The big Apple event which was held yesterday, saw the launch of the highly anticipated iBooks 2 for iPad app. An updated version of its prequel, the iBooks app, this platform claims to be a helpful tool for the student brigade and makes reading textbooks a dynamic and interactive, fun experience.
This latest iPad application gives users easy access to fullscreen textbooks on almost all subjects and feature vivid animations, diagrams, photos and videos. It aims to eliminate the usage of heavy backpacks as all the textbooks can be downloaded and read on the Apple tablet itself. The iBookstore will boast of scholastic titles from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Pearson and such other renowned education services companies, most of which are expected to be priced at $15 or lesser.
“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. 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,” cited, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
Students are allowed to browse through a number of colorful textbooks which apparently make the learning process not only more interesting but also quite easy as content can be accessed with a single swipe of the finger. iBooks 2 allows for fast and smooth navigation, , easy highlighting, note-taking, searching and even provides educational material such as definitions, lesson reviews and study cards.
Besides this app, two more tools namely the new iTunes U application and iBooks Author were also released. The new iTunes U app lets students gain easy access to an expansive catalog of free educational content, and more than 20,000 educational tools along with thousands of books in the iBookstore.
The new iTunes U and iBooks 2 for iPad applications can now be downloaded for free from the App Store.