The iBooks app for the iPad is both a free e - Word reader platform and a gateway to Apple ’s iBookstore , the society ’s weapons platform for sell due east - books . Compared to Amazon ’s Kindle app ( also available for free ) , there arepros and consto using iBooks as an east - reader . However , the only way to get to the iBookstore and buy due east - ledger is through the app ; while iTunes copies books you corrupt on the iPad , you ca n’t ( yet ) buy from iTunes itself . ( mention that you could add ebooks in ePub format that you ’ve bought elsewhere , assuming those books do n’t have any digital - rights direction limitation ; they ’ll sync to your iPad . )
For more Es - leger reportage , readRoll Your Own iBooks with ePuband download our free iPad book
Entering the iBookstore
As I cite above , you’re able to only buy books through the iBooks app on the iPad . While Apple has announced that this app will be uncommitted for the iPhone and iPod touch , the company has n’t indicated whether iBooks has a time to come on the Mac . The e - lector could suit into a future update of iTunes or even appear as a standalone app , but that ’s wholly in the realm of supposition .
Here ’s what you see when you enter the iBookstore by tapping on iBooks ’ Store button .
In the here and now , when you launch iBooks on your iPad and pat on the Store release , you see a display that ’s interchangeable to the iTunes Store chief page , but scaled to Apple ’s pill . circumvolve banners at the top of the pageboy greet you , while a New & Notable section displays a simple six titles and four promotional bricks line the bottom of the covert . you may tap the arrow in the New & Notable division to pan through four screens , and if you realize that you may scroll down on this page — no scroll - barroom are visible , so it looks like the Sir Frederick Handley Page end below the bricks — you’ll see another subdivision with six Book and three or four screens , usually devote to a specific author or field of study .
Here’s what you see when you enter the iBookstore by tapping on iBooks’ Store button.
When I visit a bookstall , I want to see more than a few dozen books . And you could on the iBookstore . you may actually see several hundred books . There are 21 “ categories”—Apple ’s term for genre — available from the Categories button at the top of the iBookstore window . you’re able to parachute from Arts & Entertainment to Parenting to Sports & Outdoors , by mode of Fiction & Literature , Sci - Fi & Fantasy and Romance . But that still does n’t pop the question that many Bible , since no lector is interested in all those categories . you may search , of course , by get in a title or author ’s name in the lookup field , but you ask to do it what you want . The issue of books you’re able to see at any one time is limited .
If you desire to find out more about a leger , tap its image — a pop - up window shows you some data . look on the book , you ’ll see its publication date , category , print distance ( the number of pages in the report version ) , a description , and military rank and review . Not all book have descriptions , though you’re able to download a detached sampling of any book : just tap Get Sample , and you ’ll get a file with one or several chapters to check out . This is utile to read a few pages of the Good Book , contain out its board of contents , and see how it looks on the iPad . Samples have Buy buttons at the top of their pages , so you may purchase a book without having to regain it in the iBookstore again .
When you tap on a account book to get more info , this is what you see . Many books do n’t turn back info about photographic print length .
When you tap on a book to get more info, this is what you see. Many books don’t contain information about print length.
I ’d wish to see iBookstore showing more info about books . Too many offerings have no verbal description , many do n’t give any estimation of their distance — the “ print duration ” entry is often MIA — and there are no related to books displayed , whether from the same author or just related titles .
Also , Apple ’s use of categories is odd . For case , The Lord of the Rings is listed as part of the “ Epic ” category — but “ Epic ” does not appear in the category leaning . A history book I looked at is in the “ Military ” category , and some enigma were list as “ Fiction & Literature . ” Better compartmentalisation is in order here .
Find out what’s hot
The iBookstore lets you view its own good - seller lists for each class ( in iBooks , tap Top Charts at the bottom of the window , then choose a family at the top ) as well asNew York Timesbest - seller lists . There are even free Word of God inclination on the iBookstore in most categories ( though queerly not the Classics category , where many al-Qur’an in the public arena are uncommitted ) .
There are plenty of detached book for download , from public - domain books source fromProject Gutenbergto other free books by authors front for exposure , or just uncoerced to give their books off . You could fulfill up your iPad without spending a centime .
Check out books on the New York Times best - seller list — at least those usable in e - book formatting from the iBookstore .
Check out books on the New York Times best-seller list—at least those available in e-book format from the iBookstore.
What’s missing
What I ’ve found most useful , as both a bookseller and buyer , is serendipity — the ability to come across a book you ’ve never heard of because it ’s on the same table or in the same ledge in a brick - and - howitzer bookstore , or on the same page on Amazon.com . The iBookstore bomb in this deference . away from the books you see on the independent varlet of each category , there are no data link to other deed .
counterpoint this with Amazon , which has this aspect of book - shopping down pat . You ’ll retrieve “ Customers Who Bought This Item Also buy ” listing on the Amazon.com page for each Word of God ; these leave suggestion for dozens of other book that may concern you if you thought about purchase the al-Qur’an on the Thomas Nelson Page .
Browse for a book at Amazon.com , and the Website will give you recommendations of other books you might be interested in . Apple ’s iBookstore does n’t bid that serve .
Browse for a book at Amazon.com, and the Website will give you recommendations of other books you might be interested in. Apple’s iBookstore doesn’t offer that service.
Apple uses this approach quite well in the iTunes Store : select an album , song , or audiobook , go to its Thomas Nelson Page , and you ’ll see a “ Listeners Also Bought ” section . ( Check out a movie , and it ’s “ Viewers Also Bought . ” ) But iBookstore will this feature out , let down the storage ’s overall value . As it stands , the best means to discover books you ’re unfamiliar with is to surf somewhere else like Amazon first , then search for a book on Apple ’s store . ( The drawback to that approach : Amazon has far more book , so many of my subsequent iBookstore hunting have been fruitless . )
This is the initial version of the iBookstore , and Apple will hopefully figure out how to get it correct . ( And in fairness to the company , it ’s backbreaking to implement a “ Readers Also corrupt ” feature article when you ’ve got only a calendar month ’s Charles Frederick Worth of sale data to work up off of . ) What ’s missing at this point is ordered metadata about book , and especially links to other script , so I can range the iBookstore as I browse a numb - Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree bookstore , wandering from subdivision to surgical incision , pick up spate of books I ’d never heard of .
All that said , the iBookstore offer plenty of books I ’m concerned in ; it ’s just a matter of finding them . Now , if you ’ll excuse me , I ’m going to go re - read Stephen King’sDark Towerseries on my iPad .
[ older contributor Kirk McElhearn write about more than just Macs on his blogKirkville . ]
