Apple Inc has sent out invites to media outlets last week and asked them to join for an education announcement in the Big Apple on Thursday, 19 January 2012. While Apple did not disclose the details of the subject, sources close to Apple believe that the company is going to unveil new tools that can be described as “GarageBand for e-books”. The new toolsets are expected to simplify the creation of e-books and based on now defunct iWeb software. According to speculations in media, Apple may also unveil new textbooks that are optimized for iPad in this event. While speculations and expectations keep growing, you may wonder why Apple is so keen about e books!

The background

According to the information available from recently published Steve Job’s biography by Walter Isaacson, this was the pet project of Job. He set his eyes on e books because he felt that the $8-billion dollar business of Apple was ripe to become stagnant. He believed that expanding the app base and simplification of e book creation would give a new impetus to the company. While Apple would not likely foray into content creation but it would strive to bring more textbooks for its users and inspire their creativity.

Rationale for the tools

Apple has so far used ePub2 standard for its iBooks. It added a large number of HTML5 based extension to this standard for inclusion of audio video and limited interaction. Recently updated ePub 3 standard calls for extensions because in most cases the iBook formatted e books are incompatible on other e reader platforms.

Digital books are believed to boost social learning and enable interaction among textbook users. Digital texts would allow students to interact with information in visual ways like graphs, videos and 3D model. It would also allow users to create links to audio, video and additional text and share them with peers. Obviously, there is a huge market of such potential users. Apple is unlikely to miss this opportunity and decided to unveil e book creation tools.

Concept of “GarageBand for e books”

Creating standards compliant e books is not as simple as creating a Word document. The current state of software tools are complicated and continue to irritate the authors and publishers. Several of them have expressed their frustration and are searching for a simple app. They are expecting an app that can simplify the e book creation and make it as easy as creating a song in “GarageBand” app of Apple.

Professionals and experts in the e book industry believe that such a move is very much in synergy with the business plan of Apple. The company has already sold thousands of iPads to several institutions. However, these iPads don’t have much content to offer and currently not in a position to replace the textbooks. Although, Apple is not likely to provide content directly, it is expected to create a user friendly platform to create and publish them.

Conclusion

Apple has been providing industry leading tools like Final Cut Pro and Logic, for creating content. The company has also offered tools like GarageBand and iMovie that simplified creation of music and movies. With a growing competition from Samsung in the business of tablets and smartphones, it has become necessary for Apple to come up with some unique offers. The new set of e book creation tools may be a turning point in the industry.

About the Author:

Roxanne P. is a Freelance and Staff writer who writes informative & creative articles on Television and Technology for various technology related companies including broadband expert. Her expertises are in writing articles related to internet providers, broadband connections, social media etc.

Filed under: Miscellaneous by Keith
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Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Ruben Corbo of broadbandexpert.com.

With today’s high-speed broadband Internet providers, browser games have evolved from simple text-based affairs to fully graphical games that can rival even the most sophisticated downloaded games. The real benefit of these games is that because all of the player information is stored online, they can be played from almost anywhere. In fact, if you have a WiFi connection available for your phone or your tablet, they can be played on the go. Check out these top five browser games to see some of the best browser games available.

1. A Mystical Land

(Picture courtesy of OnRPG)

A Mystical Land is a fully 3D MMORPG contained within the browser. Facebook is needed to access the game since it runs on the Facebook apps platform, but the variety of activities that are possible makes this game one of the best to check out for those who want to play something unique. Several different professions are available, including cooking, tailoring and blacksmithing.

The standard fighting monsters and raising skills are available, so those who are familiar with larger MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft or Aion will feel right at home with character creation within Mystical Land. You can interact with thousands of people within the world and even share your accomplishments on Facebook to encourage your friends to play with you. Mystical Land is free-to-play and is one of the best 3D MMORPGs available for browsers.

2. Minecraft

(Picture courtesy of kenming_wang)

Minecraft is a run-away hit indie game with over 4 million players. The game has simple 16-bit graphics but features unlimited worlds for you to eplore and survive within. Often described as virtual legos, players can build houses and cities, spelunk into deep caves to find treasure and even manage livestock and crops. The game can be played directly within the browser or it can be downloaded for even more fun with texture packs and mod support from the community.

The game recently released after having been developed first in a public alpha and then a public beta. The main appeal of the game is the survival mode, where players can build and explore during the day, but when night sets in monsters will spawn and try to invade. Creative mode is also available, which is an unlimited building mode. Instead of gathering resources for projects, creative mode gives you instant access to everything available within the game.

3. Battlestar Galactica Online

(Picture courtesy of PopCultureGeek.com)

The Battlestar Galactica Online MMORPG is based on the Battlestar Galactica series and remains true to the series as much as possible. There are numerous ships and customization options you can apply to your character with massive battles for resources spread out through the galaxy. The story of the game takes place within the show’s second season and explores an untold branch of the story in which the Cylon and Colonial fleets are both stranded.

Players can join either faction in an effort to claim resources in uncharted areas of space in order to help their chosen fleet gain an edge over the competition and prevail once and for all. The game is managed by Bigpoint games and features astounding graphics for a browser game, but players will need fast broadband Internet providers in order to play since the game relies heavily on player versus player combat.

4. Lord of Ultima

(Picture courtesy of UO Journal)

Lord of Ultima is a 2D city-builder strategy game that is based on the still running Ultima Online world. Players are given control of a civilization and must gather resources, complete quests and conquer their neighbors in order to progress. The game is only won by players in alliances that achieve 8 simultaneous goals, so friends in Lord of Ultima is a must. The player community is rather large since it is an EA-backed game. It is based entirely in Java as well, which makes it playable with a mobile browser.

5. Dead Frontier

(Picture courtesy of Wikipedia)

Dead Frontier is a top-down 3D zombie shooter with co-op elements. Players must survive in a post-apocalyptic world infested with zombies. There are safe zones where players can trade and form groups, though traveling through the streets of the city is dangerous. There are numerous classes for players to choose from that are based on real life jobs, such as police officer, fireman, Army officer and doctor. Each of these professions imparts different skill bonuses.

Overall, the types of games that you can experience are varied. RPG and RTS games are definitely the most popular when it comes to browser-based strategy games, but action games like Dead Frontier are becoming more popular. As technology improves, so will the graphics and mechanics used in browser based games.

This is a guest article by Ruben Corbo, a writer for the website Broadband Expert where you can find broadband internet providers in your area and compare prices on different deals for your mobile broadband needs.

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This post is a video tutorial that will show you how to wrap Christmas light bulbs around something in Photoshop. This video tutorial goes along with with my previous text-based Photoshop tutorial: How to create Christmas text wrapped in a string of light bulbs in Photoshop

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Below is a video that will show you how to create a X-Mas Light Bulb in Photoshop. This video tutorial goes along with with my previous text-based Photoshop tutorial: Christmas Lights Photoshop Tutorial.

Filed under: Photoshop, Tutorial by Keith
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