This Blog Is Now Over And Done With

Apple: Kill My Blog, Please!

Apple didn’t do what I expected. Yet I still expect them to.

I can either stick around spinning my wheels until then or use my time productively.

Without this blog, I will have time …

How To Build An ePub eBook Library For Your iPad

As everyone’s anticipation to own an iPad increases, I’ve discovered that some Mac owners have never dipped into the ePub eBook pool.

This post is a brief guide to building a library of DRM-free and legally-free ePub eBooks.

Web Designers: Wake Up And Smell The Touchscreen Coffee!

Steve Jobs at Apple Town Hall Meeting on Google, Adobe, Next iPhone, 2010 Macs and More

This is your very, very early wake-up call:

New Macs for 2010 are going to take Apple to the next level

Touchscreens are coming to the Mac.

There will be one later this year.

What are you going to do about that?

A REAL Justification For Apple Censorship?

I’ve raged against Apple several times in regard to censorship.

As it turns out, there’s more to that story and it’s come out just recently: The Apple Soft Porn Store

The core problem is this: none of the parental controls actually remove restricted-rating applications from App Store searches and browsing. All the restrictions do is prevent purchase of the app.

And so Apple is pulling out those apps: Apple Reversing Policy on Smut Apps?

It strikes me that, although this wasn’t what I asked for, it’s probably less effort for Apple than trying to clarify the conflation of “contains smut” and “loads web pages” that the current ratings policy requires.

OK, I can understand Apple doing this.

But what I cannot understand is how in the world Parental Controls still allow adult apps to be seen in App Store listings?! The apps listed should be tied to the Parental Controls. I thought that was the case all along — because that makes sense. If this is a hole that’s existed all this time, it’s brain-dead stupid of Apple to have let it gone on for so long. I hope they will fix it.

And oh, all those apps that were adult in nature yet listed themselves with an Age Rating of 4+ — meaning safe for those only four years old and above? — they should be permanently banned from the App Store for that.

It’s never been my intent for children to see things intended for adult buyers.

I think this is yet another reason why the App Store needs librarians.

Previously here:

Apple’s Two-Faced Censorship At Work Again
Another Day, Another DoubleDumb Apple Book Rejection!
Apple: Get The Hell Out Of Your Own Way!

Previously at Mike Cane 2008:

Apple Approves Of Shooting Nurses In The Face!
God Bless Writer Derek Raymond
How Many Of THESE eBooks Will Apple Ban?
Apple Bans ANOTHER Book From App Store!
Apple And A Tale Of Two Bannings
Apple Forfeits eBooks By Banning A Comic Book!

The Threshold

Every. Thing. Changes. Tomorrow.

Apple Wednesday January 27, 2010 Preview

Not a timeline; an aggregation:

1) New version of iWork
– demonstrated on a conventional Mac
– later demonstrated on the iSlate/iPad
– then demonstrated on the iPhone
– digital book creation demonstrated — writers pay attention to this!

2) iSlate/iPad
– new UI demonstrated
– gaming demonstrations
– video demonstration
– eBook demonstration
– digital book demonstration — with a sample from Disney

3) iSlate/iPad dock
– with surprises

4) Apple Digital Book Store
– Children
– Young Adult
– Adult

5) New iWork.com
– collaboration features via iSlate/iPad

And one hell of a surprise.

Sales for the first year of iSlate/iPod will exceed sales of all models of Macintosh combined for that year, at least in the U.S..

Kobo: We’ll Have iSlate eBooks In February

They are very sly about that in this press release:

KOBO ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY FOR TABLET COMPUTERS IN FEBRUARY 2010

Applications in Development for Windows 7, Android, and Additional Operating Systems

TORONTO, ON — January 22, 2010— With applications in development for Windows 7, Android and additional operating systems, Kobo, Inc. today announced that the service will be available for various tablet and slate computers in February 2010. Kobo (www.kobobooks.com) is a global eReading service that offers mobile applications on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm Pre, as well as support for netbooks and dedicated eReaders, like the Sony eReader. Kobo’s selection of popular books includes more than two million titles with content from major publishers including Random House, Harper Collins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Harlequin.

