Only a few days are left before the curtain raiser of Apple's Oct. 23 event, and latest rumors indicate that iBooks 3.0 will be a part of the purported iPad Mini launch.

iBooks is Apple's e-book application for its iOS operating system devices. Apple announced the iBook along with the iPad in Jan. 2010 and later released it for iPhone and iPod Touch in 2010 itself. The iBooks application is not pre-loaded on iDevices but is free to install from iTunes App Store.

The Next Web reported that a French Web site iGen.fr discovered the requirement of iBook 3.0 for The Largo Winch series. The Next Web claims to have taken a screenshot of iTunes, which states "This book requires iBooks 3.0 or later and iOS 4.2 or later."

"Developers can set certain requirements for their submissions, including hardware bits that are necessary to operate the app, and those are used to generate that section. But they cannot manually alter the text there, as it is generated by iTunes, so that rules out a typo on behalf of the submitting developer. This was definitely generated on Apple's end of things. So, either it was a mistake there, or their internal systems are already seeing iBooks 3.0 as an option for publications," reported The Next Web.

Currently, many 7-inch tablets are used for e-reading purposes. Smaller tablets from Amazon, Google, Barnes & Noble and others Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's) have emphasized e-book reader functionality. Perhaps, Apple wants to aggressively target the smaller 7-inch tablet market with the new iPad Mini with its latest iBooks 3.0.

"The news only bolsters rumors that the same site floated last week, indicating that Apple plans to emphasize the new iPad mini as a media-centric device, particularly in regard to iBooks," reported Apple Insider.

Oct. 23 has been penned down on the calendar by many tech enthusiasts as one of the most-awaited Apple events of the year. Time will tell if Apple launches the highly-anticipated iPad Mini or if it will remain a fabled device.