Today, during their education press event, Apple announced the availability of the iBooks Author App that allows users to create interactive iBooks on their Mac.
Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps. And before you know it, you’re a published author.
The App allows you to start with a number of templates and then customize your book with images, videos, multi-touch widgets and even Keynote presentations. You can then preview your book on your iPad and then submit it to the iBookstore for sale or free download.
iBooks Author is available for free in the Mac App Store. [App Store]
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
iPhone 17 Pro's alleged design via Front Page Tech
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone...
Thursday March 20, 2025 12:01 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost.
The new perk is the ability to create invitations in the Apple Invites app for the iPhone, which launched in the App Store last month.
In the Apple Invites app, iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations for any occasion, such as birthday parties, graduations, baby showers, and more. Anyone ...
We're not getting new Siri Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.4 as expected, but the upcoming update does have quite a few new additions that will be worth upgrading for. We've rounded up the five best features to look forward to, and if you're not running the beta, you can expect to get access to these in early April.
Priority Notifications
If you have an iPhone or iPad that supports...
Thursday March 20, 2025 2:04 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the first iOS 19 beta is still more than two months away, there are already plenty of rumors about the upcoming software update.
Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors so far.
visionOS-Like Design
In January, the YouTube channel Front Page Tech revealed a redesigned Camera app that is allegedly planned for iOS 19.
According to Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser, the Camera app...
Apple today seeded the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released the fourth betas.
iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update.
With iOS 18.4, Apple is adding the Priority Notifications...
Apple today announced that AirPods Max with a USB-C port will be gaining support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio with a firmware update next month, alongside the release of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4.
For context, audio files are typically compressed to keep file sizes smaller. There are lossy compression standards like MP3, and Apple's own Advanced Audio Codec...
Apple will launch its long-rumored foldable iPhone next year with a ~$2,000 premium price tag attached, expects well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman.
Gurman's comments on Apple's launch plans for its first foldable device appeared in the Q&A section of his latest Power On newsletter. Earlier this month, the reporter said Apple's foldable iPhone could be arriving "as early as 2026,"...
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Apple is planning "one of the most dramatic software overhauls in the company's history" – an update that aims to bring iOS, iPadOS, and macOS into closer visual alignment. The redesign is said to be "loosely based" on visionOS, the software behind Apple's Vision Pro headset, and will reportedly update the look of icons, menus, apps, windows, and...
I know! I have a Mac Plus and I'm outraged...OUTRAGED that Apple doesn't support that at all. I bought that in 1986 and it's still working fine. How DARE Apple not support this anymore with software updates and programs. They're just trying to get me to spend more money with them. No. Thank. You. I spent enough back then and it's still working so why upgrade?
So I feel for the PPC users out there. It's only been 6 years since they switched to Intel and those PPC Macs have at least another 20 to 25 years left on them.
But seriously, I don't know how people work on those old machines. I have a 2008 MacBook Pro and that's getting to be slow as molasses in working with Photoshop and Lightroom. And don't even get me started on Aperture...that takes forever. I will do an adjustment then the CPU pegs to red and you wait and wait and wait for the adjustment to actually show up. It's not like I'm running out of RAM either as I have 8 gigs in this thing.
I guess if I was just surfing the web and doing emails or something, a PPC would still be okay. I just can't fathom doing Photoshop on them, but I guess some people do it all the time. But come on...time marches onward. Do you really expect Apple to keep developers around that code for the PPC with new products?
Why would you expect new functions to be back-ported to old OS versions? As a software vendor myself, I don't know why anyone would do this-- the development and support costs are non-trivial. Users do need to pay for this, and maintenance fees or upgrades are alternative ways. A $30 upgrade fee seems pretty reasonable to me.
I'm not complaining about the price - in fact, I already own Lion. But for a variety of reasons that I won't go into right now, upgrading will take a lot of effort, and I'm not willing to do it quite yet. It's alright though; I'm not exactly an author. But I look forward to playing around with this.
"Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac."
Oh great. Now anyone can write a textbook! You don't need to be a scholar or even an authority. All you need is an opinion, time, and a Mac. I can't wait for the "textbooks" on how the world was created in seven days.
Yeah, that whole freedom of speech and freedom of the press thing really sucks.
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Holly crap! You have 3 other options: Windows, Linux and Google Chrome. No one is forcing you to buy Lion.
If you've been following along for the past 12 years, every new version of OS X has been worse than the last, according to the peanut gallery. These people should just stick with 10.0 and be happy with that.
This is just trolling or plain stupidity. I'm sorry, but a $29 upgrade to Lion shouldn't break the bank for anybody who had enough money to purchase a Mac in the first place .... much less complaining about it as a requirement to use some FREE publishing software they're offering people.
I don't get all the anti-10.7 sentiment out there anyway? Sure, there are situations where you won't want to upgrade a given machine past Snow Leopard. I've got one Mac like that myself. (You may still rely on older apps that require Rosetta to run because they're still coded for the old PPC architecture.) But the same was said about "Classic" MacOS, and eventually, 99.9% of us managed to move forward and let go of some outdated software that wasn't ever upgraded to run OS X native.
There's actually quite a bit "wrong" with 10.6. For example, it has a lot of security weaknesses they overcame in 10.7. There's also a lot of "little stuff" improved in 10.7 that's simply nice to have -- such as the elimination of auto key repeat when you hold down a keyboard key for several seconds. (Who ever really used that, ever since the days of trying to draw artwork on line printers, made of lines and lines of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and what-not?) Instead, 10.7 does something sensible -- cycles a letter through various accent-marked versions for you.
Apple, one of the most cash rich corps in the world and this s/ware is for the latest version of Lion only? Talk about trying to screw everyone in a time of global recession. WTF is wrong with 10.6?
