iBooks

This article is about an application for iOS. For Apple's PowerPC consumer laptop, see iBook. For the graphic novel publisher, see Byron Preiss.
iBooks
The iBooks logo
IBooks Screenshot.png
Screenshot of iBooks 1.1.2 on an iPad
Developer(s) Apple Inc.
Initial release April 2, 2010 (2010-04-02)
Stable release 2.1 / March 7, 2012 (2012-03-07)
Development status Active
Operating system iOS 3.2 or later
Size 42.3 MB
Available in English, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
Type Digital distribution
License Proprietary
Website itunes.apple.com

iBooks is an e-book application by Apple Inc. for their iOS operating system and devices. It was announced in conjunction with the iPad on January 27, 2010,[1] and was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch in mid-2010, as part of the iOS 4 update.[2] iBooks is not pre-loaded onto iOS devices; users may install iBooks free of charge from the iTunes App Store.

It primarily receives ePub content from the iBookstore, but users can also add their own ePub and PDF files via data synchronization with iTunes. Additionally, they can be downloaded to iBooks through Safari or Apple Mail. It is also capable of displaying e-books that incorporate multimedia.[1][clarification needed][3] According to product information as of March 2010, iBooks will be able to "read the contents of any page [to the user]" using VoiceOver.[4][5]

On January 19, 2012 at an education-focused special event in New York City, Apple announced the free release of iBooks 2, which can operate in landscape mode and allows for interactive reading. In addition, a new application, iBooks Author, was announced for the App Store, allowing anyone to create interactive textbooks for reading in iBooks; and the iBookstore was expanded with a textbook category.[6][7]

History

The iBooks user interface on the iPhone and iPod touch.

iBooks was announced alongside the iPad at a press conference in January 2010. The store itself, however, was released in America three days before the iPad with the introduction of iTunes 9.1. This was supposedly to prevent too much traffic on Apple's servers, as they have overloaded with past releases of the iPhone. On the day of its launch, on 31 March 2010, the iBook store collection comprised some 60,000 titles.[8]

On April 8, 2010, Apple announced that iBooks would be updated to support the iPhone and iPod Touch with iOS 4. As a result, iBooks will not be supported on first-generation iPhones and iPod Touches.[2]

On June 8, 2010 at the WWDC Keynote it was announced that iBooks would be updated that month to read PDF files as well as have the ability to annotate both PDFs and eBooks.

As of July 1, Apple expanded iBooks availability to Canada.

Upon its release for older devices running iOS 4, such as the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch, iBooks received criticism for its slow performance.[9][10] However, a July 19 update from Apple offered several improvements.[11]

On 27 September 2011, Apple expanded the premium store to the Republic of Ireland.

On January 19, 2012, Apple announced the release of the iBooks 2 app, allowing users to purchase and download textbooks to their iPad.[12] The new app will support digital textbooks that can display interactive diagrams, audio and video on the iPad.[13] Apple also released a free tool called iBooks Author. The software allows users to create these interactive textbooks themselves.

The US, UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland are some of the only countries that have premium iBookstore stores.

Features

The iPad displaying an e-book on iBooks.

Users of the application are able to change the font and text size displayed. Available fonts are Baskerville, Cochin, Georgia, Palatino, Times New Roman, Verdana, Athelas, Charter, Iowan and Seravek.[14]

Users can adjust screen brightness from within the application, with greater range than available from the Settings app and the multitasking bar.

Words can be selected and searched throughout the book.

Pages are turned by tapping or dragging the page.

Until May 2011[15] each copy of iBooks used to provide a free copy of Winnie-the-Pooh, the 1926 book by A. A. Milne, in order to get the user's library started.

Formats

The supported e-book formats by iBooks are ePub and PDF.[16] As of version 2.0, iBooks also supports a proprietary iBook format (IBA), generated with the iBooks Author tool. This format is based upon the ePub format but depends upon custom widget code in the iBooks app to function.[17]

Requiem is software designed to remove Apple DRM, and can remove iBooks DRM since version 3.3.[18]

iBookstore

The iBookstore is an ePub content sales and delivery system that delivers ebooks to any iOS device (namely the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch) running iOS 4.x and 5.x. It does not currently support either the downloading or reading of iBooks directly on any type of computer; whether Mac, Windows, or Linux.

