Most iBooks Author E-Textbook Download Sizes Are Between One And Three Gigabytes

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With today’s announcement of iBooks Author and iBooks 2, Apple intends on making expensive, bulky textbooks and exploding book bags a thing of the past. But one thing they didn’t mention is that while an iPad 2 may be thinner than a traditional textbook, iBook textbooks gain bulk in a different way: the files are absolutely huge.

Check out how big the first eight textbooks available through iBooks are:

E.O. Wilson’s Life On Earth – 965MB
McGraw Hill’s Algebra 1 – 1.09GB
Pearson’s Biology – 2.77GB
McGraw Hill’s Biology – 1.49GB
National’s Chemistry – 959MB
Pearson’s Environmental Science – 793MB
McGraw Hill’s Geometry – 1.22GB
McGraw Hill’s Physics – 1.25GB

The smallest textbook is 793MB, which is bigger than Infinity Blade. And the largest textbook weighs in at almost 3GB! At these sizes, an iPad may be able to replace your bookbag full of textbooks… but if it isn’t more than 16GB, depending on your course load, you might have to carry two iPads around with you at all times.

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