Apple Books

175 'Apple Books' stories December 2010 - March 2016

An all-new chapter

Apple Books was originally introduced as iBooks in 2010 alongside the original iPad. It came to the iPhone and iPod touch with the release of iOS 4. It came to macOS with the release of OS X Mavericks in fall 2013. iBooks was rebranded as Apple Books with the release of iOS 12 and macOS Mojave.

Apple Books is an all-in-one ebook reader, bookstore, and audiobook player. It primarily uses ePub (with DRM) as the format, but users can also add their own PDF files and sync them over iCloud.

The primary competition for the Apple Books is the Kindle app and the Kindle store. The Kindle ecosystem also has the advantage if having a dedicated e-book reading devices as well.

The bookstore was the subject of an antitrust trial in 2013. The long-standing pricing model for both paper and electronic books was the so-called wholesale model. Publishers sold in bulk to the retailers, and the retailers decided how much to charge. Because retailers were competing with each other, that kept prices down, with Amazon leading the away on ebook pricing with $9.99 bestseller deals.

What Apple – and specifically Steve Jobs – pushed for was a switch to what’s known as an agency pricing model, where publishers decided the price of their books, and retailers took a percentage cut. This maximized profits for publishers and retailers alike, but reduced price competition as the same book would cost the same wherever you bought it. Key to the success of the initiative was to persuade major publishers to tell Amazon that it would likewise need to switch to the agency model if if wished to continue buying from them, and for those publishers not to sell to anyone else at a lower price. It’s alleged that Jobs wrote to five major publishers – HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan – and invited them to switch to the new model.

The U.S. Justice department closed the case against Apple Books in 2015. The ironic thing is that Amazon’s marketshare for ebooks is around 83% in the US, so they are the dominant company by far.

Opinion: Why the final e-book ruling was right in theory but wrong in practice

Ben Lovejoy Mar 8 2016 - 7:45 am PT

30 Comments

Well, the e-book case that began in 2012 when the US government accused Apple of price-fixing finally ended yesterday when the Supreme Court declined to hear Apple’s appeal. That left the original ruling intact, meaning that Apple is officially guilty of anti-competitive behavior and will have to fork out $450M in compensation.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the correct result was reached in law. Apple did deliberately set out to fix prices, it did strike secret deals, and it did intend to manipulate the e-book market. Emails from Steve Jobs confirmed the government’s claim that Apple struck the deals in the belief that consumers would end up paying more for e-books.

Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99. [Up from the typical $9.99 at the time.]

So far, so good. If you’d brought that evidence to me at the time Apple did the deals, I’d have agreed with the government that the company’s behavior was both illegal and morally wrong. But I’d argue that by the time the case was finally brought to court, it was already abundantly clear that it was not in the public interest to pursue it …

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Supreme Court won’t hear appeal on Apple’s $450 million e-book price-fixing case

Zac Hall Mar 7 2016 - 6:57 am PT

11 Comments

Apple will be on the hook for $450 million after losing its appeal in the e-book price-fixing case, Bloomberg reports. The United States Supreme Court released the decision after Apple appealed the prior ruling. The high-profile case dates back to a 2012 lawsuit from the United States, which Apple appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, but the justices declined to hear the case which leaves the prior ruling intact.

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Apple releases fourth OS X 10.11.4 beta with Live Photos in Messages, secure Notes, more

Zac Hall Feb 22 2016 - 10:02 am PT

7 Comments

Apple has released the fourth OS X 10.11.4 preview for registered developers to test ahead of its expected release next month. The software update to the Mac will likely be released around next month’s March 15th event and is expected to coincide with a new version of iTunes. For Mac users, the latest version of OS X El Capitan adds enhancements like being able to view and share Live Photos originally taken on the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus as well as the ability to lock notes behind a secure password. We’re check out the latest beta and update with any changes.

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How-to: Make built-in iOS apps vanish, and force app updates on iOS 9

Ben Lovejoy Jan 4 2016 - 7:19 am PT

11 Comments

One of the minor irritants for those of us who have slight OCD tendencies is that there’s no way you can remove built-in iPhone apps – the best you can do is tuck them away inside a folder, which in my case is called unused.

