Apple, where are the Star Wars books?

Where are the Star Wars iBooks?

A couple of weeks back I noticed a banner within Apple’s iBooks for P.D James books. Normally such a banner takes you to an custom designed author page with a large selection of books. The P.D James banner took you to a page with just ONE title - The Acts of the Apostles. I checked back a few days later and … [Read more...]

When does an iBook stop being available for download?

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Back in January I bought A Murder Of Quality from iBooks. Like a number of John le Carré’s novels it has since changed publisher and I’m no longer able to re-download it without paying again. On the surface that probably sounds quite fair, it’s easy to argue that the currently listed version isn’t the one I … [Read more...]

Web apps will work for the FT but few others

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Let me start by applauding the FT on what looks like an excellent web app to replace its previous iPad/iPhone app. The background to the launch of the app is set out in our news story so I’ll skip past that and move on to why I think the FT is one of the few titles which will enjoy any real success with web … [Read more...]

Does agency always lead to much higher prices? iBooks suggests not…

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Earlier this month Random House UK reached an agreement to sell books via Apple's iBooks store. As with all other publishers selling via Apple, Random House sets the price for each title under an arrangement known as the agency pricing model which sees the retailer take a fixed percentage of the sale price. Agency … [Read more...]

Is the iPad really unsuitable as an ereader?

Apple has dropped rules requiring publications to offer in-app subscriptions . Photo: Apple.

I'm a pluralist kind of a guy, on the whole I think it's best to leave others to buy and use whatever kit they want for the job at hand. The only times I go out of my way to intervene is if a friend of relative is thinking about buying something I've had a bad experience with or know that someone else has. Not … [Read more...]