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iBooks 1.3 Released: Adds Read-Aloud Feature, Enhancements

A new update to iBooks for iPhone and iPad has started propagating in iTunes, bringing the app to version 1.3 after the major announcements from yesterday’s keynote, which also noted iCloud’s capability of pushing book purchases across devices with the new Automatic Downloads feature. iBooks 1.3, available here, adds a read-aloud option with real narrators’ voices to read a book to, say, your children, with some books even highlighting words as the narrator speaks. Alongside media improvements to enhanced books, the changelog reports:

  • Help your children learn to read with the new read-aloud feature included in select children’s books from the iBookstore.
  • The read-aloud feature uses a real narrator to read the book to you, and in some books, it will even highlight the words as you read along.
  • Enhanced books can now automatically play audio or video included with the book.
  • Makes iBooks more responsive when opening very long books.
  • Addresses an issue where some books may display the same page twice.

We heard last night several reports of iOS 5 beta “corrupting” books and .epub files in iBooks, so it’s likely that this update will also bring early iOS 5 compatibility and fix those issues. Get iBooks 1.3 here.

Hands-On with iTunes’ Purchase History for Apps, Songs, and Books


iTunes 10.3 was released a couple of hours ago and one of the new features it brings is a ‘Purchased’ screen that lists every song, app and book that you have ever downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store or iBookstore. You can get to the ‘Purchased’ screen simply by going to the iTunes Store homepage and clicking “Purchased” from the sidebar on the right of your screen(see below), it should also have a ‘New’ tag beside it, at which point it will take you to ‘Purchased’ screen.

The ‘Purchased’ screen is a really  handy feature to easily and quickly find a previous purchase and instantly download it or even download all of your previous purchases with just one click. The feature, which is also included in iOS 5, is part of Apple’s iCloud, which was unveiled at yesterday’s WWDC keynote. The ‘Purchased’ screen also gives you some fairly powerful tools to find the exact purchase you want, either from just searching, only displaying items not downloaded to your iTunes library or just list the purchases alphabetically.

Make sure to jump the break for a whole slew of screenshots that demonstrate the new feature from iTunes 10.3 (for developers, this feature is also present in iTunes 10.5).

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Financial Times Doesn’t Implement iOS Subscriptions, Launches HTML5 Web App

In spite of earlier reports claiming that the Financial Times was still negotiating with Apple over the implementation of app subscriptions for newspapers, the publication has announced today the availability of a new HTML5 web app built to fully take advantage of the iPhone and iPad unique capabilities. As Apple has started requiring developers and publishers to use subscriptions in their apps with recurring payments, asking to give away a 30% cut off every transaction, the Financial Times stated multiple times in the past a deal couldn’t be negotiated with Apple unless the company changed its terms. The Financial Times said the app “could go somewhere else” hinting at a native application for Android devices, though in today’s press release the FT clearly states the browser-based app was developed with iOS Safari in mind, with optimized versions for other Android devices and BlackBerry PlayBook coming in the next months. FT has even posted a lengthy FAQ on the difference between native apps and HTML5 here.

As for the app itself, it’s pretty slick and can be accessed for free during launch week, but a subscription will be required to read more than 10 articles a month once the promo is over. For as much as the web app comes with its perks like automatic updates and browser access, when using it on my iPhone 4 I noticed performances were far from “fast”, even after increasing the database size like the app suggested. Text takes a while to render sharply on the iPhone’s screen, images are slow to download and scrolling isn’t of course as smooth as a native app. I’m sure some of these problems are related to the fact that the web app just went live and perhaps the FT needs to re-optimize everything, but I wonder if the average reader will notice the aforementioned issues when comparing the web-based FT with any app from Apple’s iOS 5 Newsstand. However, I’m impressed by the design of the app on the iPad, the menus and buttons implemented by the developers, and the rich content made of photos and videos available through a web browser. Performance problems aside, the FT surely has dropped a well-design app that doesn’t require Apple’s approval.

This is our best app yet, and it is an important step in our strategy of providing multi-channel access to our global journalism quickly and simply,” said John Ridding, CEO of the Financial Times. “The FT Web App offers our customers flexibility and freedom of choice with access to our global journalism anytime, anywhere, with a single login or subscription. In a world of increasingly digital complexity we want to keep our service simple, easy to use and efficient to offer our customers the best possible experience of FT journalism.

Other features include:

  • Reading offline – saving a shortcut to your home screen so you can read it offline, at any time, just like one of our existing apps
  • Web browser access – no download needed
  • All access – one registration or subscription will offer customers access to FT content through a range of devices or on a PC
  • Speed – the new app offers improved performance
  • Automatic updates – instant product improvements with no need to download new versions of the app
  • Specific to smartphones – a completely new and improved design, inclusion of images and FT video content, a new currency converter
  • Specific to tablets – new content from FT Blogs

The new Financial Times web app is available here. Check out the official promo video below.

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OmniVision and Sony to Supply 8-Megapixel Camera for iPhone 5

According to a new report from Digitimes, camera image sensor supplier OmniVision has won “significant orders” for Apple’s next-generation iPhone, set to debut later this year. Whilst OmniVision has been the selected supplier for image sensors in previous generation iPhones, iPods and iPads, surprisingly enough Digitimes claims 90% of orders will be supplied by OmniVision, with Sony shipping another 10% of units.

