Books Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

iPad covers made from children's books

by Mike Schramm (May 29th, 2012)

This Etsy seller has come up with a really great idea for iPad cases: Make them out of famous childrens' books. Seller chicklitdesigns has taken the covers of old printings of The Giving Tree, Cat in the Hat, and even Moby Dick, and turned them into cases for iPads, Kindles, and other tablets, ...

TUAW Bookshelf -- The Business of iPhone and iPad Development: Making and Marketing Apps

by Erica Sadun (May 7th, 2012)

A recommendation by Chris Forsythe pointed me to Dave Wooldridge and Michael Schneider's book "The Business of iPhone and iPad Development: Making and Marketing Apps" (Apress, 2011). A practical primer on creating your business plan, the book offers advice on topics diverse as protecting ...

Google Play Books updated with new bookmarks, text selection

by Mike Schramm (Apr 17th, 2012)

Google's Google Play Books market isn't just for Android devices. There's also an iOS app available to read content purchased on that market, and it's just been updated with some new features. Bookmarks let you place a bookmark by touching the top right corner. You can also highlight and even ...

"Bartending" chronicles life as a former Apple Genius

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 9th, 2012)

Former Apple Genius Stephen Hackett recounted his years working at an Apple Store in his recent book, Bartending: Memoirs of an Apple Genius. The short book is just under 50 pages and details the customers and problems Hackett saw while working as a Genius. It's a lighthearted, personal ...

Macworld says the new iPad's screen is underrated

by Chris Rawson (Mar 30th, 2012)

"Is that the new one?" one of my workmates asked of the iPad sitting on my desk in its upright dock. "Yep," I said, and showed him the screen. He played around with it for a few seconds and said, "Huh. It doesn't look all that different, does it?" "Are you kidding?" I said, and grabbed my ...

Chinese authors suing Apple increase in number, target cash amount

by Steven Sande (Mar 21st, 2012)

In January of 2012, TUAW reported on a group of nine Chinese authors who were banding together to sue Apple for allegedly hosting pirated copies of their literary works through apps in the App Store. At that time, the nine authors were asking for total compensation in the range of US$1.88 ...

Department of Justice reportedly planning antitrust suit against Apple

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 8th, 2012)

According to a Wall Street Journal Report, the Department of Justice is threatening to sue Apple and five book publishers for artificially inflating the price of ebooks. The five book publishers include Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Pearson PLC's Penguin Group, Macmillan and ...

Apple rejects iBook with links to Amazon's store

by Mike Schramm (Feb 29th, 2012)

This is just one specific case out of the many, many organizations and individuals publishing content on Apple's iBookstore, but it's an interesting call by Apple nevertheless. Seth Godin tried to publish a book of his through Apple's iBooks, but the content was rejected by Apple's system. Not ...

iBookstore adds screenshots, promo codes, and more for publishers

by Chris Rawson (Feb 15th, 2012)

iTunes Connect has sent out a letter to content publishers detailing some changes and improvements to the iBookstore. Just like the App Store, the iBookstore now allows publishers to issue promo codes for content sold on the store -- up to 50 free codes distributable to book reviewers. Publishers ...

Goodnight, iPad parody by author Ann Droyd

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 14th, 2012)

Goodnight Moon is a classic children's bedtime story whose singsong words lull a child to sleep. In a digital-inspired parody, author Ann Droyd uses the same bouncy storyline to describe the nighttime routine of an iPad-using, TV-watching group of kids. It's all done tongue-in-cheek, even down to ...

Why McGraw-Hill is selling iBooks for $15

by Chris Rawson (Jan 19th, 2012)

The announcement this morning that textbooks would be sold through the iBookstore wasn't especially surprising. But the price was; full-featured multimedia electronic textbooks being offered for no more than US$15 is exactly the kind of disruptive shakeup the industry needed. While only the K-12 ...

Apple posts video of education event

by Chris Rawson (Jan 19th, 2012)

Apple has posted a video of the education event it held earlier today. The video is available for streaming on Apple's site, or you can download a higher quality version from iTunes. This is Apple's first public event since October's introduction of the iPhone 4S. In this video you'll see the ...

iBooks Author accounts are free, existing developers need a new account

by Chris Rawson (Jan 19th, 2012)

Setting up an account to publish books to the iBookstore has always been free, and the new iBooks Author tool has brought that fact into the spotlight. Self-publishing books to the iBookstore does still have a few hurdles you have to leap through, however. As AppleInsider points out, for iOS and ...

Inside Apple: On Apple's legendary secrecy

by Chris Rawson (Jan 18th, 2012)

Fortune has published a lengthy excerpt from Adam Lashinsky's Inside Apple, a book scheduled to be released next week that provides an unprecedented look inside a company legendary for its secrecy. I'd encourage you to read the entire excerpt at Fortune, and buy the book when it comes out, but ...

Apple's press event is getting "overhyped"

by Dave Caolo (Jan 17th, 2012)

As anticipation builds for Apple's January 19 press event, the tech web has latched onto the notion of "GarageBand for iBooks," suggesting that Apple will release iBook creation tools to the public. Ars Technica believes it's true, while Philip Elmer-Dewitt does not. Interestingly, both opinions ...