Can Apple Make iBooks Match for Books?

TechCrunch is reporting that an upcoming Apple event, to be held in January, will focus on ebooks, and the company’s iBooks app. My first thought is that there’s not much they can do with iBooks to warrant a media event, with a presentation and announcement, but then I thought a bit more. What if Apple were going to unveil iBooks Match?

You’re probably familiar with iTunes Match. For $25, you can have iTunes match your music library, making your music available in the “cloud,” either matching tracks with music from the iTunes Store, or uploading those tracks that are not available in the latter. Why not do something similar with iBooks? I have literally thousands of dead-tree books, and some of them are big and unwieldy, and I would love to be able to read them on my iPad, rather than on paper. (In fact, I’ve been wanting to read Shelby Foote’s Civil War Trilogy for some time, but the books are humongous.)

iBooks Match could work like this. Using the camera built in to all recent and current Macs – or even iOS devices – the iBooks program either grabs a picture of the cover, or scans the bar code (the latter would be much easier, and this technology exists already, in the Delicious Library catalog software). It then searches the iTunes Store’s books section to find matches, and, if any are found, adds them to your library.

Of course, this is certainly unlikely, as book publishers are even more reticent to offer any such type of service than the record labels were to offer iTunes Match (though they did accept Apple’s offer, which I find surprising). But allowing users to transfer their print libraries to digital would be a big leap forward for ebooks in general, as most serious readers would have, instead of a handful of ebooks, hundreds of them, if not more.

The second possibility I see is a sort of paid lending library system. Personally, as agreeable as I find reading on my iPad, I don’t buy many ebooks, because the price, when compared to print books, is either very close, or more expensive. And this for books that I’ll read once, and never be able to do anything with (sell used, loan or give away). A paid lending library that gives you access to a certain number of books per month, for example, would solve this problem, and since you don’t actually “own” ebooks, wouldn’t change much for users. It would also guarantee a bigger revenue stream for publishers. (Amazon has free ebook loans for members of Amazon Prime, which offers free shipping, streaming videos, and a loan of one book per month. So why can’t Apple do better?)

No matter what, I find it interesting that ebooks are important enough to warrant an Apple event. Of course, this could also be a way of presenting a new iPad 3 with a retina display. While reading on the current iPad is acceptable, a retina display would make it much more comfortable.

Lion Video Freeze Happening Again with New Mac mini

I recently replaced my iMac with a new Mac mini, and I had forgotten how annoying the video freeze problems under Lion had been. Today, trying to view a Flash video on a news site, I had a freeze, exactly like what I had with the iMac and Mac OS X 10.7. The Lion updates had resolved the issue with the iMac, but the errors I see with the Mac mini are exactly the same type. Console logs show the following:

11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: ** GPU Debug Info Start **
11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: 0x00006741
11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: 0x0000008f
11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: 0x00000001
11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: 0x00000018
11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: 0x0000a880
11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: 0x00000001
11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: 0x00000001
11/20/11 1:34:40.000 PM kernel: 0x00006741
[etc.]

(It’s worth noting that the above messages are almost exactly the same as what I saw on the iMac.)

OK, this is enough. I’m starting to get very frustrated, not only because of this problem, but also because of Apple’s letting me down regarding another problem with the iMac. I’ve very seriously considering doing as some of my friends and colleagues have done and downgrading to Snow Leopard…

Update: It turns out that there is something wrong with the video card – since I get the GPU debug logs in Console, as well as the occasional video artefact – but also, perhaps, a problem with the SSD. Apple is exchanging the Mac mini for a new one, and I should have the replacement in a week. In the mean time, it freezes several times a day…

How Many Matches Does iTunes Match Match, When iTunes Match Does Match Matches?

Apple introduced iTunes Match earlier this week, and I haven’t written anything about it, given that my colleagues at Macworld have done such a good job. I’m also busy working on an update to my Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ, which I hope to have finished very soon. (I also have some criticism of iTunes Match, which I wrote about for Macworld: iTunes Match shouldn’t shun those with big libraries.)

In the meantime, what has perplexed me in my experiments with iTunes Match is the number of tracks that aren’t matched. In some cases, a single song may not be matched, even though the rest of an album is matched – Lex Friedman, writing at Macworld, pointed out that in many cases, one song on The Beatles’ Abbey Road (She Came In Through the Bathroom Window) wasn’t matched, even though all the others were. (It turns out that in Lex’s survey of people who tried to match that album, I was the only person who did see that song matched.)

