For evidence of this shift, look no further than Apple. The company just reported an absolutely bonkers financial quarter, in which it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads. The two products now make up 72% of Apple's quarterly revenue and the consumer demand shows no sign of letting up.

This month, iOS edged past Mac OS X for the first time, accounting for 8.15% of all Web traffic, compared to the 7.96% coming from Mac desktops. Of course, this data does include Android, which probably constitutes a share of Web traffic that's roughly comparable to iOS. Even so, the combined mobile operating systems likely do not even begin to outnumber desktops overall, as there are still plenty of Windows machines out there.

Indeed, it will be some time before tablets and smartphones truly outnumber desktops and laptops. For now, most consumers are not replacing their computers with smaller devices, but rather supplementing them.

The file is 191 pages (as a PDF) and was requested by Michael Morisy of MuckRock. Morisy says that he became curious about Jobs' "behind-the-scenes" interactions with government after Jobs' death. "He was a famously private man, and almost apolitical in a lot of ways, but regularly courted for his opinion and advice.

"Government documents are also just generally a great way to get a look at public figures' lives: You can get a behind the scenes view that's otherwise not available, whether that's past legal trouble, quietly helping the feds or receiving death threats, and I think all of that is a valuable part of the story."

What the Documents Reveal

According to the memo outlining the investigation (page 160), Jobs would have been in a position to "make decisions concerning policy and personnel matters." The questions about Jobs related to drug use, whether he lived within his means, his trustworthiness and whether there was evidence of prejudice or bias on his part. According to the memo "the last 10 years of appointee's life must be accounted for."

Almost all of the people interviewed by the FBI seemed to give Jobs high marks, though there's at least one individual (name redacted) interviewed on March 11, 1991 who said Jobs was "not totally forthright and honest" and "has a tendency to distort reality in order to achieve his goals." (Perhaps that's where the phrase "Jobs Reality Distortion Field" came from...) Also interesting, the same individual said that Jobs was suitable for a "high level political position" in government because "in his opinion, honestly and integrity are not prerequisites to assume such a position."

The last section of the document details a bomb threat to Apple in February 1985 that turned out to be a hoax. The FBI doesn't seem to have found the caller.

It might sound like 191 pages would contain a wealth of information. However, much of the documents consist of government paperwork and coversheets that convey very little. (They do reveal that being in the FBI does not actually require neat penmanship.) The file also contains records of suits Jobs was involved with when with Apple and NeXT. There's very little in the document that's not already public knowledge.

But it's interesting to comb through and see what kind of information the FBI had on Jobs, and likely has on a number of other public figures. If you want to do your own Freedom of Information Act (FOI) requests, you can use MuckRock as a tool to do so. Morisy says that MuckRock tries to make "a really important, but really tedious, part of journalism and make it fun, social and easy for both journalists and regular users. For the first time, anyone can request almost any government document with just a few clicks and we think that's a really powerful tool for transparency."

Apple lives at the center of the worldwide technological transformation that's underway, and Lashinsky's new book sheds light on how the enigmatic company works. It profiles Apple's leaders and their various styles and talents, it describes how the organization is woven around them, and it tells the stories of Apple insiders and outsiders at all levels.

Lashinsky reveals many telling facts and anecdotes about Apple's culture in the book. We discussed whether Apple's obsession and perfectionism are creepy, and to what extent this is driven by the personalities of its leaders.

We considered the extreme secrecy imposed on Apple's lower ranks and what effects that has on morale and the quality of work. We also thought about Apple's unique sense of timing, taste and presentation that make it such a phenomenon in the culture at large.

Apple's organization is centrally controlled by a closed group of leaders, and I asked Lashinsky about the importance of their personalities in the way the company operates. We discussed the extent to which Steve Jobs' legacy shaped the culture and whether those shapes will hold after his passing.

Then we talked about Tim Cook's new and starkly different style as CEO. Lashinsky has also referred to SVP of iOS Software Scott Forstall as a "CEO-in-waiting," and the book points to the contrast between him and Cook as one of the upcoming dramas in Apple's next chapter.

Finally, we looked at the products, the part of the company where Apple meets the public. We discussed the powerful influence of Jobs' last products and how we'll have to wait for the ones that come after him to see the real face of a post-Jobs Apple.

