Apple has launched iBooks 2, a digital textbook app, and iBooks Author, which enables users to create, design and publish texts for iBooks 2 – both available for free on the iPad App Store.
The apps were announced at an event at the Guggenheim Musuem in New York, the first since the death of Steve Jobs last year, iBooks 2. Starting today, school textbooks – from publishers including Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin – will be put on sale for $14.99 (£9.68) or less, featuring interactive glossaries, notes and captions, and 3D models.
“Education is deep in our DNA, and it has been since the very beginning,” Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller said at the event. “Its hard not to see that the textbook is not always the ideal learning tool. Its a bit cumbersome.” 
The launches will be accompanied by an updated version of iTunes U – an area of the iTunes store focused on higher education.
