Apple

During , Apple spent most of its time talking about the new iBooks 2 and iBooks Author, which the company hopes will "revolutionize textbooks." But tacked onto the end of the announcement was another interesting tidbit: the new iTunes U app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Geared towards university students—and even just casual students on the Internet—the iTunes U app takes advantage of Apple's already-existing iTunes U content and presents it to college and university students in a more usable way, allowing instructors to send full syllabus information, assignments, and even notes from the professor directly to students' devices. Students can subscribe to certain classes—if that feature is available, that is—and automatically download relevant course material, not to mention links to outside apps or PDFs.

Because some of us at Ars have already dabbled in listening to iTunes U lectures in the past, we were interested in checking out the new app, as well as the new features offered from some universities. And although many course offerings available through iTunes U are still in the "old" audio-only format, what we did find was still a huge step up for higher education learning on the iPad.

"iBooks" are no longer old Apple laptops made out of white plastic, nor are they simply e-books to be purchased within Apple's iBookstore. Apple announced what it's calling "iBooks 2" during its media event in New York on Thursday, a textbook software program that allows textbook-makers and instructors to create rich, interactive teaching media for the iPad. , the announcement is akin to "GarageBand for e-books," giving authors access to easy-to-use tools on the computer in order to create multimedia content for the iPad.

Another day, another patent lawsuit between Apple and an Android phone manufacturer. Apple has filed a new lawsuit against Samsung in Germany targeting 10 of the company's smartphones, including the Galaxy S Plus and S II.

According to court spokesperson Peter Schetz speaking to , the suit is based on Apple's European design registration for (presumably) the iPhone. Schetz said that Apple also filed another suit against five more of Samsung's tablets following a by a Düsseldorf court issued against the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The move comes as part of a continuous back-and-forth between Samsung and Apple in Europe. Most recently, German judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said that Samsung's modified Galaxy Tab for the German market—the 10.1N— and likely wouldn't face an injunction. The European Commission has also that it's making antitrust inquiries with Apple and Samsung over the patent battle, though the Commission has not yet commented on the details of its investigation.

Apple is slated to announce the fruits of its labor on improving the use of technology in education at its  on Thursday, January 19. While has so far centered on digital textbooks, sources close to the matter have confirmed to Ars that Apple will announce tools to help create interactive e-books—the "GarageBand for e-books," so to speak—and expand its current platform to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users.

Along with the details we were able to gather from our sources, we also spoke to two experts in the field of digital publishing to get a clearer picture of the significance of what Apple is planning to announce.

Six months after the of Final Cut Pro X (FCPX), Apple's major overhaul to its professional video editing software Final Cut Pro, video pros find themselves increasingly looking at other software options. The new version of Final Cut Pro was controversial—there were significant changes to the Final Cut interface, a plethora of editing features were taken away, and worst of all, Final Cut Pro X was rendered unable to import projects from previous versions of the software. For video editors and producers with years of work using Final Cut Pro, the launch of Final Cut Pro X made it seem like Apple no longer .

Is that still the case now, half a year later? TV production company Bunim/Murray recently brought the issue back into the public consciousness by announcing that it was , noting that the company needed "a partner who would understand our long-term needs."

As it turns out, the reaction to Bunim/Murray's announcement from creative pros was, "took them long enough." We spoke to a handful of professionals who work in the video production industry to see how they're feeling now that the dust has settled, and the general consensus appears to be "not good."

Apple has suffered an early loss in its patent suit against Motorola. An administrative law judge (ALJ) with the International Trade Commission (ITC) issued an initial ruling late on Friday, saying that Motorola did not violate three of Apple's smartphone patents. The decision signals potential trouble for Apple, though it still faces the approval of a six-person ITC panel.

Apple and Motorola have been embroiled in a series of lawsuits both in federal court and with the ITC since 2010, when of violating a wide range of its patents covering 3G, GPRS, and 802.11 technologies, antenna design, proximity sensing, and device synchronization, to name a few. As is typical for these patent disputes, with its own countersuits, claiming that Motorola's Android-based smartphones were infringing on Apple's own intellectual property.