I found our conversation illuminating, and the whole evening was a lot of fun. Here's the full video of my interview with Adam Lashinsky:

All photos and video by the excellent team at SAY Media

From deadly plant explosions and poisonous screen-cleaning chemicals to unsafe working conditions and long hours, the report was anything but forgiving. In response, there is a small but growing chorus of consumers asking Apple to do more about these issues. A petition demanding a more ethically-built iPhone 5 and other products is said to have amassed 40,000 signatories in its first 24 hours.

The company, like others that make consumer electronics, remains in an awkward position as its quest to meet growing demand clashes with the ethical concerns that naturally arise when the manufacturing is done in countries that lack the U.S.'s labor laws. Apple has stated that achieving the level of efficiency they now boast simply wouldn't be possible in the United States, where manufacturing has waned, labor is costly and regulations too strict to allow for lightning speed turnaround on last-minute changes. To stay competitive, it needs to keep its operations in places like China.

E-Signatures vs. Wallets: Which Votes Count More?

Forty thousand signatures may sound like a lot, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to 37 million. That's how many iPhones Apple sold in its last quarter, in addition to more than 15 million iPads. The pressure from consumer and human rights groups may well ramp up in the coming weeks and months, but for the time being the number of people voicing their concern is only .07% of the number that bought iPads and iPhones in the last quarter. That's not counting iPods and Macs.

To make a substantial impact, there would need to be an actual boycott of Apple products widespread enough to make a noticeable dent in their sales numbers. Some may decline to buy the iPhone 5, iPad 3 or iTV in protest, but probably not enough to make a difference.

Alternatively, the issue would need to turn into a much bigger PR problem for Apple, leading consumers to think twice or forcing the company to preempt an exodus by pressuring suppliers to shape up.

This isn't to suggest that a concerted enough Web-fueled protest couldn't generate the pressure required to encourage change. We saw it happen in more ways than one with the SOPA and PIPA debate. Still, this is Apple we're talking about. Rather than asking citizens to phone their representatives, such a protest would be asking millions to break their addiction to some of the most popular consumer electronics products of all time. These are devices that have woven themselves deeply into our day-to-day lives.

If people were to flee Apple, where would they go? To one of Apple's competitors? They're not exactly innocent either.

What do you think? Are labor rights issues enough to cause you to reconsider buying devices like smartphones and tablets? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

But Apple's most impressive stat continues to be its growth rate: Apple is not only huge, but it is growing at a rate far greater than its peers. And, even more incredible, its growth rate is accelerating.

As a company gets bigger, or as a market matures, its growth rate typically falls. It's only natural: The numbers get bigger, so the percentage of change eventually shrinks. But for Apple, during the Christmas quarter — its busiest time of the year — that hasn't happened yet.

Why is this so impressive? Because maintaining your growth rate when you're Apple's size — never mind increasing it — takes a lot of work!

This past Christmas, Apple needed to add an extra $20 billion in new sales to grow by 73%. The year before, it "only" needed to generate an additional $11 billion in new business to grow by 71%. It's pretty astounding, especially considering that Apple's product lineup didn't even change that much last year.

The reason it happened, of course, was the iPhone 4S "perfect storm." Not only was it a new iPhone, but it launched during what is already Apple's busiest time of the year, the holiday quarter. And it expanded Apple's footprint to new carriers, such as Sprint. Add pent-up demand to the mix, and Apple was easily able to shatter its iPhone sales record. Then consider that the iPhone is Apple's biggest business by revenue and profits, and the big numbers fall into place.

Can it happen again? It's only going to get harder. To match this year's growth — 73% — Apple's December 2012 quarter would have to beat $80 billion in sales. That's a lot of iPhones. The way the smartphone market is growing, and the way the iPad looks like it's going to do, anything's possible. But it's not going to be easy.

More charts: Apple's Monster Quarter In Charts

By far the biggest chunk of revenue came from the iPhone and related products. This isn't surprising considering the highly successful launch of the iPhone 4S in October, which landed at the same time as iOS 5 and iCloud. The quarter on which Apple was reporting today also included the holiday shopping season, which is always a peak time for smartphones, MP3 players and tablets.

