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100 million books downloaded from iBooks, Random House titles added
Apple's kicking off the iPad 2 event with some iBooks announcements. The first thing you need to know is that 100 million books have been downloaded to date from the company's bookstore. That's a lot of digital tomes, and there are more coming. Yep, that brings us to the second big piece of news -- Random House is bringing its entire US catalog, which includes 17,000 titles, to the store. We had an idea that was going to happen since the publisher just changed up its e-book pricing model, but the store now officially includes bestsellers by John Grisham, Dan Brown, and others. According to PCMag, some of those titles started to pop up in Apple's store yesterday, so get going and start reading.
Random House switches e-book pricing models, clears way for entrance into iBookstore
Well, it looks like the last major holdout from Apple's iBookstore could soon be joining its rivals on iOS devices -- Random House announced today that it's abandoning its current pricing model for e-books in favor of the so-called "agency pricing" that Apple insists on. That model requires publishers to set the retail prices of their books with the bookseller getting a 30 percent cut of each sale -- as opposed to the traditional wholesale model that lets retailers set the price of books and even sell them at a loss (as Amazon has done in the past). As the Wall Street Journal notes, the agency model has been criticized by some (including Random House previously) for effectively eliminating discounting and guaranteeing retailers a profit on each book they sell. Of course, Random House hasn't yet officially announced that it will be joining the iBookstore ranks, but this news does certainly line up nicely with a little event tomorrow.
Latest version of iBooks contains anti-jailbreaking measures
Seems like Apple isn't letting the Library of Congress's declaration that jailbreaking is legal stop it from throwing further obstacles in the way of people trying to open up their iOS hardware. The latest such gimmick is iBooks. Version 1.2.1 of the app, launched last week, refuses to open books on jailbroken phones, as detailed by Social Apples. Comex of the iPhone Dev Team explained how the security measure works on Twitter. It seems that, before loading any DRM-controlled book (i.e., anything you buy from the iBookstore), iBooks tries to run a small program that has deliberately not been correctly signed to work on the iOS device. Normal devices will refuse to run this; iBooks detects that failure and loads as usual. However, jailbroken devices will (by default) run the program fine, which iBooks also detects and refuses to go any further. UPDATE: further investigation suggests that, rather than this being new protection in the latest iBooks release, the protection itself is unchanged. Cydia developer Pushfix has written several posts on their Twitter account that clarify the situation. iBooks has always used a number of different checks, but under older jailbreak apps and iOS versions, many of the checks have passed despite the jailbreak. However, newer jailbreak routines have lifted more and more different restrictions that iOS applies internally, meaning iBooks has (to the user) appeared to become better and better at detecting the presence of a jailbreak. Presumably, Apple took this step to protect iBooks content from having the DRM stripped off through use of a jailbroken device. Of course, people wanting to pirate e-books have plenty of places to do so; like so many antipiracy measures, this did a lot more to annoy paying customers than it did to slow down the pirates. In any event, as is often the case in these cat-and-mouse games between Apple and the jailbreak devs, it wasn't long before version 0.9.5b5-4 of redsn0w was released to fix this issue. UPDATE: as numerous commenters have spotted, that link goes to a release of redsn0w from the middle of 2010 that fixed a similar issue with iBooks but does not address this latest change by Apple. At present, there is no solution short of removing the jailbreak altogether, though Comex reports that he has a fix ready. We apologize for the error. UPDATE2: several hours later, the iPhone Dev Team obliged us with PwnageTool 4.2 with a fix for the iBooks problem. [Thanks to Josh for sending this in, and Rene Ritchie for prompting us to dig deeper into the background issues.]
iBooks gets an update for iPhone/iPad
Apple's e-book reader for iOS, iBooks, received an update today to version 1.2.1. The update provides a few very important changes. The first, and perhaps the most welcome change, is that stability and performance of the app has been improved. I was able to verify this in many places -- just waiting for books to appear on the iBooks bookshelves used to take about 20 seconds on my iPhone 4, and that time has been reduced to about 5 seconds. Books also seem to open faster, and there's no lag when swiping through pages. All of the previous updates listed in the update notes were there in version 1.2, including the availability of illustrated books, creating personal Collections, printing PDF documents and notes via AirPrint and automatic hyphenation of documents. The update can be installed immediately from the App Store app on your favorite iOS devices.
