A screenshot from GigaOM's video demo of Inkling 2.0

This week, digital publishing startup Inkling debuted the 2.0 version of its software, which provides interactive, digital versions of college textbooks for the iPad.

The San Francisco-based startup is just down the street from GigaOM’s office, so I headed on over to Inkling headquarters on Thursday to get an in-person demo from the company’s Founder and CEO Matt MacInnis. In short: It’s so awesome it actually makes me want to buy college textbooks again, just to play with the app some more.

Inkling 2.0 has a bunch of new features, including an interactive social layer that allows users to form online study groups with other readers worldwide, as well as in-app links to outside sources such as Wikipedia and Google. According to recent research, student demand for digital versions of required reading materials is at an all-time high, so Inkling 2.0 could prove to be quite popular at college campuses this coming fall.

Since Inkling’s product is so inherently visual, seeing it in action is the best way to understand what it is — so please check out the video of my interview with MacInnis and his demo here:

To read more about Inkling, you can check out our previous coverage here and here.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Sweet jumping Jehosaphat on a carbon rod! LOOK AT THIS! It’s a shelf! That holds stuff! Behind your Apple monitor! It costs $29.95 and it is so amazing I had to look at this image twice just to remind myself of the feeling of fear and awe I felt when I saw this the first time. This thing “uses two adjustable clips and gravity to literally perch on the desk stand of iMacs and Cinema Displays.” LITERALLY PERCH! Unless my brain deceives me – and it has – this concept is so new it’s not even patented yet.

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Google is set to free eBooks from proprietary handhelds by selling digital works readable on any device that can access the web. The move is in direct competition Amazon and their Kindle who’ve upset publishers by selling digital first editions at less than half the price of hardback hard copy versions. Instead, Google will charge the same as in print while reserving the right to alter prices where deemed “exorbitant”. Google already sells eBooks through the Sony Store for the Reader but this will take their literature retail in-house and bring novels to mobile phones and laptops everywhere. Personally, I rather like the idea of having a dedicated eBook reading device and I’m not sure I’m going to get a good experience on my mobile. I also don’t feel too good about paying the same for a digital book as I do for a hardback, especially when Amazon is knocking them out so cheap. On the plus side, it does indicate there’s a lot tablets out their about to hit the market. I’m sure Google would have an inkling of such things and that the likes of Qulacomm and whoever else will be most pleased by the news. Fingers crossed there’ll be no international issues, or am I just dreaming here? (via NYT)