It also didn't hurt that in the previous quarter, sales missed expectations due to the fact that so many consumers were holding out for the next iPhone. That device was finally launched during the last quarter, and it was a huge one for Apple. In January, the iPhone 4S began shipping in China and now has a presence in over 90 countries.

iPad: Still Dominant, But What About the Competition?

The next biggest growth area for Apple was the iPad. Taken together, the iPad and iPhone product lines now account for 72% of the company's quarterly revenue. This is a trend that's been underway for awhile and the share of revenue generated by the iPad and iPhone just seems to keep growing. The stats speak volumes about the explosive growth of smartphones and tablets in general, two markets that Apple has played a massive role in.

The company pointed to the enterprise and educational institutions as two key sources of growth for the iPad. The latter point is no shock in light of last week's launch of iBooks 2, iBooks Author and an enhanced iTunes U app. While it was received with mixed reactions, the move marked Apple's biggest formal foray into the education space, where it intends to use the iPad as a way to deliver interactive digital textbooks to students.

When asked about other players in the tablet space, Cook said that the company doesn't "really see these limited function tablets, these e-readers, as being in the same category." In other words, it's not worried about the Kindle Fire or any other Android-based tablets. The iPad may continue to be overwhelmingly dominant, but we'll see in a few weeks whether the iPad 3's features or price point are changing in response to any of the other players on the market.

While less dramatic than its iPad and iPhone results, Apple did see quarterly and year-over-year growth in almost every other category, including Mac desktops and laptops.

The only category that saw a decrease from 2012 was the iPod, although it's worth noting that iPod sales did increase notably from the prior quarter. Year over year, however, the devices are no longer a huge source of growth for Apple, whose smartphones and tablets include all of the functionality of an iPod, in addition to access to 550,000 apps available in the iTunes App Store. Despite being overshadowed by its more sophisticated siblings, the iPod is still the top-selling MP3 player in many major markets.

At this point, Apple is sitting on a ton of money. The company now boasts $97.6 billion in cash, but Cook declined to comment on how they plan on spending that.

The latter part of the announcement covered the impressive expansion of iTunes U and the launch of iBooks Author, a DIY tool for publishing digital textbooks. If anything could pose a threat to the status quo in the textbook industry, it would be such an application. But wait. As it turned out, the so-called "Garage Band for e-books" wouldn't be quite as open and revolutionary as some thought.

So what's the big deal? The agreement contains a provision stating that "if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple," and then proceeds to outline further limitations on the paid distribution of one's e-books. So much for iBooks Author being a groundbreaking, industry-shaking move.

As troubling as the iBooks Author EULA looks, it's questionable whether or not the agreement can be legally enforced under current copyright law, explains Philadelphia-based lawyer Max Kennerly on his blog.

The issue, says Kennerly, comes down to the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive licenses. Apple seeks to establish an exclusive license with users, in which, by legal definition, "the copyright holder permits the licensee to use the protected material for a specific use and further promises that the same permission will not be given to others. The licensee violates the copyright by exceeding the scope of this license."

A provision in the Copyright Act requiring a written "transfer of copyright ownership" may serve as an unintended legal loophole for those seeking to go around Apple's restrictions and selling their e-books.

Explains Kennerly:

In the end, the iBooks Author EULA leaves both Apple and the author in a strange stand-off: Apple doesn't actually have the right to tell the author not to take their work somewhere else, but the author can't do that without breaching the EULA -- even though they retain full rights in their copyright.

Of course, this is just one legal expert's interpretation of the legal niceties, based in part on somewhat obscure concepts and court-established precedents. Still, on paper it would appear that the legal enforceability of the iBooks Author EULA isn't entirely clear, and this may leave the door open to authors brave and curious enough to find out.

45º views act as a transition between the standard top-down view and Google's new Google MapsGL, a full-3D Maps experience powered by WebGL in the browser. That part won't work on certain low-end graphics cards, but for those who can run it, Google Maps gets pretty magical. Google has good reason to push the envelope on 3D maps. Its competitors are working on magical maps of their own.

In addition to the full-3D WebGL views, desktop Google Maps also got a flyover feature for travel routes last year. When you put in travel directions, the map viewer gets a "Play" button that switches to a Google Earth 3D view and flies you from point A to point B. It's not the most useful feature in the world, but it's a nice way to check out the terrain on your route.

