Macmillan books gone from Amazon.com, Steve Jobs grins wryly from his throne of golden iPads
By Paul Miller 
posted January 30th 2010 1:10PM
posted January 30th 2010 1:10PM
We hate to iPad-ify the news so bluntly (matching lower back tattoos aside), but the timing of this one is uncanny. Mere days after Apple's announcement of a deal with Macmillan for its new iBooks store, and right after a shakycam video of Steve Jobs predicting some publishers would be pulling books from the Kindle due to a lack of satisfaction with Amazon's prices, Macmillan's books have mysteriously disappeared from Amazon.com. Even the paper ones, like the new Wheel Of Time book, pictured to the right. You can of course buy books from the other retailers that Amazon's systems support (along with Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca), but there's no getting a Macmillan publication straight from Amazon.com. Without a peep about the issue from Amazon or Macmillan, it's easy to see this as some sort of wild glitch -- after all, what could possibly cause such a rift between these two companies to end sales of all Macmillan books, instead of just the e-books for Kindle? Hopefully we find out soon, before our heads implode conspiratorially.
first here..first time ever
@bebaduh
Im a college student so i cant wait until textbooks are available for the iPad. That would totally save my back.
@bebaduh
If you're a college student why would you buy an iPad?
@bebaduh yeah textbooks on it would be great and save a ton of money.
@RioRyan Not all college/university students are poor lol
@bebaduh I said that too, but then I realized that the iPad has no note-taking, annotation, or highlighting capabilities
@Brent1700 But who is to say it won't ever? I could see a special app just for textbooks that had those features.
@werty1432k No, textbooks will save you maybe $20 a book, but then you won't be able to sell the used ones back so you're still likely to lose money.
@RioRyan
because ill be able to get books onto the ipad. Steve also mentioned in the keynote that they will be getting textbooks.
@Brent1700
Ipad has pages. Use that for note taking if you must highlight and all that.
@werty1432k true, but it would be tedious since you couldn't actually write on the thing and would have to type on the on-screen keyboard. steve Jobs has made it quite clear that no Apple product will ever be used with a stylus. With handwriting recognition, this would be perfect for student.
@bebaduh How would that totally save your back? MSRP of the books I bought this semester was $550, I paid $170 thanks to them all being used or rentals.
@bebaduh but you have to use the keyboard, too much work.
@bebaduh
Oh im sorry i didnt understand what you were saying. But yea the im sure ibooks will have great textbook features once we start getting them..
Like somone pointed out..the only downside to this is...you wont be able to sell back the books
@bebaduh It's got the pages app? Cool. Too bad you can't have that and the e-book app open at the same time, thus rendering it a pretty useless combination.
@Konrad
you wont have to carry all the books? instead u carry just the iPad?
@Konrad
you will be able to once it gets jailbroken :)
GeoHot will be working on that as soon as its out.
@bebaduh Really? You expect someone to open a textbook in iBooks, close that, open Pages and write down what they want to remember, close that, then open iBooks again and go back to where they were? And then for studying I guess they'll only be able to look at one or the other, the textbook or the notes?
In its current iteration, this thing is going to be horrible for textbooks. If you want a cheap tablet for school purposes, get a tc1100 off eBay for a couple hundred, and use OneNote to take notes, or get PDF versions of the textbooks and some form of PDF annotation software to take notes in the actual books.
@219 With anything digital these days there is a way to /steal/ them. For the little use I get out of my textbooks anyway I don't have a problem with it.
@bebaduh Jailbroken iPad FTW.
Typical Engadget skew on the story. Amazon pulled the books, not the other way around!
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/amazon-pulls-macmillan-books-over-e-book-price-disagreement/
@bebaduh
Smart move, but I'm sure many universities are getting ready to dump paper books for iPads. Since universities represent higher education, it would be stupid of them not to move to digital books.
@MosesusedaniPad
Yes, because digital == higher learning. That's why online universities are the most prestigious.
