Apple Releases iBooks 2, Includes Textbook Support and Free Mac Authoring Tool

Apple released iBooks 2 and iBooks Author (Mac) today.
As Gerard speculated in his article, the announcement focused on the iPad based text books and updates to iTunes U.

From their press release:

“The new iBooks 2 app is available today as a free download from the App Store™. With support for great new features including gorgeous, fullscreen books, interactive 3D objects, diagrams, videos and photos, the iBooks 2 app will let students learn about the solar system or the physics of a skyscraper with amazing new interactive textbooks that come to life with just a tap or swipe of the finger. With its fast, fluid navigation, easy highlighting and note-taking, searching and definitions, plus lesson reviews and study cards, the new iBooks 2 app lets students study and learn in more efficient and effective ways than ever before.

iBooks Author is also available today as a free download from the Mac App Store and lets anyone with a Mac create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more, and publish them to Apple’s iBookstore. Authors and publishers of any size can start creating with Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. iBooks Author lets you add your own text and images by simply dragging and dropping, and with the Multi-Touch™ widgets you can easily add interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote® presentations and 3D objects.”

From the first announcement, I'm particularly excited to try out the free iBooks author software and see how easy or difficult it is to created the content for the platform.

On the topic of iTunes U, as a person who loves to learn new things and continue to educate myself – the new iTunes U is more than welcome and I'm very eager to give it a hands on review.

Apple's press release indicates:

“The all-new iTunes U app enables students anywhere to tap into entire courses from the world's most prestigious universities,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Never before have educators been able to offer their full courses in such an innovative way, allowing anyone who’s interested in a particular topic to learn from anywhere in the world, not just the classroom.”

 

Where to get the iPad software:

iBooks

iTunes U