Google is even taking 3D mapping indoors. It's sending people with backpack-mounted Street View cameras inside local businesses, so Google can put a panoramic interior view into Google Places results. Google is also building mobile 2D maps inside buildings, including malls, airports, hotels and convention centers. When all these maps combine, Google can take you from a desktop or mobile search, down the street, into the mall, to the store, inside the store, and eventually, it wants to be the way you pay, too.

Sounds like Google has this whole business locked up, right? Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Google has competitors to worry about. There's Microsoft, whose Bing Maps got interior mapping first, but it's still a distant second in terms of market share. Amazon may not have the maps, but it has unparalleled reach into shopping. And Apple has Siri, a mobile assistant that already routes around Google when able, and it has made some intriguing mapping acquisitions.

The missing piece in Google's end-to-end mobile shopping chain is the shopping part, and no Web company does shopping like Amazon. Amazon has released an augmented reality iPhone app that lets customers scan products in a store and buy them (or cheaper alternatives) on Amazon. That's a pretty serious diss to local businesses, but it makes Amazon customers happy. Also, if they're buying through Amazon Flow, they aren't paying with Google Wallet. Amazon also bought a voice recognition company last year, sparking comparisons to Apple's Siri.

For Apple's part, Siri is the piece that threatens Google. Currently, Siri searches the Web using Google when it can't find the answer itself. Apple's iOS Maps app also uses Google for now. But certain features of the Siri beta are telling. When you use Siri to search for a local business, it uses Yelp, not Google. What can we expect from later versions of Siri and iOS? Here's a hint: In November 2011, Apple bought C3 Technologies, a 3D street view and interior mapping company.

What apps, maps and Web services do you use to find your way around?

That's all set to change within three years, according to a growing chorus of analysts. The latest to vouch for the impending growth of Windows Phone is iSuppli, who last week predicted that the platform could outperform Apple's iOS by 2015.

Still, some have balked at the claim that Windows Phone could rise to challenge iOS anytime so soon, given Apple's propensity to upgrade its mobile hardware every year, with even modest iterations yielding surprisingly successful results. What do you think?

Portland, Oregon iOS developer Dan Wineman calls it unprecidented audacity. Writer Ed Bott calls it "mind-bogglingly greedy and evil." I just find it very, very sad.

B. Distribution of your Work. As a condition of this License and provided you are in compliance with its terms, your Work may be distributed as follows:

(i) if your Work is provided for free (at no charge), you may distribute the Work by any available means;
(ii) if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or
service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple and such distribution is subject to the following limitations and conditions: (a) you will be required to enter into a separate written agreement with Apple (or an Apple affiliate or subsidiary) before any commercial distribution of your Work may take place; and (b) Apple may determine for any reason and in its sole discretion not to select your Work for distribution.

The tension between the creative potential enabled by this kind of software and the crushing authoritarianism of the conditions it's shipped with is remarkable. Professional cynic Paul Carr says that's just how Apple rolls; he says we'll complain and then we'll genuflect and then we'll like it.

The multimedia interactivity of a self-published multi-touch tablet-dwelling learning experience formerly known as a text book ought to be set free to do its work - the elevation of the human condition! The web is a read/write miracle, not a read/write with permission test of aesthetic and commercial purity. It's a new world where people often give freely of the value they create in the knowledge that the aggregate results will enrich everyone. Maybe that's Wikipedia more than it is Apple though.

Is this what the world is to come to? To a clean, crisp, cold beauty of high-end consumer goods that promise to empower but only under the watchful eye of the world's most profitable corporation? Why does it have to be this way, Apple?

See also former RWW writer Audrey Watters at HackEducation: Apple and the Digital Textbook Counter-Revolution

Today, the company set their sights on textbooks, an industry Steve Jobs himself described as being "ripe for digital destruction." True as that may be, is what Apple planning to do in the space really all that disruptive?

If the company's efforts are going to help revolutionize textbooks and education, it's going to be some time before that happens, and they're not going to do it alone.

Costly and Not Cross-Platform

Apple released the second version of its iBooks app for iOS today, which includes access to the new textbook titles. One thing the company did not announce is that the app is coming to other platforms. Granted, the iPad is still the leader of the tablet market, but Android is slowly catching up and Amazon just released a device geared toward content consumption that costs less than half of the entry level iPad. And it's growing fast.

