Tag Archives: iBook

Apple releases iBooks 3.1 with support for iBookstore in Japan, local content & improvements for reading Asian language books

iBooks-Japan

Update: Apple issued a press release on the matter, below the fold.

Apple released version 3.1 of iBooks today on the App Store and with it comes hundreds of thousands of Japanese books to the iBookstore in Japan. Among the local content on the iBookstore in Japan is light novels and manga, while Apple also noted that it has made “a number of improvements for reading Asian language books.”

AllThingsD reported in January that Apple was in talks with Japanese publishers to work out deals for the iBookstore, which had lacked local Japanese content since it first launched in 2010. Up until now, the store in Japan has consisted of mostly public domain content, but it appears Apple has finally come to an agreement with a many of the large publishers in the country.

What’s New in Version 3.1

The iBookstore in Japan now has hundreds of thousands of books available for purchase, including fiction,
manga, light novels and more. This version of iBooks also includes a number of improvements for reading
Asian language books.

iBooks 3.1 is available to download on the App Store now.

Apple Launches iBookstore in Japan

TOKYO―March 6, 2013―Apple® today announced the launch of the iBookstore℠ in Japan featuring titles from major and independent publishers, including a great selection of books from Kodansha, KADOKAWA, Bungeishunju, Gakken and Gentosha. The iBookstore has a wide selection of emerging and established authors including Shyotaro Ikenami, Jiro Akagawa, Atsuko Asano and Ryu Murakami. The iBookstore in Japan is the best way for book lovers to browse, buy and read books on iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch®.

“We’re excited to launch the iBookstore in Japan with a wide selection of Japanese publishers and authors,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We think customers are going to love how engaging and interactive the books are to read, and how beautiful they look on iPad.”

“We’re thrilled to have our books on the iBookstore,” said Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, Chairman of KADOKAWA Group Holdings. “More than anything, I think it’s great the iBookstore lets us offer our readers a wide variety of reading experiences that they can’t have anywhere else and that they can only have on their iOS device.”

iBookstore customers can choose from a wide selection of enhanced books that look incredible on iPad, as well as digitally exclusive titles including Ryu Murakami’s fiction novels “At the Airport,” “Exodus of Middle-School Students” and “I’ll Always Be With You, Always,” which has interactive emails in each chapter to bring you even deeper into the story.

“I’m excited to offer three of my works exclusively on the iBookstore, and hope that readers love them as much as I do,” said author, novelist and filmmaker Ryu Murakami. “As an author and Apple user for 20 years, the arrival of the iBookstore allows me to tell stories in a way you simply can’t in a physical book.”

Beloved children’s books including “Piyo-chan: A Letter for Piyo” come to life with interactivity, transitions and audio, while new favorites including “Toy Story 3: So Long Partner” let readers easily read aloud at their own pace.

“We couldn’t be more excited about how incredible ‘Piyo-chan: A Letter for Piyo’ looks on the iBookstore,” said Hiroaki Miyahara, President and Representative Director of Gakken Holdings. “We’ve taken this beloved Japanese children’s book and made it more engaging with gorgeous animations and interactivity that makes learning more fun.”

Cookbooks are even more useful on the iBookstore with titles such as “I Love Cheesecakes!” from culinary specialist Kiyomi Ishizawa that allows cooks to easily search recipes and ingredients. Additionally, the iBookstore offers best-selling fiction novels including “Sora-Tobu Kouhoushitsu” by Hiro Arikawa, “Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu” by Nagaru Tanigawa, and “Tenchi Meisatsu” by Tow Ubukata. Also available for purchase and download on the iBookstore are world-renowned Manga titles including Eiichiro Oda’s “ONE PIECE,” Mari Yamazaki’s “THERMAE ROMAE” and Hirohiko Araki’s full color version of “JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE” Part 4, which is digitally exclusive on the iBookstore.

