Apple Distributing Free iBooks to Employees Ahead of Mavericks and iOS 7 Launch

[iLilana]

I hope

I hope that the major pro audio apps like protools, ableton and reason are going to be updated immediately after the OS is out. I hate when there is developer lag.

 

[iapplelove]

Glad to hear this -- have been looking forward to the extra convenience when away from an iOS device.

I can't remember a time when I was away from one of my iOS devices

 

[brand]

iBooks first on iOS en only much later on OS X. That is not a good practise.

Do tell why. From a business perspective, technical perspective, usage perspective, user perspective, and contract with content holders perspective.

Since practice is defined as the repeated exercise in or performance of an activity, what other things things has Apple done like this that would qualify this as "not a good practice". If it is a one off occurrence then it would not be considered practice, good or bad.

It's easy to spout something off but another thing to back up with reasons.

 

[Plutonius]

I hope the DOJ doesn't hear about this. They will find some reason to get Apple back in court .

 

[NewbieCanada]

iBooks are still crap compared to Amazon's offering. I can get Amazon Kindle books on virtually any platform - iOS, MacOS, Windows, Android, or from the web using the cloud player. iBooks are limited to iOS and only just now Mac.

Plus, I can read the kindle books on an eInk display, which is easier on the eyes than LCD of iOS devices for extended reading.

Amazon is in the books business. They don't care how you read them.

Apple is in the hardware business. They have no interest in encouraging you to buy other people's equipment. That said, given the upcoming iCloud version of Pages, etc., I suppose an iCloud version of iBooks could well be on the horizon. But still it will be as a bonus for their users, not targeted to people using Android or Windows as their primary OS.

I use iBooks a fair bit, because I had a couple of iTunes gift cards to use up and I don't buy music or video, but otherwise I'd likely stick with Kindle for the usually lower prices.

----------

I can't remember a time when I was away from one of my iOS devices

If I was away from my iOS devices I'd be too panicked to read... that said, I prefer to do my reading on something I don't have to hold up in my hand and am definitely looking forward to iBooks for Mac.

 

[brand]

Will iBooks on Mavericks allow people to back up their purchases to the desktop the way one can with Amazon, B & N or Kobo ebook purchases?

Backing up any kind of DRM content is somewhat pointless. If the DRM activation server is taken offline your content is useless. I am not saying to not backup your data, just that even with a backup the content still might not be usable.

 

[thefourthpope]

Count me among those who don't care. Kindle has my digital reading. iAnnotate wins over any other solution on my iPad for PDFs. Reading a book on my laptop? Talk about only good for sitting on the toilet...

 

[GoCubsGo]

Backing up any kind of DRM content is somewhat pointless. If the DRM activation server is taken offline your content is useless. I am not saying to not backup your data, just that even with a backup the content still might not be usable.

I wonder if he meant back up and strip of DRM like I do using Calibre.

 

[757015]

The iBooks app is already free and available on iOS. iBooks is not available even on Mavericks DP4. So what exactly is Apple doing for its employees?

Is Apple giving them Mavericks and iOS 7 training eBooks to be read on iBooks? Or is Apple just giving employees credits for free books of any kind so they can just use the iBookstore?

If its anything like 'App Discovery', they'll offer several specific books for free to their employees. Not ground breaking stuff, just another perk. The mention of Mavericks (which they'll likely also receive for free) was just fluff for the article, I imagine.

 

[malexandria]

Refuse to use it

Until iBooks is freed from iOS, I will never purchase a book from that store. I prefer Kindle, Google Play and Nook because those are platform independent. I'm getting ready to cancel all my newstand subs for the same reason. I'm tired of being locked into Apple Hardware. I like it and I have all of Apple's stuff but I want the freedom to use it on my Nexus or other non-apple device.

 

[haruhiko]

Until iBooks is freed from iOS, I will never purchase a book from that store. I prefer Kindle, Google Play and Nook because those are platform independent. I'm getting ready to cancel all my newstand subs for the same reason. I'm tired of being locked into Apple Hardware. I like it and I have all of Apple's stuff but I want the freedom to use it on my Nexus or other non-apple device.

Not to mention outside the US the store is pretty much empty.

Anyway the app itself is quite good for reading epub

 

[Rogifan]

Apple has also provided some of its employees with beta access to OS X Mavericks and recently, it sent out a memo asking its retail workers for innovative ideas on how to improve the iPhone, the retail store environment, and sales techniques.

Hmm...if I remember correctly the 9to5Mac story said Apple was looking to store employes for ideas on how to increase iPhone sales at Apple stores, not how to improve the phone.

