Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has lost its latest attempt to soften the impact of its ebook price-fixing punishment, with a court rejecting its appeal to stay the work of the mandated antitrust monitor … Continue reading

‘Tis the season for giving, ain’t it? If that is the case, then you might as well check out the upgraded ability of the iBooks apps for iOS 7, where Apple now allows you to purchase iBooks for someone else via its gifting system. Hmmm, someone had better come up with some sort of virtual Christmas tree so that the recipient will be able to open up all of the virtual presents received on December 25th itself, and this time around, since the app will be software controlled, there will be no incidences of peeking beforehand to see what you have been gifted. Back to reality, as Apple has finally played catch up with Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem, where the latter has long ago paved the way for e-book gifting.

Needless to say, the introduction of being able to gift iBooks to another person, a friend or a relative, could not arrive at a more suitable time considering how Christmas is just one week away. Best of all is, you need not duke it out with the mad holiday shopping crowd, jostling your elbows at the check out counter and having to endure extremely long queues. Do bear in mind that iBooks gifting support has been extended to the desktop area as well.

iBooks For Your Friends As A Gift original content from Ubergizmo.

In real-life, one is able to gift friends and family just about anything, such as albums, clothing, toys, gadgets, books, and etc., but online is a different story, at least as far as digital content is concerned. As it stands in the iTunes Store, users will be able to gift things such as songs, apps, and videos, but oddly enough the option to gift iBooks has not yet been included, probably because Apple and book publishers have yet to work out an agreement regarding such an option. Well it looks like in the meantime, Apple has filed for a patent that would allow users to gift iBooks in the future, and instead of merely presenting the book in a digital format, it will allow for a bit of personalization.

For example during the course of reading an iBook, the reader might come across a phrase of a paragraph within the book that reminds them of someone. By highlighting that portion of text, they will then get the option of sending that iBook they are reading as a gift, with the ability to use the snippet as a gift message, or have a personalized message incorporated into the file itself (we’re guessing this is why publishers and Apple have yet to come to an agreement since it would essentially modifying the content of the book). Once the gift has been sent and the sender appropriately debited, the receiver of the gift has the option of accepting it, declining it in which the money is refunded, or re-gifting it which isn’t very nice to be honest. There’s no telling when the ability to gift iBooks will come into effect, but for now Apple has made sure to get ready for it.

Apple Patents Method For Gifting iBooks original content from Ubergizmo.

Apple has officially filed its appeal against the ebook trial verdict that saw it found guilty of colluding with publishers to artificially price-fix downloads. The filing, made to the US District Court in the Southern District of New York on October 3rd, sees Apple appealing not only the ruling but Judge Denise Cote’s proposed injunctions, […]

A new set of proposed remedies suggested by the DoJ in the Apple ebook price-fixing case has tempered some of the issues the Cupertino firm complained about, but the agency maintains Apple should face tough penalties for continuing to deny any wrongdoing. The second batch of suggestions, submitted by the US Department of Justice today, […]