Apple has always been well known for its commitment to education since its start over thirty years ago. Through that, many other companies have blossomed in the very arena Apple became a staple in. Today, a new company based on the East Coast is jumping into that arena but doing so more in the fashion of a Mötley Crüe concert where former drummer Tommy Lee performs his drum solo hanging over the crowd. Yes, Raybook is coming out in style.

Mark Williams, founder and CEO of Modality (parent of Raybook), sat down with me at Macworld over lunch to tell me a little about Raybook. Through the course of the conversation, I really found myself enjoying our lunch. Mark just seems to have that easy going feeling that rubs off on you like you’ve known him for ever. He told me of the company’s start and how he, as a professor in the medical sciences, found studying anything in the medical field difficult with the study aids available at that time. CD-ROMs and DVDs just weren’t a good stepping stone from the classic index style flash cards. Those flash cards themselves were large and bulky and made studying on the go nearly impossible. There had to be a better way and when he saw the iPod, he knew he had found that way.

He took a complex study, the brain, and made some amazing slides of it and wrapped it up with text book quality teaching to produce one excellent learning tool…all on an iPod. He distributed it to his students and it wasn’t too long before they were thanking him for this superb learning tool. “Students would come up to me and tell me, ‘I learned three new brain terms while standing in line for a latte’”, Mark told me with excitement in his voice. “Now,” he continued, “we have people asking us, ‘What iPod should I get for this?’” For students, Raybook is new jumping stone for an iPod.

After the incredible success of the medical “books”, Mark knew he had to take it further and bring his tool to a broader market. With the recent addition of the Brain Quest series for K-12 learners, Raybook is actively becoming a hallmark for great study. Other material includes my high school favorite, Mr. Notes, a.k.a. Cliffs Notes, Mosby, Netter, Stedman, BRS, as well as illustrated guides for medical students. While the Cliff and Brain Quest will be more familiar to most, the depth of knowledge here is incredible for such a young company. Mark wants to have hundreds of books online for immediate download by years end.

From public schools, to home schools, to colleges, Raybook is going to be boon for any student. With so many iPods lying around ones home now after years of upgrades, that old dusty iPod in your drawer now has a new use! Since each Raybook is pretty darn small, the density size of your iPod won’t even matter. In fact, the iPod nano is one of the supported models for Raybook. (If you’re wondering where the iPhone/iPod touch version is, it is being worked on via Apple’s SDK. Be patient.)

So how does this all work, you ask? Straight from Raybook’s page, “Raybooks combine text, images, and even audio and video, into a single package you can use on your iPod.” The web page goes on to say, “Study medical terminology with visual flash cards and audio pronunciations. Learn valuable skills by reading step-by-step instructions, then watching a video. Read about an out-of-the-way bistro in Paris, then pinpoint it on a map!”

Getting it onto your iPod is as easy as purchasing the book, downloading it, syncing it via the Raybook Manager, and — ta da! — using it. Once on your iPod, now you can study on the train, between classes, and yes, even while in line while waiting for a latte.

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