A new book titled Insanely Simple - The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success from Ken Segall will be hitting the shelves soon. If you're not familiar with the name Ken Segall, then you may be more familiar with his website. Segall runs the popular Scoopertino parody blog and his personal blog, Observatory and has a history of working with Apple, having been Apple’s agency creative director for many years, and working directly with Steve Jobs. Most notably, he was also involved with Apple's Think Different ad campaign and the naming of the iMac.

My observations come from over 12 years of experience as Steve’s agency creative director, from NeXT to Apple. Also relevant to my story are the years I spent on the agency team during John Sculley’s rule at Apple. And then I had some interesting (and often excruciating) experiences in the worlds of Dell, Intel and IBM — which made me even more conscious of what sets Apple apart.

Insanely Simple - The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success will cover the business side of things for Apple. As Segall notes on his blog, "The idea is that in a complicated world, nothing stands out like Simplicity. If you better understand how Apple’s obsession has driven its success, you can adopt the same principles to boost your own organization — or your own career."

If you've made your way through Walter Isaacson's official biography of Steve Jobs and consumed Adam Lashinsky's Inside Apple, then Insanely Simple should be next on your list.

Source: Ken Segall

iPhone 4S Made Simple is a new book from Apress written by Martin Trautschold and our very own editor-in-chief extraordinaire, Rene Ritchie, and tech edited by none other than Leanna Lofte. That's right, there's a huge iMore presence throughout this book -- I forgot to lock the cages one night, who knew? -- which means it's super detailed, super informative, and has everything a regular person needs to get started with their brand new iPhone 4S.

More than 1,000 screen visuals and clear-cut instructions guide you through both basic and advanced features of iOS 5 that's on your iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and earlier models, from email and calendar tips to navigating the App Store and understanding Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks to the revolutionary Siri personal assistant.

If you have that special someone in your life who needs extra help figuring out how to use their iPhone 4S, send them to iPhone 4S Made Simple. You -- and your stress level! -- will be glad you did! (And don't forget to leave a review!)

• $9.95+ Amazon store link

Inside Apple is a new book from Adam Lashinsky that aims to reveal some of the secrets behind the success of America's premiere consumer electronics company -- Apple. Lashinsky wasn't given the access that Walter Issacson was given for the Steve Jobs biography, but he did lots of interviews and paints a compelling portrait of one of the most secret companies in recent history. How much of the Apple magic he ultimate manages to expose is anyone's guess, but for Apple enthusiasts and business students alike, it certainly looks like a must read.

Check out the full description -- and giveaway! -- after the break, and pre-order now to avoid the virtual rush. (We'll also be discussing this in the iMore book club, so head on over!)

• $12.99 - iBooks link
• $12.99 and up - Amazon link

INSIDE APPLE reveals the secret systems, tactics and leadership strategies that allowed Steve Jobs and his company to churn out hit after hit and inspire a cult-like following for its products.

If Apple is Silicon Valley's answer to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, then author Adam Lashinsky provides readers with a golden ticket to step inside. In this primer on leadership and innovation, the author will introduce readers to concepts like the "DRI" (Apple's practice of assigning a Directly Responsible Individual to every task) and the Top 100 (an annual ritual in which 100 up-and-coming executives are tapped a la Skull & Bones for a secret retreat with company founder Steve Jobs).

Based on numerous interviews, the book offers exclusive new information about how Apple innovates, deals with its suppliers and is handling the transition into the Post Jobs Era. Lashinsky, a Senior Editor at Large for Fortune, knows the subject cold: In a 2008 cover story for the magazine entitled The Genius Behind Steve: Could Operations Whiz Tim Cook Run The Company Someday he predicted that Tim Cook, then an unknown, would eventually succeed Steve Jobs as CEO.

While Inside Apple is ostensibly a deep dive into one, unique company (and its ecosystem of suppliers, investors, employees and competitors), the lessons about Jobs, leadership, product design and marketing are universal. They should appeal to anyone hoping to bring some of that Apple magic to their own company, career, or creative endeavor.

The Giveaway

Leave a comment below telling us what secret you'd most like to learn about Apple and you're automatically entered to win one of three (3) copies of Inside Apple, courtesy of your friends here at iMore! (Must have a U.S Apple Store account to redeem -- Apple's rule, not ours!). Contests starts now and ends Sunday, January 29 at midnight PST.

Sony Pictures is reportedly very close to securing a deal for the film rights to the Steve Jobs biography. The deal Sony is tabling is said to be $1 million against $3 million and that Mark Gordon will be in line to produce the film.

The book which will be called simply Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacsson was initially due for release in November. That date has now been pulled forward and it is set to hit shelves real and virtual on Oct. 24.

Sony Pictures has already made successful films from business related books so should be a good fit for the project. It has already had success with Moneyball and of course, Oscar nominated The Social Network.

