Apple's K-12 digital textbooks project codenamed Bliss, inspired by Al Gore's interactive e-book

The digital textbook project that is set to be unveiled today by Apple in NYC, has been codenamed Bliss, reports the Wall Street Journal, and Apple's VP Roger Rosner has been in charge of it for a while. The project is rumored to be aimed towards textbooks for the K-12 crowd.

He oversees the productivity applications at Apple, like iWorks, so has been a natural selection for Bliss. More details are emerging about the project's conception before today's grand unveiling.

Despite that Bliss has been on Steve Jobs's mind until the last moments of his work at Apple, the way that the digital textbook service will be structured has hit the minds at Cupertino thanks to an interactive e-book by none other than former US Vice President Al Gore, who sits on Apple's Board of Directors.

He published the book called "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis" via Push Pop Press in the App Store. Push Pop Press was founded by two former Apple engineers, and was acquired by Facebook last summer. Thus one extra merit of Al Gore's e-book is that it was developed using the native Cocoa Touch tools for iOS, instead of being published as an iBook, i.e. using the open EPUB format for e-books.

We'll see what exactly will Apple unveil today at 10am Eastern via its chief Internet software guy Eddy Cue, but in the mean time you can check out Al Gore's interactive e-book in the video below. For more information about using modern technology, such as tablets, in the classroom, you can check our dedicated article here.

source: Bloomberg, AppleInsider & WSJ