Portability: Does Apple's iBooks need to go Android?

Carnoy, CNET: "Amazon's app motto is, 'Buy once, read everywhere' and it ran a series of What if you switch?-themed TV ads promoting the concept. Barnes & Noble's app page screams: 'Read what you love. Anywhere you like.' It doesn't have quite as many app choices as Amazon, (B&N is missing Windows iPhone 7 and Amazon has announced a Kindle app for HP's Web OS), but it's pretty close. Kobo, too, has a set of apps for a wide variety of devices. iBooks, however, is relegated to Apple iOS mobile devices (we assume an OS X version is in the works), which is fine for all those people who just own Apple devices, but might seem limiting to those who would consider the possibility of dabbling in other platforms."

AppleInsider | Random House books come to Apple's iBookstore for iPad, iPhone

Well, of course they have.

AppleInsider: Random House may soon join iBooks -

Well of course. Hell, agency model was the only issue between them in the first place.

No More Crippled iBooks? Jailbreaking Tool's Update Claims to Fix Issues

NYTimes: "Last week, Apple updated its e-reader app iBooks with several minor new features and one very unwelcome tweak that affected users of jailbroken phones. Jailbreakers who downloaded the update were no longer able to use iBooks on their mobile phone. 'Apple deliberately crippled my device,' wrote an angry blogger on Social Apples after realizing what had occurred. Today, an update to the jailbreaking tool Sn0wbreeze may have addressed this issue, according to reports from mobile bloggers and Twitter."

No iBooks For You - Latest iBooks Version Won't Work On Jailbroken Phones

NYTimes: "Apple's e-reader app iBooks received an update last week, boasting a fairly typical set of changes: better stability, better layout, and a connection to AirPrint. But according to some reports, this latest version can cause problems for those trying to open e-books on jailbroken iPhones. ... "

iBooks: No iTunes When It Comes to Dominating the Market

PW: "Want an e-book version of the nation’s bestselling nonfiction hardcovers? Don’t bother looking on the iBookstore. Apple still hasn’t struck a deal with Random House, publisher of George W. Bush’s Decision Points and Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken. For now, iPad users who want to get any of Random House’s bestsellers -- which also include John Grisham’s The Confession and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- need to visit Apple’s App Store and download the free application for the Kindle or the Nook. ... "

Apple Disses eBook Developers at its Peril

Liz Castro @ Pigs, Gourds, and Wikis: "I'm feeling really grumpy today, and I've traced it back to a Twitter conversation last night in which I discovered that Apple has been giving support and information on how to create their new fixed-layout ebooks for iBooks 1.2 only to a select group of ebook producers, and under non-disclosure agreements (NDA). ..."

Apple Updates iBooks - Adds AirPrint, Collections

iPad Atlas - CNET Reviews: "Apple has updated its popular digital-book reader iOS App, iBooks, now version 1.2, to include support for AirPrint, PDF and notes printing, Collections, and new fully illustrated children's books and art books available for download in the iBookstore. Apple's iBooks allows you to download digital versions of your favorite books directly to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. iBooks 1.2 includes the ability to print notes or PDFs using Apple's newly released AirPrint functionality. With everything going digital, it's nice to see you can still get your notes back on paper. iBooks 1.2 also includes new functionality (must have iOS 4.2.1 installed) to allow more words per page by automatically hyphenating text."

Japanese Publishers Threaten to Bite Apple

Digits - WSJ: "A Japanese consortium of book, e-book, magazine and digital comic publishers issued a stern rebuke of Apple’s enforcement of copyrights on its App Store. The group said certain works by renowned Japanese authors Haruki Murakami and Keigo Higashino have been illegally scanned and distributed over the App Store. In a joint press release on Tuesday, the Japan Book Publishers Association, the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, The Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan, and Digital Comic Association said Apple’s distribution of content that clearly infringes copyright is 'illegal.'"

