Apple didn't surprise anyone at its New York City event overnight, but the company did underscore its intention to make its market in education, announcing a revamped iTunes U, a digital textbook push centred around the iPad and a set of free ebook publishing tools.
Apple's new textbook offerings in the iBookstore.
(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)
The company kicked off its event at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York overnight, discussing the troubles American students are having competing against those in other countries. Apple, vying to be the hero, said it has some solutions to improve educational quality for students.
iBooks 2
The first is iBooks 2 for iPad. The offering allows textbook makers to sell their titles to iPad owners for US$14.99 or less. In a demonstration, Apple showed how interactivity stands at the centre of its textbook push, allowing students to view videos and even 3D images from within a title.
Apple shows off iBooks 2
(Credit: Bridget Carey/CNET)
iBooks 2 will allow textbook makers to create fully interactive titles for the iPad. According to Apple, users will be able to swipe across the display to open textbook pages and view movies within each chapter. The operating system's familiar pinch and tapping features are also available, giving users more interaction with titles.
The company says that kids will be able to see 3D images and rotate them to get a better feel for what, for example, a DNA structure looks like. The books can also be switched between portrait mode and landscape modes to make text and images easier to interact with.
As with traditional textbooks, students can easily mark up titles from the iPad. Apple showed how kids can highlight text and add a note to a page. All those notes can then be combined to make study cards. Those cards, which are basically virtual 3x5-inch cards, let students put a topic on one side and the definition on the other, similar to flash cards.
Apple has already formed partnerships with a host of major textbook makers, including Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. That's important. According to Apple, those companies are responsible for 90 per cent of all textbooks in the US.
Apple says iBooks 2 is designed to solve the major issues hurting today's textbooks — a lack of durability, portability, searchability and interactivity, not to mention outdated content.
iBooks Author
Apple also announced a new application, called iBooks Author, that will help writers publish their iBooks with all the interactive elements shown off in Apple's digital textbooks.
iBooks Author
(Credit: Apple)
The free Mac OS X application lets authors create textbooks and other books with simple drag-and-drop mechanisms. According to Apple, the application gives authors basic templates to quickly create titles that offer both text and interactive elements such as videos and images. To add multimedia content, iBooks Author lets users drag and drop content onto pages.
In deference to those who want to create more unique titles, Apple says folks who can code in JavaScript and HTML will be able to create custom widgets to enhance the interactivity of the books or textbooks. It also comes with a glossary function, promising to make that arduous task far simpler.
Of course, the most important element in any ebook is the text. So, to facilitate its transfer, Apple will let users drag and drop their chapters from a Microsoft Word file into the application. From there, the application automatically creates sections and headers.
Once the ebook is ready, authors need to connect an iPad to their computers to proof and debug the title. Once complete, they can submit it to Apple's iBooks store.
iBooks Author is available today and requires Lion, the latest version of Apple's Mac OS X.
iTunes U
Finally, Apple unveiled the new iTunes U, an application designed to be an educational hub for both educators and students to manage all their classes in one place. The service includes panes for professors to create and manage their courses, and places for students to see and complete assignments, find notes, and more. As one might expect, iTunes U works alongside Apple's digital textbooks.
The company said that the new iTunes U will now become a go-to hub for both students and professors at the college level. The service allows professors to post messages, send out assignments and share syllabi.
On the student side, the application allows full access to course material, including video, documents, apps, textbooks and other content. As one might expect, the service will have full integration with iBooks.
When new assignments pop up in iTunes U, students will be able to complete them and then mark them off from the iPad. A Notes section in iTunes U includes all the notes they might have taken on digital textbooks. The Notes tab also includes all the content that has been highlighted in the digital textbooks.
Lastly, Apple has also moved into the registrar space with iTunes U, allowing students to sign up for a class from their iPads with just a single tap.
The iPad iTunes U application is available for free. However, students won't totally get off easy: e-textbooks and apps that are used in their classes will still cost them.
Via CNET
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