Apple has announced a Jan. 19 education event to be held next Thursday, Jan. 19, at 10 am (Eastern) in New York City at the Guggenheim Museum.

Apple has released no other info, but according to "All Things D" (http://macte.ch/RD2wJ), it's likely that Apple plans to beef up its iBook app and iBookstore, which lags behind the Kindle's offering. Perhaps the iBookstore and iBook app will be available on the Mac at long last,so you'll be able to purchase books on any OS X or iOS device and have it "pushed" to all your other devices via iCloud.

Apple will probably announce a plethora of new book titles. Don't be surprised to see the company make a major push into the digital textbook realm, promoting the iPad and iTextbooks as a less expensive alternative to pricey high school and (especially) college texts.

Also look for Apple’s to promote self-publishing. There are self-publishing offerings from Barnes & Noble and Amazon, and Apple doesn't want to be left behind. Apple's option will let writers publish work directly on Apple’s platform without having to go through a publisher or other third-party provider to do so. Of course, the self-published works will have to be approved by Apple, as are apps in the Mac and iOS app stores.