Apple Approved for iBookstore in Canada

The news comes per this self important statement from The Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, who "today announced that Apple Canada has been granted approval under the Investment Canada Act to establish iBookstore Canada. 'Our Government is committed to strengthening Canada's economy through all its sectors, especially arts and culture,' said Minister Moore. 'Apple has demonstrated how iBookstore Canada represents new opportunities for Canadian authors and publishers, and I have determined that this investment will be of net benefit to Canada.'" The Honourable Mr. Moore has evidently been pondering this complex question since July, when Apple made its initial application. Good work if you can get it.

Jouve Group Announces Direct Online eBook Conversion for Apple’s iBookstore

Press Release via Business Wire: "PARIS--As the global leader in digital eBook conversion, Jouve has developed an innovative online client platform for Apple’s iBookstore, making its industrial conversion solutions available to publishers of all sizes. A high-performance digital conversion process that’s personalized and 100% compliant with Apple specifications. Jouve now offers publishers an easy way to directly convert their catalog to standard or enhanced eBooks for the iBookstore. The iBookstore is included with the free iBooks app available for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. This simple solution fits the digital needs of all types of publishers, with production costs starting from just $19.99 per book. ..."

Smaller Australian Publishers want in to Apple’s iWalled Book Garden

iTWire: "Yesterday, Apple announced a list of who’s in at the Australian iBookstore, and by virtue of doing so, announced a list of who’s currently out of the Australian iBookstore too, causing a furore among smaller publishers who feel miffed at thus far being left out of the crunchy kingdom and away from all its digital iCitizens, and right before Christmas, too!"

Apple Australia Opens iBookstore Floodgates

Delimiter: "Up until now, the Australian version of Apple’s eBook marketplace, the iBookstore, has been fairly sparsely populated compared with rivals. But today it appears as if the company has added half a dozen major new publishers to its catalogue in a major move. 'Today, thousands of titles from both major and independent publishers, including Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, Hardie Grant, HarperCollins Publishers, Murdoch Publishers and Wiley, are now available on the Australian iBookstore,' the company said in a statement."

The iBookstore Six Months Post-Launch: Not Impressive at All

An informed bystander comments: "It's been over six months since the release of the iPad on April 3rd, and the simultaneous launch of iBooks and the iBookstore, which promised to give Amazon's Kindle and Kindle Store a run for its money. I figured that this would be a good time to see just how the iBookstore has progressed. The answer, in a word: poorly ... very poorly."

WSJ's Mossberg Compares the Three Most Popular iPad E-Reader Apps

A review that'll be of use to novices just starting to use iPad for reading books. Old news for everybody else, This is purely a comparison of software interfaces/ergonomics, and book selection, rather than hardware. Walt Mossberg, WSJ.com: "For this review, I compared Apple’s own fledgling e-reader software and store, called iBooks; Amazon’s Kindle iPad app; and the newly revamped Barnes & Noble iPad app, called Nook. Overall, they are more similar than different. Each is free and operates much like the pioneering Kindle device, offering access to an online library of books you already own and an online store to buy more. Each remembers where you left off in your books, and includes built-in search, dictionaries and the ability to enter notes and to highlight text. All also offer the option to search for more information on terms in your books, using Google or Wikipedia. ... "

New iWork 9.0.4 Exports to ePub

Softpedia: "You can now put your documents into iBooks on your iOS device, according to the changelog accompanying iWork 9.0.4, the latest version of Apple's productivity suite for Mac OS X. ... 9.0.4 includes compatibility with the standard ePub file format when exporting. Apple highlights that this is 'for use with iBooks.' Users can now create an ePub document that can be read in iBooks on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The feature comes with a note on behalf of Apple saying 'not all Pages formatting options are available in ePub.'"

