Tag Archives: ibooks

Why I Will Never Buy An iBook

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Despite the fact that Apple is waging a war against companies like Amazon and the last remaining retail book company Barnes and Nobles, the iBook App and it’s store has no value to me and many readers.  It’s poor selection and Apple’s protectionist moves serve to prove that Apple does not get why the Kindle App is so popular.  Selection and Availability.  With the Kindle App I have millions of books at my fingertips through Amazon at prices that beat Apple.  With the Kindle App I have a choice of which device I can read my App’s and with iBook’s I have no choice.

I believe that Apple is going to face a massive and embarrassing lawsuit down the road where Amazon and others will come and Sue Apple over the right to direct users to their own stores in App.  Apple can still link to their iBooks store, but these other companies can not link to their own stores.  Apple itself originally said if you sold a product outside their store you would not be charged the 30% cut they’re taking which in the books business is completely unreasonable.  While a fan of Apple, this business practice probably will not stand the test of law, more than likely it’s an illegal move in the terms of antitrust laws which prevent this type of behavior that Apple is exhibiting.

Apple would be better served to negotiate deals that they can receive some cut of in App sales where books and magazines are concerned.  Right now they are getting no cut, and probably are breaking the law, and are mistaken that people will suddenly come running to their iBooks store just to find out that they should have went to Amazon’s store in the first place.  I’m willing to bet that the majority of Kindle users will just fire up a web browser and search their books through Amazon because they know they’re getting a better deal even if it takes them an extra 5 seconds to get a book they want.

iCloud Feature – Apps, Books, Documents, and Backup

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What would an iCloud service be without some way to manage files and back them up?  Not much of one.  Apple makes this super simple by having this built into their Apps such as Pages and Numbers, which released a few weeks ago had the functionality built in.  So now you can cloud your files and access them from any of your devices.

For your Apps again with the iTunes past purchases, you get your Apps past purchases.  There are apps I’ve bought and I forget about them only to be surprised I dont have to pay because I paid before.  Now I can just look at a list and see what I’m missing.  When you purchase an app, it’s available to all your other devices as well through a push feature.

iBooks now will sync across all your devices tied to your iCloud.  It will remember where you left off and sync this all to your other devices so you can resume what you were doing later even if it’s a different device.

API’s  Apple hit the nail on the head with this product and the API’s available to developers allow them to build this functionality into their apps so you can get the best features through 3rd party apps from the app store as they become available.

Backup and Restoration – OMG this is awesome.  If you purchase a new iPhone or had to replace it, and it’s part of your iCloud, just enter your account info and it’s all synced wirelessly to your new device and you can pick up where you left off.  No more picking up the pieces if you ever had to replace your iPhone or iPad, finally.

iPhones without iTunes as well no need for a PC to activate or even use your iPhone.