Apple to do eBooks?
By Ryan Block 
posted July 22nd 2006 1:58PM
posted July 22nd 2006 1:58PM
We tend to field a lot of inside information here at Engadget HQ, but we've gotten not one, but two bits from separate, trustworthy insiders that Apple's not satisfied merely vending Audible's books-on-digital-audio solution. With the iRex iLiad and Sony PRS-500 Portable Reader both right around the corner, is it possible the next iPod might catch the eBook bug? We'd say the possibility is very real, since according to a source at a major publishing house, they were just ordered to archive all their manuscripts -- every single one -- and send them over to Apple's Cupertino HQ. A separate trusted source let us know that the next iPod will have a substantial amount of screen real estate (as we'd all suspected), as well as a book reading mode that pumps up the contrast and drops into monochrome for easy reading. It's no e-ink, sure, but a widescreen iPod would be well suited for the purpose, and according to our source, the books you'd buy (presumably through iTunes) won't have an expiration -- kind of like Apple-bought music, as well, but contradictory to the movie rental scheme we've heard rumored. Could they please just rename it the iTunes Music, Movies, and Book Store and get it over with already?
I have no idea whether or not the next iPod iteration will include ebook functionality, but those who think it's an unworkable idea obviously have no practical experience with the various small screen formats. I've owned an original RocketBook for several years and have read hundreds of books and articles on it. Today, my favorite ebook reader is a Palm T-3 with TibrPro reader software installed. This is a GREAT little reader with variable font size, colors, and perfectly smooth auto-scrolling. This allows me to read comfortably in any light without even turning pages.
The reading experience is certainly different with ebooks compared to hard copy, but both formats have their advantages which is why many serious ebook aficionados own some titles in both forms.
I think this is cool - although content is definitely crucial.
Personally, I'd prefer to read and access quick snapshots about particular subjects on my iPod rather than read a novel.
Since April, I have been offering downloadable text-based content for all iPods, (apart from the Shuffle and early models), from my web site.
These are mainly guides that people traveling from place to place would find useful - although I've also got sports guides such as a Wimbledon Tennis guide (which took me ages to create) also available for free download.
I call these Pod SnapShots rather than eBooks because that's what they are - a snapshot of a particular subject that you can flick through quickly to get the information that you need - be that airport guides, store guides, etc.
These are ideally suited to iPods screen size and resolution - any document bigger/longer than that needs a much better screen IMHO.
Apple are the guys to make ebooks popular. They got the courage to remove all the redundant extras that other companies seem to think should be added to a product because they can be added.
I'm looking forward to buying a text only, non-interactive, beautifully designed e-paperback reader.
Palm PDAs have been able to play music and view eBooks at the same time for years.
With all forms of media, iTunes is inappropriate... how about iMedia... or the Apple Online Media Store..
Is this the best Apple can do? Zune is so much better and I'd get one today if I could! Apple's running on fumes while Microsoft innovates!
I hope someone from microsoft is taking notes - here's another feature they have to cram into zune ASAP!!!! lol!
Can we just please stop teh Zune comments. Please! That concept hasn't been launched yet, so for some to say that it is much better or some stating is much worse than teh iPod line, little out of context.
I know the Nike+ kit reads back your progression. Would be nice if Apple would take that to the next level. You can read the ebook on the plane, but when driving teh car, it will be read to you.
Microsoft innovates? Hahahahahahahahahahah!
Zune? Do you know what that means? Screwed. Only less polite. That's how Creative, Dell and others are going to feel once MS gets into it.
If Apple brings out a wide-screen iPod that's a book reader, I'm buying one!
@ I,Robot:
Yes, it would be "amazing" to carry around my three text books on an ipod, instead of carrying a big book bag everywhere. But the fact is, there are ALREADY ebook readers.... why haven't they caught on?
That was the point of my two posts. Yes, there would be an advantage. Unfortuantly, you lose a lot of what makes reading great for that advantage, and i don't see a lot of people being convinced to give up their paperbacks for it.
Re-read what i said dude. "What about textbooks? It'd be AMAZING to not have to lug three of these around campus every day, and throwing them on an iPod would be cool if you could highlight and make "notes" of some kind... but then you couldn't sell it back to the book store at the end of the semester."
You try convincing poor college kids to buy a book they can't sell back. I dont need my Sixth Edition Ecology and Field Biology book after the class is over, but i sure as hell need that $160 back.
