Shortly after the Apple Education Event which took place in the New York City yesterday, Apple posted the entire 60-minute video on their own website. This hour-long video features Apple executives Phil-Schiller, Eddy Cue and Roger Rosner, who which took the stage to introduce the new iBooks 2 services.

Apple also revealed that they’ve built partnerships with several large publishing companies which will help them create new tools for future interactive digital textbooks.

Among the many announcements, Apple pushed out an improved version of their iBooks, a new section of e-textbooks that can be found within the pages of the iBookstore, iBooks Author for Mac, and the new iTunes U app.

As usual with their product announcements, Apple released a promotional video with tons of interviews from Apple executives and regular customers showcasing the benefits Apple’s iPad can provide to those in the education system.

The video recently is available in iTunes as a new podcast video download in HD and standard formats.

Another major announcement today from Apple’s education-based media event is the release of iTunes U—formerly only an educational podcast section within the iTunes Store—as an official iOS app. According to Apple’s Eddy Cue, who made the announcement on behalf of the company, over 1,000 universities currently make use of iTunes U, which has seen over 700,000,000 total downloads since its launch.

The popularity of iTunes U among educators and students alike has prompted Apple to bring the platform onto iDevices as a universal iOS app, allowing access to all of iTunes U’s free content—consisting mostly of audio and video lectures—to everyone with an iDevice. However, beyond just the traditional iTunes U content, this new iOS app expands the service even further by allowing teachers to create and manage courses right from within the app. This gives teachers the ability to distribute lectures, assignments, handouts, quizzes, etc. to their students, all through this new iTunes U app.

Teachers create their courses through a web-based tool called the “iTunes U Course Manager,” and have a great deal of control over their course’s content, who has access to the content, and much more. Apple hosts all of the course components and makes it available to the general public, although teachers have the option of restricting access to their students only.

iTunes U for iOS has kicked off to a great start with 100+ iOS-optimized courses already available within the new app, and a lot more is definitely on the way. This app is certainly revolutionizing how students are able to complete their university courses and keep up with all of their digital contents. From being able to keep track of assignments, watch video lectures, read course-related literature and more all within an iOS app is truly amazing, and to make it all that much better, everything from the app to the content is free of charge.

You can download the iTunes U iOS app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch on the App Store.

Via [MacRumors]

Apple’s Education Event has just concluded, leaving us all with the announcement of iBooks 2 for iPad 2. As of this writing, it’s already available as a free download (update) from the App Store.

So, what does iBooks 2 have to offer? According to Apple, the updated app features iBooks textbooks, which will bring in an entirely new kind of textbook that is dynamic, engaging and truly interactive.

iBooks textbooks for iPad will provide gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks featuring interactive elements such as animations, diagrams, photos, videos, swift navigation and more. Right now, Apple has teamed up with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson to make some of their textbooks available as iBooks textbooks. Prices of iBooks textbooks start from $14.99, but you can get a free sample of the textbooks available to get a feel for how the new features lookand feel.

Additionally, Apple is also releasing iBooks author on the Mac App Store. This tool will make it easier for anyone to create iBooks textbooks.

Read [Apple]

On Thursday, January 19th at 10 a.m. EST, Apple will hold an event at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City to make an education announcement.

According to 9 to 5 Mac, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue will likely announce new iBook or textbook products or services. This makes sense since Steve Jobs told Walter Isaacson he wanted to disrupt the school textbook industry.

He held meetings with major publishers about partnering with Apple, the book says. If textbooks were given away free on iPads he thought the publishers could get around the state certification of textbooks. Mr. Isaacson said Mr. Jobs believed that states would struggle with a weak economy for at least a decade. “We can give them an opportunity to circumvent that whole process and save money,” he told Mr. Isaacson.

Via [9 to 5 Mac]

This week on the Free Apps Roundup: it’s iPhone 4S day! Did you get one? I sure did. But that’s not the only thing that’s new this week; iOS 5 is out, and I hope you have it installed because it is sweet. And what better way to fill up your iOS device than with new Apple apps? They are pretty good at making them after all. Apple released four great new apps, and I also managed to find a bunch of games and limited time freebies. So, while your wallet might be drained from that new iPhone 4S you just bought, that’s alright, because there are plenty of free apps to keep you happy.

