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Arent they all the same?

No. They allow you to read books purchased from each of those stores. You can't directly* read an Amazon book in iBooks.

*There are tools available to strip the DRM from most ebook retailers.
 
From personal experience the only one's i've tried is ibooks and the kindle app. Between those two I prefer ibooks, because it's more user friendly. I love being able to have all my books, and the ibook store all in the same place. With the kindle app you have to buy the books from amazon, can't buy them from within the kindle app. Or at least I never found a way to do so.

ibooks i think is a little more expensive then the kindle books, and they don't have as many to pick from. Even with those minor flaws I still prefer it, and it of course goes with iTunes. :) I love having all my media in one spot, very convenient. :apple:
 
As an avid reader with over 300 books in iBooks I prefer it to all of the others. For me the interface is better and it feels more like a real book (page turning, fonts) compared to the Kindle or Nook App.

That being said I don't buy all my books from Apple but I convert them to epub so I can easily have them in one place in iTunes and read them in iBooks.
 
As an avid reader with over 300 books in iBooks I prefer it to all of the others. For me the interface is better and it feels more like a real book (page turning, fonts) compared to the Kindle or Nook App.

That being said I don't buy all my books from Apple but I convert them to epub so I can easily have them in one place in iTunes and read them in iBooks.

Where do you get your books and how do you convert them?
 
. With the kindle app you have to buy the books from amazon, can't buy them from within the kindle app. Or at least I never found a way to do so.

You used to be able to but Apple changed the rules to ban it to stop people buying the books that are on both from Amazon rather than ibooks for less.

You can still go to Amazon from safari, buy the book and when you press deliver it opens the Kindle app and downloads it :)
 
As an avid reader with over 300 books in iBooks I prefer it to all of the others. For me the interface is better and it feels more like a real book (page turning, fonts) compared to the Kindle or Nook App.

That being said I don't buy all my books from Apple but I convert them to epub so I can easily have them in one place in iTunes and read them in iBooks.

You can get the page turning effect in the Kindle app. They are both fine apps, but in the end, the selection for Kindle books is vastly superior to that available for iBooks and it's cross platform if that matters to you (it does to me because my family has both Kindles and iPads).
 
I agree. The selection in the Kindle app is so far superior to the selection in iBooks that it makes it a no-brainer. Plus the books in the Kindle app are generally less expensive than the books in the iBooks app.
 
If I buy the book, I generally buy it for Kindle, because often they're $1 less than iBooks.

For my own books (books I downloaded myself, or de-DRM'd), I read in iBooks.

My paid library I tend to keep on Kindle just so they're on one platform, but I have purchased the odd one or two books from iBooks in the past. Generally if they're "my" books, I use iBooks, if they're books I bought that are new releases, I use Kindle.

I don't use the nook app at all - I figure if I'm buying books for a platform, I may as well keep them all on the same.
 
I have moved away from Nook due to their resistance to installing an adequate dictionary. It seems to be of typical pocket dictionary depth.

Not an issue if one sticks to light reading or if one has a deep vocabulary I suppose. :eek:
 
I have both iBooks and Kindle apps. I also use Overdrive to get and read library books.

I prefer Kindle because of the vast number of books through Amazon. They also have $.99 specials all the time and one can discover hidden treasures.

But, I also prefer iBooks for the incredible real feel. A funny story to illustrate: I read in bed, in the dark. App looks just like a book does if you have iPad in landscape. One night I became really sleepy and I tried to close the book just like I would a regular one. I almost snapped the iPad in half! Woke me up and didn't sleep for a good two hours afterwards :).

Enjoy your reading...it is magical!
 
when I first tested them when I books came out ibooks lacked a lot of basic features. one I remember is no night mode. that finally happened after a long time. that made the app useless to read in beds. the kindle app is simple works well. Apple can be blamed on killing the kindle app from buying books.
 
I use both the Nook app and iBooks for my reading. there are some books that I have tried to get through iBooks and couldn't find them but they were available via BN's Nook. I love reading through iBooks because of the page turning effect but the Nook app isn't all bad either.
 
I buy more for Kindle these days because I have my iPad Kindle app synced to the same Amazon account as my wife's Kindle. That way we can read the same books if we want.

I downloaded the Nook app last night because they have a magazine subscription on there that I'm interested in--it's not retina ready yet.
 
I prefer Kindle since I can access my books on my actual Kindle along with the Kindle app on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air.

I can read them anywhere and everywhere.

I do not believe you can access iBooks directly on a computer but I can do it from the cloud on Amazon's website.
 
I've had a couple iBooks download that were entirely corrupted. Like, missing 20 of 25 chapters corrupted. I know a few others had the same issue with those books. To date, Apple hasn't fixed it for me, and it is becoming my first bad Apple CS experience.

I like iBooks, but I'll probably stick with Kindle for simplicity.
 
I downloaded a book for Kindle and then found it was also available for iBooks so I downloaded for iBooks. I was surprised that it had color illustrations in iBooks.
 
Kindle. I own a kindle and it is far superior to read in daylight than an iPad. Plus I don't like being tied to one platform as you are with iBooks. Kindle is available on different mobile platforms, pc and their devices. And everything stays in sync between them.
 
iBooks is a much better app, but the Kindle store has more variety and often lower prices. I don't have a Kindle so the platform concern is a non-issue for me, but I'd still appreciate an iBooks app/reader on OS X.
 
I buy more for Kindle these days because I have my iPad Kindle app synced to the same Amazon account as my wife's Kindle. That way we can read the same books if we want.

You can do the same with Apple iBooks. All you have to do is set up your two iPads to share one Apple account under Store in the Settings. You can still have separate iCloud accounts so bookmark syncing is different.
 
You can do the same with Apple iBooks. All you have to do is set up your two iPads to share one Apple account under Store in the Settings. You can still have separate iCloud accounts so bookmark syncing is different.

I know, but she doesn't do books on her iPod and doesn't have an iPad. She reads her Kindle, I read the Kindle app.
 
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