Peter Pappas »
07 December 2012 »
In Ed Tech, Publishing »
I still haven’t upgraded to iBooks Author 2.0, so I cannot verify any of these claims. But this information adds to my prior posts detailing issues with iBA 2.0.
First an excerpt (and image above) from What Apple Didn’t Say About Changes From iBooks Author Version 1 Series by Claxton Creative.
When we opened our .iba file made from the version 1.0 series (It was last opened on Aug. 23, 2012) in version 2.0 on Nov. 24, 2012, we immediately got a flag warning from the software saying that the image on page 156 was too large. Thumbing through the book also showed that iBooks Author 2.0 had messed up multiple widgets we’d laid out perfectly in version 1.0. They were compressed into a tiny size and were sitting at the left sides of pages. Several of them we’d laid out to encompass an entire page. Version 2.0 messed all that up and required us to repaginate several places in the book.
… A dialogue box appeared and said an image that worked fine up until Oct. 23, 2012, was no longer any good in our book for iPad.
… Things got even wonkier after that. There were multiple widgets in the book that got totally screwed up by iBooks Author version 2.0. …. some of them got zapped in size and then moved to the top left portion of a page, completely affecting the pagination within a chapter. More
Next some chatter from the Apple Support Community boards:
MrBlobby1970 begins a discussion about problems with iBA 2.0 by writing ….
Upgraded to iBooks Author 2.0 and it has rendered my book file unusable. Is there a way to download iBooks Author 1.0/1.1 after you have upgraded to 2.0?
I have tried the book file with a friend’s iBooks Author 1.1 and it still works, so it’s something with 2.0 that just doesn’t like my files. More
In another Apple Support discussion Patrick-betterthanworksheets writes
Updated iBooks Author to 2.0 but can’t seem to load the iBook I was perviously working on (says cannot load document). Still loads fine on my other Mac using the pervious version of iBooks. Happen to anyone else or is this just a glitch with my file? Not a huge deal since I can use the pervious version to finish it off but just wondering. More
OK readers, its your turn – Is anyone else having compatibilty issues with iBA 2.0 and 1.0?
Tags: Apple, ebook, iBook, iBooks Author
Peter Pappas »
30 November 2012 »
In Ed Tech, Publishing »
While iBA 2.0 offers some improvements, it greatly increases the video file size and wipes out subtitle tracks (unwelcome news for accessibility). Here’s some video evidence comparing iBA 2.0 video file conversion to Handbrake.
Tags: Apple, ebook, Frank Lowney, iBook, iBooks Author
Peter Pappas »
04 November 2012 »
In Commentary, Ed Tech, Publishing »
The optimization routine in iBooks Author 2.0 is well intentioned but the execution of those intentions is quite poor. In addition to bloating the size of your videos and, hence, your iBook, it can also degrade visual quality in dramatic fashion. If you are writing a textbook or any kind of book containing video that requires providing soft subtitle tracks to address accessibility and other important goals or alternate audio tracks to reach a wider, multi-lingual audience, be aware that this optimizer will strip out those valuable assets without notice.
Tags: Apple, ebook, Frank Lowney, iBook, iBooks Author
Peter Pappas »
12 October 2012 »
In Commentary, How To »
Thinking of publishing your own work using iBooks Author? Be careful what you call it.
Tags: Apple, ebook, iBook, iBooks Author
Peter Pappas »
01 August 2011 »
In Presentations, Strategies, Students »
The traditional approach to instruction is failing our students. Here’s activities and sample projects to illustrate five reasons to “like” project-based learning. The post includes links to PBL resources, videos and more.
Tags: Apple, Engagement, Google, Lower-order thinking, Motivation, PBL, Project Foundry, Twitter, Visual Literacy
Peter Pappas »
07 July 2011 »
In Commentary »
My first post on Google +. (I’m guessing I will do more). OK, I admit it’s starting to grow on me. Still this Extranormal video nails it.
Tags: Apple, Extranormal, Google
Peter Pappas »
16 January 2011 »
In Commentary »
Angry Birds cost me $.99. I just checked my app stats and I’ve played the game for more than 15 hours. Thus, my cost of Angry Birds is below 6 cents per hour – and dropping. The price of information is rapidly approaching zero. Normally as cost of a commodity drops, we consume more of it. But unlike all the other cheap stuff we buy, and then later discard, cheap information demands our attention. The ability to selectively filter out unwanted information and stay focussed on a task is emerging as the most significant literacy.
Tags: Amusements, AngryBirds, Apple, Apps, iPad, iPhone, Smartphone
Peter Pappas »
01 March 2009 »
In Ed Tech, History / DBQ's, How To, Strategies »
Google has posted ten million photographs from the LIFE photo archive on their online gallery of images. It's a great source of material for teachers and students who support a document-based approach to teaching history. While I wish that Google had done more to curate the collection with robust search tools and more specific categories, I think [...]
Tags: Apple, Critical thinking, Essential questions, Google, US History, Visual Literacy
Peter Pappas »
06 January 2009 »
In Ed Tech, How To, Presentations »
I'm a recovering PowerPoint user that's been using Apple Keynote for my presentations for about a year. I find it much friendlier to graphics and media. It took me a while to figure out how to create B/W six slide / page handouts that I could easily PDF to clients. Thought I'd pass it along. [...]
Tags: Apple, Keynote
Peter Pappas »
07 June 2008 »
In Ed Tech, How To, Presentations »
For many years I've used TurningPoint (TP) ARS in my presentations using PC PowerPoint. I'm a convert to Keynote from PowerPoint and I figured out a way to use TP along with Apple Keynote (KN) presentations. I thought I'd share my work-around with others. Software and equipment:I make two presentations – a Keynote talk and [...]
Tags: Apple, Apps, ARS, Data, Engagement, TurningPoint
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