At the Apple live education event today, the tech giant announced three major items: iBooks2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U. Here's a quick rundown. iTunes U offers full courses with video, documents, apps and book. Users can see a syllabus and follow assignments while teachers create posts and update tasks. Its integrated with iBooks notes. iBooks 2 (free) is Apple's attempt at "reinventing the textbook". Citing the iPad's already astounding impact on teachers and students (1.5 iPads in schools, over 20,000 apps used), the app enables you to "read in a text-heavy portrait or picture-biased landscape mode and there's also the option to have random pop-quizzes appear to keep you on your toes. Annotations is an integral part of the system: you can add stickies to individual pages and aggregate them into virtual 3 x 5-inch note-cards for revision during finals. You'll also get the same purchase, download and re-download rights you enjoy in the company's other stores." iBooks Author (free) allows you to start with a simple template and create an iBook with minimal tech know-how. Users will combine their templates, photos, presentations, widgets and videos using HTML5, JavaScript and publish to the iBookstore. Follow the conversation about Apple's announcements this morning and learn more about the new education-focused applications at Macworld, Slashgear, TechCrunch and Engadget. more ›

Like the publishing industry as a whole, Austin's Rare Magazine has been undergoing a metamorphosis of late, which ostensibly began with the departure of former Publisher and Founder Matt Swinney earlier this year. The magazine's co-owner, Taylor Perkins, who runs local real estate firm 512 Realty and serves as Development Director for Charity Bash, a fledgling philanthropy group, then bought out his business partner's share, becoming sole owner of Rare and assuming the Publisher title. more ›

Austin's Whole Foods Market has been named Wine Retailer of The Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Winners were chosen for their contributions to the world of wine and spirits (with special consideration given to winey accomplishments and innovations made in 2007.) Does Whole Foods truly deserve this award? (Because, seriously, Spec's is 100% unapologetically falling-down boozey. Just sayin.) more ›

Photo from ImageAfter Starting today, we'll be publishing a weekly roundup of various arts & entertainment news that we've come across. Most of these developments, whether national or international, have a direct relationship with something local, whether it be an organization, individual, or our collective culture. In any case, it's a nice chance to broaden our world view -- a definite bonus (or necessity, some might argue) for a city that revels in creativity! --... more ›

Hark! U.S. health care reform cometh, and that right soon! Boston Red Sox win World Series. Homus Neanderthalensis may have been the Earth's first natural redhead. Study suggests that sexual orientation is coded in genetic material. Wired Magazine's review of the new Mac operating system. French president evidently working overtime to reinforce common stereotypes held about the French people. Sacre bleu! New Jersey school proves the true importance of accessories in a Halloween costume.... more ›

Robert Stikmanz, AKA Jackanapes Plenty, AKA fully human Austin author Robert Lewis, will appear in one of his many guises to preview his new book, Nod’s Way, at BookPeople this Saturday. Nod’s Way is part fantasy, part I Ching manual from another dimension, so if you have any burning questions that Dr. Laura or George Noory can’t answer, here’s your chance to consult a real live ancient oracle. Nod’s Way is a follow-up to Stikmanz’s... more ›

Austin author, entertainer, and all-around Renaissance man Owen Egerton is finally receiving some formal recognition for all of his hard work and hijinks. He's one of this year's two Best of Austin "Best Authors," in no small part due to his darkly-comedic book of short stories, How To Best Avoid Dying, released earlier this year by Austin-based Dalton Publishing. Egerton tied for the prestigious award with journalist-turned-punk-rocker-Texas-Rollergirl Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan. Her bruiser of a memoir,... more ›

The word ‘naïve’, stripped of its pejorative connotation, is a good description of Snakepit for other reasons. While the comic has gotten a smidge flashier over the past few years, it’s hasn’t developed in any manner that would suggest Ben is trying to improve. On the contrary, the sheer discipline of his daily drawing is only excelled by his ethic to not let his art evolve—to keep it crude/shitty/primitive, whatever. more ›

This Thursday, May 17th at 7pm, Austin fixture Owen Egerton will be celebrating the release of How Best to Avoid Dying, his brand new collection of short stories, at BookPeople. The book is also the latest release for local publisher Dalton Publishing. They're offering a free peep of the book's first story, "Spelling," here. While the book itself is worthy of celebration, so too is its author. Egerton is one of Austin's renaissance men.... more ›

For sometime now, fans of both humor and the internet have had reason to rejoice and celebrate every day. Through his daily posts on Girls Are Pretty, author, comedian, performer and non-professional dancer Bob Powers tips readers off to little known or unconventional holidays that would otherwise remain uncelebrated. For instance, did you know that this past Tuesday, April 10th, was "Your Thirteen Year Old Son Got His Dick Caught In One Of The Mousetraps... more ›

