Apple takes on textbooks, online courses with new apps

GigaOm | Engadget | 9to5Mac
Apple is aiming to disrupt and reinvent the textbook market, just as it has done previously with music and news. At an event today in New York, company executives debuted a new textbook-optimized version of iBooks, as well as a new version of iTunes U designed to host full courses. iBooks 2 enables note-taking, interactive quizzes and virtual flashcards. There’s also a new iBooks Author software for easily creating iPad textbooks. Textbooks will start at $14.99 or less, and the three major publishers who produce 90 percent of textbooks — Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — are already on board. || Related: J-school curriculum is starting to look a little silly (Poynter.org)