As revealed in his authorized biography, Steve Jobs figured out the secret to making a truly user friendly television ahead of his untimely passing. But a reimagined TV wasn’t the only revolutionary product Jobs had a hand in that we have yet to see come to fruition. According to several reports, Apple plans to unveil a new product at a press conference on Thursday that it hopes will change the way students use textbook. Read on for more.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the plans, The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple will reveal a new digital textbook product on Thursday that will give publishers a platform with which to create interactive educational materials optimized for the iPad. The announcement will include partnerships with multiple publishers according to the report, and at least one, McGraw-Hill, has been working with Apple on its new iPad textbook product since June.

According to Walter Isaacsson’s authorized biography, Steve Jobs had been meeting with a number of publishers and he thought all textbooks should be “digital and interactive, tailored to each student and providing feedback in real time.”

Apple will not be the first company to introduce digital textbooks to the market, but it is perhaps in the best position to deliver a product with the potential to succeed on a wide scale. Multiple universities have already begun to test programs that involve distributing iPads to students, and Apple’s tablet is by far the most popular slate on the market today. Additionally, a less expensive iPad 2 model expected to be released when Apple launches its next-generation iPad 3 will make the iOS tablet line even more accessible.

“Who better than Apple to revolutionize textbooks?” IDC analyst Al Hilwa told The Journal. “Everyone, including the industry and universities, have to come together, and this is the kind of thing Apple does really well.”

In a short press release yesterday, Microsoft announced a deal with the State University of New York (SUNY) to bring the company’s Live@edu cloud-based collaboration services to all 64 SUNY campuses. “SUNY sought to decrease costs while providing its 465,000 students with up-to-date technology necessary for success in college and in today’s workforce,” reads the press release. “As a result, SUNY students will have access to advanced online software, including hosted e-mail, calendars, online storage, Office Web Apps, instant messaging, document sharing and videoconferencing, among other services.” SUNY estimates that the move to Microsoft’s cloud system will save the state roughly $600,000 over the next five years.

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When it rains, it pours and information is pouring out about the rumored “super-sized” Amazon Kindle. The upcoming Kindle, now known as the Kindle DX, will pack a full-featured 9.7-inch electronic ink display, 5-way navigation button and a QWERTY keyboard into its large white housing. It basically looks like the designers took a Kindle 2 and stretched its screen from 6 inches to 9.7 inches, and then squished the keyboard in the process. The new Kindle DX will reportedly feature an improved web browser, the ability to add annotations in addition to notes and highlights and a long awaited native PDF reader. In addition to newspaper and periodicals, the Kindle DX is designed to support textbooks and, according to the Wall Street Journal, a special edition packed with pre-installed textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar is being released as part of a college trial. Lev Gonick, chief information officer for Case Western Reserve University, claims that a lucky bunch of select college students at Case Western Reserve, as well as Pace, Princeton, Reed, Arizona State, and the Darden School at the University of Virginia are signed up to test out this new device starting in the Fall semester. Sweet! Hit the jump for a few blurry images of the Kindle DX seemingly snagged from a slide show presentation.

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We don’t cover many web apps here on BGR but every now and then we come across something we think a large number of our readers would really enjoy. This just so happens to be one of those times. We discovered this service last week and we have to say, we were impressed from the start. In a sentence, Soshiku is a management tool that allows users to schedule assignments, outline tasks, manage courses and collaborate on group assignments online – for free. Ahh, we love that last word and if you’re a student so do you. The Soshiku site is simple and well organized; within 10 minutes of signing up you’ll already have your courses entered and assignments lined up. The service even includes free configurable email and SMS notifications to communicate impending deadlines or tasks. Beyond that, Shosiku adds an extra layer of accessibility by allowing users to add new courses or assignments via email or SMS. In our testing, we really couldn’t think of anything the site creator didn’t cover – and did we mention he’s a 17-year-old student himself? We might not go as far as to say Soshiku makes schoolwork fun, but it will definitely keep you more organized than you’ve ever been before. Organization leads to increased efficiency and increased efficiency leads to more time to par… Well, more time to do whatever it is you enjoy doing.

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