• Cards – Apple announced this during last week’s iPhone 4S event. It’s a wonderful app that allows you to order customized letterpress cards straight from your iPhone. There are 21 themes available, each of which can be customized with a single image and your own text. The resulting card will cost you $2.99 in the U.S. and will ship with Apple postage. Once the card is delivered, you’ll get a notification confirming this on your iPhone. The app saves a history of your sent cards, any of which can be resent (in case you want to send the same card to a number of people). Pretty awesome, if you ask me. Plus, it’s probably cheaper than buying a card at the store, anyway.
• Find My Friends – Another new app from Apple is this one which shows you exactly where your friends are at any given time. First, you’ll need to request permission to see someone’s location. This is not autoreciprocative, so each party will need to confirm the other for security purposes. After that’s all done, you’ll be able to use the app to query for your friend’s locations any time you like. It won’t tell you when your friends have pulled into your driveway, but it will help nosey parents know where their spoiled kids are. And no, it’s not called find ME friends, so you’ll have to BYOF (bring your own friends).
• iTunes Movie Trailers – Apple is just on a roll this week. This app makes it easy to watch movie trailers on your iOS devices. But not only that, you can watch clips, behind the scenes featurettes and more. Once you’ve found a movie that looks awesome, you can even check local theaters for showing times and buy tickets right from the app. Well done, Apple, well done.
• AirPort Utility – Why stop there, right? The last of Apple’s new apps is this one. It’s a must have for users who own Apple AirPorts. This allows you to configure your AirPort straight from your iOS device, or perhaps more importantly, other people’s AirPorts (ie. parents, friends etc.). If you have an AirPort, just download this and thank Apple later.
• Forever Drive – How can you drive forever? This app has a built in track editor so you can make your own courses. The objective is to make it as far as possible before the time runs out. The graphics are really awesome and unique. The game is Universal, so go download it on everything you have and start driving!
• Warm Gun CoB – Ever wanted to walk through a post-apocalyptic amusement park? Who hasn’t? CoB stands for Carnival of Bullets, and you can probably guess that you’ll be shooting stuff. A lot of stuff. If you like first person shooters, you might as well give it a try, because it’s the first FPS on iOS that’s powered by the Unreal Engine. So yes, it’s not really that surprising that the graphics look amazing.
• Levels – Here’s a very slick looking spirit and surface level. It’s also a clinometer and a compass. Great for when you’re hanging a picture and you want to verify it’s straight or when you’re on an airplane and you’re not sure how sick you should be since you can’t see out the window. Free for a very limited time.
• Domino for iPad – For a limited time, you can download this Latin American version of Dominoes. You can play against your device or against others via WiFi or Bluetooth. There are numerous options to configure the game to your liking. Looks pretty well-polished.
• Land-a Panda – The world needs more pandas. But to get this girl panda to like the guy panda, he’ll have to be shot from a cannon in increasingly more difficult situations, all while collecting coins. Talk about needy. Download now if you don’t want to pay for it…

There were many rumors about the iPod’s demise leading up to Apple’s Let’s Talk iPhone media event, but Apple once again surprised everyone by making improvements to the iPod nano and iPod touch.

Tim Cook went over the amazing success the iPod has had over the last ten years with over 300 million sold. It’s become the #1 music player in the world with market share in the U.S. above 70% the entire time. There are over 20 million songs in iTunes and over 16 billion songs have been downloaded which makes it the #1 music store in the world.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, announced the new iPod nano with a revamped interface. You can now swipe between icons instead of keeping them organized in a grid, which will make them easier to see and use.

They’ve also enhanced the Fitness feature, and with the built-in accelerometer it can keep track of how far you run or walk with no adapter or accessories required. You can also connect the iPod nano to a Nike + iPod compatible cardio machine and keep track of all of your exercise. After you’re at home you can upload your exercise data to the Nike+ website to create personal goals, check your progress, and challenge your friends to top your results.

Wearing the iPod nano on your wrist as a watch has become popular, so Apple has released 16 new clock faces.

The iPod nano is available now in a variety of colors. The 8GB model costs $129 and the 16GB model costs $149.

The iPod Touch is now available in both black and white, with the 8GB model costing $199 ($30 cheaper than before). the 32GB model costs $299, and the 64GB model will run $399. You can buy these starting October 12th.

Neither the iPod shuffle or classic was discontinued as rumored, and although the iPod classic isn’t in this picture it’s still available for purchase at the Apple Store for $249 with 160GB of storage.

Notifications have been completely revamped in iOS 5 to provide more control over how and when they appear, as well as ensuring they don’t take over your iDevice when you least expect it. Apple has given you the ability to decide which notifications you receive, in which order you see them, and how much information is displayed.

Although it was only briefly mentioned at the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event, there’s quite a bit of depth to Notifications and how you can customize each app to your satisfaction. Fortunately cnet has a great guide with pictures as to how to set up notifications and use them.