Tennessee's Webb School makes iPads mandatory, still looks down on note-passing
We've seen the Kindle DX fail as a textbook alternative, but the iPad marches ever onward as a pioneer of wireless education. Or so it seems, anyway. This time the tablet has set its sights on a private school in Knoxville, TN, where all students from fourth to 12th grade will be required to carry iPads starting this August. Webb School students can either provide their own slate or lease a WiFi-only model for $20 a month. Just like administrators at Seton Hill University, the folks at Webb School see the iPad as an eventual replacement for traditional textbooks, as well as a tool for interactive learning. We've voiced our skepticism about the in-school iPad trend before, and while we still wonder just how effective the devices might be in the classroom, we're interested to see how this thing turns out. You know, we love the Oregon Trail and everything, but don't today's students deserve to see more than pixelated trailblazers dying of digital diphtheria? [Thanks, Jordan]
Kindle app now supports Project Gutenberg eBooks
If you've not already jumped on the eBook bandwagon, there's never been a better time to climb aboard. With apps like iBooks and Amazon's Kindle app, getting eBooks onto your favorite Apple device couldn't be easier -- especially now that Amazon has updated its Kindle app to support Project Gutenberg eBooks in version 2.5. Project Gutenberg "... is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today," according to Project Gutenberg's website. This means that the Kindle app now has access to over 33,000 free and out-of-copyright eBooks. On top of that, the app also supports access to "millions" of eBooks through the Internet Archive and other online sources, too. That's way more than a lifetime's worth of reading, for free! What else is new in update 2.5? Continue downloading books while the app is in the background on iOS 4 devices Improved image zoom New book indicator Bug fixes iBooks users can access Project Gutenberg eBooks, too. However, the process is slightly more laborious than that of the Kindle app's (here's a how-to guide). Plus, the Kindle app has a top free downloads chart as well as a paid one -- something the iBookstore lacks. The Kindle app is free on the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store. If you're an avid eBook reader, why not share your favorite free or out-of-copyright eBooks in the comments below?
Kindle for Mac lands on the Mac App Store
Kindle for Mac was one of the apps we'd hoped to see when the Mac App Store launched, and it looks like we didn't have to wait long. Amazon's Kindle for Mac software has landed on the Mac App Store and currently sits at the fourth-most downloaded free app. Kindle for Mac has been available for a while, and it's always been a free download. The significance of it showing up on the Mac App Store -- and so soon -- is it signals that major players are taking the Mac App Store seriously. Of course, being a free app, it costs Amazon virtually nothing to distribute it through the Mac App Store. And given that the Mac App Store will ship on all future Macs, it's practically a no-brainer for Amazon to make the choice to put their Kindle app -- and the nearly one million Kindle e-books -- right in front of Mac users. What remains to be seen is if other major developers like Microsoft and Adobe will also add their apps to the Mac App Store. If they do, they'll be giving Apple a 30 percent cut of their profits. That is, unless Apple cuts a better deal with them to get their major apps on the store. What is even more intriguing to consider -- and this is pure speculation on my part -- is now that Kindle for Mac is so easily available to Mac users, might Apple see the Kindle app on the Mac App Store as a threat to iBooks on iOS? After all, the Kindle software beats iBooks if only because it allows you to read books across all your Apple devices; Apple's iBooks currently excludes the Mac. Then again, I can't image that a lot of people read e-books right on their computer screens anymore now that tablets offer a superior reading experience. Still, I'm sure there are some Apple laptop owners that would like to see Apple fill this last iBooks software void.