But it’s very odd that some things match and others don’t. I don’t think it has to do with Apple’s recognition algorithm, and suspect that it’s more of a bug. I’ve seen a number of cases where one or more tracks won’t match, even among items that I had purchased from the iTunes Store.

This morning I did an experiment for the people at Hyperion Records (who are one of my sponsors). They asked me to check two albums: one that is sold on the iTunes Store, and has sold quite well, and another, a compilation, that is not on the iTunes Store, but whose individual tracks are all available from the iTunes Store on different discs. The results were surprising: in both cases, some, but not all tracks were matched. In the first example, two of 14 tracks were not matched and had to be uploaded; in the second example, only 8 of 20 tracks were matched. The screen shot below shows the results (click to see a larger screen shot).

I’m perplexed by this, and I wonder how exactly Apple matches tracks. The album above that is sold on the iTunes Store uses exactly the same tags as in the files I tried to match, so if Apple were only matching by tags (which they are not), it would be a perfect match. I know they use some sort of acoustic fingerprinting, and I wonder what causes certain tracks to not be matched.

I have no answers here, simply evidence of the oddity of iTunes Match. If you have other interesting examples to share, feel free to mention them in the comments.

Addendum: it’s worth noting that if you have iTunes match files with poor or non-existent tags, you won’t get tagged versions of those tracks when you redownload them. iTunes stores your tags, and doesn’t supply tags based on their matches.

Syncing E-Mail Accounts Via iTunes – Apple’s Tech Support Lets Me Down

As you can imagine, I have lots of Apple products. To give just a quick rundown, in my home-office at the moment are two iMacs, two MacBook Airs, an iPad, an iPod touch, an iPod classic, and sundry other devices (Magic Trackpad, wireless keyboard, external DVD drive, dock, etc.) Since I live in the country, far from any Apple repair center, I buy AppleCare contracts for all my Macs. However, I don’t buy them for the iPods and iPads, and never have.

Apple’s support has always been excellent, though they were not able to resolve a recent problem, and this disturbs me. But I’m writing now about a problem with iTunes and my iOS devices, and the fact that Apple effectively offers no support.

Before iCloud was introduced, I had a MobileMe family pack; this gave me five accounts, one for myself, one for my wife, one for my son, and an additional one I used for an e-mail address and iDisk for this blog. Since I changed to iCloud, I had to drop that latter address, and created a contact address on my own server, mcelhearn.com. However, even though I deleted that address in Mail, it still shows up in the iTunes Info tab, under the Sync Mail Accounts section. Now, it’s no big deal that I can’t remove it, but at the same time, a new account I created for a client doesn’t show up in that section.

So I first called AppleCare. They couldn’t help; they said that I should contact Apple’s Express Lane service for MobileMe support. They couldn’t help, and said I should contact iTunes support. I did so, and got a particularly clueless woman on the phone who actually told me that I have to email iTunes support to have them remove the email accounts. She clearly didn’t understand what the problem was – I made it very clear, using small words, that this is account information on my Mac, and has nothing to do with anything that iTunes controls.

I’ve actually become increasingly disappointed with Apple’s support in the past couple of years. While they’re good with hardware problems – in most cases, not in the problem I linked to above – their support for services is increasingly poor. I know that Apple has to support a lot of people using services such as iTunes, and now iCloud, but if they don’t have efficient support for these services, people will get annoyed. (To be fair, iTunes’ e-mail support for purchase problems has always been efficient, if not particularly fast.)

In any case, I have no answer to this problem. I’m guessing there’s a file to delete somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find out which one. Any ideas? Feel free to post in the comments.

Steve Jobs Biography Due in a Few Days

I’m guessing that a lot of readers of this blog will be buying Walter Issacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, which is due out on October 24. Interestingly, this is one day after the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the iPod, which is certainly one of the key moments in Jobs’ career.

This book is already the #1 selling book on Amazon, and it hasn’t been published yet. Unfortunately, it comes shortly after Jobs’ death, but in some ways it’s a good thing it could have been finished while he was still with us. I’m looking forward to reading it, to learn more about the man who did so much to change my life, and to have one final appreciation of all he did.

