Last week Apple sent out invites to an event that it'll be holding this Thursday and, although the company revealed that the broad focus of the gathering will be education, the fine details of its announcement remained remained shrouded in a cloud of chalk dust. Tonight Apple's plans have become a tad less hazy, as a report from Ars Technica claims that the Cupertino firm has a tool up its sleeve that may make the process of creating e-books easier. The tool is described as the "GarageBand of e-books" due to the way that it'll reportedly make creating an interactive e-book as simple as putting together a song in Apple's GarageBand software. Apple is also expected to announce iBooks support for the ePub 3 standard and, according to the Wall Street Journal, textbooks that are optimized for the iPad along with publisher partnerships.
Although we'll have to wait until Thursday to learn the details of Apple's plans, this rumored "Garageband for e-books" tool could be great for both students and publishers. Not only could it lead to a rise in the number of e-books available, but the quality of those books may be quite a bit better than what's currently available. Also, Apple's deals with publishers could help to lead to cheaper books, which I'm sure would make students — and their wallets — happy. Any of you students out there think that you'd be interested in using interactive e-books on a tablet like the iPad?
Via The Verge, Ars Technica, WSJ
