With the much anticipated announcement of iBooks® 2 for iPad®, Apple also released iBooks Author as a free download from the Mac App Store, and a revamped iTunes® U app. iBooks Author uses drag and drop functionality to create textbooks, technical communications works, reference and other ebooks on Mac devices. The drag and drop feature can be used with the Multi-Touch™ widgets to incorporate interactive photo galleries, movies, and other Mac specific objects, including Keynote® presentations and 3D objects. iBooks Author supports Microsoft Word, including section heading styles, and ships with preloaded templates.
The iTunes® U app, available from Apples App Store, works with iPad, iPhone® and iPod touch® devices to allow educators to manage and deliver full courses. Students can access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content, 20,000 education apps, and hundreds of thousands of books in the iBookstore used in school curricula. Apple notes that some content in the iBookstore is available only on its iPad devices.
