Apple to Introduce “GarageBand for E-Books”

Apple is sched­uled to host an education-related event on Jan­u­ary 19 – shroud­ed with a veil of mys­tery, as always. A new report from Ars Tech­ni­ca says the com­pa­ny is about to unveil a set of tools to cre­ate inter­ac­tive e-books.

Pre­vi­ous rumors said that Apple will show no new devices, and that the event will cen­ter around Apple’s new part­ner­ships with text­book pub­lish­ers.

If this new report is true, the event might turn out to be much more sig­nif­i­cant. Ars Tech­ni­ca’s sources say Apple’s about to present new author­ing tools described as “Garage­Band for e-books,” mak­ing it easy for every­one to cre­ate inter­ac­tive dig­i­tal books. The com­pa­ny also plans to expand its plat­form to dis­trib­ute these e-books to iPhone and iPad users.

Apple, who cur­rent­ly sup­ports the ePub 2 e-book stan­dard (with some addi­tions) is also expect­ed to announce sup­port for the ePub 3 stan­dard for iBooks.

This ven­ture is described as the pet project of Steve Jobs, who – accord­ing to Wal­ter Isaac­son‘s biog­ra­phy – believed the text­book indus­try is ripe for “dig­i­tal destruction.” Accord­ing to Ars Tech­ni­ca’s sources, Jobs was very close­ly involved on the project and has worked on it for sev­er­al years.

http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/apple-to-introduce-garageband-for-e-books-rumor/

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