Friday's ruling isn't yet the final word from the ITC, and the panel doesn't always rule the same way as the ALJ. Still, the decision is an indicator that Apple's IP fight against Android may not be as easy as former when he said he hoped to "go thermonuclear war" against the platform. Though Apple has not commented publicly on the initial ITC ruling, Motorola was quick to send out a victorious statement for its early win.

"We are pleased with [Friday's] favorable outcome for Motorola Mobility," Motorola Mobility general counsel Scott Offer said in a statement. "Motorola Mobility has worked hard over the years to develop technology and build an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio. We are proud to leverage this broad and deep portfolio to create differentiated innovations that enhance the user experience."

This is the second recent setback Apple has faced when it comes to its mobile patents and Motorola—the when a German court issued an injunction against Apple over one of Motorola's cellular data transmission patents. Apple did, however, against another Android smartphone maker, HTC, with the manufacturer facing a potential import ban on its Android-based devices starting in April of this year. Still, HTC claims it has already figured out how to remove the offending features in its devices, so it's unlikely that HTC's smartphones will actually be banned from import into the US anytime soon.

This last week was CES 2012, meaning that Apple news largely took a backseat to what went on in Las Vegas. That doesn't mean nothing happened in the world of Apple, though. We discussed why quad-core iOS devices could launch soon, how iPhone 4S users are apparently data hogs, what might be announced during Apple's education event in NYC next week, and more. Read on for the roundup!

: Code within the latest iOS 5.1 betas appear to show support for quad-core processors. Along with other evidence in Apple's development tools, we may see quad-core powered iOS devices sooner rather than later.

: iPhone 4S users are consuming data at higher volumes than ever.

The next-generation iPad won't just have a higher-resolution display—it will also come with LTE support and a quad-core processor, according to sources. The publication claims to have spoken with three separate people about the upcoming device, noting that production is expected to ramp up in February in order to be available to the public in March.

One of Bloomberg's sources claims LTE support is coming to the iPad before the iPhone because "the tablet has a bigger battery and can better support the power requirements of the newer technology." As for the quad-core chip, within the iOS 5.1 betas that indicate that Apple is planning to roll out quad-core iOS devices sooner than later. When we wrote about those discoveries last week, we said it would be plausible that the next version of the iPad could support such a thing, and now the rumors seem to be converging on that detail.

This comes only a week after we that the so-called "iPad 3" will get upgraded front- and rear-facing cameras in addition to a slightly thicker body. And, although there were initially some rumors that claimed Apple might make an iPad introduction as early as this month, all other signs (and reasonable people) seem to agree that a March or April launch is what's really in the cards.

Apple is beginning to reveal more information about its suppliers in China as part of its . Published on Friday, Apple's latest report (which comes in the form of several PDFs) reveals the for the first time, and discusses the results of its regular supplier audits—meant to reveal practices like juvenile worker violations, unfair hiring practices, and safety concerns. The company says it conducted more audits than ever before throughout 2011, and the numbers in the report indicate that Apple found fewer major violations than it did in 2010.

It's January 13, which means that Chinese iPhone buyers in China should already have new iPhone 4Ss in their grubby little hands. That is not the case, however, due to a disastrous launch day that generated safety issues, forcing Apple to suspend the launch in all of its mainland China stores. As it turns out, our description of the Chinese iPhone launch being a "" wasn't too far off.

The story started off exactly as we expected: there were huge crowds outside of Apple's five mainland stores full of prospective buyers (plus scalpers)—like the iPhone lines in the US, many had waited overnight to get their hands on a new 4S. When the stores didn't open exactly on time, however, the crowds started getting rowdy, causing store employees to become concerned for their own safety and that of the customers. At that point, according to several accounts (covered by and the ), police reportedly ordered that the stores not be opened, and Apple announced over a megaphone that the launch was cancelled. As a result, some members of the crowd began pelting the stores with eggs and a number of kerfuffles broke out.