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How to: Creating custom iBook covers
Do you find yourself downloading a lot of the free Project Gutenberg public domain books in the iBookstore? Sick of your bookshelf looking like a series of paper bags with text printed on them? Me too, so I decided to create my own covers for all the free books I've downloaded. If you've ever added custom album artwork to an iTunes song, you get the basic idea of how to change the cover art of a Project Gutenberg book in your iTunes library. If you haven't, I'll quickly list the steps here: In your iTunes library, select the Books category in the source list. Select any book that shows it has no cover, right click on it, and select "Get Info." Select the "Artwork" tab. Drag and drop any image into the white box on the artwork tab and click Okay. Voila! You've just added a custom cover to your ebook.
A tale of two media: Despite the iPad, traditional books aren't going anywhere.
A few days ago I was in London having drinks with a novelist and a literary agent. We discussed the pros and cons of the iPad as a book reader and how the iPad as a medium and its iBookstore affects the reading public. The novelist and agent gave me their impressions of the device and how it will, if at all, change the way readers consume books. We also spoke about Penguin's ideas to reinvent books as apps and discussed my previous article on the subject along with the notion that some people in the tech world think that the iPad and iBookstore will kill traditional books. Our conversation got me thinking: I normally read about 50-60 books a year in paperback format, but I had owned my iPad for a week already and had yet to try my favorite pastime on it. So I decided to compare how reading the same book in paperback would compare with reading it on the iPad. In order not to bias the medium I was reading it on by already having discovered the story on another device (and thus being a little bored with it on a second reading that so closely followed the first), I decided to read one novel -- every other of its chapters on the iPad and then in paperback.
Borders Books announces e-reader with apps for iPhone, OS X and the iPad
Borders has announced a very low cost e-reader that will ship in June. The device, made by Canadian company Kobo, will sell for U.S. $149.99 and come preloaded with 100 classic books. At a much lower cost than the iPad, the Barnes and Noble Nook, and the Amazon Kindle, the book reader may get some attention from bargain hunters. Borders has also announced that e-books will also be available from an app that runs on the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad. There will also be a version for Apple desktops and laptops. It's not likely that the books themselves will be any cheaper than they are on other services, but Borders is likely to have a better selection that the Apple iBook Store, which is pretty thin right now. Borders says it will have a million books available online, while Apple claims to have "tens of thousands." The Kobo app (without the Borders connection) is actually already available for the iPhone and the iPad, but neither app has garnered very positive reviews. Our own Erica Sadun found some things to like about the iPad app in her preview last March.
International iBookstores opening on May 28th in most countries
When iPads fall into the eager hands of Apple fans in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on May 28th, the iBookstore and Apple's free iBooks e-reader app may be there. Apple has confirmed that iBooks and the iBookstore will be available in all of the listed countries with the exception of Germany and Switzerland, and we'll be sure to update this post as soon as we've received word that those two countries have been added to the list (we're starting a rumor here that Apple has to stock up on digital umlauts and eszetts before opening these iBookstores). For those of you who will be getting your hands on an iPad soon and want to take advantage of the many books that are already available in the iBooks epub format, be sure to read Erica Sadun's post about filling up your iBookShelf. The post, and the comments that accompany it, offer some suggestions for fun and entertaining books. And remember, you can always use Stanza or Calibre to convert other document formats for reading in iBooks. [via MacRumors]
Apple sells 1,000,000 iPads in revolution's first month
Steve told us it'd be revolutionary, and if sales are the measure of a device's success, then the iPad seems to be well on track to validating its creator's bold claims. This past Friday, "just 28 days after its introduction," Apple sold its millionth iPad. 1.5 million ebooks have already been downloaded to the device, along with 12 million apps. Steve Jobs has also taken time from his busy essay-writing schedule to remind us that that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve the milestone with the original iPhone, and demand for the "magical" slate continues to outstrip supply. Full PR after the break.
iPhone OS 4.0: iBooks for iPhone
While we don't have a lot of detail on this tidbit from today's Apple event, we do know for sure that iBooks, the ebook reader software now available on the iPad platform, will be coming to the iPhone platform with iPhone OS 4.0 this summer. There was also a hint, but no definitive statement from Steve Jobs, that iBooks will also be available for Mac OS X. Of course, having your iBooks library on all of those different devices might make life confusing, but according to The Jobs, there will be wireless syncing of your books between platforms. Let's say you're reading a book on your iPad, and you're going to a restaurant so you decide to just pick up your iPhone and head out. When you get to the restaurant, you fire up the iPhone and bring up iBooks, and it's on the same page that you were reading on the iPad. This is currently the way that Amazon's Kindle platform works, syncing books between a number of devices. I currently have Kindle Reader on my iPhone 3GS, iPad, and two Macs, and it is refreshing to be able to switch between devices and always have the current book and page available. As with iBooks for iPad, a free illustrated copy of Winnie the Pooh will be provided with each copy of iBooks on the iPhone.