Digital collections make comics on your iPad easy and cheap
Our friend Macenstein has a nice tip running over on his blog about how to get more comics on your iPad. The iPad is a device that seems made for comic book reading -- that display is colorful and bright, and the touchscreen lets you examine comic art from any size or angle. The problem, however, is price -- while there are some good official apps out there, and some great free comics in them, purchased comics still aren't too cheap, even compared to the real thing. Enter Amazon, which is selling things like this DVD of Archie Comics for super cheap. For four bucks, you can get 120 digital comics. That's an amazing deal, and while there aren't a lot of those to go around, there are definitely other digital collections you can purchase for much cheaper than actually buying them piecemeal. Turning those comics into PDFs (or just finding them on the disc) is usually not a problem, and then just dragging the PDFs into iTunes and cracking them open in iBooks is even simpler. And voila, you've got tons and tons of comics to read on your iPad. Excellent tip, and a great way to pick up a lot more comic books to read on your next plane trip.
Apple posts free developer documentation for iBooks users
If your resolutions for 2011 include teaching yourself to be a Mac or iOS developer, then Apple just gave you a very nice Christmas present. According to a tip from our old friend Nik Fletcher at Realmac Software, Apple has recently put a number of Apple Developer Publications books into the iBookstore for free. This makes it simple to grab these books, which range from "The Objective-C Programming Language" to "iOS Application Programming Guide," for reading on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. As our resident developer and iOS guru Erica Sadun points out, it's "kinda dumb" to have the books running on the device you're trying to develop for. It would be nice if Apple eventually made a version of iBooks available for Mac OS X. Although, as commenter Nick points out, once you have the books downloaded, you can open them with any app that supports the EPUB format, like Adobe's Digital Editions product. You can also get a Mac-compatible version of the books by going to the developer site and then selecting the PDF option to download them. The PDFs can also be used on the iPad or iPhone, but since Apple has done the work to convert these documents into nice EPUB-formatted iBooks, why not take advantage of their effort? By my count, there are six books available. To grab them, launch iBooks on your device, tap the Store button, tap the Search icon and then type in "apple developer publications." The books range in length from 44 to 200 pages, and they are great references to use with many of the other developer books from Pearson and Peachpit Press that can also be purchased in the iBookstore.
iBooks 1.2 now available from the App Store
Apple has released iBooks 1.2 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with some swell new features. First, it offers support for full illustrations (you know, just like real books). It will also create collections of your books and PDFs, which is quite nice. To create a collection, simply tap the collections button and choose a name. To add a book, tap Edit and then Move. Move between collections by swiping left and right. AirPrint is also supported (as long as you're one of The Chosen with a compatible printer) for printing PDFs and notes in books, and Apple has even managed to fit more words on a page by automatically hyphenating text (that feature is restricted to iOS 4.2). Go and grab it, iBook readers. It's available now.
Sorry Google Books, I'm sticking with iBooks
Apple's iBooks e-reading app is a flawed, early generation application with GUI and organization issues that fail to match the way that I read books. It has no folders (yet), no way of marking "I've finished reading this book so put it away" (a la the Kindle with its archive feature). Its store is understocked and overpriced. Those are hardly unique criticisms, though -- these flaws permeate throughout the new and under-developed book reader world. So when push comes to shove, I'm sticking with iBooks. Because for me, I want a reader that integrates seamlessly with iTunes. And only iBooks does that right now. I tend to read public domain or buy books from smaller PDF-based vendors like Lulu.com. I've bought a few books from the iBooks store, but I haven't found them a particularly good value. Their DRM limits me to on-device reading; I can't read them from my Mac, even in iTunes. That's a big fail as far as I'm concerned. TUAW's Victor Agreda prefers to buy through Amazon and use the Kindle app. This choice allows him to read across all his devices, including (and especially) on his Macintosh. Amazon offers an unparalleled eBook collection.
Rumor: iBooks update to bring Collections, PDF emailing and printing
Update: So much for rumors. Readers have let us know about two German websites pointing to explicit discussion of iBooks collections in the iOS 4.2 documentation, of all places. We can expect to see collection support in the next version of the iBooks app, which can be updated independently of the main OS releases. Steve himself has hinted at improvements "coming" soon to iBooks, and 9to5Mac claims to have nabbed some internal Apple documents that lay out those improvements. The biggest feature is called "Collections," and it sounds like it works the same as Folders in the rest of iOS -- you can combine items in iBooks however you like, and the collections you've got in iBooks can be viewed right on your bookshelf in the main screen. Sounds handy, if not all that revolutionary. Second, PDF users will get some nice additions -- PDFs will be able to be shared via email as well as printed off with AirPrint directly from the iBooks app. That functionality won't work for actual book files, obviously, given that if you want to read one of those, you'll have to buy it. But if this document is legit, it should make things a little easier for people who want to share and print PDFs from iBooks itself. We don't know yet when these features will actually come to iBooks, but presumably we wouldn't need to wait until an iOS update -- Apple could update the iBooks app. We'll keep an eye out for that soon.
