Apple’s updated iBooks 2 app supports highly interactive multimedia textbooks created by the new free iBooks Author software for Mac OS X. iBooks Author’s EULA lock-in clause has raised a ruckus (see: Publish an ebook created using iBook Author & lock yourself in Apple-land forever). However, there’s another problem that may be a showstopper for students and other people who want to use these multimedia iBook ebooks: Their iPad may not have enough storage space to house the ebook.
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Students will need 64GB iPads to store multiple rich media iBooks
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Sencha demos CSS3 animation support in iBooks created using iBooks Author
Can you include CSS3 animation in iBooks created using Apple’s new iBooks Author app? That’s what the people at Sencha wondered about too. So, they created a CSS3 animation using Sencha Animator and included it in a test iBook created with iBooks Author. You can see the result above.
How to Embed Interactive CSS3 Animations in an iBook
You can listen to my discussion with Sencha’s Senior Director of Product Management, Aditya Bansod. in MobileViews Podcast 54 recorded last month.
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Apps updated for my iPhone & iPad in the past week: 30
Thirty (30) of the apps for my iPad &/or iPhone were updated in the past week. Apps that do not have comments in the list below indicates that the update is simply a bug fix release.
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RunKeeper Fitness Reports enhanced
RunKeeper updated its Fitness Reports to provide more information. A premium account (RunKeeper Elite) is needed to view most of it. However, I found the the Total Distance information available for free accounts useful. It lets me look at my walking information in a variety of ways. You can see my totals sorted by day of week in the screenshot above.
The free RunKeeper mobile app is available for a variety of platforms. I use the version for Windows Phone to track my near-daily walking sessions.
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Tech Peeve: Note to @WeatherBug – Stop issuing Tsunami Warnings when none exists
WeatherBug beat out other weather apps to earn its spot on my Windows Phone’s start screen because it provides the most accurate information.
The app has, however, one feature that really annoys me: It issues a Tsunami Watch/Warning when there is no actual warning. The “warning” is based on an informational alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center that clearly states This Statement is For Information Only. No Action Require. WeatherBug should be able to parse this statement and either not issue any alert (which pops up on my Windows Phone) or relabel it as a simple informational alert.
Hey, WeatherBug! Please fix this issue in your otherwise useful app!
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New Apple Podcast: Meet the Developer – audio + photo slideshow
It looks like Apple launched a new podcast series named Meet the Developer. It is under the TV & Film/Events at the Apple Store category. The first podcast features a fourth generation butcher who released an app named Pat LaFrieda’s Big App for Meat ($6.99). The app has a somewhat unusual format. It combines the audio track with a slideshow of still photos from the discussion.