Of course, Apple ultimately wants to sell more of its hardware, but if it really wants its textbook initiative to truly take off, it will have to develop apps for other platforms, just as Amazon has done with its Kindle apps.

Another barrier to widespread adoption of this model is the cost of the iPad. It starts at $500, which is not something every American family can afford, especially with an economy in flux. With hundreds of "pages" of content, 3D interactive graphics, embedded video and other bells and whistles, we have to imagine these books aren't particularly light on file size. As the books accumulate over time, alongside other content stored on the iPad, the 16 GB entry level model may no longer cut it, making it an even more expensive investment.

Not Aimed at the College Market (and Did We Mention the iPad is Expensive?)

The cost issue might be mitigated somewhat if the initiative were not targeted exclusively at high school students.

At least for the time being, Apple's digital textbooks are targeted primarily at high school students. That fact alone presents a few roadblocks to the initiative being truly disruptive. For one, not every high school student in the United States can afford a $500 tablet device. Apple may well end up dropping the price when they launch the iPad 3 in a few weeks, but even then we're probably still talking about a several-hundred-dollar gadget. Many middle and upper class families can afford that, but kids in inner city schools and other low-income areas, some of which can barely afford enough paper textbooks, aren't going to be learning from iPads anytime soon.

For college students, investing in an iPad or similar device to replace textbooks makes simple economic sense. A single semester's worth of textbooks can easily approach the cost of an iPad. If the e-books available on the device are drastically less expensive than their paper counterparts, it would be foolish not to make the digital switch. Of course, how dramatically prices would drop remains to be seen.

Apple is Partnering With Big Publishers, Not Killing Them

College textbooks are enormously, obscenely profitable for the the companies that print them. In fact, they've come up with all kinds of creative ways of milking more money out of students. Textbooks about ancient history will be revised and re-issued every other semester and the company will package supplementary CD-ROM's and other digital learning materials, using them as a justification to jack up the price.

To get its new initiative off the ground, Apple is partnering with major publishers like McGraw Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. For the high school market, perhaps those companies can afford to agree to a $15-per-book price tag. But when it comes to higher education, publishers are unlikely to allow a $180 biology print textbook be replaced with a $15 e-book. That would cut into their profits pretty dramatically. At the same time, interactive e-textbooks can't be resold once they're used, so perhaps the publishers can be convinced that their e-book revenues will be replenished on a semesterly basis without fail.

Interestingly, at the same time that Apple has unveiled major partnerships with textbooks publishers, it also unleashed what appears to be a powerful, easy-to-use publishing toolkit for producing those books. If independent authors manage to create enough competition, it's possible that bigger publishers will have no choice but to play ball with Apple's preferred pricing for textbooks.

Apple's Not the Only Player

There's little reason to doubt that a decade from now, the classroom and the tools in it will look very different from what students are accustomed to today. The textbook is indeed one of the educational tools that is most in need of a digital makeover. When paper textbooks are finally a thing of the past, it won't have been Apple's efforts alone that got us there.

For one, education is already being blown wide open by the Web. The mere concepts of "the lecture" and "the textbook" begin to look antiquated in light of things like Khan Academy, Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, iTunes U and MIT's Open Courseware.

Those examples are just the tip of the iceberg. You'd be hard-pressed to find a student in the U.S. today that isn't already using the Internet to supplement their educational experience to some extent. Apple is well aware of the changes that are already underway. That's why they're doing this. That's why their DIY publishing tools include the ability pull in pieces of the Web and incorporate HTML5 and JavaScript.

Apple is also not the first company to try to re-imagine the textbook for a digital world. The so-called "smartbooks" offered by e-textbook startup Inking are in some ways more advanced than what Apple is bringing to the table. Other companies already active in this space include Chegg and Kno, as Audrey Watters points out on Hack Education.

Indeed, Apple is anything but the first entrant into this space. Not that that's stopped them in the past.

Lead textbook photo by Stephen Cummings. Phil Schiller photo courtesy of The Verge.

Apple's new digital textbooks will be available through the iBookstore and will feature much more rich and interactive components than their existing, consumer-focused e-books. In a demo at today's press event in New York City, the company demoed a science textbook complete with video, rich graphics, multitouch support and thumbnail-based navigation.

