Our Verdict
iPad owner have been able to learn e - book with Apple ’s iBooks app since that gimmick launch in other April . The iPhone - compatible variant only become available recently , with the comer of iOS 4 . Both versions of this now - universal app perform quite capably as competitors to the other prominent e - referee on the market — Amazon ’s Kindle app and Barnes & Noble ’s BN eReader .
Now that iBooks is available on multiple political program , it ’s only fitting that the app follows in Amazon ’s footsteps , with books re - downloadable at no superfluous charge on all of your iPhones , iPod touches , and iPads . Like apps ( and unlike songs ) , it ’s a “ grease one’s palms once , download repeatedly ” proposition . The iBookstore includes a Purchases tab where you’re able to discover all the script you ’ve ever purchase if you require to read them again , or download them to another gadget . And since iBooks wirelessly keeps track of where you are in your book , you may read a few page on your iPhone , and your iPad will mechanically put you on the correct varlet when you resume reading there .
It ’s authoritative to note , though , that browsing the iBookstore is a mixed grip , for several reasons : First , on the iPhone , the store’sa rotten iOS citizen ; even if you ’ve been reading in landscape painting mode , the store is curiously portrait - only . ( The iPad does n’t share this job . ) Apple has also neglected to include prices on most screen as you graze the iPhone edition of the iBookstore , forcing you to tap into each volume to see its price . This would be less annoying if Apple countenance you browse the iBookstore from your Mac as well , but currently the only way to look for its shelf is from an iOS gadget .
A Real Page-Turner: Reading in landscape mode with the iPad version of iBooks splits the text across two virtual facing pages.
A Real Page - Turner : Reading in landscape mode with the iPad version of iBooks split the school text across two practical facing pages .
The iBookstore ’s biggest weakness , though , is n’t a technical one . The memory board just does n’t have enough books . Apple ’s store includes“tens of thousands”of Bible , while Amazon ’s Kindle Bookstoresells more than 600,000 . If you’re able to find the book you want , the store is cracking . If you’re able to’t — in particular , if you ca n’t , and Amazon has it — the store has break you .
There are other difference between the iPhone and iPad variant of iBooks , including one that ’s truly maddening : The Store and Edit buttons ( the former , of course , for reach the iBookstore ; the latter for rapidly removing multiple playscript ) swap location reckon on your gadget . fortunately , you could always quickly aline , but it makes relying on heftiness / tapping memory unacceptable .
Buttoned-Down: You get a host of options for navigating and tweaking a book’s look in iBooks, though those controls can feel pretty cramped on an iPhone. Fortunately, you can dismiss most of them with a tap.
But assuming you could successfully rule the rule book you ’re after , both the iPhone and iPad versions of iBooks offer a very pleasant meter reading experience .
Each let reading in both portrait and landscape painting manner . On the iPhone , you get a wider column of textual matter , while the iPad splits the text across two virtual facing page . As it turn out , though , I ’m a portraiture reader : I encounter that the iPhone ’s landscape view is too encompassing , and the face pages on the iPad are a bit too minute . On both devices , portrayal mood feels just right .
Buttoned - Down : You get a server of options for navigating and pluck a book ’s feel in iBooks , though those controls can experience moderately cramped on an iPhone . luckily , you may dissolve most of them with a tap .
Finding the Right Words: Type in a word or phrase, and iBooks will search the entire text of a book to find what you’re looking for.
The iPad ’s predilection whorl makes bedtime ( and other comfily - situate ) reading a air , and iOS 4 ’s software preference lock on later - model iPhones works fine , too . If you ’re using an earlier - model iPhone ( include the 3 G ) , you get no lock , which can make reading more of a challenge , since it ’s promiscuous for the accelerometer to get unconnected when you ’re lying down .
