A Peek at Apple's Plans to Re-invent Textbooks [Apple]

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...ibooks-pic.jpgScrollMotion's been tapped to to transmogrify textbooks published by McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and every standardized test-taking student's favorite, Kaplan. The WSJ says that education was indeed a "focal point" in the iPad's development, which we reported months ago.
If you're over-analyzed the iPad keynote as much as we have, by now you've probably gotten the distinct sense that something felt like it was missing. One of those things, apparently, were Apple's ideas about re-inventing the textbook. (Not to mention magazines. And, mayyyybe, something more.)
To see where this is going in the more immediate future, you can probably justlook at what ScrollMotion already does, since they're doing the heavy lifting getting these textbooks onto the iPad—they take digital versions of books from publishers and integrate features like search, page numbering and interactive elements. And hey, why read about the moon landing when you can watch it, right on your "book"? The iPad announcement last week? Clearly, tip of the iceberg.
Oh, and I wonder how Amazon feels about this. Goodbye margin-sapping used books—I'm pretty sure that's how the publishers feel. How do I feel? I wonder if the GRE would've been more fun to study for on an iPad. Riiiiight. "Oooo, Mini Squadron!" [WSJ]


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