iPad apps: books and comics galore
Reading on the iPad is something that is part of the device's DNA. Whether or not you think that LED-backlit display is a killer or a cure for the world's third favorite bedtime activity, you can't deny that Apple has pushed the idea of the iPad as e-reader pretty heavily. So, if you've got one you must be thinking about what kinds of reading choices you really have. Unlike a lot of platforms, you're not just locked into Apple's iTunes-integrated iBookstore for getting your textual kicks -- you can also utilize Amazon's Kindle service and a handful of other distribution channels for the books and comics of your choosing. So, which ones stand out? Take a look beyond the break and see our picks for reading on your magical new device. Oh, and be sure to check out our other app roundups right here.
iBooks app now available in App Store
The app's page also states that only the ePub format is supported and to add ePub books from outside of the iBookstore to the iBooks app, they must be DRM-free and synced to the iPad using iTunes 9.1 or later. The iBooks app is free. I think I just heard Jeff Bezos shaking in his reading jacket.
iBooks app meets App Store, produces US-only iBookstore offspring
Get ready to welcome some amazing wood grain effects into your lives, future iPad owners, for the iBooks app has just landed at the App Store. Proudly proclaimed as being "designed exclusively for the iPad," this app gives you direct access to the iBookstore, which will offer free samples of books ahead of purchase and a brand new way for you to channel money into Cupertino pockets. Built-in search, highlighting and bookmarking features are augmented by text-to-speech functionality and ePub format support. Funnily enough, iBooks will only support DRM-free ePub files sourced from outside the iBookstore, but no mention is made as to whether its own wares will be similarly unimpeded. Speaking of restrictions, the whole operation is still limited to the United States, leaving the Stephen Frys of this world sighing wistfully from across the pond. [Thanks, Brian]
Amazon caves to book publishers
Amazon has submitted to pressure from the major book publishers ahead of the iPad's Saturday launch. HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster will now, like Macmillan, be allowed to use an agency model that gives them control over their book's prices. "Our digital future is more assured today than it was two months ago," HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray told the Wall Street Journal. Bestsellers will now cost between $13 to $15, up from the standard $9.99. While many other books will remain at the $10 mark, some will even be priced below Amazon's old $9.99 average. Amazon and others have been very concerned over the iPad's iBookstore. Just last week, Sony cut the price of its Reader Pocket Edition while Perseus Books Group, the largest independent book publisher, ignored Amazon's threats and penned a deal to sell their books on the iPad. At the iPad unveiling, Steve Jobs told Walt Mossberg that "publishers are actually withholding books from Amazon because they're not happy" and that "the prices [on the Kindle and iBookstore] will be the same." What he didn't clarify at the time was whether ebooks on Apple's iBookstore would cost what they do on the Kindle or vice versa. Now we know.
Seton Hill University hands out iPads to students
If there's one thing that universities are good at, it's dreaming up trendy technology initiatives. Apple knows that (as does McGraw-Hill) so it's no surprise that the company's been pushing to get the iPad adopted by schools around the country. And so it begins: Seton Hill University, a school in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, has announced that starting this fall all full-time students will get a slate of their own. We thought that the Kindle as textbook replacement idea was a little whackadoodle, and we don't have much hope in the iPad as a textbook replacement either. But if the school's aim is to get students playing Super Monkey Ball and up-to-date on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, then we might have a winner here.
Project Gutenberg ebooks will be included in the iBookstore for free
Two days ago we told you that Project Gutenberg's ebooks should be compatible with the iPad, and we even showed you some ways to get around any possible restrictions Apple could have imposed on the vast catalog of free ebooks. Well, it looks like those workarounds won't be necessary, because according to appadvice, the entire Project Gutenberg catalog will be offered for free from the iBookstore. Project Gutenberg has a library of over 30,000 books online, with classic titles from all walks of literature. Apple's not only supporting access to this vast library of works, they're officially offering it from within their own store, for free. This is a pretty classy move from Apple, and one that makes the iPad a very attractive purchase for anyone interested in reading the classics without shelling out a whole lot of money for them.