But YouTube user Jose Rodriguez has found a couple of ways to actually render them invisible – at least for now. The main method, shown in the video below, works for iOS 9 to 9.2. Essentially you drag the app toward the right edge of a folder, then let it go. You then repeat this, but the second time keep touching it while you press the home button – the app then disappears …

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Chapter finally closing in Apple’s ebook antitrust case as U.S. Justice Dept says court monitoring can end

Ben Lovejoy Oct 13 2015 - 4:02 am PT

2 Comments

The U.S. Justice Department has said that is now satisfied with Apple’s measures to guard against any repetition of the type of anti-competitive behaviour ruled illegal in the long-running ebooks trial. Bloomberg reports that the department has recommended that the court-appointed monitor is no longer necessary.

In a letter to the Manhattan federal judge who found in 2013 that Apple illegally conspired with publishers to set e-book prices, the U.S. said Apple has “now implemented meaningful antitrust policies, procedures, and training programs that were obviously lacking at the time Apple participated in and facilitated the horizontal price-fixing conspiracy found by this court.”

The letter did, however, note that Apple “never embraced a cooperative working relationship with the monitor” …
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All seven Harry Potter books now available to buy in iBooks, featuring exclusive interactive animations and author notes

Benjamin Mayo Oct 8 2015 - 4:23 am PT

10 Comments

A notable omission from the iBooks library has been Harry Potter, the most successful literary book series. JK Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, has kept eBook rights exclusive to her own website until today. This morning, Apple announced that all seven of the books are finally available to buy in the iBooks app to be read on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

The books include more than just the text of the story. The ‘enhanced editions’ feature brand new interactive elements, animations, ‘elaborate’ artwork, notes from the author and exclusive covers.

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Apple Music, iTunes Movies, and iBooks now available in China

Chance Miller Sep 29 2015 - 6:17 pm PT

1 Comment

Apple today announced via a press release that its Apple Music, iTunes Movies, and iBooks services are now available to customers in China. The company says that Apple Music is launching in China with “millions” of songs, including local artists like Eason Chan, Li Ronghao, JJ Lin and G.E.M, as well as international stars like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.

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Apple’s never-ending court cases continue with extra win against Samsung and final ebook appeal

Ben Lovejoy Sep 18 2015 - 5:32 am PT

2 Comments

Apple has scored a belated additional victory against Samsung in its endless patent trial battle with the smartphone rival. Apple had originally asked the court for two remedies: financial compensation, and an injunction forbidding Samsung from continuing to sell devices which infringed its patents. The court said yes to the first, no to the second.

As the WSJ reports, a federal appeals court judge has ruled that the court should have also granted the injunction.

“Samsung’s infringement harmed Apple by causing lost market share and lost downstream sales and by forcing Apple to compete against its own patented invention,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said[…]

The appeals court [ruled that] a California trial court that previously denied Apple’s request “abused its discretion when it did not enjoin Samsung’s infringement” …

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The App Store, iTunes, iBooks, and more are down once again (update: fixed)

Mike Beasley Aug 17 2015 - 2:56 pm PT

7 Comments

Update (6:45ET): Apple says the problem is resolved.

It’s been less than a month since the last iTunes Store outage, but Apple’s various digital storefronts are once again down for many users. According to Apple’s status page, the App Store, iTunes, iBooks, the Mac App Store, and the Volume Purchase Program have all suffered from unplanned downtime for about an hour and a half now.

The problems aren’t affecting all users, as no one here at 9to5Mac has noticed any disruption, but Apple says “some users” will see interruptions. No other services are impacted.

Opinion: Is iBooks really gaining ground on Kindle, or do iBooks sales lag behind users?

Ben Lovejoy Aug 11 2015 - 8:22 am PT

59 Comments

I love the Apple ecosystem. It’s not perfect, and the gap between it and the Google alternative isn’t as great as it used to be, but to my mind it’s still by far the best solution for anyone looking to have all their data and content available across both desktop and mobile devices.

But there’s one notable gap in my own use of the Apple system: books. Despite the fact that my iPad is my primary ebook reader, I still use the Kindle app and buy my books from Amazon rather than Apple …
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Designer details how Apple’s iAd Producer can be used to prototype iOS & Mac apps

Zac Hall Jul 21 2015 - 9:18 am PT

2 Comments

Linda Dong, a former Prototyping Team member at Apple, shared a fascinating blog post this week that highlights an interesting use case for developers and designers using Apple’s iAd Producer app.

Think of it as “advanced Keynote”, or “actually accessible Interface Builder”. Alas the app is meant for not-so-popular content like iAds and iBooks widgets, but it can easily be repurposed to prototype iOS and Mac apps. It handles UI elements, screen flow, and animation really well.

Writing that iAd Producer is targeted toward creating iAds and iBook widgets, which makes it a rather underrated app considering the utility it offers, she notes that iAd Producer bases projects in “HTML5, CSS3, and javascript which a lot of designers are already familiar with.”