I don't think addmiting the advantages to the format but then airing my concerns for it means i'm inconsistant. I think it means i'm weighing the advantages and disadvantages.
To: Justin Streufert, Click, double click, scroll and drag all have different purposes. A finger on a touch pad on the other hand doesn't have all of that. But you are right it would have drag(for the click wheel) and click(for menu, ff, fr and play/pause) though im sure you could easily confuse the scroll wheel by different motions of your finger. I also just thought of the fingerprint circle it would leave on the screen. im sure that would cause some complaints
Yup - as some have noted, I too have been reading ebooks on my various Palm devices for years. It allows me to carry several books at once and the Ereader bookmarks, highlights and returns you to exactly where you left off. I read all the Dan Brown books, and just about everything you can think of in terms of length and style. The type is equivalent to 10 point or so book type and it took no time to get used to it - great for the train, bus or waiting for a haircut, doctors appointment, etc. So..if it also comes to my Ipod, I'm all for it as long as the selection is decent and you can convert plain text (think Guterberg.org)
someone honestly needs to invent "real" digital paper. sometging 6x9 8x11ish that you can pull/roll out of an ipod/other device and read/write on like a piece of paper. Honestly I'd prefer one virtual paperback book looking device that literally had like 300 empty downloadable pages and /felt just like a paper back then you could flip pages/make notes and download new books onto.
sorry to go off ikilter
What this looks like is Apple doing what it's always done - continuous improvement of the product. First the store, colour and images, then podcasting, then video, then Nike+, now larger video and books, all the while increasing the size. Whether any particular feature is wildly useful to everyone (how many photos are carried on the average iPod), some of them are useful to someone, and they're all done within the cozy environment of iTunes.
I have a Tungsten PDA that contains music, eReader texts, videos, etc, but I'd still love an iPod that would do all that with the consistent iTunes management.
I'm not sure it would necessarily be worth upgrading from a 5G, but there are plenty of new customers still out there, and lots of people with 4Gs and older (myself, I'm running off a Mini till the optimal version comes out) for whom this might be the tipping point.
I hope the screen orientation in the mock up shot is wrong. Reading speed & comprehension improve with narrower columns.
As an above commenter said, this would be great for news ('paper') feed info with embeded video links etc.
Keep in mind that many of the rumors and patents surrounding the upcoming iPods have included a text to speech capability. The iPod might be able to read the text when you are doing something that doesn't allow you to read the screen.
For me the books isn't an important feature. Being able to load and read my own documentation content, blogs, etc. is awesome... So I would buy the iPod, but not purchase books.
eBooks have already existed for awhile. Sure, they’re not a huge market, but they definitely have more benefits than print books. It’s the attitudes of the public that’s keeping eBooks from becoming larger. But to have Apple start with eBooks, I think that would be a huge jump for the industry. Granted, everyone in digital publishing keeps talking about the next eBook wave and has been for awhile, but maybe now with the new Sony Reader coming out and Apple potentially jumping on the bandwagon we’ll actually see that.
Textbooks on an iPod? Same issue with the screen size. There are plenty of other better avenues for that. This isn’t a new concept people – you can already purchase e-textbooks!
Here’s my question – what is the format going to be for these? Is Apple going to pull a Sony and go with a proprietary format for their eBooks? Are they planning on using OEB?
This all sounds promising…
I've been asking and waiting for this for a very long time. Our whole company is based on ebooks. For those who don't believe the market is there, it is and it's growing like crazy.
Rebecca
Chippewa Publishing LLC
http://www.chippewapublishing.com
In the UK you can get books on your mobile phone. In my school there's a poster offering a free book if you text FREEBOOK or ICUE to 64888. I don't know if it will work outside of the UK because i think it's a UK mobile phone number.
They basically have three reading styles. My favourites is called Ticker (sort of autocue style). Thousands of books to choose from. Works nicely on my Nokia and on my mates Motorola.
you can play music on the jinke e-ink reader. (v2 and v8, see http://www.jinke.com.cn/compagesql/english/index.asp )
Apple is becoming the Boston Red Sox to Microsoft's New York Yankees, an archenemy with the same evils. Buy jinke.
beware of adobe's DRM for e-books!
it will lock out the use of multiple user's on apple's so-called 'digital hub'!
it appears that the adobe authentication system will validate against only one account per machine .... so that means that schools families & businesses which have multiple users per machine will NOT be able to download & authenticate on the same machine (and from there onto a variety of ipods).
it will be very important to know how fairplay (apple's drm) will interact with adobe's dumbass drm!
