So have you already downloaded the iBooks Author app from the Mac App Store? Of course you have. You are the kind of person who reads a technology column on Wednesday morning. So no doubt you’ve already downloaded the app and perhaps even created a test e-book of some kind. Excellent.
iBooks Author: Combine YouTube videos, Wikipedia articles, pictures and audio into textbooks.
Like you, I’ve had the app just sitting in my Applications folder, tempting me to fire it up and create something. But my plan is to round up a six-pack of Heineken, some potato chips—baked, not fried—and spend the coming weekend in a haze of e-book authoring, alcohol and starch. That is because iBooks Author doesn’t look like the sort of app you can dabble with for minutes at a time between assignments and conference calls. You could do that with the game
Temple Run or the photo app Pano.
But this app, which people are raving about already, seems much more intriguing. Early reviews seem to suggest that it is best for making rich, interactive textbooks rather than just plain books or even graphic novels.
Apple’s strategy is transparent. Help people make and sell books as easily as they can make and sell music or audiobooks on iTunes. For budding authors this is yet another opportunity to write publishers and other middlemen out of the equation.
However, I think there is a lot you can do with iBooks Author that does not involve selling or distributing your content at all. In fact, I think there is plenty you can do for purely personal or household enjoyment.
First of all, you could make fantastic custom-made textbooks for your children and young ones. Imagine being able to combine YouTube videos, tutorials, Wikipedia articles, pictures and audio into textbooks exclusively meant to help a young one with a particularly thorny topic. Indian parents love travelling on holidays with one suitcase full of textbooks for “holiday revision”. Why not invest a month or so in pulling together a nice holiday-special textbook on the iPad, and then use the luggage space to carry back more fridge magnets?
Second, the software can be very useful for people like me, who like to travel with plenty of content about their destinations. Rarely do I leave home without gigabytes worth of podcasts, e-books, PDFs and videos about my destination. Often there is so much content that I get bamboozled minutes after walking out of the plane.
Instead, why not pull together everything—Wikipedia pages, WikiTravel profiles, Lonely Planet videos, Rick Steves’ Europe podcasts, cooking videos, maps, public transport diagrams, restaurant reviews, even e-tickets—into rich interactive, self-made guidebooks? Imagine, for instance, standing in front of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem while seeing a video of Simon Sebag Montefiore explain its historical significance.
Third, many journalists and authors like to create vast dockets of research before embarking on writing projects. Which is why applications like Scrivener (a word-processing program designed for writers) are so popular. There is nothing as frustrating as typing through a piece at the speed of light and then suddenly jarring to a halt because you forgot the name of the house that Vidkun Quisling used to live in, in Oslo. You remember saving a PDF with the details somewhere. But where? Damn.
Why not use iBooks Author to draw up a vast, interactive research docket? And the added benefit is that you can keep the iPad by the side of your computer while you write. No need to slow down if you want to refer through your research. Type, swipe, type. Brilliant.
And finally I can see how this could revolutionize communications for companies. Small firms could put together excellent interactive presentations without having to hire expensive media production companies. iPads with interactive publications could work wonders during trade fairs. Hook it up with an Apple TV and a display for super impact.
The trick, I think, is to think beyond just e-books and propagation. There is plenty you can do for yourself, your family and your company by using this new tool. I do look forward to the weekend.
Write to Sidin at businessoflife@livemint.com