I posed this question on Twitter last night, and based on the responses I think some had never heard of this idea before.
Back in 1984, Apple introduced the original Macintosh to the world with what is now one of the best known gadget commercials ever. Apple drew on the themes from the book 1984 to create the impression that the Macintosh would shatter the gray, monolithic, controlling overmind and free the workers.
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One of the many disappointing aspect of iBooks Author (besides the expensive hardware needed to run the app and the expensive hardware needed to read the output) was the EULA that Apple included with the app. In what was perhaps the most extreme example of control-freak EULA, Apple required that any ebooks made with iBA could only be sold via iBooks, and you first have to get Apple’s approval to do so.
Naturally this didn’t go over so well with many in digital publishing, so today Apple released a slightly tweaked EULA. They didn’t relax any of the control they have over your products, but they did make it slightly more explicit. Here’s the old language: [Read more →]
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Apple released their quarterly financial statements today, and in what I am sure is a coincidence another Android tablet maker had to be talked down off a ledge. He’s on suicide watch at the local hospital.
There’s no news on iBooks, but Apple did say that they sold 37 million iPhones and over 15 million iPads last quarter. That’s over double the number sold in the same quarter last year. Apple also reported record revenue last quarter of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion. Again, that’s nearly double what Apple did same quarter last year.
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So that rumored textbook making app did indeed lunch today. It’s called iBooks Author, and it only runs on OSX. Well shoot. I was hoping Apple would lower their walls, but I guess I was wrong.
One of the lesser known details about iBooks is the hoops Apple makes you jump through to upload an ebook. Ever since iBooks launched 2 years ago, Apple has restricted direct uploads to only people who are using a Mac. Lots of people in digital publishing rolled our eyes at this, but it’s Apple so what can you do?
And today Apple continued with the hoops.
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One thing you can say about Apple: they don’t do launches as half measures.
In addition to the new iBooks, Apple also announced today that iTunes U, their educational audiobook and video section of iTunes, now has its own app. The app was actually released yesterday, but clearly we all missed it.
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image by Paul Biba
I got an email earlier today from a contact with Kindle PR. She wanted to bring my attention to the new Kindle Store interface. Amazon just brought it online this week, and it was made specifically for the iPad. You can find it here: www.amazon.com/iPadKindleStore.
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The rumor mongers at Digitimes are back again, and they have a whole new story to tell. When last I’d heard from Digitimes they were reporting that Apple had a 7.85″ iPad on the way.
Now Digitimes is reporting that Apple has 2 iPads coming in late January, not one, and neither is going to be the iPad Mini.
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Earlier this week we learned that the EU was continuing an investigation into Apple and their co-conspirators, and today I can report that the EU isn’t the only govt investigating the cabal led by Apple. The U.S. Justice Department confirmed that it is investigating the pricing of ebooks, with a more specific focus on whether there was collusion by Apple and publishers to fix the price of the ebooks.
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On Monday I wrote a post about how Kobo had gotten around Apple’s no links to the ebookstore rule, and I explained how you could use it.
A reader left a comment a few minutes ago that the link was gone. Obviously someone at Amazon Apple reads this blog (I already knew that), because it looks like Amazon Apple made Kobo remove the links. That same post is still there but it was edited to remove the links. I don’t see a reason why Kobo would do that other than Amazon Apple forcing them too.
Call me petty, but I do enjoy making everyone dance to my tune.
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I’ve just heard that Apple released a new iBookstore Assets guide (4.7 Rev 4) this week. The guide is supposed to have instructions on how to enable the TTS functions of iBooks. There’s certain code that you have to embed in your ebook when you make it. If you’re an iTunes Connect member (more info here), you can download it from the Deliver Your Content section.
There’s also a new version of iTunes Producer available. One of the improvements listed is “common EPUB errors can now be fixed automatically”. Liz Castro, my source, isn’t sure what that means. I’m waiting to hear what she says about it when she gets a chance to check it out.
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