i have asked this question to adobe & they dont even bother responding!
and amazon (their biggeste reseller) has Level 3 t/s who do not understand the difference between multi-users on a single machine vs many users on multiple machines (not kidding!)
so this whole issue of drm for e-books is a GOTCHA! (surely an individual will want to be able to start reading at home; then read more while commuting; and then continue reading at work/school -- three devices (one of which will certainly be a video ipod).
and how will collabrative learning be possible with e-books if the drm locks it down in bizarre ways?!
i hope someone at apple is thinking about these issues (like social networking) so that the e-book experience has a strong value -add ...
because with e-paper or nan OLED, the conventional ipod interface will not be optimized (hello some XP tablet concepts!) for e-books.
Another rumor a few weeks back over on Gizmodo suggested the next iPod would also be able to speak the names of albums/tracks using "famous actors voices".
Put these two stories together and I believe that Apple is going to provide a read-out-load eBook reader, turning any book into an audio book...
http://www.ruxp.net/2006/07/video-ipod-to-obsolete-audiobooks.asp
Wow. I have yet to buy an iPod although I strongly support iTunes. My reason being I don't get around much. However I have been meaning to buy some more books soon (I mostly just read EGM and CPU these days.... My Grammer and Spelling have gone down hill, partly because of that and partly because I had a Terrible English Teacher last year) and Apple may give me the incentive to. I used to love to read but eventually I just ran out of things I like to read. However a few local book stores aren't really there to solve anything. At least this way there would be a wide variety of books to choose from no less.
As for how it would affect the eBook market. I have no idea how well video is doing in iTunes but the majority of the podcasts I subscribe to are video so it may not be doing half bad.
Digital Music as I recall wasn't so large until the iPod. In fact if I recall correctly, the iPod acted as a trojan for the whole market. Why can't they do the same for eBooks? It would at least help save some paper in the long term if not the short term. I'm about to go into High School and I am scared of the number of Text Books I may have to deal with. I wouldn't mind carrying some books around school as iPods will likely not be allowed, but when I'm on my way Home I don't want a pile of books with me. I have tried searching for alternatives but a backpack, until now has been the only way I could see. When I found out about eBooks a few months ago I finally saw that as my Chance to escape textbooks. However I'm going to have to find specific textbooks which I'll find out about soon I hope. So now I'm looking at eBook readers, Tablet PCs, and I'm about to buy a new phone. If Apple offers a way for me to carry all my books on a 3.5-5" screen (I expect them to redesign the whole thing this year judging from recent Patents) I would have more then enough reason to finally shell out for an iPod.
Oh yeah, the people talking about the Zune. You don't even have nearly enough to go on. All we know is that the Zune is a Software/Hardware Platform that is going to burn all of Microsoft's recent partners. Oh and it has Wi-Fi. I admit to subscribing to updates, and so far we have nothing.
Sebastian
I love the idea of an Apple eBook. This is just one of the new iPod-ish things their working on (or so patent rumors say). There is also Wi-Fi, bluetooth, touch-screen, 6 and 8 gb nanos, etc.
The only thing im thinking is that the eBook thing would be seperate from those video iPods. Kinda like how nanos and videos are seperate. The video iPods might have a screen size change, but they probably wouldnt be connected to the eBook.
I 100% would buy one as soon as it came out. Especially if it allowed for textbooks to be added and notes to be written on it. This would have a lot of buyers if they make a nice, efficient design for it. (Knowing iPods, they will).
It would be extremely nice if they had a USB port on the side to plug in a printer to A) print out the book or B) Print out notes that you took in it.
Someone brought up a good point of the no return thing, yet, they would be a lot cheaper than actual textbooks, and if u still arent convinced, you have friends and limewire to get them from.
If it has a decent sized screen, nice features (voice to read it, maybe allowing it to have background music?) it would definetly be an awesome product
I wonder if you people bagging on ebooks have ever really tried it. I am a big reader and loved the move over to electronic reading.
http://www.laptopbatteryclub.com/
so i purchased my green ipod nano second generation at wal mart. does anyone know if i can get it replace by walmart or APPLE for free....oh and would they beable to fix it without my reciept....but i still have the box it came in.....or if someone could just tell me hats wrong with it..heres the story...i charge it for all day, so long enough for it to be fully charged. then i took it off the cord turned it on and nothing happened, even when i pushed a button. i even tried to reset it but nothing happened. so if anyone could get back to me soon i really miss my ipod