Got the following email from Frank Lowney that I thought I should pass on to you:
I thought that other Teleread subscribers might be interested in Apple’s not yet widely publicized announcement that the iTunes U service (free to higher education) now supports .epub files which nicely complements the way the iTunes.app supports .epub in RSS feeds. I’ve written two posts to my blog that you may want to draw from should you choose to write this up:
Announcement: http://frank-lowney.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-support-for-epub-in-itunes-u.html
More Details: http://frank-lowney.blogspot.com/2010/10/more-details-on-itunes-u-support-for.html
What is iTunes U? –> http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/
For academic types, this is a major development. Of course there is a bit of vendor lock-in to swallow but the slickness with which an .epub file goes from iTunes U to the iTunes.app on a desktop/laptop computer and from there to an iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod touch) raises the hope that students will read more of an eTextbook and comprehend the content better. As well, it raises hopes that the cost of textbooks (avg $900 per year per student) can be reduced or even eliminated. I would rather students spend $500 on an iPad that does many useful things in addition to facilitating reading IF that could be financed with a corresponding reduction in the cost of the eTextbooks on that device.
