Everything you Need to know about Apple’s Education Event! (1/19/11)

Not too long ago, Apple announced iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and a new application, iTunes U.  I think Apple definitely will be revolutionizing the textbook industry with these programs.

Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the worldNow with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love. – Apple’s Worldwide Marketing Head, Phil Schiller at the Apple Education Event. 

During the event, Vice president of Productivity Software and iWork Roger Rosner took the stage to reveal iBooks 2.  Roger showed of the a biology textbook “Life on Earth” demoing all the features that iBooks 2 will feature.  There were 3D models, better indexing with page number search, multitouch gestures, and the difference between the landscape and portrait modes.

I think one of the best features (as a student) for me is the interactive Q&A content for students and teachers. Roger demonstrated how a one can highlight texts on any page and the iBooks 2 will instantly transform them into study notes.

With the release of iBooks 2, Phil Schiller announced a new textbook category on the iBookStore.  iBooks 2.0 is available as a free update to those 1.0 owners and a free download for those new iBooks users. iBooks is available for all iDevices but the textbooks feature is only available on the iPad.

Textbooks are priced at $14.99 or less and a full lists of book publishing companies Apple partnered up can be found here.

Full Press Release:

Apple Reinvents Textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad

New iBooks Author Lets Anyone Create Stunning iBooks Textbooks

NEW YORK—January 19, 2012—Apple® today announced iBooks® 2 for iPad®, featuring iBooks textbooks, an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks textbooks offer iPad users gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more. iBooks textbooks can be kept up to date, don’t weigh down a backpack and never have to be returned. Leading education services companies including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will deliver educational titles on the iBookstore℠ with most priced at $14.99 or less, and with the new iBooks Author, a free authoring tool available today, anyone with a Mac® can create stunning iBooks textbooks.

“Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love.”

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.

Apple today also announced an all-new iTunes® U app giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses. With the new iTunes U app, students using iPads have access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content, along with over 20,000 education apps at their fingertips and hundreds of thousands of books in the iBookstore that can be used in their school curriculum, such as novels for English or Social Studies.* The iTunes U app is available today as a free download from the App Store.

*Some content is available only for iPad.

Apple has also announced a new Mac App “iBooks Author”.  With the release of iBooks 2.0, developers, authors can now write and publish their own interactive textbook onto the iBookStore.

Roger demonstrated how iBooks Author worked on stage as well.  The app comes with various templates that authors that can choose from. One can add their own photos, videos, text, and multi-touch widgets just like in Pages and Keynote.

iBooks Author uses the WYSIWYG style so a user can drag elements around.  The app also supports Microsoft Word, and the cool part about it is that iBooks Author is smart enough to automatically create herders, and lay out pages into a book format from a word document.

Apple’s Keynote app is also supported with the same features applied as Microsoft Word.  JavaScript and HTML widgets are also supported so advanced users can create their own custom widgets.  A glossary creation tool and more are so available.

A preview option is also available.  When your iPad is hooked up to your Mac running iBooks Author, your book will get previewed onto your iPad.

And the best part about the app is that it’s free! Get it here in the Mac App Store!

Full Press Release:

iBooks Author release notes

Create and publish amazing Multi-Touch books for iPad.

Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps. And before you know it, you’re a published author.

Apple-designed templates
• Give your book a great beginning with templates that include a choice of page designs with matching fonts, colors, and textures
• Easily customize your book with text and images, create new layouts, and even save a custom template
• Use the Book Navigator to organize your book and add a cover and table of contents

Beautiful text and layouts
• Use a variety of text styles in each template to give your book a rich yet consistent look
• Add text, shapes, charts, tables, and media anywhere on the page
• Import a chapter written in Pages or Microsoft Word and apply a great-looking layout from your current template
• Add any word to the glossary with a single click and easily include photos, images, charts, tables, and shapes next to any definition
• Automatically create a portrait view of your book, which allows readers to focus on the text

Multi-Touch widgets
• Choose from a variety of widgets that add Multi-Touch interactivity to your book
• Add a photo gallery, chapter review, movie, Keynote presentation, interactive image with callouts, 3D object, or custom HTML anywhere in your book
• Widgets include placeholders for titles and captions and are automatically numbered so you can reference them in your main text
• Add accessibility descriptions to any widget so that it can be used by sight-impaired readers easily with VoiceOver

Export for iBookstore or iTunes U
• Preview your book in iBooks on an iPad to see how it looks and works
• Easily add a cover, video introduction, copyright page, dedication, and foreword 
• Submit your book to the iBookstore for sale or free download with a few simple steps*
• Export your book in iBooks format to share on iTunes U or to give to others
• Create a version of your book as a PDF file

• Keynote ’09 (v5.1.1 or later) is required for Keynote widgets
• iBooks 2 is required for previewing
• iTunes 10.5.3 is required for syncing
* Books may only be sold through the iBookstore; additional terms and conditions apply.