Mark Pentleton

The wait is over. Last night Steve Jobs announced the iPad, and it looks good. Really good. A 9.7″ multitouch display, 16, 32 or 64gb of flash storage, wifi and bluetooth and a 3G version (annoyingly available a month after the wifi version is released!). Is it what I hoped for? In some ways, yes, in other ways not quite yet.

In many ways it’s really just a huge iPod Touch with lots more screen real estate. All existing iPhone apps already work on the device, and Safari looks great (though still no flash…)

We’ve expected the new device to have some kind of eBook reader, and the iBooks app provides this. It looks like a really well-designed eBook reader, with adjustable fonts and font size, although it’s not using the e-ink format used by the Kindle and other devices. E-ink is apparently easier on the eye than a traditional screen – more like reading an actual book, I guess. Unlike Amazon/Kindle, iBooks will use the ePub format which is an open format, theoretically allowing anyone to publish an iBook. More on that in a moment.

The iBooks shelf GUI flips over to reveal the iBookstore where you can browse books iTunes-style and add them to your library with a click. Jobs demonstrated this in the keynote, mentioning that “books can include images, audio and video, whatever the author wants”. This is perfect for educational content and I’m sure that the publishing world is already very interested in the idea of being able to include multimedia within books.

Five of the six major publishing houses in the US are already signed up and producing content for iBooks: Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Harper-Collins, Macmillan and Hachette. Interestingly McGraw-Hill wasn’t mentioned, despite the slip-up by Terry McGraw on Monday. However, will independent publishers be able to create iBooks and add them to the iBookstore? This is the key question for independent content producers like us. The details are still fairly patchy on iBooks and the iBookstore, but if Apple allowed a 70/30 rev share for iBooks as they’ve done with apps, and made it possible for independent authors to submit their self-published books, this would be revolutionary! Could Apple just go that step further and give us ePub export from Pages and a button to submit to the iBookstore?

It’s difficult to define exactly whether there is a precedent for this: it doesn’t appear to be particularly easy to self-publish music or audio into the iTunes store. Indeed, when we looked at getting our language courses into the audiobooks section of iTunes, we were directed to Audible. That meant poor audio quality for listeners and not a particularly interesting rev share model for us. There is obviously a precedent with the App store, and many publishers are jumping on the app bandwagon (we’re getting there, but we want to do it right!) Is there a need for a verification process for iBooks the same way app publishers have to wait for their apps to be approved? I’m not sure. I guess things will become clearer as time goes on, but I don’t see any reason why independents couldn’t be publishing their content straight to the iBookstore.

From an educational point of view, there are of course many possibilities for using devices like these in the classroom. The price point in the UK has yet to be confirmed, but the base model in the US is $499, possibly making it a realistic option for classrooms. There are already a number of projects where class sets of iPod Touches are being bought. I wonder, given the choice of 30 iPod Touches or 15 iPads, which would teachers go for?

The UK details for release and pricing will hopefully be confirmed in the next day or so. The one really frustrating thing is that the wifi version will apparently be released first and the 3G version will come a month later. I guess I’d prefer the 3G one but doubt I’ll be able to wait a month! Maybe the wifi one would tether to my iPhone through bluetooth?

What’s it missing? Well there are the obvious things like Flash and the fact that it’s not a widescreen device (I don’t really understand that one actually, given the new iMacs). There is also the fact that there’s no GPS and no USB ports. The dock connector is ok but it’s a bit restrictive, although I’m delighted to see that there’s a video out dock connector – will this work on the iPhone too? That would be very useful! However, if this device is really to be useful in the hands of creative learners, where is the iPad version of Apple’s creative suite of iLife apps? Yes we can manipulate our photos, but where is the camera? We can import our photos via an SD-card reader accessory, but where is the built-in SD slot? Where is the video camera and the iPad version of iMovie? We can record audio on it with the mic or external connectors, so where is GarageBand for iPad? Perhaps these are yet to come on iPad v2, or perhaps a new breed of accessories will allow us to connect cameras to the iPad and edit our movies on new apps. I suppose something also has to differentiate the device from the MacBooks.

But I don’t want to complain just yet! Whether it’s just enjoying the experience of browsing the web from the sofa or watching a (4×3 or letterbox!) movie on a flight, or using it as a glorified picture frame or eBook reader, or creating apps for the device and self-publishing iBooks, this device provides fantastic opportunities, and I’m looking forward to getting one in my hands!