Apples Textbooks For 1-percenters Will Leave Most Children Behind | Fox News

Publishers who want to create titles for Apple’s iBooks store must use Apple’s iBooks Author application, which runs on Mac OS X only. Publishers who use Windows or Linux computers in the office need not apply. If you want to create EPUB books, you can get software that runs on any platform.

Just as with iTunes and its App Store, Apple gets to decide what content gets in, based on its arbitrary standards. The Cupertino company is nothing if not risk-averse, so what happens if the content of your textbook is deemed too controversial to get into the store? If schools adopt iBooks textbooks en masse, we’ll get to find out whether CEO Tim Cook believes in Intelligent Design or Evolution based on what his censors approve.

Strangely, Apple’s EULA agreement, as currently worded, also prevents authors who use the iBooks Author software and want to market their work on the iBooks store from selling their work anywhere else. It says: ” If your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service) you may only distribute the Work through Apple.” Presumably, the text you write will still be your own if you paste it into another program to sell elsewhere. — Apples Textbooks For 1-percenters Will Leave Most Children Behind | Fox News.