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Where to get free books on Ibooks?

C

chico123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 17, 2009
8
0
Hello I am new the ipad and the jailbraking.
I have bought a ipad but I have not jailbroken it yet.

I dont think i understand jailbraking; is it just being able to get apps for free?

anyways is there a way to get free books from the ibooks store?

I am not sure if the ibooks store is apart of jailbraking but does anyone know if the ibooks store is hackable?

I dont think i am allowed to post this on macrumors.. if not please delete this forum.. thank you:p
 
IBooks and it's bookstore have a whole section of free public domain or copyright expired books. These are all easily accessible. You just don't get a nice cover artwork. You can add this yourself in iTunes though.

You do not need to jailbreak to access free ibooks.

If you are talking about new releases, these are not free. Have nothing to do with jail breaking and are not accessible via any other new routes by jail breaking.
 
I haven't seen what the iBooks store itself has that is free, but you can get free public domain epub format books from Manybooks.net. I've got the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe and several other authors loading up in iTunes and all ready to rock on my iPad when it arrives!
 
What about free new books? Amazon consistently has newer books that are free for a temporary time. Does iBooks bookstore ever do this?
 
This just goes to show that they (Apple) need a happy medium with it's book experiment.

For example, I downloaded a sample of Sarah Silverman's new book and enjoyed what I read.

I am interested in reading it but will I pay $12.99 - $14.99 for the ability to read it on my iPad???

No way.

They should have a "local library" option.

Let me pay like $5 and give me a week to read it.
If I don't finish, the book either goes away or I check it out again for another $5.
If I want to own it, that $5 goes to the total cost.

Or, a subscription service where I can read as many books as I want for a monthly fee.

As it is now, it is hard for me to buy an electronic version of a book I can buy cheaper in the dead tree version, which should never be the case.
 
WytRaven said:
You mean stealing?
Click to expand...

No i do not mean stealing. I am not sure as to what jailbraking does so I was only asking if jailbraking makes the apps free. it was a guess.

anyways thanks for all the comments. I do agree the 12$ for buying a book option online is too pricey for me because

first of all I can go to the library to get any book for free.

second if i want to buy a book I can go online to half.com or other websites and get a book for way cheaper than any book on the Ibookstore.

Also I am a college student and am looking to buy textbooks online. although I know how amazing it will be for me to have an electronic textbook because of the "control find option" the price doesnt make sense. not that i wont buy tho.

For example I can buy a 100$ textbook for somewhere around 75$ in ibooks store. however i can buy the text book for 75$ or cheaper online and then after i am done with the book i have the option of selling the book on half.com or anywhere else so that I will be somewhat reimbursed for it.. making the book cheaper

but the ibook textbooks disappears after sometime and we cant sell it to get our money back..

although the "control find button" makes up for it all.
 
Zimmy68 said:
This just goes to show that they (Apple) need a happy medium with it's book experiment.

For example, I downloaded a sample of Sarah Silverman's new book and enjoyed what I read.

I am interested in reading it but will I pay $12.99 - $14.99 for the ability to read it on my iPad???

No way.

They should have a "local library" option.

Let me pay like $5 and give me a week to read it.
If I don't finish, the book either goes away or I check it out again for another $5.
If I want to own it, that $5 goes to the total cost.

Or, a subscription service where I can read as many books as I want for a monthly fee.

As it is now, it is hard for me to buy an electronic version of a book I can buy cheaper in the dead tree version, which should never be the case.
Click to expand...

Or perhaps they could just support the Adobe DRM epub books, and we could just get them from a an actual library like the NYPL site.
 
For the OP, what Jailbreaking does is allow you to install non-Apple Approved apps, from the Cydia store(and others). People do this to add apps to their iPhones/iPods/iPads that Apple doesn't like, like the iPhone tethering app, various videogame emulators, etc.

There isn't a tool to make apps from the app store free, though there are many, many free apps on the app store.
 
Check your local library. Mine has some new releases in electronic format. They say they worked on the IPod but aren't supposed to work on the IPad. That doesn't make sense to me but I haven't had a chance to check into it.
 
Bob Chadwick said:
Check your local library. Mine has some new releases in electronic format. They say they worked on the IPod but aren't supposed to work on the IPad. That doesn't make sense to me but I haven't had a chance to check into it.
Click to expand...

The native iBooks app on the iPad only supports epub, so if its not epub it won't work. However, if they are in another format like PDF, you still might be able to read it with a PDF reader app on the iPad.

I think the future is libraries will be completely digital, and allow you to 'borrow' a digital version of a book, and it will merely expire after a certain period of time and be unreadable on your iPad or other ebook reader.
 
Bodhi395 said:
The native iBooks app on the iPad only supports epub, so if its not epub it won't work. However, if they are in another format like PDF, you still might be able to read it with a PDF reader app on the iPad.

I think the future is libraries will be completely digital, and allow you to 'borrow' a digital version of a book, and it will merely expire after a certain period of time and be unreadable on your iPad or other ebook reader.
Click to expand...


Also note there are programs that convert PDF into epub, which you can then drop into iBooks.
 
Bob Chadwick said:
Check your local library. Mine has some new releases in electronic format. They say they worked on the IPod but aren't supposed to work on the IPad. That doesn't make sense to me but I haven't had a chance to check into it.
Click to expand...

Here is my library....

1. got rid of the audiobooks you could download.

2. won't let me use my library card on the CardStar app (or is that cardstor?) - they must SEE and TOUCH the card.

3. Refuses to issue BOTH library cards the county provides - the CC sized one and the keychain tag one.

I'd like to have both, give the regular one to the kids to keep in their bags, and i can keep the key ones on my keychain for unplanned trips. see #2.

However, i can drive 5 miles to the next town and get a replacement and get them both. When i pointed that out, they held a MEETING to decide if they could grant me an exception to the "rule".

Because, you know, people were giving the 2nd cards to their friends and running up fines and not paying.....

They granted the exception - making a HUGE deal about how it was a one time deal, and they would NOT waive any fees for me. Understand, my kids take an art class there weekly - and have been for the last 5 years. In that time we have incurred $4 in fines TOTAL.

So i haven't checked a book out since, or paid my $1.25 fine either.

i'm still pissed.

SOOOO, what are my odds for getting digital loans???? Not very high....
 
Alkiera said:
For the OP, what Jailbreaking does is allow you to install non-Apple Approved apps, from the Cydia store(and others). People do this to add apps to their iPhones/iPods/iPads that Apple doesn't like, like the iPhone tethering app, various videogame emulators, etc.

There isn't a tool to make apps from the app store free, though there are many, many free apps on the app store.
Click to expand...

Actually, once you're jailbroken, it's not hard to steal paid apps from the app store. I've seen estimates that the theft rate is as high as 50% (ie, for every person who buys an app, someone else steals it).
 
Bodhi395 said:
The native iBooks app on the iPad only supports epub, so if its not epub it won't work. However, if they are in another format like PDF, you still might be able to read it with a PDF reader app on the iPad.
Click to expand...

The books appear to be Adobe PDF eBook's. If I try to download it the file has an ascm suffix. Figured out that I then need to download Adobe Digital Edition to play them.
 
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