On Thursday, Apple held a special education event in New York City and introduced a number of software products, including the newest version of iBooks, iBooks 2, bringing textbooks to the iPad from large publishers including Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton-Mifflin.
Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps. And before you know it, you’re a published author.
Apple also released an iBooks Author application, which allows users to create their own textbooks for the iPad 2. Since then, Apple has posted the video of the event to its site, alongside all other past events.
The Cupertino company also posted the Podcast for the event in both HD and standard formats. Apple is continuously increasing support for iBooks and is attempting to move into the e-reading market to compete with other popular reading devices such as the Nook and Kindle.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/apple-education-media-event-video-website-podcast/feed/ 3Gone Wishing is an interactive storybook that is a lot of fun. This book comes packed with tons of great functionality and capabilities that really bring out the capabilities of the iPad. Books like this are what make reading on the iPad a pleasure.
Gone Wishing ($3.99) is a book about wishes. The stories introduce you to all kinds of different characters ranging from genies to leprechauns. The story is about a family of genies, the Mimbles. The family is known for granting wishes and it is the family business and to the untrained eye, business is good. The story follows young Jacob Mimble who has a secret, he is the only genie who cannot make a wish come true. The story follows Jacob and shows off tons of features that make this book exciting and different.
The features in Gone Wishing finish second only to the fun loving story. Interactions can be found on every page and the book even has a couple hidden games that you can play. Interact with the environment by rubbing lamps, playing instruments and meeting characters. You will never get bored with this book as there is always something to do. You can even see what other people who are reading the book are wishing for. Features that make the book worth reading over and over again add great value. Possibly my favorite feature of the entire book is the options on how you’d like to read it. You can have the book narrated to you, read on your own or use the auto play feature. This is great for when you find yourself in the mood where you simply don’t want to read anymore. Hey, it happens to us all.
Overall, the book has tons of features and a great story. A happy ending on top of all of that make this book a great buy at $3.99. Books like this are what make books on the iPad different from those other tablets. Check it out!
What we like:
What to know:
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What seems like Apple’s latest attempt to deter jailbreakers has emerged today after the company has blocked jailbroken devices from opening books purchased from the iBookstore. The latest version of iBooks – 1.2.1 – triggers a “jailbreak check” before it opens a DRM-protected book and then refuses to open it if it detects that the device is jailbroken.
The message some users are receiving when they attempt to open their iBookstore purchases reads:
There is a problem with the configuration of your iPhone. Please restore with iTunes and reinstall iBooks.
Clicking ‘OK’ on the error simply returns you to your book shelf within iBooks so that you can admire the front covers of all the books you’ve purchase but cannot read. It seems, however, that books and PDFs that aren’t purchased from the iBookstore, and therefore aren’t DRM-protected, can be opened and read as normal.
Comex, a member of the iPhone Dev-Team, explained through a tweet earlier today how Apple’s new jailbreak check works:
It seems that before opening a DRMed book, iBooks drops an improperly signed binary, tries to execute it, and if it works concludes that the device is jailbroken and refuses to open the book.
At the moment it seems iBooks is the only application affected by jailbreaking an iOS device, and there are no system-wide issues to be reported. It’s believed that this move is part of Apple’s plan to minimize e-book piracy, however, what might be the next move the Cupertino company takes to thwart jailbreakers? If they can block a jailbreaker’s access to iBooks, could they block usage of the Safari, Mail, SMS, or Phone applications?
Of course, one easy way to get around this issue would be to install a previous version of iBooks…
{via AppleInsider}
]]> https://touchreviews.net/ibookstore-purchases-blocked-unreadable-jailbroken-devices/feed/ 1Microsoft’s Courier tablet was first mentioned on tech sites a couple of months ago. At the time it was only a concept which existed in the form of a kind of User Interface showcase with cartoon hands controlling a virtual device. But those concept videos were rather impressive and very forward thinking. Of the many UI features that impressed me one really stuck in my mind. It was perhaps the simplest of them all, but it struck me as really nifty. When you want to transfer a picture or note to the clipboard you just slide it to the hinge of the device and it sticks there partly exposed on both screens. You can then flip through pages until you find the one you want. Once there you slide the clipping out onto either screen and paste it. Simple, but so cool I wanted one just so I could try it!
The User Interface of the Courier overall had the same shock and awe effect on me that the iPhone’s did when I first saw it. Before that OS X blew me away similarly.
Because at that stage the Courier was a concept no-one had any idea of the dimensions of the device. Or how much of the hardware was actually real. Or even how close to reality the incredibly impressive conceptual GUI of this thing was. All we did know was that the Courier had two screens, and opened like a traditional book with a hinge in the middle. It also supposedly had a pen, although the UI videos showed both multitouch with fingers and the pen being used. Oh, and it had a camera if the concept videos were accurate. We get to see it taking shots with that, and those snaps being filed away in a scrap book, edited and collated, and used as part of a presentation.
My initial reaction to the hinged device idea was that I wondered how people were going to actually use a device on the move which folded in the middle. How would it stay open on your lap? How would you type, draw or work with it when also having to hold it. Would the hinge be floppy or stiff? It was all the same kind of concerns that people had about how Apple’s take on a Tablet would work for typing and viewing movies etc. But I loved some of the ideas that were being explored with the Courier. Part of the reason that I worried about the folding design was that I envisioned it being around the size of a legal note pad when folded shut. So around the size of a magazine. I am not sure why, but that was my impression. My mind was stuck with the idea of a traditional tablet sized device or something about the size of the iPad, I guess.
Looking at the concept videos again it is fairly clear that this thing is not actually that big. Indeed, pictures that Engadget have today show the device (or at least a mockup) in human hands, and as being much closer to the size of a traditional paperback. For some reason this has made a massive impression on me. Engadet’s information on the device is here.
The videos (which have been around for a while now) are further down the same page. Make sure you watch them. They are obviously not real. By that I mean they are not running on a real device. But there is no reason in this day and age that a User Interface could not do all the things we are seeing there. And if Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 interface is anything to go by then the general look and feel all fits. Again though, all we’ve seen of that is flashy web sites and conceptsÉ so far.
Engadget have this to say: “Courier will function as a “digital journal,” and it’s designed to be seriously portable: it’s under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn’t much bigger than a 5×7 photo when closed. That’s a lot smaller than we expected.” With reference to that last sentence: Join the club guys!
If, and this is a big if. But if Microsoft can produce this device so that it looks as good as the pictures we have seen to date. And if the User Interface has the functionality detailed in those concept videos, then the Courier is going to be truly remarkable. And I will camp outside a store or travel half way round the world to buy one on day one. And I’ll want to develop for it too.
I am not convinced that this device will be all that the videos and pictures promise. It just seems too good to be true. But if it is then I think we could see a massive shift in power in the mobile market place.
Microsoft could really be making a rather incredible device that people simply must have.
What do you think about the Courier? Is it the iPad slayer or is it promising too much and will it underwhelm in real life?
Microsoft’s Courier: Videos of the interface in action
Images and Video Credit: Engadget
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