 

[ozaz]

Until iBooks is freed from iOS, I will never purchase a book from that store. I prefer Kindle, Google Play and Nook because those are platform independent. I'm getting ready to cancel all my newstand subs for the same reason. I'm tired of being locked into Apple Hardware. I like it and I have all of Apple's stuff but I want the freedom to use it on my Nexus or other non-apple device.

The platform dependence thing frustrates me too. How do you plan on replacing newsstand subscriptions? One of the things I like a lot about newsstand is that subscriptions download automatically even when device is sleeping - great for ensuring the morning paper is available offline during morning commute. As far as I know (although I have not checked recently), such a feature is not available through platform independent book stores.

 

[throAU]

The OS soon I hope. 

I just hope they fix the WIFI problems first (I'm running DP4 and WIFI has been repeatedly dodgy since DP1).

 

[AnonMac50]

Amazon is in the books business. They don't care how you read them.

Apple is in the hardware business. They have no interest in encouraging you to buy other people's equipment. That said, given the upcoming iCloud version of Pages, etc., I suppose an iCloud version of iBooks could well be on the horizon. But still it will be as a bonus for their users, not targeted to people using Android or Windows as their primary OS.

I use iBooks a fair bit, because I had a couple of iTunes gift cards to use up and I don't buy music or video, but otherwise I'd likely stick with Kindle for the usually lower prices.

Considering you need an Apple device with a fairly recent OS to initiate an iCloud account, Apple would still be achieving their goal of Apple hardware.

 

[wafflesmcduff]

As far as I'm concerned, the only useful feature that they could add to iBooks is the ability to delete it from my iPhone and iPad. It wastes valuable screen real estate.
I love iDevices, but for my desktop and laptop experience I prefer windows. Offering iBooks on MacOS doesn't help me and is way too little way too late. I'll take platform-independent kindle any day, thanks.

 

[Madonepro]

As far as I'm concerned, the only useful feature that they could add to iBooks is the ability to delete it from my iPhone and iPad. It wastes valuable screen real estate.
I love iDevices, but for my desktop and laptop experience I prefer windows. Offering iBooks on MacOS doesn't help me and is way too little way too late. I'll take platform-independent kindle any day, thanks.

Kinda wondering why you bothered to enter into this thread then! You can delete ibooks from iOS.

What I like about this, is that I can read and make notes in books on an iOS device, and then when at home with MBP 17" I can review them, and have the screen real estate to view, edit C&P etc.

 

[757015]

As far as I'm concerned, the only useful feature that they could add to iBooks is the ability to delete it from my iPhone and iPad. It wastes valuable screen real estate.
I love iDevices, but for my desktop and laptop experience I prefer windows. Offering iBooks on MacOS doesn't help me and is way too little way too late. I'll take platform-independent kindle any day, thanks.

You can delete it. You can also not download it in the first place.

iBooks is a more versatile platform. Kids want textbooks on their computers.

It has very little to do with the kindle-style black and white pages and everything to do with video and rich content that can be accessed, referenced and manipulated with ease.

This isn't aimed at someone who wants to read casually on their PC (likely not the majority of users anyways). It's for folks who want to study.

 

[snipper]

Do tell why. From a business perspective, technical perspective, usage perspective, user perspective, and contract with content holders perspective.

Since practice is defined as the repeated exercise in or performance of an activity, what other things things has Apple done like this that would qualify this as "not a good practice". If it is a one off occurrence then it would not be considered practice, good or bad.

It's easy to spout something off but another thing to back up with reasons.

Apple did a great job the last half decade or so on iOS. Each iPhone, iPad and OS X update has made a difference.

However, from the Mac / OS X point of view, there have not been so many interesting new features, updates. We could argue about which updates were worth it and which not, but the Mac Pro for example has not been (really) updated for three years. (No, I don't count the 'update' of June 2012, everybody knows that was bs.) A lot of customers were even convinced the Mac Pro would be killed.

We could argue about what is worth wile but Apple could at least keep OS X in par with the iOS apps as much as possible. Now it's like.. oh.. by the way.. we do have a desktop environment as well, we'll update that in three years or so, maybe, if we feel like it. Accoording to Apple themselves, there are 60 million or so users, not something to think of lightly.

 

[ppappas]

Anyone know if iBooks widgets will work on Mavericks?

I've published a number of multi-touch iBooks.

I still haven't seen any info on whether the Mavericks version will support the current multi-touch features - they seem rather challenging for a desktop UI.

Will multi-touch book developers have to create two versions of iBooks - Mavericks and iPad?

Anyone know what to expect from iBooks running on Mavericks?

 

[twoodcc]

i'm really looking forward to iBooks for OS X.