“This announcement is in line with our mission to deliver the best eReading experience on any device,” said Michael Serbinis, Chief Executive Officer of Kobo. “2010 is proving to be the year of the tablet and we are working with major OEMs to ensure that Kobo apps are made available on those devices. Tablets give Kobo an opportunity to deliver eBooks, newspapers, and magazines to readers on yet another screen that is well equipped for reading.”

Free Kobo applications for tablet computers will be available beginning February 2010. Kobo’s applications will provide support for Windows 7, Android, and other key operating systems. Running on these platforms, Kobo will remain in sync across various devices, allowing users to read on their iPhone then switch to their tablet and continue where they left off.

Core to Kobo’s strategy is making eReading available everywhere and on any device, and the company believes the tablet platform is a significant new form factor for eReading. Kobo aggressively supports open standards like ePUB format, which gives readers the flexibility to read on any device.

Boldfaced red emphasis added by me.

Kobo is being aggressive here, pre-empting whatever publisher announcements happen on Wednesday. Barnes & Noble can’t be happy. Nor Amazon.

But Kobo customers will be.

Kobo Books

Previously here:

Shortcovers Changes Name, Goes Galactica

The Apple TV That Isn’t But Will Be

I stated earlier that Apple is going to need a YouTube-like service to snatch away all of those videos being fed into Google’s advertising wallet by iPhones (and soon probably the next-gen iPod Touch too).

Apple TV would be a natural name for it. But that domain is taken.

Apple watchers, keep your eye on that. At some point, Apple will have them evicted.

Macintosh History: The Lost Art Of Trici Venola

The mid-1980s were a great time to be a Mac fanatic.

The machine was new, developers were coming out with neat stuff for it, and even though there wasn’t an Internet, we all felt connected through magazines, Bulletin-Board Systems (BBSes), CompuServe, user groups, newsletters, and the floppy disk service EduComp.

One of the stars of that period was a young woman artist named Trici Venola.

Her artwork was seemingly everywhere and it was easy to spot because of her very distinctive style.

One of the things she worked on was Foundation Software’s Comic Strip Factory. But I remember her most from her work for MacWeek, a weekly electronic magazine that was distributed via BBSes and those EduComp floppy disks. (This MacWeek was before there was a weekly tabloid on paper.)

Oh yes, kids, long before there was a Palm Pilot and Peanut Press and Fictionwise doing eBooks, there were electronic publications. And the Macintosh had the best. MacWeek was memorable due to the passion of Jerry Daniels, Mary Jane Mara, and the artwork of Trici Venola.

For an upcoming post about screen design for publishing, I tracked down Trici (she is currently enjoying life in Turkey). I asked for one thing, didn’t get it, but wound up with some delightful lost Macintosh history that I’m excited to show everyone.

It’s a comic strip done for the MacUnderground, an early online service for Macintosh users.

Trici doesn’t remember, but I met her briefly at Foundation Publishing’s booth at CES in Chicago way back when. Doug Clapp (where’d he go?) was manning the booth and Trici was there too. She showed me her mouse finger and how it was bent inward. She drew all of her work by mouse. Keep that in mind!

After the break, words from Trici herself and some sample panels.

Apple: Kill My Blog, Please!

I never intended this blog to be a just about every day thing.

But I got fed up with the crap I saw circulating about books, publishing, eBooks, etc.

And I had to go open my big mouth.

Because there was no one else countering any of it.

Especially after I woke up from the eInk nightmare that had been pimped by others.

Next week, Apple unveils its seekrit creation. Which, despite recent trademark filings, I still expect to be called the iSlate. Because, as I posted, iPad has ownership conflicts.

Anyway, I expect four things from Apple:

1) The iSlate — I still expect one with a seven-inch, not ten-inch, screen. But any damned size would do at this point.

2) Apple announcing digital books for it. (Hello, Disney?)

3) Digital books given a real marketplace — not just lumped together with free games and eejitastic fart apps as they have been in the App Store.

4) A new version of iWork — with digital book creation ability for all.

Do that, Apple, and this blog is dead.

You will be settling the crap I’ve had to argue about for months now. I’ll have nothing more I will have to say.

I’ll be able to shut this blog and I get back to reading books (Derek Raymond is waiting!) and my own damned writing.

If Apple does what I expect, this blog is d-e-d on January 31st.

Some people out there will rejoice. But they were morons to begin with and will remain so after I’m gone.