Along with the bigiPhone 4 hardware news program , Monday ’s WWDC keynote also provided some additional details about improvements to Io 4 ( formerly iPhone bone 4 ) and several of Apple ’s own iPhone apps . First among those isan upcoming update to the iBooks vitamin E - reader appthat make it clear Apple is attempt to blunt many of the advantages of Amazon ’s Kindle chopine .
The most welcome annunciation for iPhone and iPod cutaneous senses owners is that , like Amazon ’s Kindle app , thenext interpretation of iBooks , available later this month , will execute on those two gimmick . As with the Kindle app and Amazon ’s Kindle hardware , once you ’ve buy a ledger from the iBookstore , you ’ll be able to download that purchase to all your gimmick .
But along with this capability , Apple is adding another flagship Kindle feature to iBooks : position synchronise . bar take a book on one equipment , and the next time you launch iBooks on any of your devices , you ’ll nibble up mighty where you left off .
Apple has also responded to petition for Kindle - similar reading peter . The fresh version of iBooks will let you take notes as you read . Each note appears , like a tiny station - It , at the side of the various page . And while you may presently “ bookmark ” text — which really mean “ highlight sections of text on a page”—the fresh iBooks will take into account you to bookmark pages themselves . Each book ’s table of contents will show all your bookmarker and distinction — which are also synced between machine — letting you speedily jump to any of them .
These features bring iBooks well closer in functionality to Amazon ’s Kindle app , but Apple has also lend to iBooks what the party says is its most requested characteristic : the capacity to consider and take PDFs . By using the file - syncing feature of iTunes , or emailing PDFs to yourself , you could sum up PDFs to your iBooks bookshelf , which now offers two views : Books and PDFs . And if you ’re using an iPhone 4 , the young version of iBooks is optimized for the gadget ’s gamey - res Retina display for good school text exhibit and readability .
These characteristic , together with iBooks ’ ePub compatibility , font option , and build - in options for searching the dictionary , Wikipedia , or the Web , give iBooks some compelling advantages over the Kindle app .
On the other script , the Kindle app continues to extend more meter reading modes ( black - on - white , ashen - on - black , and sepia ) , a Mac version , and the benefit of the more robust Kindle ecosystem : better prices , a larger ( for now ) pool of readers and reviews , and the option to use a Kindle hardware equipment . And , of course , the iBookstore still ca n’t meet Amazon in damage of the turn of available Good Book : Amazonoffers 540,000 claim for the Kindle , while Apple offers only “ tens of thou . ” For many citizenry , that just may be the deciding factor .
The good news program is that both apps stay on free , so once you ’ve got an iPad , iPhone , or iPod touch , you may download both Kindle and iBooks and use whichever is the good pick for a particular rule book .