To bring this new initiative to market, Apple partnered with textbook publishers Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Initially, the textbooks will largely be geared toward high school students, but it sounds like there are plans to expand to other levels of education in time.

Fulfilling Steve Jobs' Vision

In his official biography of Apple's late cofounder, Walter Isaacson revealed that in addition to television and photography, one industry Steve Jobs was hoping to revolutionize next was textbooks, which he saw as being "ripe for digital destruction."

Today's demonstration very much echoed Jobs' vision for textbooks, which he saw as cumbersome, heavy and slow to update. By contrast, the iPad is portable, interactive and of course quite easy to update with new information.

To that end, Apple is rolling out a new application for the Mac that enables authors to easily build interactive textbooks using a drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG interface. iBooks Author for OS X supports everything from simple text to interactive graphics and allows authors to weave the Web into their publications using JavaScript and HTML5 add-ons.

Apple also unveiled a new iTunes U app, which gives teachers more digital tools to stay organized and communicate with their students.

This is not an all together shocking direction for Apple to move into, considering its somewhat recent foray into e-books with iBooks and how the iPad is already being used for educational purposes. That the tablet form factor makes for a potentially excellent educational tool is not at all a new concept, and it's one that Apple has already been using to help sell the iPad pretty much since day one.

See Also: Why Apple Won't Disrupt the Textbook Industry Anytime Soon

Exactly what they'll unveil tomorrow isn't yet known, but some hints and leaks have started to paint the picture. That the event is centered around education is no mystery, as the official press invite wasn't shy about making that point. As for which area of education is set to be targeted by Apple, all available evidence points to the textbook.

Just as Apple has entered the market for digital music and, more recently, consumer-focused e-books, it appears set to put a digital, interactive spin on the textbook. The company's plans are said to revolve not just around distribution of digital textbooks, but also around their creation. According to Ars Technica, Apple will unveil a platform for producing digital textbooks for iOS, quite possibly in manner simple enough to warrant it being nicknamed the "Garage Band for e-books". The effort is reportedly headed up by Roger Roser, a VP best known for his work on the iWork productivity suite.

It's not a terribly surprising direction for Apple to move into, considering its recent forays into e-books and how the iPad is already being used for educational purposes. This is an angle Apple is already using to market the device.

Even outside of schools, one of the biggest takeaways about the tablet revolution in general is that it's dramatically changing how and when people read. If that's true among consumers and working professionals, imagine the implications the tablet will have for education. Indeed, some expect that tablets will outnumber desktop computers in schools within a few years.

The confirmed details are few and far between at this point, but rest assured that ReadWriteWeb will bring you latest news and analysis about Apple's announcement tomorrow morning.

Apple's in-app purchasing rules prevent e-book sellers from offering stores in their native apps (without giving Apple a 30% cut). The route around that was to include a link to the Web store inside the native reader app. Last July, Apple forced Amazon and other e-reader apps to remove this link, so users of e-book platforms other than Apple's iBooks must buy their books in the browser, in a separate place from where they read.

Amazon's first strike against this rule was to launch the Web-based Kindle Cloud Reader, so that users could read and buy books from the browser on any device, not just the iPad. It's a nice experience, but the native Kindle app's performs better and is more useful offline, even though it doesn't offer direct access to the bookstore.

In December, Amazon brought the Kindle Fire Newsstand to the iOS app, so iPad users could receive subscription publications from Amazon in the Kindle app, in competition with Apple's own Newsstand. After beefing up the Kindle app, the new standalone Kindle Store Web app better serves Kindle users who want to use the native reader instead of the browser-based one.

Apple and Amazon come at each other head-on in this market. Their approaches are basically opposite. Apple wants controls over the media available on its devices, because content is an inclusive service it provides to make its profitable devices more attractive. Apple breaks even on content, but it wants to lock users into its devices with the convenience of that service.

Amazon's business is selling content on razor-thin margins. Its Kindle devices are the service, while the content is the product. That's why Amazon offers so much support for iOS devices, even though it just launched its own Kindle Fire tablet. Amazon loses $2.70 on each Kindle Fire, but it's sure to make up the loss in media purchases. Sales to iOS users are pure profit for Amazon. The new iPad Kindle Store is its best possible solution for its customers allowed on Apple's devices.

Do you read e-books? What's your set-up?