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Inkling now available for iPhone
Inkling is a popular virtual textbook publisher on the iPad, and it's recently expanded over to the web, allowing students to access their virtual textbooks from anywhere. Now, the company is adding one more platform to its repertoire: the iPhone. The Inkling app is now universal, which means you can browse, buy, and read textbooks from the iPad, the iPhone, or the iPod touch. I don't know how much this will add to Inkling's business. You have to think that most students do their work on a computer or an iPad rather than on the iPhone's relatively small screen. But then again, I've done quite a bit of reading on my phone while out and about, and maybe there's an audience for academic texts in the same way. If you're an Inkling user, you can update the app and enjoy the new version right now.
Inkling for Web puts iPad books in a browser
We've discussed Inkling's interactive digital textbooks numerous times here on TUAW, both in terms of the products the publisher has released and in comparison with Apple's own iBooks Author-created textbooks. Now the company has announced a way to read its books in Webkit-based web browsers. Matt McInnis, Founder and CEO of Inkling, announced today that the company has introduced an HTML5-based Web client known as Inkling for Web. Initial support for Inkling for Web will be on the desktop versions of Chrome and Safari. Although mobile Safari and Chrome also support the Web client, MacInnis noted that the Inkling app for iPad is better optimized for touch. Inkling for Web brings the company's travel guides, cookbooks, how-to books, and textbooks to Mac and PC users, complete with all of the interactive 3D graphics, multimedia, and social sharing that are in the iOS app. Considering that Amazon has a Kindle Web reader for all of its content, it's surprising that Apple still hasn't created a Mac OS or Web client for iBooks.
Inkling to sell iPad textbooks in over 900 college bookstores
Inkling is an e-book publishing platform that's currently running an app on the App Store, and while Apple has been making an official push for more textbooks in iBooks, Inkling is strengthening its own holdings. The company has made a deal with Follett to bring hundreds of Inkling titles into college bookstores, where students can buy the ebook content right there in person. The company is selling whole textbooks, or it's also offering a program called "Pick 3," which allows students to grab three chapters of a book at a time, keeping costs down if teachers or students don't need the whole book. Overall, this may not be cheaper, however -- don't forget that students who buy real books can often have a chance to resell them, or can buy them used, and with ebooks, there's obviously no resale value. The Follett deal should be ready by the time students head back to school in the fall.
McGraw Hill VP bullish on $399 iPad 2 for students
At Apple's education keynote in January, McGraw Hill Education was announced as one of the partners in the initiative to move textbooks to a digital format. The company's vice president of new ventures, Vineet Madan, is impressed with the power and display of the new iPad, but says he thinks that the newly discounted iPad 2 gives more schools a chance to deploy iPads to their students. In an interview with Talking Points Memo, Madan said that "I've long thought that the tipping-point price for a tablet is between $200 and $300. Now that the entry-level iPad 2 has dropped by $100, and it's now $399 for a 16 gigabyte version, we'll see much more uptake." McGraw Hill currently has five K-12 textbooks available, as well as over 50 iPad textbooks aimed at the higher education and professional market through partner Inkling. Although the existing e-textbooks use interactive features, Madan feels that the new iPad's Retina display, 4G network support and 10-hour battery life can make life easier for textbook readers and creators. Speaking about LTE, Madan said "You could be anywhere and can immediately pull up all sorts of high-res, data-rich content. You can stream it instantaneously and you don't have pulling down gigs and gigs of content and storing it on the app locally." Madan also sees the high resolution Retina display as a way to "really unlock the potential of 'pinch to zoom' functionality" in textbooks.
Inkling Habitat interactive e-book publishing platform rolls out to select publishers
It's not another alternative for individual authors looking to self-publish (at least for now), but professional publishers looking to create and distribute interactive e-books now have a new option to consider in the form of Inkling Habitat. Initially available to select publishers in an early adopter program (a broader rollout is planned for later this year), the platform promises to make producing interactive e-books at scale more affordable, with the program itself completely free provided publishers agree to sell their books through Inkling's store. As mocoNews notes, however, Inkling isn't asking publishers for exclusive rights, so they'll also be able to sell them elsewhere if they choose -- the iPad is the initial target platform, with HTML5-based web publishing also planned. The system is also cloud-based, meaning that a group of folks in various locations will be able to collaborate on a single book, something that Inkling hopes will distinguish it further from Apple's own iBooks Author; its CEO even went as far as to use the analogy of Habitat being the Final Cut Pro to iBooks Author's iMovie.