More on iBookstore pricing
App Advice has posted a first-hand look at the iBookstore, complete with some pricing specifics. Alexander Vaughn received a preview of the app (he doesn't explain where or how) and walked away with a screenshot and the following details: Of the 32 books featured as New York Times (NYT) bestsellers, 27 are US$9.99. That includes the top 10 sellers. All of the remaining five are under $13 The highest priced NYT bestseller, Poor Little Bitch Girl by Jackie Collins, is $12.99 On the Kindle, Poor Little Bitch Girl costs $8.83. But the important thing to note is that Apple has hit the $9.99 price point with these top-sellers. The pricing war that's about to erupt between the Kindle, Nook and iBookstore will be interesting to watch. Apple has offered publishers the same deal given to App Store developers -- name your price and Apple gets 30%. After receiving pressure from its publishers, Amazon altered their arrangement to mimic Apple's. It seems that, by letting publishers name their price, there wouldn't be room for the $9.99 ebook in the iBookstore. According to Alexander's sneak peek, that's not the case. We saw our first hint of iBookstore pricing when a leaked list appeared in February, and again after careful examination of the iPad's first television commercial. With one-third of iPad customers saying they intend to use their devices to read books, newspapers and magazines, the potential is huge. It will fun to watch this story develop.
Report: One-third of iPad buyers will read books, newspapers
comScore recently polled 2,176 iPad customers regarding their plans for the new device. Not surprisingly, one-third of them said that they intend to use it to read books and newspapers. Specifically, 37% of respondents said that they're "likely" to read books on their iPads, and 34% said they intend to use it to read newspapers and magazines. Drilling down further, comScore identified that those who already own Apple products (they call them "iOwners") are more likely to pay for newspaper and magazine digital subscriptions -- a full 52%. Among all the people I've discussed the iPad with, the vast majority intend to use it just as I do -- as a leisure device. I see it being the thing that's left on a coffee table to be picked up in the evening for watching videos, leisure web browsing and reading books and magazines. Today I sit on the couch with my wife while my MacBook Pro singes my legs and takes up too much room. An iPad the size of a magazine will be much more pleasant to manage and pass back-and-forth while we relax together at the end of the day. Once additional apps are released, increasing its functionality, there will be more and more roles for it to fill. Mark my words: It's going to be a huge hit. [Via AppleInsider]
Largest independent book publisher signs with Apple
Despite threats from Amazon that it will stop selling the independent publisher's books if they sign on with Apple's iBookstore, Perseus Books Group, the largest independent publisher, has signed a deal with Apple. David Steinberger, chief executive of Perseus, told the New York Times, "We're working with Apple to make books from The Perseus Books Group and the independent publishers we represent available on the iBookstore starting on April 3. As the leading provider of distribution services for independent publishers, including digital distribution through our Constellation digital service, Perseus is thrilled to be making our books available on the iPad." Perseus also distributes books from 330 smaller presses, the most notable being Harvard Business School Press and Zagat. Similar to Apple's deal with app developers and the other large publishers who have already signed on, Apple will allow Perseus to set prices for their ebooks while Apple will receive a 30% cut. With the number of publishers clamoring to get in on the iBookstore, one begins to wonder if it's more of a question of "when" and not "if" that Apple will become the largest ebook reseller.
Amazon previews Kindle iPad app
Amazon has launched a preview page for its iPad Kindle app. The app itself takes a lot from the iBookstore, including visual page swipes and book cover navigation view (of course, to be fair Apple did "borrow" a number of things from Wil Shipley). One cool eye-candy feature of the Kindle app is that the app's developers have played around a little with Kindle's silhouetted figure reading under a tree iconography. In cover-navigation view, the sky behind the silhouetted figure will change according to what time of day it is. The ebook war is heating up and, though early on, it looks like Apple and Amazon are going to be the two major players. Given that Amazon last week threatened smaller publishers that it will stop selling their books if they make them available in the iBookstore, it might at first seem odd that Amazon is so readily embracing the iPad. But in an age where content is king, hardware sales take a back seat to continued content sales. Amazon supporting the iPad is like giving away the razors so people have to by the blades -- and indeed Amazon has begun giving away its own Kindle hardware to its Amazon Prime subscribers to secure Kindle book sales. Who knows, in a future where multi-function tablets/ereaders will be the norm, perhaps giving away one-feature dedicated ereaders will become standard practice? Last week Amazon unveiled its Kindle reader for Mac.
