App Store listing¶

The text in App Store Connect, kept here so the next release can update it in one place. Character limits are Apple's.

Store page: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-knowledge-press/id6812116080?mt=12 (Apple ID 6812116080). The Mac app is live; the iPhone and iPad app is in App Review. Both are one Universal Purchase on the same record, so the same Apple ID serves both once iOS is approved; ?mt=12 opens the Mac tab.

Name (30)¶

The Knowledge Press

Subtitle (30)¶

A library that answers back

Promotional text (170, changeable without a new version)¶

249 classic books and four diaries on your device. Ask a question, get an answer written from the passages it found, with every source shown.

The Mac page has this text since 2026-10-18. The iOS page still opens "253 classic books on your device" and ends "Works in airplane mode."; promotional text changes without a new version, so it can be brought in line any time.

Description (4000)¶

The Knowledge Press is a library of 249 public-domain books and four diaries that you can search and question, entirely on your device.

Ask it anything: what Marcus Aurelius says about anger, how Darwin describes the Galapagos finches, where Pepys was on the day of the Great Fire. The app searches the whole library two ways at once, by meaning and by exact wording, and answers from the passages it found. Every answer shows its sources, and marks which passages the model actually read.

WORKS OFFLINE

The books, the search index and the language model are all on the device. Nothing you ask is sent anywhere. There is no account, no sign-in, and no tracking. It works in airplane mode.

THE LIBRARY

Twenty genres: philosophy, English, American, Russian, French, German and Spanish literature, the ancient and classical world, drama and Shakespeare, science fiction, horror, biography, letters, travel, natural history and sacred texts. Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Kant, Nietzsche, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Austen, Dickens, Melville, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Twain, Poe, Shelley, Stoker, Verne, Wells, Darwin, Thoreau, Whitman, and more.

Four diaries, searchable by date: Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn (two volumes), and Boswell's journal of his tour of the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson.

READ, NOT JUST SEARCH

Browse the library by genre, open any book, and read it chapter by chapter. The diaries open by date. Every source passage under an answer can be read in full.

ANSWERS YOU CAN CHECK

The app searches first and writes second, and the order never changes. An answer is written only from what the search found, and each passage that reached the model is marked. If the passages do not support an answer, it says so instead of inventing one. The settings let you tune how many passages are read, how closely they must match, and how the model writes, and every answer records the settings that produced it.

CHOOSE WHERE THE MODEL RUNS

On-device is the default and uses Apple Intelligence on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Private Cloud is optional: it sends your question and the selected passages to Apple's Private Cloud Compute for a larger model, under Apple's privacy guarantees, and never to us. Or turn answers off and use the app as a search engine for the classics.

ASK FROM SIRI

Ask The Knowledge Press from Siri and Shortcuts.

REQUIREMENTS

Search, reading and browsing work on any iPhone, iPad or Mac running iOS 26, iPadOS 26 or macOS 26. Written answers need Apple Intelligence.

The Knowledge Press is not affiliated with Project Gutenberg. The texts are public domain; Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive are acknowledged as their sources.

Keywords (100, comma-separated, no spaces)¶

classics,books,library,philosophy,literature,offline,reader,search,shakespeare,plato,diaries,homer

What's New (per version)¶

1.28.0¶

First App Store release.

URLs¶

Support: https://flux-frontiers.github.io/knowledge_press/support.html
Privacy policy: https://flux-frontiers.github.io/knowledge_press/privacy.html
Marketing (optional): https://github.com/Flux-Frontiers/knowledge_press

Review notes (App Review Information)¶

App Review rejected build 725 (1.28.0) and asked for a screen recording and written answers, and for the answers to stay in the Notes field for future submissions. The block below is what went into Notes and the reply on 2026-10-05 (about 3,500 characters; the field holds 4,000). Paste it unchanged unless the app has changed, and keep item 3 in step with the build being submitted.

A reply in App Review messages does not resubmit a rejected build. On 2026-10-06 the build went back for review this way: Edit on the rejected item, Notes replaced with the block below under a one-line lead, the recording attached under Attachment, Save, Update Review, then Resubmit to App Review. The lead used then:

Resubmitted after the 2.1.0 rejection of October 1. The requested screen recording and answers are below and in our App Review reply of October 5; the recording is also under Attachment.

1. Screen recording
Attached: recorded on a physical iPhone running the latest iOS, starting from launch and showing the typical flow. The app has no account registration, login or account deletion, no user-generated content shared with other users, and no paid content or in-app purchases, so none of those flows exist to show.

2. Purpose and audience
The Knowledge Press is a library of 249 public-domain books (philosophy, literature, history, science, drama, sacred texts) and four historical diaries (Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn, and Boswell's Hebrides journal), installed with the app. Readers ask a question in plain language; the app searches the whole library by meaning and by exact wording, then writes an answer only from the passages it found, and shows every source passage. It is for students, teachers, and general readers who want to explore the classics and check what the books actually say. It works offline: the books, the search index, and the language model are all on the device.