Or you could get a tm2 for $800 or less (with coupon codes), get oneNote and you can take notes and search keywords in your handwritten notes when you need to review. Then you can still get ebooks if you want, or buy them super cheap offline (I'm talking $10 for a 250 dollar book). Oh yes, and you can also use it as a computer, or a tablet if you're an art student. And you can read photos and multitask and play games and it has a camera and a remote if you do presentations and a keyboard and microphone and replaceable batteries and I've said enough.
@Evan Wow, engadget hitting new lows everyday
Nobody reads books anymore
@jol I'm definitely getting a tm2. I was sooo hoping the ipad would be like the tm2 without the keyboard but, unfortunately, it's not...
@bebaduh It has a very nicely new designed notes app too.
@bebaduh: I am a college student as well, and I would never buy books for the iPad.
I think it's safe to assume books for the pad would cost less...but not that much less. Publishers are still going to rip off students. I would rather own the physical copy than some digital file for the money.
I can throw my books in my backpack, and not worry if it gets stepped on, dropped, or crushed. Can't do that with the pad. Can't load your bag with awkward shaped objects cuz it might crush your precious screen.
Reading on the pad is going to be horrible. Anybody can use an LCD monitor because you're not truly focused on it, always looking away, doing other things, but for hardcore reading/studying, the pad won't hold up. E-ink or bust.
Right now with current textbooks, you can easily flip to the back for an index/glossary etc. Try doing that on the pad, even if you can easily jump to it, it will become annoying and more tedious than flipping a page back and forth.
I can take my books anywhere, and read them anytime. With a mere 10 hrs of battery life (which we all know is Apple-code for 6-7 hrs) you won't be studying when you want to or are on the go.
@Brent1700 how do you know this? have you actually used one and purchased a book, and attempted to take notes in it?
@bebaduh Check out the entourage edge if you want textbooks on an ebook reader. It is desigend specifically for that purpose. Large dual lcd and e-ink screens, full annotations.
http://www.entourageedge.com/
Ipad doesn't seem to even come close to being a competitor in the e-textbook field.
@cntyglghtl it doesn't have handwriting recognition, so you can't take notes on it. And if you could, you would have to use the on-screen keyboard which would be ridiculously tedious
@bebaduh Apple is officially the new Microsoft at war with Amazon, Adobe, Google, Palm, Microsoft, etc. This is typical Microsoft tactics, tell content owners you will sell their products for more money so that they dispute with competitors. Remember when NBC Universal pulled their content from iTunes? Same deal. Jobs promised Walt Mossberg this would happen. I wonder what 1990s Steve Jobs would say about Steve Jobs of today. Lets not forget they outright stole the iBooks interface from a Mac developer.
@Brent1700
I expect you'll be very wrong about that.
@Kevin B how am i wrong?it obviously doesn't have handwriting recognition so you would have to use the keyboard, which is ridiculous
@bebaduh All of my textbooks are PDF files. So depending on your school, it's already here.
@jhoff80
Great suggestion.
This thread highlights the mentality shared by many Apple consumers.
Here is a product, the iPad, that is a complete fail for students.
1. No E-Ink display.
2. No note taking capability
3. No sharing of content between students
Instead of looking at a much more reasonable solution (like a netbook or e-book reader) people continually try to pound a square peg into a round hole.
@219
You must be one of those people that think online music is a waste too since you only save about $5 on a cd and can't share it with friends, right?
I guess you've never heard of torrent or rapidshare before. Textbooks are nearly as widespread as albums. So for a college student who already downloads music through torrent or p2p, aka nearly all, they'll be saving hundreds left and right by picking up a few pdfs and epubs. You can also get many textbooks without even needing p2p.
Now combine that with the fact that you don't have to carry around a stack of thick textbooks to do a few homework problems in between class, and the fact that anyone on here is competent enough to jailbreak it and throw on ProSwitcher. Then you have a goldmine.
