Apple scores with digital textbooks and app

Apple scores with digital textbooks and app

The sizzling rate at which e-books are growing suggests that digital textbooks almost certainly will be the norm when your kids' kids are in school. What we don't know is how quickly a transition to a mostly all-digital textbook education system might be good.Apple has a software fix coming soon ? multitouch digital textbooks, when working smoothly, are engaging in ways that were simply not possible with the textbooks I grew up with. Digital versions promise instant search and easy navigation. They're rich in interactive animations, pictures and videos. It's better to see an animated tour of the genome in E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth than just to read about it. The various books let you consult study cards, create bookmarks, drag your finger to highlight passages and add notes. And textbook authors can update material to keep it current.The other obvious A-plus benefit, true of any e-book but especially comforting to a student schlepping from class to class, is that you can lug the digital equivalents of heavy print textbooks without breaking your back.Still, Apple and other companies hoping to make a big play in the digital textbook space face arduous tests. There aren't many available textbooks for iBooks 2 yet, in part because Apple, as usual, kept things close to the vest prior to launch.And no matter how compelling a digital textbook might be, it is only useful to a student if the teacher or school decides that this is indeed the textbook to use with their class.To encourage development, Apple launched iBooks Author, a free authoring tool for the Mac that encourages anyone to produce their own iBook textbooks, cookbooks, how-tos and other works. Apple says more than 600,000 copies of the tool have been downloaded since launch. Authors can distribute the books for free. But if they put the iBook textbook up for sale, they must do so through Apple's iBookstore. (Authors can use the content in other digital and print formats, Apple says.) So the supply of digital textbooks should look a lot better by next school year.Another question mark is the iPad. Not every parent or school district is likely to buy iPads, which start at $499 each, for every student, even if educational discounts lower the cost a bit. The first textbook titles concentrate on high school curricula and are priced at $14.99 or less, well below most of their print counterparts. The first two chapters of Wilson's book are free.