iBooks

Opinion: Dark Mode? Apple’s been testing dark interfaces on iOS for years now

My colleague Andrew first broke news yesterday that Dark Mode resources have been found within iOS 10's Messages app. Now, Dark Mode was expected to make an official appearance in iOS 10, but the WWDC keynote came and went without any mention of this feature.

Now Mac Aficionados tweeted out screenshots depicting a dark interface in other iOS 10 stock apps, including an automatic dark mode in iBooks, in addition to the Clock app, Safari and the iTunes Store.

As it turns out, dark interfaces in these apps (sans Clock) have been present for years, indicating Apple's been testing how users might accept a Dark Mode option on iOS.

Can’t remove your payment info from your Apple ID? Here’s why

Not everyone wants to have their credit card or debit card linked to their Apple ID. Some people are afraid of having their financial information tied to online merchants and digital content stores because of the unfortunate reality of identity theft and unauthorized purchases.

With that in mind, what should you do if you don't want a credit card that you've already linked to your Apple ID to be there, but the 'None' payment method option isn't showing for you?

We'll talk about that in this post and explain why the option isn't available to you.

iBooks Store and iTunes Movies shut down in China by state agency

Apple's iBooks Store and iTunes Movies have been shut down in China by a state agency, reports The New York Times. The outlet says the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television was behind last week's mysterious outage.

The shutdown occurred just six months after the two services were made available in the country. An Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the company "hopes to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible."

OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 is out with full Live Photos sharing, password-protected Notes and more

After spending more than two months in beta, OS X 10.11.4, a fourth major update to OS X El Capitan, today released for public consumption. The software update is now available and recommended for all OS X El Capitan users.

Even though it comes with a few noticeable outward-facing changes, OS X 10.11.4 does pack in some newsworthy improvements—namely in stock Messages, Notes and Photos apps. Full sharing of Live Photos via iMessages has been implemented throughout the system, too. Like other major OS X releases, 10.11.4 includes a handful of under-the-hood changes and tons of bug fixes and performance optimizations.

Apple enables redownloads of audiobooks, iOS 9.3 to add audiobooks to Automatic Downloads

Thanks to the iTunes in the Cloud feature, Apple customers have long been able to re-download apps, movies, TV shows, music, music videos, books, ring tones and tones purchased on the iTunes Store, but not audiobooks. As per Apple's newly updated support document, customers in 22 countries total can now re-download any audiobook.

This feature is available in iBooks on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iOS 8.4 or later, or in iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC. In addition, previously downloaded audiobooks, free or paid, are now listed in your Purchased history in iBooks and iTunes.

Apple will pay $450 million fine in e-book case as Supreme Court declines to hear appeal

Apple's legal battle with the United States government over alleged price fixing in an e-book antitrust case has now come to an end after nearly three years.

As the United States Supreme Court has declined to hear Apple's appeal, the iPhone maker will have to pay a $450 million fine to settle its long-standing federal court case with class action lawyers and state district attorneys.

Bloomberg reported Monday that the justices turned away Apple's appeal without comment. Apple has been found to have conspired with major book publishers and orchestrated a scheme to raise prices of electronic books on the iBooks Store.

Eleven 3D Touch shortcuts in Messages for iPhone

There's no question that 3D Touch really does make the iPhone's Multi-Touch user interface multidimensional. By varying the degree of pressure applied to the screen of your iPhone, you can preview emails, websites, locations, messages and a variety of other items in Apple's stock apps.

We have already covered new 3D Touch shortcuts in iBooks and today we're taking a closer look at arguably the most-oft used iPhone app—Messages. In Messages, you can Peek and Pop most of the file types to your heart's content without needing to jump between multiple apps, which can save a lot of time.

In this tutorial, we're going to lay out 3D Touch basics in Messages before moving on to all of the items you can preview in your conversations.

Six 3D Touch shortcuts in iBooks for iPhone

Owners of the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus can now use Peek and Pop gestures in iBooks to speed up common tasks such as checking out their notes and bookmarks, previewing pages in search results and more.

This tutorial takes you on a quick tour of 3D Touch gestures in iBooks, including six ways applying pressure helps you interact with your fav reads.

How to disable password prompts for free iBooks downloads on the Mac

Since last year's iOS 8.3 software update iOS devices have had the ability to stop asking for a password when downloading free applications from the App Store. Soon after, that feature found its way into iTunes and iBooks for Mac.

As electronic books are no longer managed through iTunes, disabling password prompts for iBooks Store downloads is now handled in iBooks for Mac. In this post, you will learn how to disable Apple ID password prompts when downloading free electronic books from Apple's iBooks Store, and we'll also show you how you can manage password settings for paid items.

How to set up carrier billing as payment method for App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store

In October 2015, Apple began rolling out support for carrier billing on iTunes in select markets, starting with Germany. This feature joins the existing payment methods accepted on the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store and permits customers to have apps and media bought through these content stores charged to their monthly mobile phone bill or deducted from their prepaid amount.

If your carrier supports it, you too can opt-in to pay for your iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store purchases—and your Apple Music membership—through mobile phone billing.

In this tutorial, we're going to cover setting up mobile phone billing as your payment method in the iTunes Store, App Store or iBooks Store.