Inkling launches Inkling Habitat for textbook publishing
iBooks Author was announced last month to a lot of hoopla, but left many ebook publishers wanting a textbook authoring tool that would streamline the entire book publishing process and have more features. Today, Inkling announced their new online ebook publishing tool -- Inkling Habitat -- that is designed to speed the workflow for textbook publishers. Inkling Habitat is currently on a limited distribution, but users who are accepted into the Early Adopter Program have a chance to try out the robust features of the tool. Habitat is a cloud-based tool, so authors, editors, and artists can collaborate on textbooks simultaneously from anywhere. There's infinite rollback, so every addition, change, or edit is saved. When it's time to publish the ebook, Habitat creates content for every target platform and customizes the layout for every device. Inkling notes that they're trying to treat content more like software, "shifting the industry from a page-based model to a software-based model that benefits from decades of computer science advances." There's automated error reporting built into Habitat, so any time content is published it is run through a gauntlet of tests to make sure that everything works properly. Inkling is no newcomer to the electronic publishing world, having published over a hundred electronic textbooks to date. The company was founded by Matt MacInnis, a former Apple educational marketing manager. There's no word on what the cost of Inkling Habitat will be, or if the company will grab a portion of the proceeds from each published textbook. From the company's website, it's not even clear if Habitat creates standalone apps or traditional ebook files that are compatible with existing bookstores. In the meantime, if you're a publisher, writer, or educator, you might want to sign up for Inkling's Early Adopter Program.
Daily iPad App: The Professional Chef
I'm not a professional chef, but I love to cook and serve up 30 plates of food each day. Like many amateur cooks, I struggle with recalling the differences between sauteing and braising and what makes a roux, a roux. That is why I was so excited to see The Professional Chef land on the iPad. Created by John Wiley & Sons and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the digital version of the chef's ultimate bible contains 1,200 pages filled with cooking information. There are 100 videos, 850 recipes, 175 figures, and 750 photographs of food. There's so much content packed into its 36 chapters, it's almost overwhelming, but in a good way. The app uses Inkling, an interactive learning framework for the iPad, to organize and present its content. The app was designed as both a learning tool for professional chefs and a reference guide for amateurs. Besides its wealth of food information, The Professional Chef includes quizzes to measure your mastery of the content and a searchable glossary to help you brush up on your cooking terms. And if the glossary isn't enough, you can also access Google and Wikipedia from within the app. There's even a virtual notebook that's useful for storing bookmarks, highlights and other content you want to review. The Professional Chef has a social component which includes a note-taking and discussion feature that lets you share your thoughts with others. These social features are great for chefs that want to share what they know or have discovered about the techniques in the book. They also fit in perfectly with a classroom scenario. Students can add notes and discussion topics to content within the book and then view responses left by the instructor and other students. You'll have to create an account to access the social portion of the learning network, but you can login using your email or Facebook account. The interface is clean and very usable. You can tell the designers spent a lot of time organizing even the smallest details, like the navigation bar on the left which shows your relative location within the book and within a chapter. There's also an adjustable font size so you can pick one suitable for reading close up and another for when you are using the iPad book in the kitchen. This attention to detail makes using The Professional Chef a pleasurable experience. What really sets this iPad book apart from others is its stunning content. The cooking and food information is very well organized into discrete chapters and each chapter is subdivided into individual topics. My favorite is the chapter on cooking eggs which is broken down into frying, poaching, scrambling, omelets and more. Each individual sub-section has a high-res picture of the topic, a comprehensive description of the food item and details on how to cook it. Most sections also include a short video that demonstrates the cooking technique. The video isn't from your typical homegrown cooking show either; each one is a high quality production that makes the recipe or cooking technique look stunning. The video of the fried eggs will leave you wishing every meal was breakfast. Best of all, the book covers more than just recipes. It contains cooking information and buying tips so you can learn how to identify the right type of food, select the freshest item and discover the best way to prepare it. The 36-chapter Professional Chef costs a pricey $49.99, but you do get a wealth of cooking information for that money. Value-wise, I think it's worth it to get all that information packaged into one iPad app, but the casual chef who doesn't need all this information may not agree. Those who prefer not to buy the whole book can purchase individual chapters for $2.99 each, and the soup chapter (Chapter 14) is available for free. You can purchase The Professional Chef from the App Store or check out a demo on Inkling's website. %Gallery-137734%
