Digital Textbooks: Roundup of Today's Apple iBooks 2 News and Announcements
Very Impressive Live Coverage of Apple Event from The Verge (each post with an image).
- New: iBooks 2 for Education (iPad)
- Apple’s iBooks Textbooks for the iPage Homepage (with Video)
- Official News Release
- Download AppNote: Apple is Making a Preview Release of E. O. Wilson’s Life on Earth. Free. Download here.
- What’s New With Books 2 App? (via the App Store)
- Experience gorgeous Multi-Touch textbooks designed for iPad
- iBooks textbooks are filled with interactive features, diagrams, photos, and videos
- Tap to dive into images with interactive captions, rotate 3D objects, swipe through image galleries, watch videos in full screen, and more
- Use a finger as a highlighter when swiping over text in a textboot
- Take advantage of Study Cards to help you memorize important highlights, notes, and glossary terms
- Tap glossary terms to see definitions of key topics and concepts without leaving the pageThe iBookstore offers textbooks on Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, and Physics from McGraw-Hill and Pearson.
- These textbooks are currently available to customers in the United States. Textbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are coming soon.
- New App: iBooks Author (Free, iPad)
Create your own textbooks
- New Version, Free: iTunes U For iPad, iPhone, iTouch
- A New Category “Textbooks” Now the iBooks Bookstore. Books cost $14.99 or less (As of today, there are only seven textbooks for $14.99 each as well as free download of Life on Earth.
- “The books range in size from about 750MB to nearly 3GB for the Biology textbook — a full set would take up most of a 16GB iPad’s storage.” (via The Verge)
- Apple has been working with Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, E.O. Wilson, Biodiversity Foundation, and DK Publishing
Demos and Coverage
- Video: Apple iBooks 2 Textbook Hands-On (via Engadget)
- iBooks Author Hands-On (via The Verge)
- Everything you need to know about publishing and distribution for iBooks Author (via 9 to 5Mac)
- Books 2 showcased with preview of E.O. Wilson biology textbook (via TUAW)
- News Release: McGraw-Hill to Deliver High School Curricula with Apple’s iBooks Textbooks
- Opinion: Why Apple Won’t Disrupt the Textbook Industry Anytime Soon (via RWW)
- Viewpoint: Pearson on the rise of ‘engaging’ e-textbooks (via BBC)
Filed under: News, Publishing, Roundup

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.