Today, during their education press event, Apple announced the availability of the iBooks Author App that allows users to create interactive iBooks on their Mac.
Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps. And before you know it, you’re a published author.
The App allows you to start with a number of templates and then customize your book with images, videos, multi-touch widgets and even Keynote presentations. You can then preview your book on your iPad and then submit it to the iBookstore for sale or free download.
iBooks Author is available for free in the Mac App Store. [App Store]
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you.
Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by Juli Clover
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products.
Here's what's supposedly coming:
An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:08 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.2, the second major update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out in September. macOS Tahoe 26.2 comes five weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.1.
Mac users can download the macOS Tahoe update by using the Software Update section of System Settings.
macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes Edge Light, a feature that illuminates your face with soft...
Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
I know! I have a Mac Plus and I'm outraged...OUTRAGED that Apple doesn't support that at all. I bought that in 1986 and it's still working fine. How DARE Apple not support this anymore with software updates and programs. They're just trying to get me to spend more money with them. No. Thank. You. I spent enough back then and it's still working so why upgrade?
So I feel for the PPC users out there. It's only been 6 years since they switched to Intel and those PPC Macs have at least another 20 to 25 years left on them.
But seriously, I don't know how people work on those old machines. I have a 2008 MacBook Pro and that's getting to be slow as molasses in working with Photoshop and Lightroom. And don't even get me started on Aperture...that takes forever. I will do an adjustment then the CPU pegs to red and you wait and wait and wait for the adjustment to actually show up. It's not like I'm running out of RAM either as I have 8 gigs in this thing.
I guess if I was just surfing the web and doing emails or something, a PPC would still be okay. I just can't fathom doing Photoshop on them, but I guess some people do it all the time. But come on...time marches onward. Do you really expect Apple to keep developers around that code for the PPC with new products?
Why would you expect new functions to be back-ported to old OS versions? As a software vendor myself, I don't know why anyone would do this-- the development and support costs are non-trivial. Users do need to pay for this, and maintenance fees or upgrades are alternative ways. A $30 upgrade fee seems pretty reasonable to me.
I'm not complaining about the price - in fact, I already own Lion. But for a variety of reasons that I won't go into right now, upgrading will take a lot of effort, and I'm not willing to do it quite yet. It's alright though; I'm not exactly an author. But I look forward to playing around with this.
"Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac."
Oh great. Now anyone can write a textbook! You don't need to be a scholar or even an authority. All you need is an opinion, time, and a Mac. I can't wait for the "textbooks" on how the world was created in seven days.
Yeah, that whole freedom of speech and freedom of the press thing really sucks.
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Holly crap! You have 3 other options: Windows, Linux and Google Chrome. No one is forcing you to buy Lion.
If you've been following along for the past 12 years, every new version of OS X has been worse than the last, according to the peanut gallery. These people should just stick with 10.0 and be happy with that.
This is just trolling or plain stupidity. I'm sorry, but a $29 upgrade to Lion shouldn't break the bank for anybody who had enough money to purchase a Mac in the first place .... much less complaining about it as a requirement to use some FREE publishing software they're offering people.
I don't get all the anti-10.7 sentiment out there anyway? Sure, there are situations where you won't want to upgrade a given machine past Snow Leopard. I've got one Mac like that myself. (You may still rely on older apps that require Rosetta to run because they're still coded for the old PPC architecture.) But the same was said about "Classic" MacOS, and eventually, 99.9% of us managed to move forward and let go of some outdated software that wasn't ever upgraded to run OS X native.
There's actually quite a bit "wrong" with 10.6. For example, it has a lot of security weaknesses they overcame in 10.7. There's also a lot of "little stuff" improved in 10.7 that's simply nice to have -- such as the elimination of auto key repeat when you hold down a keyboard key for several seconds. (Who ever really used that, ever since the days of trying to draw artwork on line printers, made of lines and lines of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and what-not?) Instead, 10.7 does something sensible -- cycles a letter through various accent-marked versions for you.
Apple, one of the most cash rich corps in the world and this s/ware is for the latest version of Lion only? Talk about trying to screw everyone in a time of global recession. WTF is wrong with 10.6?
