Apple Announcement: Textbooks for iBooks 2

Apple Announcement January 19, 1021: Not New iPads. Sorry.

The January 19 Apple announcement unveiled iBooks 2, an upgrade to its e-book platform. The most important aspect: high school and university textbooks digitized to be more interactive than straight PDF scans.

Apple is hoping to do what Microsoft did a generation ago: corner the education market in personal computing.

iBooks 2 has a focus on interactive textbooks, and will try to get more universities to lock into Apple's platform.

• MacRumors: Live Coverage of Jan 19 Apple Announcement

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iTunes U: iPad as Educational Tool

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Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior VP of Internet Software, said that over 1,000 universities already use iTunes U, which has already seen 700 million downloads.

iTunes U would also give students access to lecture notes and videos, as well as additional course info, and educators can use iTunes U as a direct teaching tool. Apple wants the iPad platform to be a core element of your university experience.

If creating content for iTunes U or iBooks, be aware that whatever you create will be locked into the iTunes ecosystem. Also, iBooks is iPad/iPhone only: you can't read these things on your computer.

University textbooks are ripe for getting the digital treatment: they're heavy, expensive, and, well, not always even used during the course of a class. Many students, particularly those who attend university at a large campus, would welcome an alternative to carrying 30 lbs of textbooks around each day.

This is why Apple is so keen to make so much free content available through iTunes U: it gets students hooked not only on the tablet experience, but on the iPad experience. There are some amazing possibilities with iTunes U and iBooks 2, but just keep in mind that Apple is doing it for Apple.