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Apple's iBooks App Now Available

Kindle is available for my iPhone...

I have to admit, sometimes Apple's built-in limitations bug me. I've been considering buying a few e-books. A new book just came out that I want, and it's available in a variety of electronic formats. So, I've been debating between the Kindle and Apple's new reader. Debate over. The Kindle is free on my iPhone and on my desktop (and they even sync wirelessly, so no matter which one I open, it can take me to where I left off!), whereas Apple is making their new reader and bookstore available exclusively for the iPad. As cool as the iPad looks, I just won't have $500 to throw at one anytime soon. Hello, Amazon.
 
mickbab said:
Kind of disappointing that you can't read your eBooks/iBooks/whatever directly on iTunes.
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I agree - this would be very useful to many I am sure. Just recently Amazon finally released Mac Kindle software and now I believe that you can read Kindle books on Kindle, Windows, Mac, and iPhone - and of course, soon the iPad.

Would be nice if Apple would follow suit as well...
 
jydesign said:
However, this strategy really irks me because it seems myopic.
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Its not myopic; in fact I'm sure its quite deliberate. It astounds me that so many people on this forum really don't understand what Apple is all about.

Reading on the iPhone/iPod touch for any meaningful length of time is a **** user experience. Most people don't want to read on such a small screen. Nobody cares that you, or a few other people do. Apple will not release something that they think sucks.
 
Luke Redpath said:
What's that got to do with anything? Apple don't do lousy user experience; what their rivals do is up to them.
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I think the poster was referring to the fact that Apple has previously been known to reject apps which replicate functionality already built in to the operating system. Whether Apple considers the iBooks app as part of that functionality, will determine whether they begin rejecting eBook apps.
 
It is good to see that with the iBooks apps Apple clearly says you can add non-DRM ePub format books using iTunes 9.1 or later to sync them to your iPad.

It should be easy now for Apple to come out with a Mac version of the iBooks app and also an iPhone/iPod Touch iBooks app, so people with Macs can download and read books from the iBookstore as well, just like Amazon currently had with the Kindle for Mac and the Kindle for iPhone...
 
Scarpad said:
Not home to try this, do the books you've imported into Itunes show up on your shelves in Ibooks or only the ones you'll buy?
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What would be the point in being able to add them to iTunes if they didn't show up on the bookshelf?
 
Disappointed that there will be no iPhone version of iBooks, so I guess I will stick with Kindle. It handles e-books extremely well, and I am able to use it (as well as sync) on my iPod, Mac, and PC. That's hard to beat. Though it would be nice if a Mac version of iBooks was eventually released.
 
Luke Redpath said:
Its not myopic; in fact I'm sure its quite deliberate. It astounds me that so many people on this forum really don't understand what Apple is all about.

Reading on the iPhone/iPod touch for any meaningful length of time is a **** user experience. Most people don't want to read on such a small screen. Nobody cares that you, or a few other people do. Apple will not release something that they think sucks.
Click to expand...

Sigh. This isn't about reading for a substantial length of time. This is about being able to pull out your iPhone and read a chapter while killing time for whatever reason in a situation where you don't have the iPad. It happens. And if you're in the middle of a good book you're very likely going to want to do just that. Again why would you deny yourself that option???
 
nomad01 said:
It's easier than it used to be... on my iPhone anyway. Seems to switch between the two stores quite easily and just prompt me for the appropriate password when it needs it.

Weird thing is that I've contacted Apple in the past with iTunes store problems and they've listed all my accounts for me and included the US one that's under a totally different email address with a fake address. So they're obviously aware that people do this. Wouldn't be hard for them to cancel these accounts if they wanted to.



Totally feasible. I've had two on one Mac for ages. I've downloaded TV shows, applications and music from both stores on one Mac.

No idea if the ABC app will work though. The Comixology app wouldn't show Marvel comics in the UK no matter which store I downloaded the app from.
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I gather you can have multiple iTunes accounts on one computer -- and you should also be able to, for example, buy a book on one computer and then authorize your partner's computer to use your iTunes account and get that book too. This way you can share content across multiple users and computers. But, I did not know you could have multiple iTunes accounts on a phone -- how do you select which one you want to use? Just at log-in during a purchase?
 
iPhone??????

