At its NYC ebook event yesterday, Apple took the wraps off a number of interesting book-related announcements. Some of the highlights were:
- A new program to offer interactive textbooks for the iPad. Major textbook publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw Hill, and Pearson are on board to offer new titles for the initiative at just US$14.99 each.
- The release of iBooks 2 (Download at iTunes), which adds support for the company's new interactive textbook offerings.
- A major new software release: iBooks Author (Download at Mac App Store). This free tool allows anyone to create interactive books and self-publish them directly to the iBookstore. Pretty great! Though, on the downside, the licensing terms for the books you create with the app are a bit ridiculous. Daring Fireball has some thoughts about what might have prompted those terms.
- An iTunes U app (Download at iTunes) to help people take advantage of the free course offerings in iTunes U and to help teachers use the app in class.
- An updated version of iTunes - 10.5.3 - to support all the new announcements. As always, a free update, installed in the usual way.
- If you'd like to watch the full presentation, Apple has the video on its site.
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