As for handwritting recognition. Most people wouldn't give up a paper notebook even if this had that. That said, I'll bet you thats the first app every dev is dying to make. The demand is ridiculously high and devs are looking for new high demand ways to take advantage of the iPad. Hell, there is already a handful of apps that do it to various degrees. Pick up a capacitive stylus and your ready to go. Though, I still wouldn't use it for notetaking.
What is the ideal setup for college?
a) an ereader of sorts for all the heavy textbooks, preferably color
b) something that plays music and movies well, an ipod replacement
c) something that can easily fit in the same bag as your notebooks folders etc.
d) access to the internet and email
e) something you can type a paper on, maybe do a spreadsheet for a lab, and possibly whip up a powerpoint and or present one.
f) something with a good battery life to get through as much of the day as possible without plugging it in
The iPad does all of that. For the average college student, its perfect. That's what people are missing. It's not about being a laptop/desktop replacement or doing every little cool thing you want it to do. It's a device that wraps together all the things you NEED to do on a day to day basis in a package that is far easier to carry than any other such device. Carrying around a laptop at college isn't super practical. It means an extra bag. It also means that most of the time, you won't be able to use it for anything in class due to desk space. It is more of a hassle than a textbook, the iPad is less of a hassle than a textbook. Have a desktop or 15"+ laptop at home/dorm that your parents got you, then save up a few bucks to get the iPad to carry around during the day. A semester or two of textbooks pays for it. This semester my books cost about $450+.
As for the missing features (that would have been nice/cool):
Quit bitching about iChat. Honestly, I have never used nor intend to use webcam chat. I don't want to have a face to face conversation with some just to say "hi" "lol" "you see that link", thats what text is for. As for phone calls, the best thing about them is that you can whisper to other people, be naked, roll your eyes, hide your location, etc. without the other person knowing. Video chat is good for three things, impressing people, wasting battery, and long distance business. If I want to see someone, I will meet up with them. Not a lot of people get an honest advantage from it. Most get a disadvantage(s). It's mostly flair.
As for multitasking, anyone that really cares about it is smart enough to be able to jailbreak it and add ProSwitcher, which is possibly better than whatever solution Apple will eventually cook up for it. Its probably one of the best multitasking solutions out there, even compared to native ones.
@werty1432k
Macmillan wants Amazon to charge you roughly the same price for the physical book as the eBook, so I'd be surprised if they did a 180 and happily gave deep discounts on textbooks. Hopefully I'm wrong, but...
@Evan I have to say that one of the reasons I'm considering the Kindle more than it's competitors is that Amazon's prices on ebooks is considerably lower than that of it's competitors. I think the prices are already pretty fair considering that you don't have to actually print a book and ebooks aren't resellable, but the prices seen elsewhere are really no cheaper than the resellable paper versions which is pretty bizarre.
Here's an idea you twits. They can add text books on the iPad and future Android/Windows tablets, as well as continue to sell text books. That way there is a choice?
@tmarks11
I would imagine it wouldn't be a competitor before it even comes out.. You guys do love bitching..
@Konrad I'm pretty sure he meant not having to lug around paper textbooks would save his back from aggravation (lots of books can become quite heavy).
Well, at least Steve Jobs has found a use for the iPad.
Although, you'd need quite a few to make a serviceable seat...
I'll just get it for bed time browsing.
Next weeks breaking news, 'Macmillan rebrands itself as Macbooks'.
@TacticalTimbo
i loled
@TacticalTimbo lmfao
w00t! Represent Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan! Two amazing authors.
As much as I hate iPad news, that is a great Photoshop!!!
But really that is weird, why not keep two different revenue streams?? It doesn't make sense to me!
This totally explains the cryptic answer he gives when Mossberg asks about the price. "........they'll be the same price." And here I was thinking that your prices were wrong and that they'd go down to $9.99 at launch... but what *you* meant is that they're bouncing from Amazon. Oh Steve!!!.....*you*!!!