iBooks Author looks good — now how about iBooks on the Mac?

I’ve had a few days to play around with the iBooks Author app Apple announced last week. It’s pretty cool — and only underscores my conviction that Macs are going to be around for a loooong time. They’ll be creating the bulk of the content we’ll be consuming on iOS devices.

iBooks Author is a tool for creating iBooks textbooks (also announced last week). It’s a free download at the Mac App Store. The textbooks you create are designed to be read on iOS devices via the iBooks app and the new iTunes U.

That’s all well and good, but I’d still like to see iBooks, the iBookstore and iTunes U available on Mac OS X, as well as Newsstand. I want to be able to buy books, textbooks and magazines and have them — via iCloud — synced across all my iOS and OS X devices so I can read them whenever and wherever I choose.

What’s more, I’m a bit disappointed that Apple didn’t incorporate the iBooks Author features into Pages. It would have made the word processing/document creation app even more appealing. Plus, it would have streamlined Apple’s software line-up a bit.

Of course, Apple charges for Pages ($20 at the Mac App Store) and not for iBooks Author. Plus, there may be technical reasons why they’re two separate projects.

Overall, Apple’s announcements last week should only strengthen the company’s position in the education market. Now if Apple would only show a little love to its pro users, who seem to be very neglected of late …

— Dennis Sellers