Source: Deadline

It seems that e-book readers are going to be technology's next big thing. With the Kindle being named Oprah’s favorite gadget and other e-book reading devices battling for pole position, the e-book reader is populating daily culture. But who wants to pay that much money for a dedicated reading device that is admittedly limited and still has no true standard format?

Insert iPhone. We all know that the iPhone does a great job in converging multiple devices, why not add being an e-book reader to its capabilities? Obviously we won’t have any e-ink technology in the iPhone but the e-book readers in the iPhone, Classics and Stanza, offer ease of use and a great free selection—plus you don’t have to plop down an extra 400 dollars to read a book.

See what we think of Classics and Stanza in our App vs App!

Design

Classics is wonderfully designed. Upon starting the app, a virtual bookcase filled with the covers of popular books gives you your reading options. The interactive bookshelf definitely makes for a virtually pleasing layout—it gives a experience similar to grabbing a book from your shelf, but in this case, tapping will suffice. You can also rearrange the books in any order, though the obvious flaw is when more books become available this design layout may not be the most effective to navigate.

What’s great about Classics is that the look of the pages seems carefully designed and well implemented. The pages look like pages of a book, complete with a clothlike texture and instant readability. Another great touch is the flipping of the pages, swipe from right to left to move pages in the most accurate rendition we’ve seen in an e-book reader.

Stanza makes up for what it lacks in groundbreaking design by offering seemingly limitless customization. If you want the color of the words a certain hue of grey or the background completely black, you have the option to do so. This amount of customization allows you to create layouts that better suit your eyes.

Stanza's library page is akin to the iPhone’s setting page—effective and efficient but hardly awe inspiring. It gives you a basic list to select from and it’ll narrow your selection from there. Overall, it works but it definitely feels like you have to learn how to use the controls before you read, rather than just get to reading right away.

Usability

Classics notable feature is its ability to realistically flip through pages. Because there is no customization options whatsoever in Classics, Classics needed to nail this feature to warrant any type of consideration. Luckily, they absolutely nailed it. The animation and physics of turning the page are extremely accurate and if you’re sliding the finger to turn but decide not to, it follows your movement and the page falls back in place. You really have to give it a try, it’s the most accurate representation of page turning that I’ve ever seen.

Also, I found that the overall page design of Classics was fairly easy on the eyes. It uses a tan/brown mix of colors to create a more paper-esque texture to the page. It almost looks cloth like. Overall, Classics did a wonderful job in presenting themselves and I enjoyed reading from the application.

But by no means is Classics perfect. It doesn’t have a great selection, offering only a handful of “classic” novels and it offers no customization whatsoever. There is no ability to customize page layout, to change fonts, no ability to add books—you really have to run with what the developers designed for you. You can’t even change the font size, so you’re stuck turning pages at a pretty fast rate. So though Classics looks great, it is definitely limited.

Stanza on the other hand, is completely customizable. You can add books, newspapers, magazines, and thousands of books from different publishers. The sheer number of books is simply staggering, you can always find something to read.

Also, you can customize the page layout to fit your eyes’ preference. The text color, background color, link color, font, font size, alignment, line spacing, margin width, images, and controls—it can really be tweaked to whatever you prefer. Want to read with a black background and white text? By all means! Black Helvetica text on a red background with justified alignment? Sure!

But in the end, I still preferred the overall look of Classics standard page layout over Stanza’s customizable options. No matter what I did, and I tried to emulate Classics, it just wasn’t as easy on the eyes. Also, turning the page is nowhere near as pretty. It only slides out in Stanza.

But the unarguable advantage of Stanza is its ability to add books. That makes it a much more powerful reader and definitely lengthens the life span of the application. You'll never be able to read everything that the folks at Stanza offers because it really has a library worth of literature! 

Final Thoughts

So I guess what it really boils down to is: do you want an e-book reader that looks good with a limited amount of books or a fully customizable reader with limitless options of reading material?

In conclusion, I think having a greater selection wins out. The fact that Stanza can add a variety of books, newspapers, and magazines to your library makes it the winner in this week’s App vs App. The complete customization of the page layout also deserves kudos because it lets the reader decide what he or she wants to see.

It’s hard to knock Classics though. As a reading application, it deserves stellar marks for nailing the physics of turning the page and offering such a great, easy on the eyes, page design. Even though customization is huge in e-book readers, the stock look of Classics is still by far the best look in comparison with the two.

But Classics falls short by not offering a wider reading selection. It simply can’t seriously compete as an e-book reader when you can only read the same “classic” books over again. I love this application and think the developers did a fantastic job, but the lack of selection makes it hard for me to give my full recommendation. I definitely think it still merits consideration as the most exciting reader app for the iPhone. But as it stands now, Stanza has still got it beat.

Classics Rating

Stanza Rating