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It's no eBook reader
- Thread starter TheSeagull
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Just read this on a USA Today article......
Q: The new iBooks app that will sell new releases of e-books sounds great. Since the store is in iTunes, can I buy the books and read them on my iPhone or iPod Touch?
A: No. Apple says the application for reading the books is only on the iPad.
Well, that is super disappointing. I see myself investing in some sort of e-book reader down the road, but not anytime soon. Shame I can't just read these e-books on my MBP.
Q: The new iBooks app that will sell new releases of e-books sounds great. Since the store is in iTunes, can I buy the books and read them on my iPhone or iPod Touch?
A: No. Apple says the application for reading the books is only on the iPad.
Well, that is super disappointing. I see myself investing in some sort of e-book reader down the road, but not anytime soon. Shame I can't just read these e-books on my MBP.
The Adobe application for Mac & PC is called "Digital Editions".
iPhone solutions were announced but I'm not sure they are really there.
hmmm....
wow this topic has generated a lot of discussion!
As an avid reader who just recently started purchasing ebooks I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents...
One of the main reasons I'm interested in the iPad is the possibility of using it as an ebook reader. I've also been considering the kindle and at this point I haven't really made up my mind but I will say this. I'm not really sold on ANY electronic device replacing the paper book. Yes I have seen sony readers in stores and I like what I see but even e-ink is an approximation on reading printed words.
Also as others have said I and I think a growing proportion of the general public look at a computer screen ALL DAY LONG. Do I ever get eye strain? yes. Does reading a book all day also give me eye strain, yes. I'm sure e-ink is the best technology out there now for reducing that strain but for the majority of people I think the iPad reading experience will be good enough, and then you get all the extras like web browsing video apps etc.
Also a point that I think a lot of people are missing (atleast in the posts that I managed to read). The big appeal of ebooks for me has nothing to do with saving paper (sorry planet) or being able to have many titles with me at once. It is much more about being able to get something that I want RIGHT NOW! Not on the weekend when I have time to go to the bookstore. It's that instant gratification coupled with the ability to sample books before you buy, and the often lower price for new releases that has attracted me to ebooks thus far. All I need to read them is a form factor that is reasonably more comfortable than reading on a laptop.
What I really hope for is some solution to the multiple formats that are each locked to a specific device. Does anyone think that apple will allow amazon to write their own app for the ipad like they did for the iphone? Or will we be able to use the iphone kindle app? If that was true I would be much more likely to buy the ipad.
wow this topic has generated a lot of discussion!
As an avid reader who just recently started purchasing ebooks I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents...
One of the main reasons I'm interested in the iPad is the possibility of using it as an ebook reader. I've also been considering the kindle and at this point I haven't really made up my mind but I will say this. I'm not really sold on ANY electronic device replacing the paper book. Yes I have seen sony readers in stores and I like what I see but even e-ink is an approximation on reading printed words.
Also as others have said I and I think a growing proportion of the general public look at a computer screen ALL DAY LONG. Do I ever get eye strain? yes. Does reading a book all day also give me eye strain, yes. I'm sure e-ink is the best technology out there now for reducing that strain but for the majority of people I think the iPad reading experience will be good enough, and then you get all the extras like web browsing video apps etc.
Also a point that I think a lot of people are missing (atleast in the posts that I managed to read). The big appeal of ebooks for me has nothing to do with saving paper (sorry planet) or being able to have many titles with me at once. It is much more about being able to get something that I want RIGHT NOW! Not on the weekend when I have time to go to the bookstore. It's that instant gratification coupled with the ability to sample books before you buy, and the often lower price for new releases that has attracted me to ebooks thus far. All I need to read them is a form factor that is reasonably more comfortable than reading on a laptop.
What I really hope for is some solution to the multiple formats that are each locked to a specific device. Does anyone think that apple will allow amazon to write their own app for the ipad like they did for the iphone? Or will we be able to use the iphone kindle app? If that was true I would be much more likely to buy the ipad.
Where do you sign up for that? I didn't spot it on the Kindle Store or the Kindle for PC page (where it says there's a Mac edition coming soon).
That's the worry - I'm sure the current app will run in stretched form, but a new one will be needed to take advantage of the larger screen. Will Apple allow the competition who already have a head start on them regarding publishing deals, so will have a wider range of titles, possibly at a lower price, and almost certainly in more countries, to compete with them directly? Who knows. If they don't allow it, it sucks.
There's also the question of whether Amazon wants to support a device with its own bookstore that wouldn't allow its books to be read on the Kindle, even if this had ePub support, so that the normal flow would be for people to drift to the iPad.
To a certain extent in the longer term that depends on whether or not Amazon want to stay in the hardware market at all. If they are allowed to write apps for future tablets/smartphones and find that's where most of their customer base ends up, they might take the view that they can spend a lot less developing fairly simple apps and just selling eBooks on other people's hardware. However, the Kindle may still have plenty of life in it yet, and there may be scope to cut the price.
Yes, but the trick is that the 3G Kindles have the Amazon store inside, no other, even if it supported ePub.
?? I meant, if you want to buy a book on the go with the Kindle, you are locked to Amazon.