Apple books

Back when Apple Music put out its 100 Best Albums of all time list, some people expressed shock at the No. 1 pick — 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. And now they might be shocked they’re being asked to pay a whopping $450 for a fancy-schmancy, limited-edition coffee-table book version of the whole list. That seems like an Apple move, doesn’t it? But if you’re into it, act fast — only 1,500 copies exist.

However, before you do … you know you could buy an M1 or maybe an M2 Mac mini with that $450, right? Just sayin’.

As always on the third Monday in January, Apple’s homepage honors the memory of slain Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.

It’s his national holiday. And this year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day you can download a free book that collects the man’s greatest writings.

There’s nothing like cracking open the ol’ iPad to the next page of the book you can’t put down — thanks to Apple Books. And now you can find your next great read from the service’s most-popular books of 2023 and enjoy a Year in Review with insights into the books and authors you enjoyed, Apple said Tuesday.

When former Apple design honcho Jony Ive released his super-premium Apple design book in 2016, a lot of folks thought it was an overpriced ego trip. After all, Designed by Apple in California went for $299 for the large size and $199 for the small size.

And now? Well, now you’d be lucky to get the fancy coffee-table books for dollar amounts in the high hundreds and low thousands.

The Steve Jobs Archive released its first book Tuesday, Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words. It’s a memoir of sorts because almost everything in it comes directly from Jobs, from major speeches and interviews to emails he sent to himself. It covers the Apple co-founder’s life from a young age until he passed away in 2011.

The new book includes never-before-seen content, the archive said, and it’s free from multiple sources.

It’s annoying when a book you want to read doesn’t have an audiobook version — they’re great while you’re driving, doing dishes or folding laundry. Apple is now offering authors AI-generated audiobooks of their work. Novels you otherwise wouldn’t be able to hear, you can now find in the Apple Books app. Let me show you how you can find and listen to them if you’re curious.

As it has done over the past several years on this national holiday, Apple dedicated most of its homepage Monday to honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Along with a photo of King preaching at the pulpit, this quote by him urging a response to the Vietnam War appeared: “This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive education.”

And the Cupertino tech giant offered a book by King for free on Apple Books.

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Every company doing perfectly reputable, above-board business today needs a crisp and descriptive LinkedIn profile. And yes, that includes harrowingly evil and entirely fictitious firms like “Lumon Industries.”

That’s right. Lumon, the ominous company that serves as a setting in the creepy drama Severance on Apple TV+, has a new LinkedIn profile. And it attempts to set the record straight about what some people are saying about the company.

Don’t tell Lumon Industries I’m saying this — and later I may not even remember writing it — but Apple Books may be about to blow the lid off this whole “severance” thing.

On Friday it plans to release a “tell-all” book about the sinister company at the center of the chilling drama series Severance on Apple TV+.

In the tradition of media personalities helming book clubs — Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon — Apple Books welcomes a new book club with a new host. The Canadian is not exactly a household name in the U.S., but he has a track record with Apple. It’s Apple Music Hits live radio host George “Strombo” Stroumboulopoulos, who said in a tweet on Tuesday he’s going literary.

The new club is called Strombo’s Lit. Bookworms in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia can check it out now on the Apple Books app.

In recognition of Heart Month, aka February, Apple is rolling out a series of new activity challenge and heart-health resources to support users’ efforts to stay healthy.

Also toward that end, the company hopes you’ll learn a thing or two from preliminary trends shown in the Apple Heart and Movement Study.

To mark World AIDS Day, Apple celebrated 15 years of fighting AIDS with Product Red on Wednesday. The company also outlined new ways customers can support its ongoing efforts — like buying Red versions of iPhone 13 and Apple Watch Series 7.

Through December 6, Apple will donate $1 to the Global Fund for every purchase made with Apple Pay at an Apple Store, through the Apple Store online and in the Apple Store app.

If you’re looking for a holiday gift for an Apple fan, consider The Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition. This great-looking coffee table book about the Apple community is on sale right now for just $9.99 — a whopping 71% off.

Co-written by David Pierini and yours truly, the gorgeously designed, full-color book details many aspects of the Apple fan universe.

Creating a killer app isn’t the only way to make an honest buck in the Apple ecosystem. You can publish an ebook quickly and easily on Apple Books.