Peachpit and Pearson tech books now available in iBookstore
The somewhat bare shelves of the "Computers and Internet" aisle in the iBookstore have suddenly been filled up, with virtual boxes of Peachpit and Pearson tech books being unloaded today. Pearson's stable includes such imprints as Addison Wesley, Cisco Press, IBM Press, Que, Prentice Hall, Pearson IT Certification, and Sams. The titles are divided into sections, including Apple Gadgets & Technology, iOS Development, Internet & Web, IT Certification, Programming and Software Development, Social and Web Marketing, Software Applications, and Web Design & Creation. Peachpit's library includes the Apple Training Series, which is the "official" series of books used in Apple Certification training. I was pleased to see that the Apple Training Series books were discounted: the Mac OS X Support Essentials v 10.6 title that normally sells for $58.49 on the Peachpit site in paperback or for $46.79 in Adobe Reader format is now only $34.99 in the iBookstore. Peachpit books are also divided into sections, including Bestsellers, New Releases, Apple & Apple Certified, Web, Adobe, Photography, Video & Audio, and Graphic Design. For the many techies who own iPhones or iPads, the addition of Peachpit and Pearson books to the iBookstore is going to be a godsend. Unfortunately, it's also another reason to spend a lot of money on those technical books that you've been waiting to read on your iPad. [via Macsimum News]
iBooks gift cards appear in Apple Stores and Target stores
iLounge reports that Apple has started to sell iBooks-branded iTunes Store gift cards in Apple Stores. I also saw the same gift cards for sale in my local Target store this morning. The gift cards come in US$25 and US$50 denominations and, like other iTunes gift cards, aren't limited to purchasing iBooks but can be used to purchase any content in the iTunes Store. The idea behind the iBooks gift card branding is twofold: to appeal to customers buying iPads for book lovers this holiday season and also to remove any doubt in the minds of purchasers that gift cards could not be used in the iBookstore. That was a common misconception, because the iBookstore is only found on iOS devices and not in the iTunes desktop application. But that should be put to rest with these cards right alongside the usual iTunes gift cards this holiday season.
New Kindle app for Macs adds many desired features
I do most of my reading of books purchased from Amazon on my iPad, but there are times where my laptop and desktop Mac would be just dandy for catching up on my non dead-tree efforts. Amazon has released a new version of Kindle for Mac, and it brings the Mac version up to feature parity with the iOS versions. The new version includes these capabilities: Add, edit or delete notes and highlights Search for words or phrases in a book Multi-column text is now supported The overall look and feel are improved and a bit more contemporary The update is free of course, and a quick download. I'd like to use the Apple iBookstore more often, but the selection of books just isn't there. Also, Apple doesn't even have an app that will let you access your iBooks on Mac desktops or laptops, which is a pretty big omission in my view.
The iBookstore six months after launch: One big failure
It's been over six months since the release of the iPad on April 3rd, and the simultaneous launch of iBooks and the iBookstore, which promised to give Amazon's Kindle and Kindle Store a run for its money. I figured that this would be a good time to see just how the iBookstore has progressed. The answer, in a word: poorly ... very poorly. The Kindle store currently advertises that they have over 700,000 books, magazines, and blogs available for download. Apple hasn't released statistics on the number of currently available books, so an accurate comparison isn't easy to make, but it's a safe bet to say that once you eliminate the ability to load .pdf files, the availability of e-books from the iBookstore pales. At launch, it was reported that the iBookstore contained somewhere between 46,000 and 60,000 titles, 30,000 of which came from the Project Gutenberg library of free out-of-copyright books. However, since these are also available on the Kindle, we can reduce both sides of the equation by 30,000. This brings the number of titles at launch for the iBook to a generous 30,000. That's a big difference, but outside of raw numbers, there are many factors constraining a massive increase in iBookstore sales.