She goes on to explain how you can remove the default iAd UI overlays when using iAd Producer for iOS and Mac app prototyping, while explaining how the drag-and-drop nature of the app makes it easy to use.

Her write-up continues by detailing how iAd Producer incorporates animations that will be familiar to Keynote users, event triggers on objects within apps, supports CSS filters, and even previewing app designs and interactions on real devices for testing.

You can read her full blog post and see some of her work here, and grab iAd Producer from Apple’s developer center if you’re a member. Have you used iAd Producer for any interesting app prototyping or other ways that vary from iAd and iBook widget creation?

Several iTunes-related services go down as Apple and MTV announce VMA nominees on Beats 1 [U: Restored]

Mike Beasley Jul 21 2015 - 7:44 am PT

8 Comments

[Update 1:45 PM: Apple’s system status page now reports that the widespread outage has been resolved including an issue with iTunes Connect. Apple Music services may require relaunching iTunes or Music to resume playback.]

Last night Apple announced that its Beats 1 web radio station would be the exclusive outlet for MTV to announce the Video Music Award nominees this year. The reveal was scheduled for 7 AM Pacific time this morning, but many users are finding themselves unable to tune in.

Listeners took to Twitter to point out that Apple Music, the Beats 1 station, and several other iTunes-related services are failing to load.

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iBooks Author for Mac updated with iPhone textbook support, new ePub templates

Mike Beasley Jun 30 2015 - 1:20 pm PT

0 Comments

Apple has published an update for iBooks Author to accompany today’s iOS 8.4 mobile software upgrade. The new version of the Mac app allows content creators to export their rich media textbooks for the iPhone. Previously these types of books were reserved exclusively for the iPad, but iOS 8.4 enabled compatiblity on a wider range of devices.

iBooks Author 2.3 also includes new ePub templates to make multi-touch textbook creation easier. You can download the free update now from the Mac App Store.

What’s New in Version 2.3

• iBooks for iPhone now supports books made with iBooks Author
• Create Multi-Touch books using new ePub templates

Apple loses appeal of ebooks case ruling, will pay $450 million in damages

Chance Miller Jun 30 2015 - 8:39 am PT

15 Comments

A federal appeals court today has upheld the 2013 ruling in Apple’s long-winded and high-profile ebooks case. The case, which centered around Apple price fixing content in the iBooks store, went through three years of litigation thanks mostly to Apple. Today’s ruling by a federal appeals court will see Apple pay $450 million in damages at long last.

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It’s not just you: iCloud is down again, other Apple web services affected

Mike Beasley Jun 2 2015 - 8:44 am PT

47 Comments

Update 2 9:45PM ET: Users this evening again reported issues centered around iCloud. The outage affected all store services, according to Apple’s status page. It appears to have been resolved, however, with the exception of Game Center.

Update: After about an hour of downtime and still with no admission from Apple of anything ever having gone wrong, iCloud services seem to be coming back online now.

Despite being listed as fully functional on Apple’s status page, it seems iCloud is once again down for many users. Reports across Twitter and in our own experience here at 9to5Mac have verified that iCloud and the App Store (and possibly other Apple services) are currently down.

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Apple refreshes iTunes receipts with a new design, ‘purchased from’ field

Zac Hall May 29 2015 - 12:29 pm PT

9 Comments

You may notice a new look on those digital receipts you get in your email inbox after you buy something from iTunes, iBooks, or the App Store. Apple has refreshed its invoices with a new design, friendlier subject line, and cover art images that are clearer on Retina displays. You can see the old and new designs below:
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Reading Roundup: Everything to know (so far) about iOS 9 and OS X 10.11

Mark Gurman May 27 2015 - 5:00 pm PT

18 Comments

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve published several articles detailing the future of iOS (the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch’s operating system), OS X (the Mac’s operating system), and Watch OS (the software that runs on the Apple Watch). Here’s a list of links to the stories we’ve written thus far about the new operating systems, and we’ll keep updating this page as we publish new and relevant details.

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Feature: Why I edited a novel on an iPad (and why I Kickstarted it afterwards)

Ben Lovejoy Apr 15 2015 - 7:42 am PT

4 Comments

After noting that I planned and wrote a novel on my MacBook Pro 17, it might surprise you to learn that I did much of the editing on my iPad.

I began the editing on my Macs – the Pro when I was at home, the Air when I was elsewhere. At that point, I still wanted to be in Scrivener in case structural edits were needed: scenes that needed to happen earlier or later in the story.