iPad trainspotters divine e-book prices, My Documents and more from Oscar night commercial
Trainspotters, eagle-eyed bloggers, and tech detectives of all stripes have had a field day with last night's iPad commercial. At the very least, we got a pretty good look at some e-book prices, ranging from Ted Kennedy's True Compass: A Memoir ($14.99) to Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin ($7.99). All gripping reads, for sure, and all more expensive than Amazon. In addition to all that, TUAW has made note of a New York Times button, possibly to bring up NYT bestsellers in the iBookstore. Delving deeper into the UI, a look at the Pages iWork app has revealed a button labeled My Documents (where have we heard that one before?). But Oscar night is not the only place for iPad leaks: according to a tipster named James Barcellano, close viewing of the iPad keynote video has revealed an "Open In..." button during the viewing of a PDF attachment in mail. Perhaps this is an indication that the device's file system will be a tad more open than we were expecting. Or maybe not! You know how these things go. One more pic after the break.
iPad ad reveals book pricing and NYT button
The iPad television ad that appeared during Sunday night's Oscars ceremony showed off more than the iPad's functionality. It revealed some book pricing, too. Several of the books had prices clearly displayed (you'll get a better look here), ranging from US$8 to $15. For example, Sen. Edward Kennedy's "True Compass: A Memoir" is listed for $14.99, while "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is priced at $7.99. By contrast, Appleinsider reports, those titles sell for $19.25 and $7.19 on the Kindle, respectively. We reported on a leaked list of likely initial iBookstore titles and prices in late February, but this is the first official indication of pricing from Apple -- for the record, all the prices above match up with the file we saw. It's notable that the list appears to include New York Times bestsellers as a separate category, which aligns with the sharp-eyed observations of reader Alejandro; he noticed the distinctive Times logo in the iBooks app at the bottom of the screen (see image below) at the end of the ad. Based on the leaked list, other titles we might expect to see at launch are "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks for $9.99, "U is for Undertow" by Sue Grafton for $12.99 and "The Wrecker" by Clive Cussler for $12.99. The iBooks application represents Apple's first foray into the ebook market, currently dominated by the Kindle and Nook. The competition is heating up before the iPad even hits stores, as HarperCollins and Macmillan have forced Amazon to re-visit their pricing policies. In January of this year, before the iPad's introduction, Amazon adopted the 70/30 revenue split that the App Store uses. An epic battle is about to erupt which can only mean one thing: Better choices and products for us, the customers!
Dear John Makinson and Penguin, please don't "reinvent" books
"Reading literature makes you a more well-rounded individual." That's what an author told me once. Notice he didn't say "watching literature." paidContent:UK has an article on a presentation Penguin Books' CEO John Makinson gave here in London on Tuesday. Makinson presented ideas on how publishers might approach Apple's iPad and the iBookstore. Makinson revealed "We will be embedding audio, video and streaming in to everything we do. The .epub format, which is the standard for ebooks at the present, is designed to support traditional narrative text, but not this cool stuff that we're now talking about." "This cool stuff" includes turning books into applications with "online communities" for fans with live chat between readers and other multimedia effects. "The definition of the book itself is up for grabs," Makinson said. A copy of Pride And Prejudice might conceivably come with videos of Keira Knightly or Colin Firth (the various movie adaptation's cast). "We don't know whether a video introduction will be valuable to a consumer. We will only find answers to these questions by trial and error." An electronic format with live chat, community forums, audio and video is called a web site. Or maybe an interactive Blu-Ray disc. Books are words arranged on a page (whether paper or digital) that are meant to be assimilated through the eye and processed in the brain with the reader adding much to the story itself – like what a character looks or sounds like.
iPad to hit stores on Friday, March 26th?
The Examiner is reporting that the iPad will go on sale in the US on Friday, March 26th. They cite "inside sources" with confirmation from an Apple Store manager in Southern California who wishes not to be identified. Daryl Deino, the post's author, claims that internal Apple Retail training will begin on March 10 with commercials starting on March 15. The commercials will emphasize the iPad's ebooks and iBookstore capability. While Deino states that his sources say the March 26th date hasn't been officially set and is only "very likely" it would allow Apple to hit their end-of-March shipping goal and follow in the likes of other major Friday launches like the iPhone and iPhone 3GS. Deino's sources also state that the 3G iPads won't go on sale until April or May and that people who line up for the WiFi iPad will receive a "special gift."