The iBookstore is available in 51 countries and offers hundreds of categories including cookbooks, history books, biographies, picture books and children’s books with free books available in 155 countries. The iBooks® app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has been downloaded 130 million times worldwide.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Press Contacts:
Christine Monaghan
Apple
cmonaghan@apple.com
(408) 974-8850

Tom Neumayr
Apple
tneumayr@apple.com
(408) 974-1972

Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iBookstore, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

15% off iTunes gift cards

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From 9to5Toys.com:

Update: Best Buy is now down to 15%. Still worth your time.

Today only, Best Buy knocks 20% off the price of physical iTunes gift cards across the board from $15 -$100 (including the very handy $10 three-pack). iTunes gift cards are good for music, videos, iBooks, movies, and iOS/Mac Apps. They can be ordered site-to-store for pick-up up until 3PM on Dec 24th or ship for free if you don’t need them by Christmas.

$15 iTunes Gift Card for $12
$25 iTunes Gift Card for $20
Three $10 iTunes Gift Cards ($30 total) for $24
$50 iTunes Gift Card for $40
$100 iTunes Gift Card for $80

If you are looking to buy an email-redeemable iTunes credit, Walmart still sells a $50 emailled iTunes credit for $40, though readers sometimes complain about Walmart’s reliability.

Obviously, these make great last minute gifts/stocking stuffers and are an easy way to get 20% off all of your Apple media.

Amazon also offers gift cards that can be sent via email, Facebook or printed out in any denomination.

Build Your Knowledge And Business With The Online Entrepreneur eBook Bundle [Deals]

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There are a lot of budding entrepreneurs that are taking their ideas online – but many of them do not have the tools or skills to make a real go of it. Simply surfing the web looking for tips and tricks isn’t enoguh these days, you need to have more at your disposal than that. And Cult of Mac Deals has put together a deal that will really help out anyone who is looking to build their knowledge – and a business – online.

The Online Entrepreneur eBook Bundle contains three eBooks that will help turn your website into a marketing dynamo. And you’ll get them for just $20!

Here are the titles you’ll get as part of this bundle:

The Social Media Survival Guide: This book by Deltina Hay offers a quick, practical, and hands-on introduction to the nuts and bolts of social media. You’ll learn how to grow your brand, improve sales, and increase profits, all while creating and using a variety of affordable web tools along the way.
The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web: In this follow-up to The Social Media Survival Guide, Hay explains how to create the mobile presence you’ll need to make your business prosper. Within the pages, you’ll find strategies to better utilize the mobile web for branding and profits, and be exposed to case studies of successful mobile web transitions for entrepreneurs from all walks of life.
How to Write and Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit: Bob Bly teaches you how to write for success in this eBook. He illustrates different writing approaches for a variety of platforms, shows you how to research and write effective nad practical content and embark upon a career as a successful how-to writer and “information packager”.

You don’t want to jump into the wild world of online entrepreneurship without having the proper resources available to you anytime, anywhere. This Cult of Mac Deals gives you those resources, arming you with what you’ll need to make progress with your online business.

For only $20 you can get started on a career that will make that small investment more than worthwhile. So act now and grab this deal while it lasts!

Walmart offers $100 iTunes/App Store downloadable gift card for $80

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From 9to5Toys.com:

For a limited time, Walmart.com is offering a $100 downloadable Apple iTunes/App Store gift card for just $80. These popular gift cards can be used on iBooks, iTunes Movies, Videos, music, Mac and iOS Apps. We’ve heard these do work internationally if paid for with a US source and used in the US iTunes/App Stores.

You are basically getting 20% off every Apple media purchase you make. Also makes a great gift…we imagine.

Apple’s Early iPad Prototype Had 12-Inch Screen, Was 3 Times Thicker Than iPad 2

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This early iPad prototype was a mammoth.

Remember that early iPad prototype we showed you yesterday, built between 2002 and 2004, which looked like an old white iBook with a touchscreen? Now some new shots have surfaced that show a comparison between this and the iPad 2, and there are some interesting differences.