If iBooks and the iBookstore come to the iPad, they should bring it to the iPhone. I would love to get this app for my iPod Touch.
 
Luke Redpath said:
Its not myopic; in fact I'm sure its quite deliberate. It astounds me that so many people on this forum really don't understand what Apple is all about.

Reading on the iPhone/iPod touch for any meaningful length of time is a **** user experience. Most people don't want to read on such a small screen. Nobody cares that you, or a few other people do. Apple will not release something that they think sucks.
Click to expand...

Why are you arguing this until you're red in the face ?

A counter point is that having to drag around a 500$ piece of equipment that requires a messenger bag of some sort is a lousy user experience compared to a pocket sized device or trade paperback.

So Apple does do lousy user experience, the fact remains they get to choose which lousy user experience they provide you with. Amazon got it right : Let the user choose how he wants to read his books, be it hard covers, paperbacks, tablet thingy, laptop, desktop, cellphone, portable media player, whatever...
 
domd said:
I have to admit, sometimes Apple's built-in limitations bug me. I've been considering buying a few e-books. A new book just came out that I want, and it's available in a variety of electronic formats. So, I've been debating between the Kindle and Apple's new reader. Debate over. The Kindle is free on my iPhone and on my desktop (and they even sync wirelessly, so no matter which one I open, it can take me to where I left off!), whereas Apple is making their new reader and bookstore available exclusively for the iPad. As cool as the iPad looks, I just won't have $500 to throw at one anytime soon. Hello, Amazon.
Click to expand...

you can purchase the pdf and convert it to epub and sync it to your ibooks collection....i've done so and the maaaaaaaany pdf's i own
 
nelmat said:
Seriously - you want to read a novel on a screen the size of a postage stamp? That's simply a nonsense statement.
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I have no problems reading from the Kindle app on the iphone. Anyone who does have a problem with the iphone's screen size should probably be using something like this instead of an iphone. ;)
 
Xibalba said:
I agree - this would be very useful to many I am sure. Just recently Amazon finally released Mac Kindle software and now I believe that you can read Kindle books on Kindle, Windows, Mac, and iPhone - and of course, soon the iPad.

Would be nice if Apple would follow suit as well...
Click to expand...

I would be useful, but it doesn't make Apple any money. If you want to read ebooks from iTunes BUY an iPad. It stinks, but isn't a surprise.
 
iBook not a core function

mickbab said:
I think the poster was referring to the fact that Apple has previously been known to reject apps which replicate functionality already built in to the operating system. Whether Apple considers the iBooks app as part of that functionality, will determine whether they begin rejecting eBook apps.
Click to expand...

I find it interesting that the iBooks app is not part of the iPad and needs to be downloaded first. A much-touted feature - ebooks - is not available when you take the iPad out of the box, and requires the user to set it up.

Because of that, I would think that reading an e-book isn't a core function, and Apple would allow other e-book apps.
 
Abyssgh0st said:
The "Audiobooks" section of iTunes should be transforming into just "Books" or "iBooks" on April 3rd. It will be accessible via computer.
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You're right - looks like it's just Books on my iTunes, and the Audiobooks tag is all gone.

screenshot20100403at122.png


I'd probably prefer they split it to have audio and written books as I'd like to skim through both types of books depending on what I'm doing and whether I'm stationary or mobile.
 
nelmat said:
Seriously - you want to read a novel on a screen the size of a postage stamp? That's simply a nonsense statement.
Click to expand...

It's not so much that you read the whole novel as you get a little reading in when using a larger device is impossible or inconvenient. Say you forget your iPad or Kindle (but who leaves home without their phone?). Or standing in a grocery line. If you're an avid reader immersed in particularly good novel, it's a nice convenience.
 
Academic Uses

Things I really need out of a "Reader" are the ability to

  • Highlight - hopefully different colors
  • Add notes

Can anyone tell me if this functionality is available in iBooks? If not, do you know of one? Thanks!
 
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