Tag Archives: ipod

Apple Says 35 Million E-books Dowloaded

Craig Morgan Teicher -- September 1st, 2010
3 Replies

photo: GDGT

Today’s Apple event focused mostly on the company’s music products–its iPod line and iTunes.  There were three two pieces of news with implications in the book space: first, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that 35 million e-books have been downloaded through the iBooks platform, according to the blog GDGT (via eBookNewser). [Thank you, Twitter, for the correction--35 million e-books downloaded, not sold.]  Second, Apple unveiled the new iPod Touch; finally, the company announced the November release of iOS 4.2, the updated operating system for the iPad (and other iOS devices).

The new iPod Touch will feature the same Retina display as the iPhone 4, which, as you’ll know if you’ve tried it, actually makes a huge difference in e-reading–text is much crisper and easier on the eyes.  For folks who don’t want an iPhone (and AT&T’s often patchy service), the new iPod Touch now brings many of the iPhone’s features, including FaceTime video chat, multitasking, and the fast A4 processor chip.  More iPod Touches out in the world means more people downloading iBooks, the Kindle App, and other popular e-reading platforms.

The other significant piece of news is the release of iOS 4.2 operating system, slated for November.  It brings a number of highly requested features to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, such as the ability to stream music and video from a desktop to the iOS device.  Most significant for publishing, though, is the fact that this OS update will bring multitasking to the iPad, meaning it works even more like a full-size computer, and meaning the iPad further distinguishes itself from dedicated e-readers.

Jobs also said that Apple has shipped 120 million iOS devices, and all of them have e-reading capabilities.

Check out Gizmodo for full coverage of the event, including information about Ping, Apple’s new media-sharing social network, and the new super-small iPod Nano and Shuffle, which you can’t read books on.

Predictions for Apple’s Wednesday Event

Craig Morgan Teicher -- August 30th, 2010
2 Replies

from Wired

Apple’s got a knack for building buzz–it’s media events–of which there have been quite a lot this year already–generate much excitement among not the media but savvy consumers.  This Wednesday, September 1, Apple is holding what has typically been its annual music event, where the company updates its iPod line for the holidays and rolls out new features to iTunes (note the guitar in the front of the Yerba Buena center in San Francisco, where the event will be held).

Here are some predictions from Pocket Lint about what Apple will announce at the event, including a new iPod touch with a camera and fancier display and a new version of Apple’s TV set top box.  Not necessarily a huge event for publishing–unless Apple decides to unveil what could be the bombshell product of the season: a new, smaller iPad.

An iPad not much bigger than a Kindle (and not too much more expensive) could really shake things up and could leave consumers trying to get into e-reading with a touch decision.

If you want this blogger’s opinion, Apple won’t unveil a new iPad this week (I hope I’m wrong), but it will soon.  We’ll keep you posted.