Apple made several important announcements today at its educational event in New York, one of which was to announce the iBooks 2 for iPad app, featuring iBooks textbooks, which Apple says is an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks textbooks are full-screen, beautifully illustrated textbooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation, and much more.

iBooks textbooks can be kept up to date, won’t take up room in your backpack, and you’ll never have to return them either. Leading educational services companies such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will deliver educational titles on the iBookstore, with most priced at $14.99 or less, and with the new iBooks Author, a free authoring tool also available from today, anyone with a Mac can create stunning iBooks textbooks.

“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,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “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.”

Click here to download the free app: App Store - iBooks

Source: Apple

Apparently the free textbooks are not available in Belgium.....;-)

Nor Australia...pretty useless download.