Unveiled simply as the new textbook category in iBooks 2, Textbooks for iPad is supposed to provide students with a more modern way to learn than the old dead tree edition textbooks. Since it’s on the iPad, it should come as little surprise that these new e-textbooks (or iTextbooks, if you prefer) are interactive. You get multitouch gestures, dictionary lookup integration, annotation, text highlighting, note-taking capabilities, and virtual note cards for later studying.

And just like how iTunes revolutionized digital music, Textbooks for iPad could do the same for education. For starters, they’re only doing high school textbooks (at $14.99 or less) via the iBookstore, but they’ve got big time publishers on board already, including Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. If they make it to college and university textbooks, which easily cost $100+ each, Apple could have a huge cash cow on its hands.

Coinciding with Textbooks for iPad is a new tool called iBooks Author. This is a Mac application that lets you author, build, and publish interactive digital books for iBooks. This includes gallery support, 3D animations, interactive images, custom Javascript, and custom HTML5, all within a familiar iWork-like environment. And yes, it’s a free download.

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First, it’s an inclusion of “night-reading” mode (white type on black background) available on Kindle for iOS from the start. If anything, readability of -e-books in this mode is questionable, at least, but it’s good to have an option anyway.

Another update introduces a better possibility for full screen, no page margins text layout. This feature is quite important for customers who used to read their e-books from smallish iPhone screen. Though here again a “legacy” feature of traditional books called page margins, or borders keeps its stake as a more convenient option with better readability for iPad with its more or less normal book size.

Athelas, Charter, Iowan, and Seravek are the new and very fine fonts added to iBooks in this update as well.

Here is a sample of one of the new texts, Seravek:

Traditional font repertoire for iOS was always excellent, but adding more beautiful, finely tuned fonts will appeal even more to many aesthetically-minded readers. Still LCD screens, even sporting high resolutions, are not the best displays to attract a reader that can devour more than couple dozen pages at a time.

There’s more upgraded and added features for public domain faux covers renditions, then there’s a redesigned annotation palette as well. Free e-books on the iBooks shelves, look more expensive now, with the textured covers and whatnot. Upgrade 1.5 to iBooks has also added pop-up footnotes.

All in all, the iBooks upgrade 1.5 brings reading on i-devices closer to the experience gained from major Android -e-readers such as Aldiko, Cool Reader, FBReader and a dozen more capable of understanding up to 20 e-book formats and offering many services required by avid book worms. Then, the Amazon Kindle’s functionality for specific uses of instructional “digital” materials  such as textbooks, workbooks, manuals, etc., is still not in line with the iBooks capabilities catering mostly a casual reader.

The lower hook on small “l” in Seravek is a great feature anyway.

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The company has released details and screenshots of what we can expect to see with version 2.2 . For starters, the “My Library” and “Table of Contents” views will drop the low-tech looking lists. The next version’s library will appear more similar to the iBooks bookshelf, while the table of contents will include a sliding thumbnail view at the bottom of the screen. Plus, it’ll remember the issue and page you were on the last time you closed the app.

You’ll also be able to share articles on your Facebook and Twitter accounts rather than just by email, or even print a story if you’ve got AirPrint set up.

But the most promising upgrade of all is the exclusion of the “Search” and “Top Stories” tabs, both of which currently take you out of the app and into their site on Safari. But, in true Canadian style, in case you enjoy being pulled from the app and into the browser to search the archives, they’ll even show you ways around it upon request. “If you are a frequent user of these two functions,” they write, “please do contact us and we will be glad to show you different ways to use these functions.”

The app has never been near the quality of the flash-based version of the Globe’s in-browser eReader, but this update seems like a good step in the right direction.  It’s free on iTunes.

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Photo: MacRumors, Apple iPad Keyboard Dock with blank key

Apple revealed the iPad keyboard dock to the public with a blank key. Overlooked by almost everyone, the mystery key was finally noticed by a member of the Mac Rumors forum, Macduke. The location of the key is in the middle above the number 6 key, traditionally where F6 would be. Macduke believes Apple may assign a function to the blank key before shipment; he also speculates that the function could be to launch a Mac-like dashboard with plenty of widgets, perhaps a “back to home” type of button? Ideal for using as central command screen for communication services like twitter, facebook and iBooks.

Below is a picture of the Apple iPad keyboard dock from their website that has clear view of the mystery blank key. Keep in mind that the blank key details are just a theory; the real function will be disclosed to the public when its actually available for purchase from the Apple store.

It may not even have any function at all, like an unlock key for the screen or even a user-customizable option. Most of us hope it’s for the initiation of the video conferencing option that will use a surprise front facing camera that Apple never told us about.

Photo: Apple iPad Keyboard Dock, Apple Website (Image has been resampled to 200% of original size)

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