Wacom Inkling digital sketch pen hands-on (video)
Wacom's new digital pen can't help but stand out from the competition. It's a specialized device that makes no apologies for catering to graphics enthusiasts at the expense of casual note-takers. Moreover, it does something pretty amazing: instead of just turning your sketches into simple bitmaps, it can also export them as vector-based images with multiple layers, which means they can be directly used as the basis for more complex and final art. The Inkling will cost £150 ($230 converted) when it reaches European stores in October, but in the meantime we've got some early hands-on impressions right after the break. %Gallery-133144% %Gallery-133182%
Wacom Inkling smart pen does drawing the old-fashioned way -- sort of (video)
The latest product from Wacom trades the whole tablet motif we've come to know and love from the company, in favor of some good, old-fashioned pen-on-paper action. The Inkling is a ballpoint that transfers layered sketches to a PC or Mac via a USB connected receiver, which can then be edited with the included Sketch Manager software. The Livescribe-esque pen has pressure sensing technology with 1,024 levels of sensitivity. It will be available mid-September for $199. Video of the device after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
NPG, CSU partner for $49 dynamic digital textbooks
The worst part of being a college student? Pricey learning materials... they make even Ramen noodles a fancy meal. This fall, students at California State University will be at least be able to make a step up to fast food. CSU has announced a three-year deal with Nature Publishing Group for low-cost, interactive, web-based textbooks with access options for disabled students. The first to be offered is an introductory biology text, fittingly titled Principles of Biology. Students on the L.A., Northridge, and Chico campuses will each have varying payment and licensing models, but 49 bucks gets anyone a full edition starting September 1st. Professors can edit the content, which includes 175 "interactive lessons," access to a database of research papers, and assessments for students. It can all be used on any device from a slate to a computer and even printed if you prefer scribing your notes with pen and paper or won't be near an internet connection. Details are dry about future books using the system, but it looks like a promising break for college students. Still, before you get ready to ditch your books and backpack for more money and less backaches, we'd suggest skimming the press release after the break.
Inkling signs with major publishers to bring 100 textbooks to iPad by 2012, no actual ink
Inkling is a pretty cute name for a product, you have to admit, but by the end of the year it could be pretty serious business. It's a company that specializes on publishing textbooks on the iPad, devices that are rapidly killing the poor paper industry. As of now the company's products are few, but two major publishers, Pearson and McGraw-Hill, have signed on to support the service, a deal that will see Inkling's product catalog swell by several orders of magnitude. Up to 100 books are expected to be there by the end of the year and, while that's nothing compared to the massive variety of volumes that swell students' backpacks and diminish their drinking funds at the beginning of every semester, it is a solid start. Best of all, Inkling's current texts cost 35 percent less than their printed doppelgangers, meaning there's hope for cheaper e-books after all.
Inkling makes deals for e-textbooks with key publishers
While many companies are talking about making the iPad the platform for electronic textbooks, one San Francisco startup appears to be moving boldly into making the dream a reality. Inkling has announced that it'll be receiving financial backing from two of the largest names in textbook publishing -- Pearson and McGraw-Hill. What sets Inkling apart from other companies testing the textbook waters is its approach to creating truly interactive books that go beyond just making an electronic version of a book. Many e-textbook publishers simply make a PDF file of the content in an existing textbook and leave it at that. Matt MacInnis, founder and CEO of Inkling, noted in a MobileBeat post today that the company starts with existing textbook content as a framework, then adds interactive and multimedia content that is only possible on the iPad. One impressive feature is the addition of interactive quizzes to the end of each chapter of the iPad textbooks. Inkling only has 14 textbooks available at this time, but it's expected to have over 100 out by this fall. Not only is Inkling receiving funding from some big names, but it also has partnerships with John Wiley & Sons, Wolters Kluwer and W.W. Norton that give the company access to about 95 percent of available textbook content. There's a short video demonstrating one of Inkling's e-textbooks, Mader Biology 10th edition, on the next page. The company's free iPad app is available here.
