Apple Books

iTunes gift cards are a great gift for iOS Device users. They can be used to purchase content from the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore. However, entering in the string of characters to redeem the gift card balance has typically been a pain with the touch keyboards on iPads, iPhone, and iPod touches. Like iTunes 11 on the Mac, iOS 7 moves to solve this problem. You can now use your device’s camera to scan in the code.

Go to the main/featured page in whichever store you choose and to get to the redemption screen, scroll all the way down, and press on redeem:

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Ahead of iOS 7’s release later today, Apple has published iOS 7 user guides on the iBookstore. At the moment, guides are only available for the iPad and iPod touch but a book targeted at the iPhone will likely follow. As is to be expected, both books are offered as a free download.

In essence, they are ebook versions of Apple’s downloadable PDF manuals, featuring setup, troubleshooting and other instructions for the device and the OS. Apple has offered user guides on the iBookstore ever since its inception in 2010, starting with the original iPad.

Following some adjusted wording on iBooks Textbook pages inside of iTunes that ignited speculation of iBooks Textbooks finally becoming compatible with the iPhone, a new iBooks Textbooks category has begun populating on the iOS 7 App Store for iPhone. The section is currently accessible via the Education category of the store.

As you can see in the screenshots above and below, the category is not currently populated or fully functional. However, there is promotional imagery for several categories (including Life Sciences, Humanities, and a High School Core Curriculum) that is fully optimized for the size of the iPhone’s display…

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Update: Fixed:

Apple changed the wording of iBooks requirements on iTunes again: http://t.co/P3nIaz5dlu

This morning: https://t.co/DJFa2Xywsv

— Federico Viticci (@viticci) September 5, 2013

The compatibility requirements for iBooks Author titles in iTunes have changed, potentially hinting at both the imminent launch of Apple’s upcoming OS X Mavericks and perhaps even iBooks Textbooks for iPhone. As noted by Macworld, Instead of explicitly stating that books require an iPad to view, iTunes now uses the less-precise wording that “you must have an iOS device with iBooks 3.0 or later.” Although textbooks will currently not open on an iPhone, the implication is that the wording has been changed because support for iBooks textbooks on the iPhone is imminent…

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Apple takes pride making sure its products and software is made for every user, including students and teachers in the classroom. iPads are being used more and more throughout the classroom. To assist with this, Apple, last year, launched iBooks Author. iBooks Author is a free app, available in the Mac App Store that allows users to create interactive iBooks.

In this accessibility segment, I will be discussing how to make create accessible iBooks using iBooks Author…

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From 9to5Toys.com: Apple is offering a rare sale on iTunes movie bundles yielding the lowest prices we’ve seen on digital downloads of 25 popular movie collections. Save even more by snagging a 20% off $60 iTunes gift card at ebay: $48. Bundles are available in SD/HD and start at $9.99 making a lot of these “buy one get two free” pricing (US Only). (Update: We’re hearing Apple is changing prices on many of these) Here’s the full list via:

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Apple’s latest OS X Mavericks Developer Preview includes iBooks for Mac, according to tips from developers who have installed the new beta. The new iBooks app looks in line with what Apple showcased at WWDC earlier this year.

When you launch the app, your iBooks content from iTunes will be migrated over. Users are also given the option to login to their Apple ID to sync their iBooks collection from/with iCloud.

iBooks for Mac includes the same Collections, PDF reading, and other books functionality from the iOS version (except for the wooden bookshelf design). More screenshots and a video below:

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Back in March, educators in the Netherlands were proposing “Steve Jobs schools” that would augment the traditional classroom environment by moving to an iPad-based education system. Today Speigel.de provides us with a little bit more information noting that eleven schools are scheduled to open next month with over 1,000 children aged 4 to 12.

It’s not clear if the “Steve Jobs school” moniker will stick as the official name of the facilities, but the report explains a little bit more about exactly how the program will work:
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Steve Jobs originally rejected the idea of an ebook store when Eddy Cue suggested it, changing his mind only when Cue re-pitched it to him after development of the iPad, reports AllThingsD from the ebook trial.

Testifying in the DOJ’s e-book price-fixing case Thursday, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, said that when he first approached Jobs with the idea of a bookstore in the fall of 2009, the Apple co-founder dismissed it.

