How to see iBook Store without an iPad?

[BashBrannigan]

I'm in Canada. I'm debating getting an iPad, but I'm curious about the books available and their pricing on iBooks. I've been searching iTunes, but can't find anything. I'm assuming you need the iBook app? Will the iBook ap work on my MacBook or iPod Touch? Is there ANY way to get an idea of availability and pricing without buying the iPad first?

Thanks!

 

[JulianL]

I'm in Canada. I'm debating getting an iPad, but I'm curious about the books available and their pricing on iBooks. I've been searching iTunes, but can't find anything. I'm assuming you need the iBook app? Will the iBook ap work on my MacBook or iPod Touch? Is there ANY way to get an idea of availability and pricing without buying the iPad first?

Thanks!

I've got my iPad now but had the same question as you a few weeks ago and at that time the answer was no, there is no way to see the store without running iBooks which is only on the iPad. It's a decision that confuses me. Apple are in a head-to-head fight with Amazon and Apple has just launched its new flagship department store right opposite the one that Amazon opened some time ago but, for some strange reason, Apple has chosen to board up all the windows on its store so that no one considering going in can see inside.

The only reason for Apple's behaviour that does make some sense to me is that they're a bit embarrassed by the inside of their shiny new store right now (not enough books in it) and maybe, once they believe that they have a wide enough range of commercial titles to shout about, they'll open up access somewhat. It's also possible that iPhone OS for the iPhone 3G and 3GS will be released fairly soon and that will add iBooks support to the iPhone so if you also have an iPhone then upgrading the OS to 4.0 when available and getting into the book store that way might give you a solution within a month or so.

On a practical level I suppose that you could pick 5 or 10 books that you're interested in, post them here, and hope that a helpful Canadian iPad owner stumbles across this thread and can look them up for you and give you availability and pricing info. I'd be happy to do that but I'm in the UK so my data wouldn't be much help to you since I believe that the book stores are most definitely different from region to region due to copyright issues as well as just currency issues.

- Julian