Apple has announced they’re hosting an education-minded press conference on Thursday, January 19th. Everyone assumes it has something to do with textbooks, which are something that Steve Jobs was reportedly obsessed with re-imagining in the years before his death. Ars Technica seems to have the scoop on what Apple will be announcing this week:

While speculation has so far centered on digital textbooks, sources close to the matter have confirmed to Ars that Apple will announce tools to help create interactive e-books—the “GarageBand for e-books,” so to speak—and expand its current platform to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users…authoring standards-compliant e-books (despite some promises to the contrary) is not as simple as running a Word document of a manuscript through a filter. The current state of software tools continues to frustrate authors and publishers alike, with several authors telling Ars that they wish Apple or some other vendor would make a simple app that makes the process as easy as creating a song in GarageBand.

If this program is easy enough for a layperson to use, this could be the thing that transforms e-books from simple reproductions of books into their own medium, replete with video, interaction, social networking, graphics, and text. I can imagine a number of uses for these kinds of e-books outside the standard academic context: Digital scrapbooking, for one, and new kinds of role-playing games. And because it’s technology, I’m sure someone will manage to plug porn into it within the first five seconds of the product’s release. This could be a big deal for publishing, or it might be something else entirely. (Or it could be the new Ping; it’s important to remember that sometimes Apple screws the pooch, too.)

4 replies on “Apple to Release “GarageBand for E-Books” on Thursday?”

  1. I think this is very cool and if promoted wisely can make its way in the world of media artist creators and public alike. Make it more like AB Live and not that expensive.

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