iWork VP Roger Rosner Taking Charge of Apple's Digital Textbook Initiative

rogerrosnerAccording to the Wall Street Journal, Roger Rosner is the executive in charge of Apple's digital textbook tools. According to his LinkedIn page, Rosner is a Vice President for Productivity Applications at Apple, and has been with the company since 2001, prior to which he was CEO of Bluefish Labs, a software development firm that Apple purchased.

Prior to working on the textbook service, Rosner was in charge of Pages, Numbers and Keynote -- Apple's iWork suite of office applications. Jessica Vascellaro writes for the WSJ:

Mr. Rosner's involvement is a sign of how strongly Apple intends to emphasize textbook creation, in a move to change the type of educational content that exists on the market. It also underscores how as textbooks—and all media—goes digital, it is increasingly important for tech companies to get media companies to create digital content with their software or in formats compatible with their services and devices.

Whether Mr. Rosner, whose LinkedIn profile pegs him at Apple for more than a decade, will take the stage on Thursday remains unclear. If so, audiences may remember him from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this past June, where he demonstrated features of iCloud, the company's online syncing and storing service.

Rosner made his first widely-viewed public appearance when he demonstrated iCloud onstage at WWDC in June of 2011.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

jpitcairn Avatar
169 months ago
iWork '12 released Thursday perhaps? With this new tool as part of the suite.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dethmaShine Avatar
169 months ago
More importantly, can I please have iWork '12? :(
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pacman7331 Avatar
169 months ago
I have high hopes for this Textbook thing.

I really hope Apple can install some sanity into the despicable situation with student textbooks. As of now, even if you want to do your part, and eliminate wasteful use of resources by printing textbooks year after year which have only trivial details separating them from the year before, you can buy some books in eBook format. For example on this site: www.cengagebrain.com

You can buy at least some books in eBook format, being a good samaritan, but can you put it on your iPad and stash it away on the shelf in iBooks?

No.

No, you have to lease the item off the website, thereby only able to access the book while under hegemony of the internet, login on their website, and browsing.

Which makes it less portable than a regular heavy textbook.

Thus we can have technology liberate us, or enslave us to further hassles, and petty tribute.

I hope Apple will muster the gusto to allow the former.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tmelon Avatar
169 months ago
I will be the happiest man alive if there is an iWork '12 announcement. It's years overdue.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
*LTD* Avatar
169 months ago
Please get the Mac version of iWork to auto-sync with iCloud.

EDIT:

Here's a workaround, but it's just that - a workaround:

http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-create-and-modify-icloud-stored-iwork-files-on-os-x/

Not particularly viable for the mass market.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sol Avatar
169 months ago
It will be great if all those heavy textbooks will be replaced by iPads so that kids' backs can be put to better use carrying bags of coal again.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)