The iBooks shelf turns around to reveal the iBookstore. From here users can purchase various books from Apple. iBooks can sync between devices, so one could start reading a book on one device and continue from where one left-off on another.[19]

Prior to the unveiling of the iPad, publishers Penguin Books, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan Publishers, and Hachette Book Group USA committed to producing content for the iBookstore. Additional publishers were invited to participate on the day of the product announcement, January 27, 2010.[20] The iBookstore also provides access to the 30,000+ free books available from Project Gutenberg,[21] and it provides content channeled through Smashwords, allowing independent authors and publishers to self-publish.[22]

The day before the iPad event, Terry McGraw, the CEO of McGraw-Hill, appeared to divulge information to Erin Burnett on CNBC about the upcoming iPad release.[23] This was quickly picked up and disseminated by rumor sites and eventually mainstream media outlets as revelation of features of the iPad. McGraw Hill was not included in the iPad presentation at the Apple media event and there was speculation that their exclusion was in response to this release of information.[24] However, McGraw-Hill has stated that the information disclosed by McGraw was not privileged, and that they had not intended to participate in the event.[25]

In 2011, an Apple spokesperson announced that "We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase."[26] Due to the 30% revenue share that Apple receives from the in-app purchase mechanism, the financial viability of competing bookstore apps run by other book retailers is uncertain, even though in many countries, the iBookstore still does not provide consumers access to any books at all except for free out-of-copyright works.

Controversy

Some have claimed that the iBooks interface is a near exact replica of Classics by Andrew Kaz & Phill Ryu, released over a year prior and even featured in Apple's own TV commercials. Apple has made no acknowledgement of this.[27][28][29]

Documents created by iBooks Author in the .ibooks format may only be sold for a fee if they are accepted by and exclusively distributed by Apple.[30][31][32][33] These restrictions do not apply to documents created in other formats like exported as PDF or text files. As Apple officially mentions the ePub format,[30] documents renamed to .epub may not be affected. But this is left unclear and such documents are not fully compatible with the EPUB standard.

Trademark dispute

In June 2011, Apple was sued by New York publisher John T. Colby over the use of the term "iBook". [34] Colby claims to be the owner of a trademark on the term 'ibooks' as applied to published books, after acquiring the assets of publisher Byron Preiss, who had published a series of sci-fi and fantasy books under the term. Apple had previously used the term 'iBook' to refer to a line of laptops that it sold until 2006, but Colby claims exclusive right to the term as applied to published books, including e-books. Apple began using the term 'iBooks' in 2010 to refer to e-books sold for the iPad. Byron Preiss published more than 1,000 books under the "ibooks" brand starting in 1999.[35]

