I’ve spent some time now, looking at the PROs and CONs of the the new Apple educational offerings, specifically the new Mac app iBooks Author, and am now starting to form some opinions, both good and bad.

Here we go.

First off, for those who don’t know about Apple’s recent text book creation tool, iBooks Author, here are some key points:

• It’s FREE to use on your Mac (you can’t author on PC).
• It creates a proprietary ePub multimedia rich pseudo-HTML5 formatted book which can only be read using iBooks software and on Apple’s iPad only. No Android, no iPhone, no Mac nor PC support is included at this time.
• It also can create PDFs, which of course are static, and can be read on just about any device.
• You can use it to create more than just school books and textbooks.
• You can use it to create FREE iBooks and publish them however you like, as long as you don’t charge money. So this means folks can download your iBook directly from your website and it will install correctly without going through the iBooks store. You can also email iBooks to friends and they can install them.
• If you decide to charge for your iBook, you must sell it through the iBook store.
• Uploading an iBook to the iBooks store is much more streamlined than submitting an app to the AppStore. Still, if you WANT to SELL your iBook, you’ll need to purchase an ISBN number, estimated to be around $100. Free iBooks uploaded don’t need an ISBN number. And don’t forget, the Apple thought police may reject your book outright for any reason they wish, thus negating all the hard work you put into creating it (of course you can still give it away for free).

There is already much confusion regarding how Apple proposes to police this rather over-reaching license. For instance, say you sell your iBook created by iBooks Author on your website. How does Apple find out, and what do they do? Or, say you give freely your iBook to another, who in turn sells it. Who does Apple go after? Seems like there’s bound to be a lot of changing of the EULA before this is all over.

Now, what do I think of all of this. Upon a closer inspection of things– I believe it’s a pretty good product which, if managed correctly by Apple, could be a serious game changer for them. To note:

• Kindle already has a proprietary format, so why can’t Apple? And Kindle doesn’t have any decent tools for authoring them.
• Many other companies, including Quark, have been working hard at creating a similar format. Most, which include multimedia, are based on proprietary formats. All the tools I’ve seen are pretty expensive.
• Apple currently has a HUGE marketshare advantage in the tablet arena. This is one way to keep Android from encroaching. As long as Apple maintains the ‘software’ lead, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for folks to switch. And we all know how important it is to get kids to adopt technology– the earlier the better.
• Frankly, creating a ‘one-size-fits-all’ format for iBooks may just be impossible. I don’t know how you could expect a fully interactive iBook to play back on different resolution devices? My guess is Apple couldn’t get the features they wanted using existing standards, so they made up their own.
• And, the final published iBook is a variant of the HTML5 format, so enterprising developers may just create ‘converters’ to move from one format to another. Not sure if this is legal, but I suspect all this licensing stuff will work out in the near future.

So, I guess I’m off to create my first free giveaway iBook!

Last weekend I was invited to give a talk to other design members of NC State’s College of Design Leadership Council in Raleigh, North Carolina. I created the following PDF entitled, Virtual Collaboration Blueprint on my iPad using Neu.Notes and presented it via GoodReader.

I am currently helping a few companies evaluate their current infrastructure to see if they take the appropriate advantage of cloud technologies.

PDF is here: http://db.tt/iIIsV8hq

I’ve been interested in saltwater aquariums since I was a child but I’ve always known the hobby to require a tremendous amount of maintenance, startup capital, and time. But, now, the technology has come a long way, and whereas previously the smallest tank you could start with was 30 gallons, you can now create pico saltwater reef tanks in 5 gallons or less. So, I’ve recently started my own 3.5 gallon reef saltwater tank.

Unlike saltwater fish tanks, reef tanks require a tremendous amount of light, and there are no decent fixtures available for picos– so I decided to design one myself.

Here are the renderings of it. The tank and fixture was modeled in SketchUp and rendered in KeyShot.

As many of you may have noticed, I”ve finally gotten around to changing the design of my blog. I’ve been looking for a quick and easy template solution for creating a number of websites, and I thought I’d start by trying my latest favorite WordPress framework on this site. The framework I’m talking about is from WooThemes and it’s called Canvas.

One of the things I really like about Canvas, is that it’s really easy to start using. I’m a big fan of up and running quick, and WooThemes doesn’t disappoint. Plus, it has all the great features you expect from a first class framework, including a whole bunch of shortcodes, custom widgets, ability to assign multiple page layouts to multiple page templates, and a whole lot more.

Definitely worth checking out!

As always, feedback is welcome..