The fun and lively improv show Plays Well With Others is being held over at the Zach Scott Theater and if you need to have your funny bone tickled, you should go. The show is directed by Owen Egerton and written by Les McGehee. Owen and Les also star, along with a cast of some of Austin's best improv actors like Megan Flynn, Jodi Egerton, Scott Chester, and Shannon McCormick. Also involved are videographer Ben... more ›

We'll be publishing photos from each day of SXSW Music, and we'd love to include your snapshots from day parties, showcases, in-stores, and afterparties! Simply send 'em over (in JPG or GIF format) to photos@austinist.com, with a brief description and any photo credits, and we'll do our best to include them in our new slideshow feature.... more ›

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend... more ›

Did he REALLY think this shit would fly? I certainly hope not. I mean, you can’t be an imposing/successful black man, maybe kill some white folks, get off on a slew of dubious technicalities, and then publish a confessional which stands to make you a bazillion dollars, all while still in the ultra-conservative plaids-and-gun-racks environment that persists here. more ›

From stage performances to her role as Jerri Blank on Strangers with Candy to her guest column, "Sedaratives," in The Believer, Amy Sedaris has made a career out of making people laugh with her absurd brand of wit and charm. With I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, Sedaris has extended her talents to the world of cookbooks. In the informative and entertaining book, she shares some of her favorite recipes along with special tips... more ›

The last days of summer are upon us, so drink up this weekend. As the sweaty bacchanal of summer comes to a close, The University of Texas is once again offering their Informal Classes for the fall semester. Beginning this Monday, October 16, nearly 1,000 courses ranging from Roller Derby Appreciation to Crystal Healing to Dog Obedience 101 are being offered until December. These courses, some only meeting once and others lasting several weeks, are... more ›

You are a self-professed Daniel Johnston obsessive. Can you remember when you first heard about Daniel Johnston? I was a college radio DJ [in New Jersey], and word was trickling up from Austin, Texas, through this underground network of people--before there was an internet—through fanzine culture. I was reading a lot of fanzines, which was an underground publishing network. Word was trickling up through this network of a few hundred people around the country from... more ›

Wow, we know, that title was so lame (sorry 'bout that). But fortunately for you, dear lover of new theatre/dance/music/film/art/allofthosethingsmushedtogether this upcoming performance happening will not be lame. At all. Brought to you by the always delightful Refraction Arts, this artistic melee will feature cutting edge work from the likes of Phil Soltanof of Mad Dog Theatre Company the Zellner Brothers, Sara Richardson of the Rude Mechs, Joe Swanberg of Nerve.com, Yellow Tape Construction... more ›

As mentioned yesterday here on Austinist, Rude Mechanicals has mounted an upgraded version of last year's workshopped production, Get Your War On!. ( In case you haven't been reading Austinist, or didn't see the cover of this week's Austin Chronicle, we'll give you the lowdown on this unique work. Basically, shortly after 9/11/2001, a New Yorker named David Rees started writing, and publishing online, an acerbic, satirical comic strip called Get Your War On!.... more ›

Rags-to-riches success stories are few and far between these days, particularly the sort punctuated with "dot com" and "latest buzz" - two phrases that cropped up seemingly everywhere you turned only a few years ago. Which is why we're thrilled to announce that our former editor, one-time publishing mogul, general tech impresario and self-proclaimed Internet Rock Star has accomplished what none of us dared to imagine. Ladies and gentlemen, Ben Brown sold out to... more ›

Residents of a city characterized by both a high number of tech companies and a substantial local art scene might be interested to note that a British study found that people working in creative fields get lucky more often. This may or may not compensate for these same people having to listen to more technically-inclined family members brag about their stock options at holiday dinners. While the finding that say, petroleum engineers get laid... more ›

Last week, we posted a review of a brilliant locally-published novel entitled "Egypt Egypt" by a certain Sam Ramos. An enthusiastic bout of Google-stalking yielded, to our surprise, nothing. It seemed that, so much as 8,058,044,651 web pages were concerned, neither the author nor the publisher existed. This, naturally, left us intrigued and somewhat confused – had we yet again replaced our vitamins with crazy pills? But mere days later, through a series of... more ›

Austin police arrested former UC Berkeley and UT engineering professor Gary Wise yesterday, on charges of deadly conduct and stalking. It seems like the once-tenured professor [allegedly] spent the past six years harassing his former colleagues, beginning with a few relatively innocuous obscene phone calls and escalating all the way to last Friday, when he went off on a wild shooting rampage in North and Central Austin. Luckily, no one was hurt, but Wise did... more ›