OmniVision has grabbed a majority of total CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders placed by Apple for the fifth-generation iPhone, market sources have claimed. Meanwhile, power amplifier (PA) supplier Avago Technologies has landed orders for the WCDMA version of the device for its first time, according to the sources.

About 90% of the CIS orders for Apple’s new iPhone will be supplied by OmniVision, while Sony takes up the remainder, the sources said. The upcoming device will feature a built-in 8-megapixel camera, the sources added.

Speculation about the iPhone 5’s camera in the past months arose to a new level when a rumor claimed Sony would be the only supplier for the device’s camera. With other reports claiming the statement from Sony CEO Howard Stinger were largely a misunderstanding or inventions from bloggers, it wasn’t clear why Apple would choose Sony over the long-time partner OmniVision, which in the meantime announced a variety of new sensors including improved 5 MP, 8 MP and 10 MP ones, some of them with 1080p capabilities.

A few weeks ago, alleged iPhone 5 parts surfaced showing a different camera flash position and thus re-igniting speculation about a different camera module in the iPhone 5, rumored to be a “minor” hardware refresh.

iTunes 10.3 Available for Download

A few hours later than initially expected after Apple updated the official page to show a new version number, iTunes 10.3 was finally made available for download last night, while developers were already able to install the new iTunes 10.5 beta from the Dev Center. iTunes 10.3, however, brings to the public new iCloud-related features unveiled by Apple yesterday, such as iTunes in the Cloud “beta” to push songs across all your devices (but still no mention of iTunes Match), Automatic Downloads, and previous purchases – a handy new functionality to see all the apps and songs you purchases from Apple’s iTunes / App Store and re-download them at any time.

From the changelog:

  • Introducing iTunes in the Cloud beta. The music you purchase in iTunes appears automatically on all your devices. You can also download your past iTunes purchases. Where you want, when you want.
  • Automatic Downloads. Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.
  • Download Previous Purchases. Download your past music purchases again at no additional cost. Your purchases are available in the iTunes Store on your Mac or in the iTunes app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.
  • iTunes 10.3 also adds Books to the iTunes Store, where you can discover and buy your favorite books on your computer and automatically download them to iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. This version also allows you to use Automatic Downloads with apps and books or download previously purchased apps and books from your computer or iOS device.

iTunes 10.3 is now available for download here.

iOS 5 Already Jailbroken

As tweeted by MuscleNerd an hour ago, the screenshots above show an iPod touch 4th generation running the iOS 5 beta seeded to developers last night and already jailbroken to install Cydia. According to MuscleNerd, there aren’t “many surprises” here, as the device was jailbroken using the existing limera1n code and a tethered boot from a computer.

What this means for jailbreakers is still unclear. There have been jailbreaks for early iOS betas in the past, though in most cases the Dev Team preferred to wait for a public release before unleashing the necessary code to install Cydia on iOS devices. Furthermore, the exploit that allowed MuscleNerd to jailbreak his iPod touch is likely based on bootroom holes found in the past months on the iPhone and iPod touch – meaning, there’s no confirmation whatsoever iPad 2 users will get a proper jailbreak once iOS 5 comes out this fall / more betas are releases throughout the summer. Still, the images above show the new iOS 5 with Newsstand and Reminders running alongside Cydia – that’s a good start.

Safari 5.1 Developer Preview Released

As a last update to the various Dev Centers that a few hours ago received new betas of iOS, OS X Lion and iCloud for developers, Apple has also posted the Safari 5.1 Developer Preview that, as seen on Lion (running 5.1 out of the box), will bring some of the browser’s latest advancements to Snow Leopard. According to Apple:

You can now download Safari 5.1 Developer Preview and take advantage of new technologies, including support for full-screen webpages, media caching with the HTML5 application cache, and better graphics acceleration on Windows.

With Safari 5.1 Developer Preview, you can tap into new extension APIs, including support for popovers, menus, new event classes, and interaction with Reader.

The Developer Preview can be downloaded now from the Safari Dev Center.

iBookstore Finally Comes To iTunes

With an update to the iTunes Store, Apple is now finally allowing iPhone and iPad users to download iBooks on their Macs, and send them to their iOS devices. Announced with a banner that just went live in the iTunes Store homepage, the new Books section is available here and, as you would expect from the feature iOS users have been asking for almost a year now, it’s simply the iBookstore available on the desktop.

You can browse Staff Favorites, add items to your Wish List, check out the “Best of the month” and “popular pre-orders”. Everything seen on the iBookstore for iOS has been ported to a new section in the iTunes Store for desktop computers, which doesn’t require an iTunes update. With the new “Automatic Downloads” functionality that went live earlier today, you’ll be able to buy a book on your computer and instantly see it available on your iPhone or iPad with a download happening in the background.

At the moment of writing this, there doesn’t seem to be a desktop iBooks app, which was rumored in the past months to be in the works as an alternative for the iOS ebook reader. Check out more screenshots below. Read more

The Big WWDC 2011 Keynote Roundup

Apple unleashed a volley of updates this afternoon to iOS, OS X, and introduced the new iCloud that’s bound to make an Apple user blush with excitement. With notifications, over the air updates, AirDrop, and wireless file syncing, Apple is addressing nearly all of the complaints I can think of from users across the board.

We’ve covered a lot on MacStories this afternoon between our detailed posts where you can learn more about new and popular features, to our live blog where we consolidated all of the news into once place. Below, you’ll find a briefing on what’s new in all of these components, and how they fit together in Apple’s vision of the future.

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