Apple unveiled the long-rumored iPhone 4S, a new white iPod touch model, an enhanced iPod nano, and a few iOS 5 goodies at this week’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” media event. A lot of people were hoping to get a glimpse of what Apple was going to unveiled at the event, but the company didn’t stream the event online. They have, however, now posted it at the Apple website.

You can watch the event in its entirety at the Apple Events site. Enjoy!

Before you head over, though, here’s the first presentation video for the iPhone 4S.

At Apple’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” press conference, Mike Capps from Epic Games showed Infinity Blade 2, which will be available on December 1st exclusively for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Infinity Blade 2 will use features unique to iOS 5 such as iCloud, enabling profiles and save games to transfer seamlessly between devices.

Infinity Blade 2 builds upon the addictive gameplay and breathtaking visuals of the original game with dozens of new locations set across expansive 3D environments. Players will explore an evolving game world filled with new types of rewards and treasures as they battle scores of new powerful enemies and bosses, delving further into the story of this mysterious, timeless adventure. New fighting styles and weapon classes coupled with role-playing elements provide even greater game play variation. Infinity Blade 2 also introduces gamers to new online features, such as Clash Mob, in which they’ll participate with fellow gamers in unique social challenges to unlock rare weapons and exclusive items.

You’ll be able to read more about the world in which Infinity Blade 2 takes place by buying the Infinity Blade: Awakening novella available now on the iBookstore for $2.99, written by Brandon Sanderson. He’s an incredibly gifted fantasy author who has written The Way of Kings, Mistborn, and The Wheel of Time, among others. Even if you have no interest in playing the game, you might want to buy the novella just for a good read.

“An exciting aspect about media in this age is the chance to blend different types of storytelling, blurring the lines between game, novel, and film,” said author Brandon Sanderson. ” ‘Infinity Blade’ is a great game with real narrative depth hiding beneath its shiny graphics, and I was grateful for the opportunity to express this in prose form and illuminate what had been previously hinted at in the game. I’ve really enjoyed working with ChAIR to produce something fresh and new that really adds to the experience of ‘Infinity Blade’ and hopefully changes the view of gaming fiction as a whole.”

The cost for Infinity Blade 2 will be determined closer to the release date, and you can keep up-to-date with its development at the official Infinity Blade 2 website as well as following @InfinityBlade on Twitter and liking Infinity Blade on Facebook.

At the “Let’s Talk iPhone” media event, everyone was eagerly anticipating the upcoming iPhone 5, with the iPhone 4S being an afterthought. However, Apple once again showed it plays by its own rules and surprised almost everyone by revealing a revamped and much more powerful iPhone 4S as the only new iPhone being released this year.

On the outside, the iPhone 4S looks like the iPhone 4, but is completely brand new on the inside. The biggest improvements are the processor, which uses the same A5 chip as the iPad 2, and dual-core graphics, which are up to 7x faster than the iPhone 4. You’ll need this extra power for the Siri voice assistant.

All that power doesn’t seem to take a toll on the battery, as you will get up to 8 hours of talk time, 14 hours of 2G talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 9 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, and even faster speed with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA data speed. This isn’t called 4G, but looking at the chart comparing the iPhone 4S to 4G phones, the speed differences are minimal. This is accomplished with two antennas on a stainless steel band, and the iPhone 4S will switch between them as needed. In addition, it’s a “world phone” and can use both GSM and CDMA.

The iPhone has become widely used as the main and only camera for many people, and the iPhone 4S has dramatically increased its power and capabilities with an 8 megapixel camera taking pictures at 3,264 x 2,448 resolution. It has backside illumination, which means sharper images and better low light performance, and up to 73% more light per pixel than the iPhone 4. It also has a hybrid IR filter, five element lens, better color accuracy and white balance, face detection, 30% more sharpness and f/2.4 aperture, and it is 33% faster than the iPhone 4. It takes 1.1 second to take the first photo and a half second for the next one.

All of these improvements to pictures also improves the video recording capabilities with 1080p HD video recording, video image stabilization, and temporal noise reduction. If you have an AppleTV, you can mirror your video to your television via Airplay or do it if with a cable if you don’t. You can now play iPhone games on your widescreen TV without the use of cables.

The iPhone 4S will come in black and white versions of three models: 16 GB for $199, 32 GB for $299, and 64 GB for $399 with a 2-year contract. The iPhone 4 will remain and cost $99 for 8 GB, also in black and white with a 2-year contract, and the iPhone 3GS will be free with a 2-year contract.

You can order the iPhone 4S starting Friday, October 7th and it will be available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and Japan on October 14th on the AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint networks in the U.S. There will be 22 more countries receiving the iPhone 4S on October 28th, and 70 more by the end of the year.

Product [iPhone 4S]

Images via [The Verge] and [Engadget]