In some ways, it may be more fitting to read this book on an iPad. You can either buy it for the Kindle app, or a Kindle reader, or for the iPad’s own iBooks app. But having a hardcover version would be nice too.

Will Apple Kill Off the iPod classic and shuffle?

One blog, got a rumor from one source, yet the rumor is spreading like a bad song. Apple is said to be killing off the iPod classic and iPod shuffle, in favor of only having touch-screen devices. That would leave the iPod touch – an iPhone that doesn’t make calls – and the iPod nano – clearly the worst iPod I’ve ever owned, and I’ve owned nearly every model over the years.

There are reasons that argue for and against this decision. First, why Apple should keep them.

If you look at Amazon.com’s list of best selling MP3 players, you’ll see that Apple holds 14 of the top 20 slots (at the time of this writing; this list is dynamic, so you may see something different). Moving ahead to the second page, Apple has 23 of the top 40 sellers. The first six top-selling devices are all Apple products, starting with two iPod touch models, followed by the silver shuffle, the black classic, the graphite nano, then the silver classic. In other words, the shuffle current sells more units at Amazon than any non-Apple device, and both colors of the classic outsell the best competing product.

We don’t know, of course, how many units each ranking represents. The iPod touch, in positions 1 and 2, may sell 100 times as many units as the third-place device, currently the silver shuffle. Nevertheless, it makes a lot of sense for Apple to maintain products that sell this well compared with competitors. Not only does it beef up Apple’s presence in any such best-seller list, but it also keeps competing products from getting traction in the marketplace. If no one can buy, say, the iPod classic any more, and they fall back on a competitor’s product, another brand will start appearing higher up in the list, leading purchasers who view that list to possibly look at that device. It’s worth noting that not one device in the top 100 on Amazon has anywhere near the capacity of the 160 GB iPod classic. In fact, no currently available MP3 player has that much space (with the exception of a device by Cowon, which is only available from third-party sellers; I don’t know how current this device is).

As for the shuffle, that has a lot of competition; the 1 – 4 GB capacity is where most of the battle is played out, with over 1,200 devices listed on Amazon. Many of them are cheaper than the iPod shuffle, have rudimentary screens, or offer FM radio in addition to music playback. If Apple were to give up this segment, their competitors would be strengthened, and their players in this lucrative segment would take off.

But there are also reasons why Apple should axe these two devices.

Apple is clearly betting on the touch screen as the future of portable devices. The classic and shuffle don’t have touch screens (the latter doesn’t have a screen at all), and consolidating the product line around a concept makes advertising easier. Also, selling apps on the iPod touch is a profitable activity; there are no such aftermarket profit opportunities for the classic or shuffle.

The iPod classic is the only hard-drive-based music player that Apple sells. While this is fragile (I ruined an iPod classic by dropping it once; the hard drive died), it also offers larger capacity than flash memory. However, if Apple can get the price of flash memory down enough to offer similar capacities in an iPod touch, the classic’s only trump card gets beaten. Personally, I like the classic because I have a huge library – much more than it can hold. But if Apple can sell me an iPod touch with the same capacity, 160 GB, or even more, at a comparable price, I’d go for it in a second. The iPod touch is far more versatile, yet far more expensive. The current 64 GB iPod touch lists at $400, compared to $359 for 160 GB on the iPod classic; that’s nearly three times as much capacity. I can’t see Apple offering more than 160 GB on a touch, but if they were to offer a 128 GB model for around the price of the classic, that would tempt a lot of users with big libraries. But it’s still not enough.

As for the shuffle, there is one good reason Apple should get rid of this model: it’s an iPod shuffle. It’s confusing, annoying and it’s only for people who listen to music in random order. It works great, however, for exercising and walking, but I’ve never used my shuffles at any other time. However, it’s the cheapest iPod, and perhaps the first one you buy for a kid, since it’s pretty much unbreakable. So it’s a tough call.

In the end, I don’t think Apple will kill of these two devices. They clearly are not the focus of Apple’s strategy, and no longer merit media events to present new models. Updates to these two iPods may be soft launches; simple additions to Apple’s catalogs with no hullabaloo. Next week’s media event is clearly for the iPhone 5, and, perhaps, a new iPod touch, which is related (because of the same OS), and if Apple updates the other iPods, it will be a footnote. But owning so much real estate in the best-seller lists is valuable for Apple as a brand. It’s too soon to write off all non-touch iPods.