Big Brother Steve Jobs: More Apple iBooks Censorship

Apple accused of censorship after porn disappears from iPad book chart - Telegraph: "Blonde and Wet, the Complete Story was ranked first on the iPad in a top 10 that included three other erotic novellas yesterday morning. But all four titles disappeared simultaneously and had been replaced with less risque books, such as Peter Mandelson’s autobiography, by the afternoon. Book chart analysts said it was unlikely that all the erotic titles could have dropped out of the list at the same moment without being deliberately removed. It is not the first time that Apple has faced accusations of prudishness. The company embarked on a "great porn purge" in February, ridding its iPhone App Store of all "overtly sexual content." Steve Jobs, chief executive, announced in April that he wanted the newly-launched iPad to remain free of pornographic applications. ..."

And Now, iBooks Audio and Video Support

From Mac Observer:

Along with iTunes 9.2.1, Apple released iBooks 1.1.1 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch late on Monday. The update for Apple’s ebook reader app added support for ebooks that include audio and video content.

Version 1.1.1 also added the ability to double-tap images to zoom in, improved performance when reading PDF documents, added the ability to look up English word definitions in books that don’t include a specified language, and improved overall stability and performance.

Apple's iBooks Censorship - Steve Jobs the New Tipper Gore?

From Jessie Kunhardt and Alexandra Carr, Huffington Post:

As Apple has gotten the chance to control more and more content with its ever-expanding app store the popular company has shown itself to be somewhat tyrannical and more than a little prudish when it comes to censorship. Books and book apps have gotten caught up in the storm of arbitrary rejections and strange censorship as Apple decides which make the cut into the apparently exclusive app store and iBookstore. Though the reasons for the censorship vary -- from gay themes to 'objectionable' language -- the majority of these books and book apps have one thing in common: Apple reversed the censorship after being publicly derided across the Internet for their decision.

Dianna Dilworth at eBookNewser hits the nail on the head:

Apple ... banned Tom Bouden's comic book adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Earnest because of kissing men. CNET editor David Carnoy's thriller Knife Music was banned because the word "fuck" is used a few times. Both were eventually allowed in.

My personal favorite was an eReader app called "Eucalyptus," [offering] access to Project Gutenberg's entire catalog of copyright-free books [which] was rejected because it included the Kama Sutra. The app was accepted after Apple got bad press. Who would have thought that Apple would be the new Tipper Gore?

eBook Price Randomness, the Agency Model, and the Myth of Cannibilization

From Calvin Reid at Publishers Weekly:

The launch of the iPad and the implementation of the agency model has led to wildly varying prices for e-books. The agency model allows publishers to set the retail price of their e-books and designate an "agent" who will sell the book at retail and collect a fee for doing so. While the new pricing model has allowed certain publishers to take away control of e-book pricing from Amazon—publishers complained that under the old wholesale model, Amazon's $9.99 e-book price point was too cheap and cannibalized print sales—it has also left consumers with a sometimes bewildering patchwork of inconsistent pricing. ...

I, for one, think $9.99 remains the reasonable upper threshold for eBook pricing, with plenty of profit built-in for everyone. What's more, the notion that eBooks "cannibalize" print sales seems absurd. Big picture: Print is in decline, digital in its ascendancy. Get used to it.

In the end, the price will be set by market demand, just as it always has been. Note this from Jeff Bezos's recent Fortune interview:

Fortune: In the past, you've been a big proponent of lower prices for ebooks and an open opponent of the book publisher agency model, which allows the publisher to set the final retail price whether there's an intermediary retailer or not. Now that you've switched to an agency model, will ebookstores like Amazon's get hurt?

Bezos: No. First of all, there are a bunch of publishers of all sizes, and they don't all have one opinion. There are as many opinions about what the right thing to do is as there are publishers. So you're seeing that some of them are being very aggressive on prices, pricing their books well below $9.99.

Others are trying to do everything they can to make prices as high as possible. And what you're going to see is a share shift from one group of publishers to this other group of publishers.

Fortune: Do you expect a significant share shift? When do you see that happening?

Bezos: It's a significant shift and we're seeing it already.