I also used my Macs to incorporate feedback from alpha and beta readers. Alpha readers were subject-matter experts (airline pilot, aircraft engineer, software developers and so on), who could identify any technical errors or omissions. Beta readers were technothriller fans who provided more general feedback on the story itself.
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iOS 8.4 beta moves audiobooks to iBooks app, dedicated CarPlay app

Mike Beasley Apr 14 2015 - 7:18 am PT

19 Comments

In redesigning the iOS Music application for iOS 8.4, Apple removed support for audiobooks from the app, electing to move it to the iBooks app. iBooks itself has gained an all-new audio player with support for swiping gestures to fast forward or rewind, view a chapter list, and more.

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Latest Apple service outage affecting App Store & iTunes Store “due to scheduled maintenance” (Update: Restored)

Zac Hall Apr 1 2015 - 10:21 am PT

0 Comments

Update: The maintenance lasted about half an hour and is now complete with all services restored according to the system status dashboard.

Apple’s system status dashboard is reporting an ongoing service disruption for multiple store services “due to scheduled maintenance.” Apple’s message says service unavailability may affect all users. Specifically, the maintenance is impacting the App Store, Apple TV, iBooks Store, iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Store, and Mac App Store services.

Unlike recent Apple service outages, the service disruption is intentional as part of scheduled maintenance, although some users are reporting iCloud syncing issues and iCloud Mail delays not acknowledged by the system status dashboard. A widespread outage last month prompted Apple to publicly apologize to customers for the service interruption.
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iOS 8 How-To: Use Siri to search the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store

Sarah Guarino Mar 28 2015 - 9:00 am PT

5 Comments

Sometimes searching the App Store can be an overwhelming task. You might already know what you want to download, or other times you might get distracted when you open the store and forget why you were there, and typing in what you want to download is old fashioned now. With iOS 8, you can use Siri to search the App Store, iTunes Store, iBooks Store, and more for you. It’s all a matter of asking Siri with the right commands.

Press down and hold on the home button for two seconds for Siri to appear.

For example you can say something like, “Search the App Store for sports apps,” and Siri will open up the App Store and bring you to the search results of sports.

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Review: Vellum, the ebook generator for Mac with added prettiness

Ben Lovejoy Mar 24 2015 - 5:20 am PT

14 Comments

One of the great things about technology is the way it has democratized the publishing world. Today, anyone can publish an ebook on iBooks and Amazon, whether as a freebie or a commercial book.

Creating an ebook isn’t difficult. If you’ve written your book in Pages, you can export to EPUB–the format needed for iBooks–direct from the app. There is also the excellent Calibre app (featured in our How-to guide), which will convert just about any file format to any type of ebook. There’s also iBooks Author, but that has the disadvantage that if you use it to create your book, you’re not allowed to sell the iBooks version through other channels.

But as I found out when I came to create my own ebook, generating an ebook that looks attractive on all of the different devices available is a rather tougher challenge. That’s the job the Mac app Vellum claims to do, so I put it to the test …
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Get ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ audiobook for free from Audible

9to5 Staff Mar 23 2015 - 4:45 pm PT

2 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

Becoming Steve Jobs is already an Amazon and iBooks best seller on the day of its release but if you were on the fence or want the book read to you while you drive or work, Audible makes a pretty good offer. For new email address users, Audible offers a Free Audiobook Download with a 30 Day Trial. You can also get the free Audible trial via Amazon here if you haven’t already signed up through your Amazon account. Audible’s offer is a great way to get introduced to audiobooks if you haven’t already and what better way to spend your free book than on than the critically and Apple Brass-acclaimed Steve Jobs bio narrated by George Newbern.

Audible members, new and old, can get ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ here.
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Read an exclusive free sample of Becoming Steve Jobs in iBooks

Benjamin Mayo Mar 22 2015 - 7:44 am PT

16 Comments

Becoming Steve Jobs, a new book by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli about Jobs’ life, comes out on March 24th and is available to download both in digital and print. As part of a strong marketing push by Apple in the run up to the book’s release, iBooks is offering an exclusive free sample of the prologue and first chapter that you can download right now. (Update: It’s unclear what countries the sample is being offered in — readers are reporting it showing it for some but not universally.)

Apple has been heavily promoting the book in the last few days, on its iBooks Twitter account as well as through iTunes marketing emails. iBooks describes it as the ‘only book about Steve recommended by the people who knew him best’. For comparison, in one of the chapters, Tim Cook describes the Isaacson biography as a tremendous disservice.

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