Apple Now Providing Demo Version of Final Cut Pro X, Mac App Store Only App

Apple has updated Final Cut Pro X, the much-derided recent version of its video editing software, and is now offering a downloadable demo version. For an application sold only through the Mac App Store, this is certainly a Big Thing.

Many people – from users to developers – have complained about demo versions of apps not being available from the Mac App Store. Some developers offer demos on their sites, usually those who sell both directly and through the Mac App Store. But ideally, you should be able to download a demo from the Mac App Store, then choose a menu item to convert that demo into a full version of the software. I’m sure that many people hesitate about buying apps for this reason. While this isn’t an issue for apps that cost a dollar or two, there are many apps on the Mac App Store that cost a fair amount of cash. Demos would help users know if the apps do what they want, and would most likely increase sales.

The demo of Final Cut Pro X is available here.

Big Screen, Small Screen; What’s the Best Screen Size?

I’m sitting here in front of my 27″ iMac, purchased in June, and just back from repairs. I had a problem with a burning smell coming from the computer, and the repair technician changed the logic board, because he spotted a bit of scotch tape, used to hold down a small wire, touching the processor. He thinks that the tape, or its glue, was burning when the processor got hot.

I was without the iMac for a week; in the interim, I was using my 13″ MacBook Air. There’s quite a difference between the two. The resolution of the iMac is 2560 x 1440, and the Air displays at 1440 x 900. That means the iMac is nearly 3 times the display size of the Air.

I’ve been using a 27″ monitor since the end of last year, when I bought an Apple Cinema Display to use with my previous Mac, a Mac mini. So the size of the monitor is familiar. Switching to the MacBook Air for all of my work was a bit cramped at first. (I do use the MacBook Air regularly, but only for certain tasks.) There are times when I have two or three windows visible on the iMac, and to view the same content on the MacBook Air, I had to switch applications a lot.

But something happened during this past week. My desk was more spacious (I use this great Rain Design laptop stand to raise the Air), and there was no huge luminous panel in front of my eyes all day. So when I got the iMac back and put it on my desk, it was a bit of a shock. I’m suddenly rethinking whether I really want to have such a big screen in front of me. The first thing I did was move it about a foot back from where I used to have it; that makes it seem a bit smaller. (Perhaps I can move it even further…) But the more minimal installation of the MacBook Air, even with a wired keyboard and Magic Trackpad, just seemed a lot more comfortable.

It’s nice to have a big screen; there are many things that are easier to do. My basic layout is to have a Safari window on the left and Mail on the right, each taking up half the screen. That gives me big web pages, and a spacious Mail display. (For other apps, I use different desktops, and arrange them in similar ways.) Right now, I’m typing in , and it only takes up about 1/3 of the screen in width, leaving plenty of room for me to switch to Safari if I need to check a web page.

But it’s also nice to have a small, minimal computer. Not that I’d want my main Mac to be the 13″ MacBook Air; it’s too small for me to work on comfortably, in part because my eyes aren’t great. There was a time when my main Mac was a 14″ iBook on a stand, and I worked fairly well on it. But over the years, I’ve gotten increasingly large displays, and I realize that while there are advantages, the size of the screen is imposing. (And big screens give off a lot of heat. This isn’t a problem all year round, but in the summer it is.)

What sort of compromise could I find? I think the 21.5″ iMac might be too small – my wife has one that size, and it seems tight – and Apple no longer makes their 24″ Cinema Display. I had one on loan from Apple for a while last year, and seeing the quality of that display prompted me to buy the 27″ when it was released. If I didn’t have this new iMac (I know, I could sell it…), I might be tempted to look for a used 24″ display and go back to using a Mac mini. (Or buy a non-Apple display, though I don’t know which vendor makes displays as good as Apple. My experiences in the past haven’t been that great.) A 15″ laptop might be a good size, but I think using a laptop as my main computer is a bit limited. (And it’s as expensive as the iMac, if not even more.)

It’s a tough call. It’s nice to have a big screen, but it takes up too much space. I’m going to think seriously about downsizing. It’s time to look for more comfort instead of more size.