iBooks Author Fine Print

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Campbell Craig

In February this year (2012) after Apple released its latest Mac software, iBooks Author, careful readers of the licensing agreement noticed some legal restrictions for publishing books in the iBooks/e-Pub format. In April, Apple updates that agreement. iBooks Author allows you how to write, design, and publish interactive e-Pub books and post them for free or for sell on Apple’s iBooks Store.

In the latest 1.0.1 update of iBooks Author, Apple states “If you want to charge a fee for a work that includes files in the .ibooks format generated using iBooks Author, you may only sell or distribute such work through Apple, in such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple.”

The above is essentially what Apple required in the original license. In this update, however, it adds in part, “This restriction does not apply to the content of such works when distributed in any form is not include files in the .ibooks format.”

Apple further clarifies it policy agreement on its iBooks Author: Publishing and distribution FAQ page. It says in part:

If a fee is charged for the work and it is in the .ibooks format, the work may only be sold through the iBookstore. If the work is in a different format, such as PDF or ePub, this restriction does not apply.

When the work is provided for free, it can be distributed through the iBookstore or by other means, including when the work is in the .ibooks format.

While Apple says it doesn’t own the copyright of your book, it might be a good idea to hire a legal expert if you think your book is going to have significant sell value.

Categories: books, iPhone, printing, strategy | Leave a comment

iBookie Goodness

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Campbell Craig

Back in January Apple launched this new education initiative today called iBooks Author. The iBooks Author application looks exciting and I can’t wait until I start my new job and get to play with the iBooks 2 ecosystem. Not just because it’s got people really talking and thinking about education, but because it finally puts a powerful tool into everyone’s hands and says “show me what you can do with this”. Because it’s not your typical e-book system, and allows a lot of interactivity features, I know I can see myself writing a whole swag of different types of books like;

1. Choose Your Own Adventure. I loved these books when I was a kid. Books where you can select which path the story should take, making decisions so you’re more involved in the narrative. Previously, we did this by conditionally turning to one page or another.

2. Tutorial based books. Since the iBooks 2 format allows embedding of HTML 5 code, tutorial material can include actual working examples in each chapter.

3. My Wedding album. Photos, guestbook messages and even videos can be included in a virtual coffee-table book for everyone to enjoy, not just those who paid for a copy of the DVD from the videographer.

4. My portfolio. An interactive portfolio, showing my work in the most effective way, complete with contact information and links to my online presence (or web portfolio pieces). For iOS developers, particularly, this would be powerful marketing.

5. My family history.  Genealogy fans can include the old home videos, scanned photographs etc.

6. Band profiles. Since Kay does a lot with various bands, this could have History, trivia, music, live performance videos, photos and interviews.

7. Instruction manuals. Like build your Lego kit, assemble your Ikea furniture, or convert Optimus Prime from a truck into a robot. Run through the process step by step, seeing exactly how everything moves and goes together. Even user guides for software or hardware, or videogame strategy guides.

8. Scavenger/Treasure hunts. I am doing a scavenger hunt for my bucks party and I am informed that HTML 5 widgets can (with permission) access your current location from within a book. Imagine the possibilities of this technology.

9. Client proposals. I am definately wrapping up my pitches in book format, with interactive visuals, estimates, timelines, contact information and a profile of my staff etc.

Anyone else think of anything cool to use this format for? Let me know.

Categories: awesomeness, books, design, e-learning, iPhone | Leave a comment

m-Learning framework update

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Campbell Craig

As you all may know, mobile devices have had Web browsers for years. However, developing for them has always been painful because Web developers like me have had to deal with all these cross-browser issues. A lot of long days and late nights can be attributed to getting HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to work identically on various versions of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and so on. IMO, the desktop browser world is completely tame compared to the mobile browser world. The number of different mobile browsers has, historically, been staggering. Every device maker had their own browser, and then even devices from the same manufacturer had huge variations in operating systems, screen sizes, and so on. Some browsers only supported WAP, others supported subsets of HTML, some had full HTML, but no JavaScript. Anyway enough rambling.

The latest incarnations of HTML and CSS offer many new features. For example, HTML5 includes new elements that make web pages more semantic; you can now store data offline, create editable content areas, use drag-and-drop functionality, and much more. With CSS3, you can create round corners without graphics as well as add shadows and gradients. As you know I said in a previous post that I was going to look into the arena of m-Learning and mobile based development.

Well, over the last three weeks I been reading more on HTML5, CSS3 and this cool API called PhoneGap, which Adobe supposedly has just bought (so it must be good). After a few days I finally did a mini shopping list based app. It uses the cool local database SQLite feature in HTML5, and have added CRUD functionality, so next step is to make it look prettier and I might use it as a framework in other projects for more applications (due to the CRUD).

Categories: awesomeness, e-learning, rambling, web development | 7 Comments