Finally got my Apple ebook settlement check…

Posted in ebooks, Politics & Law Tagged with: apple

Waking up just got an upgrade

Then (this morning):

Now (tomorrow morning):

Header image CC Clemens v. Vogelsang

Posted in Tech Tagged with: amazon, apple

Friday Video: iPhone 6s – Timer – Behind The Scenes

Posted in Fun, video Tagged with: apple, muppets

Tuesday Tech Tip: Presenting from an iPad using AirPlay

Today was my first time using an iPad to demo an app using an AppliTV and AirPlay to mirror my screen onto a large display. The tip: Turn off screen rotation while presenting lest every time you lower your arm and have the iPad by you leg, the screen rotates for your whole audience.

Posted in Tech Tagged with: airplay, apple, tips

Tuesday Tech Tip: Camera Grid-lines in iOS7

Here’s an Apple-product tech tip. If you’d like to see gridlines in the camera app you can turn them on, but not in the camera app. Head to Settings, then Photos & Camera. There you’ll find an on/off slider labeled Grid. Change accordingly.

Posted in Tech Tagged with: apple, camera, ios, photography

Apple’s mobile devices have a secret list of “sensitive” words that don’t autocomplete

It’s stuff like this that makes me less and less likely to ever buy another Apple device.

The Daily Beast investigated the autocomplete on Apple Ios devices (Iphones, Ipads, etc), and discovered that there was a long list of “sensitive” words that the devices have in their dictionary but would not autocomplete — you would have to type them out in full to get them into your device. This list includes words such as “abortion,” “rape,” “ammo,” and “bullet.” They documented their methodology in detail.

Read the full article @ BoingBoing.

Posted in Tech Tagged with: apple, censorship

Judge: Apple Conspired To Price-Fix eBooks

U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote’s ruling in the non-jury trial sets back what Apple claimed all along: that their discussions with the five major book publishers was merely doing business in a new marketplace for Apple.

Read the full article @ ReadWrite.com.

For a great overview of the whole case consider spending $1.99 for  The Battle of $9.99: How Apple, Amazon, and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book Business Overnight by Andrew Richard Albanese.

Update: Here’s the full text of the judge’s ruling:

Posted in ebooks, Politics & Law Tagged with: apple, ibooks, publishers

Apple’s prudish ways

In our eReader workshop yesterday several students early on in the day got the impression that I was an Apple fanboy. When I quickly disabused them of that idea, they asked why I wasn’t. One of the main reasons I gave was the company’s prudish nature to what can go on their devices. My co-presenter later told me that she was unaware of that issue. Well, case in point from recent news:

Apple Deems 55 Digital Comics Too Hot for In-App Buying

On Tuesday, comiXology announced, via its blog, that several comics had been removed from the apps “In order to comply with the Apple App Store guidelines regarding adult or inappropriate content, some new releases were rejected for our iOS app this week. In addition, certain previously released titles that fall outside of these guidelines were also rejected and will be removed from sale.”

Read the full article @ goodereads.

P.S. If you’re interested Chester 5000 is also available for free online reading via the author’s blog. (NSFW)

Posted in Books, ebooks Tagged with: apple, sex

DOJ: Steve Jobs E-Mails Show That Apple Engaged In E-Book Price-Fixing

Both the publishers and Apple have denied any collusion, but a newly uncovered e-mail from late Apple co-founder and turtlenecked figurehead Steve Jobs to James Murdoch of News Corp (parent company of HarperCollins, one of the sued publishers and a former employer of yours truly) seems to indicate that its Jobs who came up with the pricing scheme.

“Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99,” wrote Jobs.

Two days later, HarperCollins signed a deal with Apple that made agency pricing its standard model for all e-book sellers.

The DOJ also alleges that when Random House resisted the shift to the agency model, Jobs threatened to block the publisher’s e-book application from being distributed through the Apple app store. After Random House gave in, the Apple exec in charge of its e-books deals wrote to Jobs saying that part of the reason the publisher ultimately agreed was “the fact that I prevented an app from Random House from going live in the app store.”

Another document uncovered by the DOJ shows Random House’s top executive saying his company had been counseled by Apple to withhold e-books from Amazon in order to get the company to accept agency pricing.

Read the full article on The Consumerist.

Posted in ebooks, Politics & Law Tagged with: amazon, apple, publishers

Who Has Your Back?

When you use the Internet, you entrust your conversations, thoughts, experiences, locations, photos, and more to companies like Google, AT&T and Facebook. But what do these companies do when the government demands your private information? Do they stand with you? Do they let you know what’s going on?

In this annual report, the Electronic Frontier Foundation examined the policies of major Internet companies — including ISPs, email providers, cloud storage providers, location-based services, blogging platforms, and social networking sites — to assess whether they publicly commit to standing with users when the government seeks access to user data. The purpose of this report is to incentivize companies to be transparent about how data flows to the government and encourage them to take a stand for user privacy whenever it is possible to do so.

We compiled the information in this report by examining each company’s published terms of service, privacy policy, transparency report, and guidelines for law enforcement requests, if any. We also considered the company’s public record of fighting for user privacy in the courts and whether it is a member of the Digital Due Process coalition, which encourages Congress to improve outdated communications law. Finally, we contacted each company to explain our findings and gave them an opportunity to provide evidence of improved policies and practices. These categories are not the only ways that a company can stand up for users, of course, but they are important and publicly verifiable. In addition, not every company has faced a decision about whether to stand up for users in the courts, but we wanted to particularly commend those companies who have done so when given with the opportunity.

Read all the details @ EFF.org.

Posted in Politics & Law Tagged with: apple, google, isp, privacy