iBooks Author Gets Update, Already Used By Over 2,500 U.S. Schools

Apple is continuing to expand the iBooks Author suite with some new features. During the Apple event today, Tim Cook announced that authors will now be able to use new portrait templates, choose their own fonts and include multi-touch widgets.

Available free on the Mac App Store, iBooks Author is an amazing new app that allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.

It was only in January of this year that Apple introduced this new tool that allows teachers to create interactive documents that can be read on the iPad by students. Cooks says, “one of the things that is so rewarding is how quickly iPad has been embraced in education. It was quickly adopted by over 2,500 U.S. schools who now use iBook textbooks.”

Sure beats those beaten up, out-of-date, graffiti’d textbooks I remember when I was in school. I’ll tell you how many miles I had to walk uphill in the snow later…

A dedicated Apple enthusiast since 2007, Suzy is the co-host of Macgasm TV and features editor for Macgasm. Got a cool story idea, hot news tip or just want a stay up-to-date with the latest tech gossip? You can find her on Twitter.