“He wasn’t interested,” Cue said. “Steve never felt that the Mac or the iPhone were ideal reading devices. In the case of the phone, the screen was smaller, and in the case of the Mac, you had this keyboard and device, and it didn’t feel like a book.” … 
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Further update: An interesting snippit to come out of the trial is that Apple doubled its iBooks business in 2012, yet its market-share remained unchanged at 20 percent. This means the rest of the market (predominantly Amazon, of course) also doubled its ebook sales last year. eBooks have clearly re-popularised reading.

Update: Apple has now entered into evidence the email that was sent, and that one talks only about the pricing Apple wants, making no mention of moving Amazon to the agent model. The DOJ may still try to argue that the draft shows intent, but as Apple’s legal team has argued, it’s unfair to draw conclusions of the intent of someone unable to put his side of the story.

Just when Apple seemed to be getting the upper hand in the ebooks trial, the DOJ produced a second email from Steve Jobs which casts doubt on Apple’s claims that it was “indifferent” to the pricing models adopted by competitors such as Amazon, reports Fortune.

The DOJ case against Apple is predicated on the claim that Apple put pressure on publishers to sell to Amazon on the same terms as Apple, the so-called ‘agency model’ in which publishers set the price of each book and retailers take a percentage, instead of the wholesale model, where retailers buy in bulk and set their own prices.

Apple has denied this, stating that while it wanted the agency model for its own store, it was “indifferent” – a word it has used on the stand twice – to the arrangements publishers had with other retailers. The DOJ has now entered into evidence Exhibit 55, an email from Steve Jobs to Eddy Cue which appears to directly contradict this claim … 
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Photo: appleheadlines.com

Shortly after the Department of Justice publicized its case against Apple, and many of us were left wondering what Apple’s tactics would be in defending itself against a case that, on the face of it, appeared pretty clear-cut, we now have some answers.

GigaOM reports that Apple’s attorney Orin Snyder argued that far from being a conspirator with publishers, Apple was on the opposite site of the negotiating table, fighting hard against them and completely unaware of whatever discussions they were having between themselves … 
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(via <a href="http://www.ap.org" target="_blank">AP</a>)

The U.S. Department of Justice has released its case against Apple in the alleged ‘ebooks pricing fix’ case (via CNET) that claims Apple made deals with book publishers to manipulate the price of ebooks.

The Justice Department believes Apple moved to raise ebook prices before Apple launched the iPad and the iBookstore so the company could benefit at the cost of the consumer.

Notably, everyone mentioned in the complaint has settled out of court ahead of this week’s trial, but Tim Cook has remained adamant that Apple is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Apple’s iBookstore has established deals with all of the major book publishers and sells ebooks on its proprietary store for viewing on Apple’s iOS devices including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

As we noted this morning, Tim Cook echoed this message at last week’s D11 conference:

The e-book case to me is bizarre. We’ve done nothing wrong there, and so we’re taking a very principled position. … We’re not going to sign something that says we did something we didn’t do. … So we’re going to fight.

The Justice Department released all 81 slides outlining its case against Apple, which you can view in its entirety below.
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Apple will today defend itself in a Manhattan court against a Department of Justice case accusing it of leading a cartel designed to force up prices of ebooks, Tim Cook having recently told the AllThingsD D11 conference that the case against it was “bizarre.”

The e-book case to me is bizarre. We’ve done nothing wrong there, and so we’re taking a very principled position. … We’re not going to sign something that says we did something we didn’t do. … So we’re going to fight.

At first blush, it does seem bizarre that Apple could be accused of leading a cartel in a market largely controlled by Amazon, but the claim here is that five leading publishers used their dominant position to force up prices – and that Apple put them up to it.

We tend to agree with AllThingsD that it’s tough to see how Apple can win the case when all five of its alleged ‘fellow cartel members’ have already held up their hands and settled with the DOJ, and where there is a clear paper-trail showing that Steve Jobs was instrumental in leading the changes that led to the price-fixing allegations … 
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In the ongoing e-book price fixing case with the Department of Justice, in which Apple is accused of conspiring with publishers to fix eBook pricing and cut out Amazon, Apple has again responded to the DOJ’s claims detailing the “tough negotiations” it went through with publishers. To further prove its point that it was not colluding with publishers to fix e-book pricing, Apple said it “one-on-one” and “contentious negotiations” at a time when publishers were already considering methods of getting Amazon to increase pricing:
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