References

  1. ^ a b Apple Inc. (2003-07-16). "iPad Announcement Keynote". Events.apple.com.edgesuite.net. http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1001q3f8hhr/event/index.html. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  2. ^ a b "Get a sneak peak into the future of iPhone OS.". Apple. 2010-04-08. Archived from the original on 2010-04-08. http://www.webcitation.org/5oqYO6thc. 
  3. ^ Apple Inc. (2003-07-16). "WWDC 2010 Keynote". Apple.com. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc10/index.html. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  4. ^ "iPad - Buy and read books like never before". Apple. http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ibooks.html. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  5. ^ Previous post Next post (March 12, 2010). "Wired GadgetLab: iPad ebook features". Wired.com. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/ipad-ebook-features/. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  6. ^ Chloe Albanesius (January 19, 2012). "Apple Targets Educators Via iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U App". PCMag.com. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399075,00.asp. 
  7. ^ Josh Lowensohn (January 19, 2012). "Apple unveils iBooks 2 for digital textbooks, self-pub app (live blog)". CNET. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57360688-37/apple-unveils-ibooks-2-for-digital-textbooks-self-pub-app-live-blog/. 
  8. ^ King, Sammy. "Survey of Kindle, Nook, iPad, Sony and OverDrive eBook Store Collection Size". eBookReaderGuide.com. http://www.ebookreaderguide.com/2011/03/13/kindle-nookcolor-ipad2-sony-overdrive-which-ebookstore-has-most-ebook-titles/. Retrieved 13 March 2011. 
  9. ^ "iBooks on iPhone 3GS - app review". http://www.tipb.com/2010/06/21/ibooks-on-iphone-3gs-app-review/. 
  10. ^ "Apple iBooks now available for iPhone, iPod touch". Mobiputing.com. 2010-06-21. http://mobiputing.com/2010/06/apple-ibooks-now-available-for-iphone-ipod-touch/. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  11. ^ balandin (2010-07-20). "Download iBooks 1.1.1 for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch". iPhoneHeat. http://www.iphoneheat.com/2010/07/download-ibooks-1-1-1-iphone-ipad/. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  12. ^ "Apple Reinvents Textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad". Apple Inc.. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/01/19Apple-Reinvents-Textbooks-with-iBooks-2-for-iPad.html. Retrieved 2012-01-19. 
  13. ^ Brian Chen and Nick Wingfield, The New York Times. "Apple Unveils App and Tools for Digital Textbooks." January 19, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2012.
  14. ^ Friedlander, Joel (2010-03-01). "Apple iPad Typography: Fonts We Actually Want". TheBookDesigner.com. http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/03/apple-ipad-typography-fonts-we-actually-want/. 
  15. ^ "Winnie the Pooh goes MIA from NZ iBookstore, demands money from other territories". http://www.iphonewzealand.co.nz/2011/all/winnie-the-pooh-goes-mia-from-nz-ibookstore-demands-money-from-other-territories/. . iPhonewzealand. 26 May 2011
  16. ^ "iBooks: Frequently Asked Questions". Apple. June 8, 2011. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4059. Retrieved 2011-08-27. 
  17. ^ Arnold Kim (January 19, 2012). "New ibooks not technically in epub format". MacRumors. http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/19/new-ibooks-not-technically-in-epub-format/. 
  18. ^ Epubor. "Requiem 3.3.5 Download, helps you remove DRM from iBookstore" 1 March 2012
  19. ^ "Apple - iPad - Buy and read books like never before", Apple.com, accessed December 3, 2010.
  20. ^ "iPad iBooks app US-only, McGraw-Hill absent from Apple event". AppleInsider. January 28, 2010. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01/28/ipad_ibooks_app_us_only_mcgraw_hill_absent_from_apple_event.html. Retrieved February 14, 2010. 
  21. ^ "Apple pre-loading iBook Store with 30,000 free eBooks". Appleinsider.com. 2010-03-25. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/25/apple_loads_up_new_ibooks_store_with_free_public_domain_ipad_titles.html. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  22. ^ Foresman, Chris (2010-03-31). "Self-published authors to get in iBookstore via Smashwords". Arstechnica.com. http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/03/self-published-authors-to-get-in-ibookstore-via-smashwords.ars. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  23. ^ "McGraw-Hill's Q4 Earnings". CNBC. 2001-09-16. http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1396376379&play=1. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  24. ^ Apple Special Event January 2010 Apple Inc. January 27, 2010
  25. ^ John Paczkowski (January 28, 2010). "McGraw-Hill: We Didn’t Get Booted From the iPad Launch, Because We Weren’t Part of It". All Things Digital. http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100128/mcgraw-hill-no-we-didnt-confirm-ipad-launch/. Retrieved January 28, 2010. 
  26. ^ Yarow, Jay. "Apple Just Declared War On Amazon Kindle." Business Insider, 1 February 2011.
  27. ^ Chen, Brian. "Apple’s Tablet E-Book App Rips off Indie Dev’s Creation" "Wired", 27 January 2010
  28. ^ Carnoy, David. "Is Apple's iBooks e-reader app a rip-off?" "CNET", 28 January 2010
  29. ^ Slivka, Eric. New iPhone Ad: 'Read'" "MacRumors", 25 January 2009
  30. ^ a b Apple (March 23, 2012). "Apple iBooks Author FAQ". Apple. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5071#2. Retrieved April 26, 2012. 
  31. ^ "If you publish with iBooks Author, does Apple 'own' you?". Los Angeles Times. January 20, 2012. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/apple-ibooks-author.html. 
  32. ^ Gary Marshall (2012-01-20). "Hands on: iBooks Author review". TechRadar.com. http://www.techradar.com/news/software/hands-on-ibooks-author-review-1056368. 
  33. ^ http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232500227
  34. ^ Chris Foresman (June 2011). "Apple iBooks trademark under fire from independent book publisher". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/06/apples-ibooks-trademark-under-fire-from-independent-book-publisher.ars. 
  35. ^ Musil, Steven (June 16, 2011). "Apple sued over its use of 'iBook'". CNET.com. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20071694-37/apple-sued-over-its-use-of-ibook/?tag=mncol;txt. Retrieved January 19, 2012. 

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A typical eBook reader
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