages long. Yes, some were heavy...but NONE were some kind of 1200 page monster.

In college, I would attend a few classes each day (usually 3-4) and most had at least 1 hour or more between classes...so I did not need to carry around all 3-4 books every day.


I'm studying law, and the books for each class are 700-1100 pages long. I often have three classes in a day, and don't have any time between them (10 minute break or so). Carrying the books around is really annoying.
Rating: 5 Votes
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drober30
105 months ago
When you talk about cost....

This iPad/iBooks will, without a doubt, be less expensive than traditional textbooks.

We pay thousands in shipping charges for book throughout our district. Books are heavy and have all the other downsides already mentioned in the presentation.

As a high school teacher, I really hate it when I have to order ten or twenty replacement books to replace lost/damaged books and the replacements are a different version number. Not necessary a different "edition" but version so things do get moved around and when my assignment states to look on page 36, that no longer holds true for the newer replacement books.

With digital, all students books would be updated and I can change/correct my assignment once.
Rating: 5 Votes
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iDemiurge
105 months ago
No iBooks for mac, what an absolute STINKER. And guess what, the books you make with their new app can only be sold on their store. No wonder it's free.
Rating: 5 Votes
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pfarfour
105 months ago
Who cares if everyone can utilize it or not from the start. I am an average middle class person who has ipads in the house and look forward to these types of tools being available for my kids. I think alot of parents will buy into this especially if the interactive learning provides results with their children.
Rating: 5 Votes

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