iBooks love: free e-books worth reading
The National Association of Scholars just published a list of brain-challenging books that they recommend for college reading programs, but which should be of interest to any passionate adult-level reader. These books were selected for presenting important, well-argued ideas with a level of complexity that stretches the mind -- basically they function as upgraded "beach reading" for the scholarly set. Many of these titles are freely downloadable in ePub format and can be synced to iBooks for your portable reading pleasure. Here's a quick run-down of some of the recommended books, along with quick links to iBooks-compatible downloads. Flatland by Edwin Abbot (Illustrated version) Confessions by St. Augustine Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (Also available in iTunes Audiobook format) The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (Illustrated version) Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin (Illustrated version, also available in MP3 audio) American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens Autobiography by Ben Franklin The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne Kim by Rudyard Kipling Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis Speeches and Letters, Abraham Lincoln (the article refers to Speeches and Writings, so I hope I linked to the correct ePub here...) On Liberty by John Stuart Mills (PDF but iBooks-compatible) Apology of Socrates by Plato Crito by Plato Parallel Lives by Plutarch (Updated link) Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain (Illustrated version, also available as an audio book) Candide by Voltaire (Illustrated version, also available as an audio book) Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa, Robert Louis Stevenson
Apple developing iNewsstand to support iBooks?
Apple has been doing what it can to bring publications of a more periodical nature to the iPad and other iDevices, but hasn't exactly offered a stunning portfolio of papers and such. That's set to change according to a Bloomberg report citing the ever popular people "familiar with the matter," indicating that Apple is currently building partnerships with various parties to develop pricing strategies to bring that content to consumers. This will supposedly be presented through a new storefront especially dedicated to periodical content, which could be launching as soon as a few months from now -- though there is also speculation that Apple will sit on it until the launch of a next-gen iPad. There are a number of roadblocks, including an apparent resistance from Apple to release the specific sales metrics that publishers want to tailor their content. Oh, and there's the traditional 30 percent cut of revenue rubbing some the wrong way. Will Apple succeed in bringing all these pubs together? It's certainly succeeded at herding the music industry...
Found Footage: MacOSXTutorials explores Mac Dropbox tips
As a Dropbox fan, I am always looking for new uses for the ubiquitous cloud storage service. Matt Fisher, whose videos have been featured on TUAW before, has produced a new video chock-full of great Mac OS X Dropbox tips. In this 10-minute clip, Matt shows: How to copy the Mac clipboard to a Dropbox text file by creating an Automator service A demo of AirDropper, an excellent way of securely requesting files from others and having them delivered via Dropbox How to email files to Dropbox using Habilis A quick way to access your Dropbox using a Chrome Extension (also available for Firefox) Start torrents from any computer or device connected to Dropbox Add PDFs to iBooks Edit files from anywhere using Droptext Some of these tips are rather straightforward, while others are incredible "why didn't I think of that" ideas that can really help make you more productive. What are your favorite things to do with Dropbox and your Mac? Leave us a comment.
Apple looking to hire iBookstore marketing manager
Apple has posted a new job listing looking for a marketing manager specifically for the iBookstore. The listing seeks an experienced business marketer "to drive awareness and sales of iBooks through co-marketing programs with publishers and authors, strategic partnerships, and via online and direct marketing tactics." It seems like a lot of the position will be self-driven, as whoever's chosen will be asked to come up with some interesting schemes to push iBook sales, both with publishers, and even across the other divisions of iTunes (buy an iBook, get an iTunes download free?). But the bottom line is of course sales -- Apple wants someone to push iBooks, specifically in the US. More power to them, we say. Apple has some staunch competitors in terms of book sales -- while I'd consider the iPad a much better e-reader than Amazon's Kindle, I've actually purchased more books from the Kindle store just because I feel it's a better experience. Maybe with someone in charge of getting readers into the iBookstore, we'll see more reasons to stick with Apple's digital editions rather than going elsewhere. [via Macsimum News]
