The possibilities are endless, and authors can't wait until the iBooks Author tool shifts away from being so textbook specific.

iBooks Author is also available today as a free download from the Mac App Store and lets anyone with a Mac create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more, and publish them to Apple’s iBookstore.

While the focus was on education and textbooks, I think a lot of authors are going to make good use of iBooks Author.

Walter Isaacson:

This is the first or second draft, It's not the final draft.

I've been using it during the beta period and it works as advertised.

Sums up what a lot of us are feeling.

I've also gone from a 15" MacBook Pro to a 13" MacBook Air, and I'm thoroughly impressed. I still keep a Mac mini around as my house media server that holds the bulk of my content.

And with no “breathing” light to wait for when you close the lid, you never know when it has gone to sleep. Which means, that for all intents and purposes, you don’t think about the MacBook Air going to sleep. You are either using it or not. Like the iPad.

This was one of the things I missed when I first closed the lid on the Air. After getting used to Lion's Resume feature however, "sleep" is meaningless. You can restart a MacBook Air and have all your apps reopened and ready to use in less than 30 seconds.

Most people were expecting a music streaming service from Apple. That happens to be the one feature that iCloud is not, but it's so much more than that.

The biggest feature on that list is that iOS devices can now be completely PC free.

TechCrunch posts what may or may not be a look at notifications in iOS 5. To me this seems like exactly what Apple would do to revamp notifications, it uses a UI element that already exists, rather than something new and unfamiliar.

The keynote will highlight iOS 5 as well as Mac OS X Lion, and surprisingly for Apple, they've also confirmed that Steve Jobs will be introducing iCloud, Apple's cloud service offering.

Apple tells Lodsys where to shove it for accusing iOS developers of patent infringement.

It is quite literally an app with nothing except ads. This is the Superbowl of apps.

I'll try to put together my thoughts after I get to use it a bit more.

Apple will no longer sell the Xserve on January 31, 2011. Potential Xserve customers now have to choose between the server versions of the Mac Pro or Mac mini. Apple also notes that the new Mac mini Server is the best selling server they sell.

Cute.

Business Insider reports that Apple may be holding a secret three day conference for select iOS developers next week. They go on to speculate that it may be an effort to improve the quality of iOS apps.

The big idea, it seems, is an effort to improve the quality of iOS apps available in Apple's App Store. This comes as Google's rival Android platform continues to look better to developers, and receives more of their attention and investment.

No details on the type of developers that will be attending this event. Wilder speculation would be showing developers iOS APIs in Lion, or iOS development for the Apple TV. (via MacRumors)

OS X Lion will include iOS style home screens and folders with Launchpad, as well as a new Mission Control function that integrates Expose, Spaces and Dashboard. But the biggest news so far for Lion, is the Mac App Store, so big in fact that Apple can't wait until the summer 2011 launch of Lion. The Mac App Store will be launched on Snow Leopard in the next 90 days.

Beta version now available for Mac. It looks like exactly like the iOS version.

Now that the iPhone 4 is in the hands of thousands of people, there has been one quickly discovered, and widely reported flaw. Holding the iPhone 4 improperly can cause signal degradation and dropped calls. The response from Steve Jobs himself when asked about any resolution to this issue has been "just avoid holding it that way." And while it has now been shown that the same antenna issue can be reproduced on many other cellphones, this should not be the response from Apple. The iPhone 4 has its antenna on the outer perimeter of the device, and people are going to continue to hold the phone in the wrong way, even Steve Jobs. Apple should be doing something proactive about the situation, rather than treating this as a non-issue.

Unlike most cellphones, the new iPhone 4 has a metal band that wraps around its side. This metal band acts as the iPhone's WiFi, and 3G antennas. By holding the iPhone 4 in your left hand, in such a way that your skin makes contact with both antennas (separated by a small notch), it can cause interference and signal loss. It's hard to judge the amount of people who experience this problem, whether it's a vocal minority, or a widespread problem that affects all new iPhones. But the fact that Apple is aware of it and acknowledges that the problem does exist, is enough. That they are unwilling to do anything about it, should be concerning.

Remember when the Nintendo Wii came out? Long lines and short availability for this revolutionary new console, which was aptly codenamed 'Revolution'. Shortly after, there were numerous reports and Youtube videos of people losing control of their Wii Remotes, and smashing their TVs. Rather than tell its customers "don't swing it that hard" or "get a better grip on it", Nintendo instead replaced the straps on all Wii Remotes for free and began packaging them with new Wii consoles within a month of its initial release. About a year later, Nintendo started offering a Wii Remote Jacket, a simple silicone case that offered a better grip and protection. Again, Nintendo offered these for free to its customers, and began packaging them with new Wii consoles.

One solution to the iPhone 4's antenna issue, has been the iPhone Bumpers which conveniently cover the metal band wrapping around the iPhone. Apple offers these for $29 to its customers, but I think they should be giving these to every iPhone 4 buyer for free. Any bad publicity that may have plagued the Wii Remote strap (during and after its replacement), is long gone, and the Wii continues to be the number one selling console, with Sony and Microsoft playing catch up. Apple could easily hand out their $29 Bumper for free, to the no doubt millions of people who will purchase an iPhone 4.

The metal band around the iPhone 4, was touted by Steve Jobs at WWDC, to provide improved reception, to much applause. A video was also shown, detailing the lengths that Apple went to manufacture this steel band. It's unfortunate to see that for some people, it will actually decrease cell reception on the already universally panned AT&T network, and that Apple sees this as a non-issue.