With no previous announcement, Apple has debuted a new tvOS app for the latest fourth-gen Apple TV that helps kids read along to some of their favorite books. Called iBooks StoryTime, the app, available for free on the App Store, displays interactive books on the TV screen with the Read-Aloud feature, as well as lets pages be flipped with the Siri Remote's touch pad.
George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series has become a huge hit worldwide thanks to the HBO drama, but the original books are just as popular in their own right. To help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first novel in the series, Apple's iBooks store is releasing new, exclusive digital versions in the form of their enhanced editions, featuring interactive elements and artwork.
For the fourth time within the week, several of Apple's online marketplaces for iOS and OS X are dealing with outages. The services that are down as of Thursday morning are more widespread than the last occurrence, which was seen on Tuesday of this week. They currently include the iTunes Store on OS X, the iOS App Store, the iBooks Store, and the Mac App Store.
All seven books in the incredibly popular Harry Potter series have come to iBooks Store, Apple announced today. Available exclusively on Apple's digital marketplace, the books come as enhanced editions featuring artwork and annotations from author J.K. Rowling, along with interactive animations and custom covers. This marks the first time the Harry Potter books have been available digitally outside the Pottermore Shop, a site developed by Rowling with cooperation from Sony.
Building an app starts with a concept, and idea, a vision. If you don’t have a guiding light in mind, you’re just doing. That isn’t necessarily creating. Idea to App: The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Making iOS Apps is a new book from Megan Holstein, who is also responsible for the website of the same name. Her book promises not to be a rehashing of the website, though; it’s billed as one that is full of fresh ideas, and a better walk-through of how to get from idea to app. To see if it accomplishes that, I decided to give it a read.
Earlier today, Apple's senior writer Dave Addey fired off a tweet announcing the company's "iOS Human Interface Guidelines" is now available to grab from the iBookstore. The download is free and available for anyone who wants it.
Apple has lost its latest attempt to soften the impact of its ebook price-fixing punishment, with a court rejecting its appeal to stay the work of the mandated antitrust monitor the Cupertino firm has been forced to pay for. Michael R. Bromwich had been employed at the court's demand to work in-house at Apple, after the company was found guilty of conspiring with five of the major publishing houses to raise ebook pricing. Unsurprisingly, Apple wasn't too keen on his presence, however - nor how much access to internal documents he would be given - though the appeals court has softened the impact a little.
Apple has announced the expansion of iBooks Textbooks and iTunes U Course Manager into additional countries across Asia, Latin America, Europe, and more. With the expansion comes the availability of iBooks Textbooks in a total of 51 countries globally, while iTunes U Course Manager is now available in 70 countries across the world, expanding educational opportunities.
Apple has officially filed its appeal against the ebook trial verdict that saw it found guilty of colluding with publishers to artificially price-fix downloads. The filing, made to the US District Court in the Southern District of New York on October 3rd, sees Apple appealing not only the ruling but Judge Denise Cote's proposed injunctions, which included long-lasting restrictions on how it could negotiate media deals as well as forced monitoring by an external watchdog.
The iBookstore lawsuit promising partial refunds for ebook buyers who paid over-the-odds for their downloads is another step closer to making payouts, with cash from Penguin and Macmillan swelling the combined coffers to $162.25m. In a new batch of emails to iBookstore customers affected by the price-fixing suit, the State Attorneys General and Class Counsel E-book Settlements responsible for managing the case - and distributing the money - confirms the new contribution from the two settling publishers, TidBITS reports, though that's not to say the cash will actually arrive any time soon.
A new set of proposed remedies suggested by the DoJ in the Apple ebook price-fixing case has tempered some of the issues the Cupertino firm complained about, but the agency maintains Apple should face tough penalties for continuing to deny any wrongdoing. The second batch of suggestions, submitted by the US Department of Justice today, come after Apple described the original set as "wildly out of proportion to any adjudicated wrongdoing or potential harm" not to mention "draconian", taking issue with calls for Amazon and other ebook vendors to be permitted links to their own download stores, and bans on any sort of negotiations with content owners that might raise the price of purchase for users.
Apple has blasted Department of Justice suggestions for how it should remedy the ebook price fixing issue, describing the fixes as a "draconian and punitive intrusion" into its business. The DoJ filed a list of remedies earlier today, including forcing Apple to allow rival ebook vendors such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble to include direct links to their own ebook stores from their apps, along with employing an "external monitor" - paid with Apple's own dime - to police the Cupertino firm. Unsurprisingly, Apple believes the suggestions are "wildly out of proportion" to the anti-competition findings, which it still claims are false.