It’s a straightforward way to sell your ideas, and doesn’t require any coding. In fact, the only software you need is probably installed on your Mac already: Pages. You still need to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the writing. But publishing an ebook using Pages takes very little effort. And the ebooks you create support a surprising amount of functionality.

This guide will show you how to publish an ebook to Apple Books using Pages.

With the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) turning 105 years old, Apple said today it will donate $10 for purchases of its products from official sales points to the National Park Foundation (NPF) through August 29. The Cupertino tech giant will also share new ways for customers to learn about and celebrate America’s parks.

Apple will highlight the contributions of women to society in many ways during Women’s History Month, including suggesting relevant outstanding books, podcasts and apps. It also plans virtual Today at Apple sessions led by female creators.

Plus, there’ll be an International Women’s Day Apple Watch Activity Challenge for March 8, and there’ll be other ways of observing this day.

With the year winding down, Apple picked its favorite podcasts, books and audiobooks of 2020. The offerings “kept us entertained, made us think, provided a much-needed escape, or filled our hearts up,“ noted Apple.

All the recommendations are, of course, available through Apple Podcasts or Apple Books.

Apple is offering users in the U.S. (and hopefully elsewhere soon) a selection of free books and audiobooks to help while away the hours while in self-isolation.

A push notification Apple sent out Sunday advises customers to “enjoy a good book, on us.” It reads as follows:

Our new book about the Apple community, The Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition, is finally available in book stores and on Amazon.

To celebrate, we’re throwing a book-signing party tonight at the publisher’s HQ in San Francisco — and all Cult of Mac readers are invited. Please join me and the book’s award-winning designer, Derek Yee, at the No Starch Press offices. There will be a big sale (and free Chinese food, too)!

Designer Derek Yee asked himself why there weren’t any books about Macs that looked like MacBooks.

So when the assignment came across his desk to design The Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition, he thought that making the upcoming book’s cover look and open like a silvery MacBook Pro was a winning idea.

His colleagues at No Starch Press weren’t so sure.

Whether you’re buying for yourself or a friend or family member, there’s no shortage of great books about Apple. But with so many millions of words written about the Cupertino company over the years, which books most deserve your time?

Allow Cult of Mac‘s gift guide to fill you in on the 10 Apple books that deserve space on your shelf.

Apple fans run on their own colorful OS that seems nearly impossible to hack. This growing subculture is worthy of study — and a place on your coffee table! You can get to know some of the world’s biggest Apple fans, thanks to the rich stories and colorful photographs in The Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition, by Leander Kahney and David Pierini.

The book, which hits stores Dec. 17, is much more than an update to Kahney’s 2006 book, The Cult of Mac (which gave this blog its name). Now available for preorder from Amazon, the second edition is a companion volume crammed with new stories and pictures. All told, they paint a picture of a uniquely devoted community.

Excerpted from Live from Cupertino: How Apple Used Words, Music, and Performance to Build the World’s Best Sales Machine by Michael Hageloh and Tim Vandehey.

Prologue: What were once devices are now habits

When I set out to write this book, one of my goals was to see if I could insult fifty million people in one sentence. Here goes. Years ago, before I was excommunicated from New York City and became a resident of Texas (a state so backward that someone in our town once asked my wife and me if being Jewish was like being Catholic), I lived in Florida, which is so appealing to the unbalanced that when I took the “Florida Challenge” (where you google “Florida man” and your birthday to see what kind of headlines pop up) for April 24, the first result read, “Florida man kisses venomous snake and is immediately bitten on the lips.”

Mission accomplished. Now, let’s move on.

Oprah’s Book Club has landed in Apple Books, connecting readers worldwide to “stories that truly matter by today’s most thought-provoking authors.”

Its arrival comes weeks before Oprah’s new TV show kicks off on Apple TV+. A new episode will air every two months, and every title selected will be available from Apple Books.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates is Winfrey’s first selection, and you can preorder it now in ebook and audiobook formats ahead of its debut tomorrow, September 24.

Apple’s plan to ditch iTunes starts this fall with the release of macOS Catalina, which will offer standalone apps for Music, Podcasts, and TV.

WWDC offered a brief glimpse at how other things — like syncing iOS devices — would work after the update. Now Apple has published a new support document that explains everything for those who are still confused.

The document promises that “all of your favorite iTunes features” will still be available in Catalina. And it tells you where they will be.