While the litigious quests of Apple seem to never go away (or accomplish much in the process), AllThingsD has collected a few notable tidbits revealed by Eddy Cue, who is fresh off of his WWDC presentation, during the ‘ebooks price fixing’ hearings. Remember folks, Cue was under oath, so this is completely on the books now.
Peter Kafka, for AllThingsD:
Whether or not Apple’s strategic ability to secure deals with the various book publishers is legal or even moral remains unanswered, but we can all be served by this reminder that Winnie-the-Pooh has incredible graphics. That book alone is probably responsible for 50 million iPad sales.
The “page curls” in the iBook app, which show up when you flip an iBook’s page? That’s Steve Jobs’ idea.
It was Jobs’ idea to pick ““Winnie-the-Pooh” as the freebie book that came with every iBook app. Not just because Jobs liked the book, Cue said, but because it showed off iBook’s capabilities: “It had beautiful color drawings, that had never been seen before in a digital book.”
Jobs was also specific about the book he used to show off the iBook during his initial iPad demo in January 2010. He picked Ted Kennedy’s “True Compass” memoir, because the Kennedy family “meant a lot to him”, Cue said.
Frankly, I’m curious to see if iBooks pagination lives on in an iOS 7 version of iBooks. Regardless, we all miss Steve’s passion for his products (not a knock on Tim, but there will never be another Steve).