3. Setup and main features
No login, account, or sample files are needed. The library is bundled in the app; nothing is downloaded.
After a 3-second title screen, the Chat tab offers sample questions; tap one to see an answer with its sources.
- Ask: type a question on the main screen, for example "What does Marcus Aurelius say about anger?". The answer appears with its source passages; tap a passage to read it in full. This works in airplane mode.
- Browse: open Browse to see the library by genre, search by author, open any book, and read it chapter by chapter. The diaries open by date.
- Settings: choose the answer engine (On-device is the default), and tune how many passages are read.
- Siri and Shortcuts: "Ask The Knowledge Press" runs a question from Siri or the Shortcuts app.
Written answers need Apple Intelligence enabled on the device. Without it, the app still searches, browses, and reads, and says why answers are off.

4. External services
- Apple Foundation Models, on device (default answer engine). No data leaves the device.
- Apple Private Cloud Compute (optional, chosen by the user in Settings). The question and the retrieved passages go to Apple under Apple's Private Cloud Compute commitments, not to us.
- Worker (optional, off unless the user enters a server address). Sends the question to a server the user runs themselves. We operate no server, and it is not needed for review.
- Siri and Shortcuts through App Intents.
There are no accounts, analytics, advertising, crash reporting, third-party SDKs, or payment processors. The search embedder (BAAI bge-small-en-v1.5, MIT license) runs on device with Core ML.

5. Regional differences
The app's features and content are the same in every region. The only difference is Apple's: written answers use Apple Intelligence, which is available only in the regions and languages Apple supports. Where it is unavailable, the app still searches, browses, and reads the full library. The books are in English.

6. Third-party material and regulation
The app does not operate in a regulated industry. All 249 books and four diaries are public domain in the United States. The texts come from Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, which the app acknowledges as sources. Project Gutenberg's header and license text are removed from each book, as its license permits for public-domain works. The app is not affiliated with Project Gutenberg and does not use its trademark in the app's name or branding.

The screen recording¶

Apple wants it on a physical device on the latest OS, starting at launch. The 2026-10-05 recording ran 2:15 on an iPhone in Airplane Mode:

Home Screen, Airplane Mode on in Control Center, launch the app.
Chat: ask "What does Marcus Aurelius say about anger?", let it finish, open a source passage.
Browse: a genre, a book, Next once; Pepys's diary by date.
Settings: the engine picker on On-device, then Delete all conversations to show the user can delete their data.

Control Center records without the microphone unless it is turned on (long-press Screen Recording), which is why Siri is not in that recording. Trim the ends in Photos with Edit, then attach the .mov to the reply and under App Review Information > Attachment.

Availability¶

All storefronts except China mainland. App Review held 1.28.0 (725) on 2026-10-16 under Guideline 2.1: an app with book content offered in China mainland needs an Internet Publishing License from the National Press and Publication Administration in the developer's name, which we do not have. China mainland was removed under Distribution > Pricing and Availability > App Availability, and the same build was resubmitted. The setting belongs to the app, so later versions keep it. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are separate storefronts and stay in.

The Mac version¶

Same record as iOS (Universal Purchase): name, subtitle, category, age rating, privacy, availability and price are shared. The macOS version page has its own text; the first one, 1.30.0 (790), was submitted 2026-10-18 with the iOS promotional text, description, keywords and URLs above, copyright "2026 Eric G. Suchanek, PhD", and the review notes above changed in four places:

A one-line lead: this is the Mac version of the same app and record, and the answers given for iOS apply unchanged except where noted.
Item 1: the recording was made on an iPhone; the Mac app has the same features and flow.
Items 2-4: "on the Mac" for "on the device", "click" for "tap", and "with networking off" for "in airplane mode". The 3-second title-screen line is dropped.
Item 5: the app is not offered in China mainland.

The book count was fixed on 2026-10-18 in the Mac text and in the blocks above: 249 books plus four diaries, 253 works in all. The iOS 1.28.0 listing in review still says 253 books; correct it with the next iOS version.

Mac screenshots¶

Apple takes 1280x800, 1440x900, 2560x1600 or 2880x1800. On a 14-inch MacBook Pro (3024x1964), zoom the window (double-click its title bar), take a full-screen capture with Cmd-Shift-3, and crop off the 74 px menu bar; what is left is exactly 16:10:

ffmpeg -i in.png -vf "crop=3024:1890:0:74,scale=2880:1800:flags=lanczos" -q:v 2 out.jpg

Clear the Worker field in Settings first, or every answer shows "Cannot reach the worker" and a Render button. The 1.30.0 set, in order: the start screen with sample questions; "what did marcus aurelius say about anger?" with Source passages open; Pepys on 1 January 1660 in the reader; Macbeth I.ii in the reader.

Category¶

Primary: Books. Secondary: Education.

Age rating¶

13+ (questionnaire answered 2026-09-27: infrequent mature themes, sexual content, realistic violence, weapons, profanity; nothing interactive).