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

• Full Product Description/Download
  

• New Version, Free:  iTunes U For iPad, iPhone, iTouch
  • Full Product Description/Download

Fast Facts

• 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