Apple unveils iBooks 2 for digital textbooks

mashable.com

CNET - Apple unveiled today iBooks 2, a “new textbook experience” for the iPad and the company’s attempt to bury traditional schoolbooks.

“Clearly, no printed textbook can compete,” said Roger Rosner, an Apple vice president said during a press event this morning in New York.

Before unveiling the plan, Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller noted the sad state of current textbooks. They aren’t portable, searchable, current, or interactive, he said.

Rosner showed off some of the potential improvements: text with embedded movies… rich, engaging layouts…portrait/landscape mode switches for more or fewer graphics….the ability to tap on glossary terms…searching for keywords throughout a text…review questions with immediate feedback…highlighting with your finger…pop-up spaces for note taking…instant study cards.

iBooks 2 will offer “super-fast, super-fluid navigation,” Rosner said.

A new textbook category is appearing in the iBooks store, he noted.

Apple takes the wraps off its education-related announcement this morning. But what exactly will we get as the big reveal?

Today’s event kicks off at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT. Apple is not providing a live stream of the proceedings, though could offer one after the fact as it’s done for previous news announcements. In any case, CNET will be there to bring you the news via live blog.

Go to CNET’s Live Blog

Apple to Enter ‘Digital Textbook Industry’ at New York Media Event

Reuters

Apple is set to revolutionise the textbook and education industries by announcing new partnerships with publishers at a media event in New York this month, reports claim.

Tech blogs AllThingsD and TechCrunch both believe that Apple’s upcoming New York media event will indeed be about publishing and the iBookstore, rather than hardware such as the much-speculated iPad 3.

It has been known for some time that the late Steve Jobs wanted to enter the textbook industry with Apple; in his biography Walter Isaacson said: “His idea was to hire great textbook writers to create digital versions, and make them a feature of the iPad. In addition, he held meetings with major publishers, such as Pearson Education, about partnering with Apple.”

Home of all things Apple, MacRumors claims to have heard gossip indicating that Apple recently filmed “a series of short interviews with textbook industry executives.” The Apple blog believes that these interviews are similar in style to those often seen in Apple’s promotional videos for new products and services.

It is also believed, according to 9to5Mac, that the iTunes team are in “lockdown mode” heading up to the as-yet unconfirmed event.                More