First of all, Apple originally built the iPad with a 12-inch display, and it was huge.

Not only did the old prototype look a lot like an iBook, it was almost as big as one, too. According to BuzzFeed, its display measures just under 12 inches diagonally, making it 40% larger than the 9.7-inch display Apple eventually shipped on the iPads we have today.

It also features a 4:3 aspect ratio like the iBooks that were shipping at the same time.

The prototype also measures just under 1 inches thick, making it almost 3 times as thick as the iPad 2, and only around 0.35 inches thicker than the iBook.

Like the iPad we have today, this prototype had very few buttons and ports. It has a dock connector and headphone jack, but there’s no home button, or any other physical controls to speak of.

Thankfully, technology has come a long way since this iPad prototype was produced, enabling Apple to build sleek, (relatively) lightweight devices that we can comfortably carry in one hand, or slip into our bags.

Source: BuzzFeed

Via: MacRumors

Apps & updates: Instapaper 4.2, Yelp, and more

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While Google+ got the most notable update earlier this afternoon, there are three other nice little updates to apps this evening. Most notably, Instapaper was updated to version 4.2, which adds an iBook style “pagination” feature. Other key features include:

All-new Fast Pagination mode, a complete rewrite from the old pagination code that greatly improves accuracy and page-turn speed
New draggable dot bar to replace the scroll bar in pagination mode
New two-finger-swipe gesture to close an article
Full-screen now has “Auto” mode to switch to full screen after a few seconds
The subtle Twilight Sepia color tint can now be selected at any time
Added sharing to Drafts and the upcoming Quotebook 2.0
Many bugfixes and performance improvements

Furthermore, community driven business reviews app Yelp was updated to version 5.8.0. It added the ability to comment on your friends’ checkins. Other features include:

Comment on your friends’ check-ins! Know of a killer dish at a place your buddy just checked into? Let ‘em know instantly.
Support for Norway! Yelp is now live in the land of vikings, death metal, and chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.
Now write longer, more expressive tips. You know, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.

Lastly, new up-and-coming game Dice With Buddies was updated to version 2.0 and has been marked down to a free app for a limited time. In version 2.0, the app now features a new redesign of the main menu. Some other nice additions:

Rematch and Nudge your buddies from the main menu
Made it easier to delete completed games
Check your stats directly from the main menu
Pull down and release to refresh your game list
Tweet your friends (iOS 5 only)
Tap the status bar to quick scroll to the top (iOS 5 only)

Have you checked out today’s best App Store deals?

When you click a Yelp listing in Siri, you are now taken to the Yelp App Store app (9to5mac.com)
Apple releases iOS 5.1.1 (9to5mac.com)

You Can Buy This Funky Looking Apple Prototype eMate 300 For Only $8,500!

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This crazy thing is like a crossbreed between the Newton and iBook

If you’ve ever wanted to own a rare piece of Apple history that looks like totally rad then this new eBay listing for a Prototype Apple eMate 300 might be the perfect. The only eMates Apple produced had a solid dark green casing rather than the clear casing you see above. The seller estimates only 6 or so of these clear eMate 300s were produced and it looks quite similar to the first generation iBook that derived a lot of inspiration from the eMate series.

If you got fat stacks of cash that you’re just looking to throw around, you can buy this bad boy on eBay right now for a whopping $8,499.00. Take a peak after the jump for even more pictures of Apple’s crazy touchscreen eMate prototype.

Designed as a low-cost laptop for the education market, the eMate 300 ran the Newton operating system and cost $800

The battery on this bad boy lasted 28 hours on a full charge!

The eMate 300 features a 480x320 resolution 16-shade grayscale display

Apple finally comments on DOJ antitrust charges: ‘We’re breaking monopolies not starting them’

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Apple finally commented late this evening on the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against the company. What did Apple think up with those extra 48 hours? Peter Kafka got the scoop from Apple’s Tom Neumayr:

The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true. The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.