Both iPhone and iPad version of the app proffer a host of selection for navigation and for pull off the Holy Writ ’s look . undivided - tapping anywhere on the text hides most of these interface factor ; tapping again brings them back . On the iPhone , I discover all the widgets — for changing the font sizing , adjusting brightness , searching the text , identifying your proportional localization in the Quran , and so on — distracting : it ’s a lot ofstuffto cram onto a single page . On the iPad , those buttons have a lot more room to breathe , and I tend to leave them visible .
That ’s because I ’m a big fan of an iBooks feature that the Kindle and BN eReader apps ( along with their corresponding hardware devices , the Kindle and the Nook ) ought to go through post - haste : a modest indicant telling you how many page remain in the current chapter . E - books have many advantage over theme book , but quickly flip forwards to see how many pageboy are left before you get hold of a good stopping period is one surface area where al-Qur’an beat due east - rule book every time . This iBooks feature is modest , but brilliant .
iBooks offers great features for exploring and annotating the books you take . you could search the full text of the Quran for word or phrases in sec , and jump direct to those passages . you’re able to add bookmarker , highlighting passage , and add together notes — all of which are then easy ascertainable from the Bible ’s table of contentedness . you’re able to tap and hold on a word or phrase to search it up in the built - in dictionary , or in Google or Wikipedia .
Finding the Right word : character in a word or phrase , and iBooks will look the full textual matter of a book to find what you ’re looking for .
And , as you might expect , iBooks extend a wad of text customizations : you may choose from six fonts , admit Georgia , which font nerds love . iBooks also countenance you pick one of 11 font size , from comically , unreadably lilliputian to hilariously , unusably huge . The app also ( mercifully ) let you disable full justification , although , somewhat tediously , you have to jump over to the options app to toggle that put . iBooks lets you read against a white screen background with black text , or a sepia background with dark brown textual matter . And , of course of instruction , you’re able to adjust the brightness — a must for nighttime reading in a obscure elbow room .
Now , iBooks ’s take on brightness control is decidedly different from how apps like Kindle and BN eReader handle it . Those latter two apps actually pluck the screen ’s line ( Apple does n’t give third - party developers get at to Io ’s on-key brightness command ) , and can thus only attain a fair facsimile of a dark background . But they can display contrasting , lighter - shaded text atop that desktop . iBooks , however , genuinely darkens the projection screen , but darkens the text right along with it . I in reality prefer the other apps ’ light - on - dark approach at night and desire that Apple will add that option to iBooks in a next update . But if the company never does , the dark - on - dark is still readable ; it ’s just a little problematic on my eye .
The biggest test for any understand app is whether it can fade forth when you want to get engrossed in a book . iBooks certainly passes that test . The varlet turn animations , while superfluous , feel impressively realistic . The textbook is quite readable , and the eyestrain I ab initio feared when moving from a Kindle 2 gadget to the iPad is n’t an issue at all . Reading on the iPhone is , unsurprisingly , a second taxing ; the small screen postulate lots of varlet turn no matter what font - size of it you settle on . But it puzzle out .
I did encounter a span of hemipteran in my testing . now and again , books with fancier text layout suffer from display issues where the big top or hind end of characters can get slue off or split between page . And I occasionally get greeted with a somewhat nonsensical error that the app “ Failed to load book because the requested imagination is miss . ” Simply re - opening the script muddle that each time .
iBooks also supports PDF reading . In my modified testing , the PDF treatment is somewhat miserable : you ca n’t gloss or play up PDFs , the page number feels half - baked , and with child PDFs do n’t resize especially well . Fortunately , there are other apps for that .
Like the Kindle app , iBooks is an excellent e - reader that feels impressively like the future — while simultaneously feel a heck of a lot like an actual book . Right now , Amazon ’s overshadow selection renders it the top wienerwurst in the Io e - reading world . But if the book you ’re after is usable for iBooks at a expert price , the app provides an immersive and thoroughly pleasant meter reading experience , particularly on the iPad .
[ Read all about Lex Friedman on hisblog . ]
