The Beatles today announced the debut of a free animated version of the band's Yellow Submarine book as an exclusive on Apple's iBookstore. Apple is also prominently promoting the release on the main iBookstore page within iTunes and in emails to iTunes users, showing off some of the capabilities of iBooks on the company's mobile devices.
The iBookstore's exclusive 'Yellow Submarine' book takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic, music-filled journey with The Beatles to an underwater dreamland featuring animated illustrations and text from the 2004 book, 14 full-color video clips from the original 1968 film, audio clips of classic Beatles hits and Sir George Martin's original score, original dialogue from the film, "read aloud" functionality to follow along as actor Dean Lennox Kelly narrates, as well as interactive features that let you tap the story's wild array of butterflies, starfish and sea monsters to make them come alive. A video trailer for the book is available for free streaming starting today at www.iTunes.com/TheBeatles.
The press release notes that the book release is in celebration of one year of availability for The Beatles on the iTunes Store. The Beatles have sold over 10 million songs and 1.8 million albums through iTunes since their November 2010 debut.
Apple is also leveraging the Yellow Submarine release to promote its new iBooks 1.5 release, which earlier this week added a night-time reading mode, full-screen mode, and new fonts.
Yellow Submarine [iTunes Store] is a free 317.5 MB download through the iBookstore. A trailer for the book and a link to purchase the music from the book are available on the main iTunes page for The Beatles [iTunes Store].
Sunday February 1, 2026 10:08 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly nine months later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
In his Powe...
Thursday January 29, 2026 10:07 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup that is working on artificial intelligence technology for audio.
Apple paid close to $2 billion for Q.ai, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone and audio brand Beats in 2014.
Q.ai has...
Sunday February 1, 2026 12:31 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
The calendar has turned to February, and a new report indicates that Apple's next product launch is "imminent," in the form of new MacBook Pro models.
"All signs point to an imminent launch of next-generation MacBook Pros that retain the current form factor but deliver faster chips," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on Sunday. "I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated...
Saturday January 31, 2026 10:51 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple recently updated its online store with a new ordering process for Macs, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro.
There used to be a handful of standard configurations available for each Mac, but now you must configure a Mac entirely from scratch on a feature-by-feature basis. In other words, ordering a new Mac now works much like ordering an...
Sunday February 1, 2026 5:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips alongside macOS 26.3, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
"Apple's faster MacBook Pros are planned for the macOS 26.3 release cycle," wrote Gurman, in his Power On newsletter today.
"I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated for the macOS 26.3 software cycle, which runs from...
amen to that! the world gives them way too much credit.
Like Drunken Master points out, if you can name another band who has a discography as vast as the Beatles, with as much pioneering studio analog techniques over the years as they had, then by all means, we're listening. ;)
You go and try and produce some of their hits on nothing but analog 4 track tape decks, simple reverb effects, and without a computer in sight, and lets see what you come up with.
Like Drunken Master points out, if you can name another band who has a discography as vast as the Beatles, with as much pioneering studio analog techniques over the years as they had, then by all means, we're listening. ;)
You go and try and produce some of their hits on nothing but analog 4 track tape decks, simple reverb effects, and without a computer in sight, and lets see what you come up with.