The civil antitrust suit alleged that Apple’s move to let publishers set their own prices—and it is a requirement that publishers do not sell their digital books for cheaper elsewhere—forced consumers to pay millions more for books than they should have.

DOJ explains settlement with three publishers, Macmillan CEO explains why they won’t settle (9to5mac.com)
Analysts: Apple has a strong case in DOJ’s lawsuit over ebook price-fixing (9to5mac.com)
Report: DOJ to sue Apple this week over fixed eBook pricing allegation (9to5mac.com)
US government sues Apple in eBook price-fixing antitrust suit (9to5mac.com)

Report: DOJ to sue Apple this week over fixed eBook pricing allegation

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The U.S. Department of Justice will sue Apple as early as tomorrow morning over allegations of fixing eBook prices with five major publishers, according to Reuters. The five publishers, which are also in question, will be looked at later in the week.

The Justice Department is investigating alleged price-fixing by Apple and five major publishers: CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc, HarperCollins Publishers Inc, Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, Pearson and Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH.

A lawsuit against Apple, one of the parties not in negotiations with the Justice Department for a potential settlement, could come as early as Wednesday but no final decision has been made, the people said.

The news of a lawsuit comes just weeks after the Department of Justice launched a probe into Apple and the five publishers. We will keep you updated with any more news about this case.

The Justice Department probing Apple and five major US publishers over alleged price fixing of electronic books (9to5mac.com)

Apple looking to launch iTunes Store, App Store overhauls later this year

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In a move that will surely keep the Mac and iPhone maker on top of the digital music and software application industry, Apple is preparing its first iTunes Store redesign in nearly three years. In late 2009, Apple launched a new iTunes Store that traded in a blue-themed, convoluted store for a much simpler, white-themed store that provides a great focus on the store’s downloadable content.

The redesign of the iTunes Store that runs on both the iTunes application for the Mac and the PC is a top priority for Apple. The work on the redesign comes soon after the launch of new services in the United States such as the Spotify music streaming service and the growing popularity of Amazon’s online music store. Apple dominates the majority of the digital music market, and it will continue to bet on an in-application download store and not an online store found only in a web browser.

The new design is said to be even simpler and more user-friendly than the current design. Apple is working on ways to enhance the speed and efficiency of finding new content, such as songs, videos, and applications. The cornerstone element of Apple’s new iTunes Store is interactivity. As Apple vaguely explained to a number of music labels and entertainment partners, Apple is looking to make the iTunes Store a much more engaging experience. Read on for more…

While the iTunes App Store is an incredibly and unprecedentedly popular service, many users have complained about how difficult it sometimes is to find new and exciting software for their iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches. Apple is likely working on a more interactive way of locating iOS device software to solve these concerns. The interactivity that Apple wants within the digital store is something Apple could only likely pull off by housing the store within a full-fledged application, not a pure web browser experience.

Current iTunes Store

It is unknown whether this new iTunes Store will launch alongside an entirely new version of the iTunes application for Mac and PC. iTunes 9 brought the current iTunes Store design with it, but Apple could theoretically launch the 2012 store redesign within a small iTunes 10-point update. The new iTunes Store interactivity features are said to be for the iTunes Music, Movies, TV Show, and App Store sections, but may very well spread to the iBookstore.

The iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore experiences on the iPad mostly mirror the experience of these stores on the Mac, so we will likely see major updates to the iOS versions of Apple’s multimedia stores in the future as well. These iOS device enhancements will likely not launch simultaneously with the Mac and PC iTunes Store changes. Apple is developing the new iTunes Store alongside OS X Mountain Lion, so we may get our first glimpse of the new iTunes Store this summer. A launch this fall—the season that Apple historically rolls out new music products— seems more likely, though. (Top image: Wired)