In the past few weeks many rumours have sprung up surrounding the much awaited launch of the iPad Mini. Whether it's the new iPad redesign or the iPad Mini models themselves, we've heard it all. But now, rumours suggest that Apple is likely to unveil an updated version of its e-book application, iBooks.
French blog
iGen.fr was the first to report the news and mentioned that some books refer to iBooks 3.0 as a prerequisite in the iTunes Store, citing the French graphic novel Largo Winch as an example.
The Next Web explains that the company does give developers and media publishers some control regarding product requirements but that said, the general requirements section is auto-generated and cannot be altered. The tech blog also seems to have posted a screen shot of iTunes, which states "This book requires iBooks 3.0 or later and iOS 4.2 or later."
Developers can set certain requirements for their submissions, including hardware bits that are necessary to operate the app, and those are used to generate that section. But they cannot manually alter the text there, as it is generated by iTunes, so that rules out a typo on behalf of the submitting developer. This was definitely generated on Apple's end of things. So, either it was a mistake there, or their internal systems are already seeing iBooks 3.0 as an option for publications. As to why it would 'require' 3.0, who knows?
So was this an accidental announcement? Considering the fact that the event is just around the corner, it could be possible that it was a premature announcement, that certainly didn't go unnoticed. Some, however do believe that, since the iPad mini sports a 7-inch form factor, it could be promoted as an e-book reader.
"The news only bolsters rumours that the same site floated last week, indicating that Apple plans to emphasise the new iPad mini as a media-centric device, particularly in regard to iBooks," reported Apple Insider.