Now that the iBooks app for iPhone and iPod Touch as well as the new 1.1 iBooks for iPad is just around the corner (June 21 worldwide), I thought I would open this thread to share expectations, impressions, opinions and comparisons. I, for one, like the iBooks on iPad but I do keep a copy of Kindle around for those books that I bought on Amazon and those I couldn't find on the iBookstore. My first question is will iBooks sync on all devices (like your last page read, notes, and highlighting) via Apple servers (like what Kindle does) or will it use iTunes and/or Wi Fi for that? Also, will we be able to purchase extra dictionaries (perhaps for other languages like French and German if we want to read books in those languages and need a quick work translation)? I think it would be wise for Apple to enable purchasing of dictionaries other than the pre-installed Oxford American (probably the best current American abridged dictionary that has also been on Mac OS X since 2005) I am also finding the lack of the Helvetica font annoying on iBooks. It's my favorite font, and I have to use other fonts. I have solved the issue of the lack of white on black text by assigning the 3-click option to the home button which changes the overall OS white-on-black font. It works great, but I would prefer an iBooks native background/text color switching, preferably via user-created themes. I think initially, the 1.0 release of iBooks was fairly bare-bones compared to other available readers (except for the extra features like the page-turning animations), but the 1.1 should solidify it a bit better as a contender for the one and only reader to have. PDF support is awesome and should attract people. I think iBooks 1.5 or 2.0 will be adding great new features that we might not have today. I just have a feeling it won't be until some time in 2011.
Can iBooks convert books in Stanza or eReader? One of the great things about Stanza was that it seamlessly converted eReader books (for which I originally purchased for the old Palm OS).
iBooks itself doesn't convert anything. However, the one and only tool you need on Mac OS is called Calibre (free download, it is actually a cross-platform java app). It is so feature-rich that it can convert anything to anything. I converted all my rtfs, txts, docs, and pdbs to epub (the iBooks standard) a while ago, and iBooks reads anything. It is easier to convert with Calibre than with Stanza, I think. Calibre even has a few pre-defined themes (one of which is now the iPad preset, which is kind of like the optimized setting when converting to epub to read on the iPad). Conversely, you can convert epub back to anything (provided it is not DRM-protected which is what most paid Kindle, iBooks, and eReader books are).
I was a little disappointed at the lack of customization options in iBooks. Now that Stanza has been updated, it looks beautiful on the iPad. It also has a much larger selection of fonts, font sizes, and backgrounds than iBooks. I like the iBooks bookshelf and the appearance of reading an actual book, but that's about it. Unless there is a big change in the upcoming update, I am going to continue to use Stanza as my e-reader.
The Gutenberg (Gutenburg?) Project features a ton of free books including Great Expectations, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Alice in Wonderland, etc. Almost all the classic literature you can think of will be free. The only thing you won't find free are the newer books such as Harry Potter.
You mean iBooks app is only for 3GS/iPod 3G? Lol oh well I don't see any point in using that app on the iPhone/iPod anyways, with a screen that small it will never feel like reading a book on matter how fancy the animation is, and with better apps around like Stanza, or simply individual book apps around already.
I'm going to stick to Stanza because it has one major advantage over iBooks for me, which is the ability to use its companion desktop app (Calibre) as a server for your ebook collection, meaning you can browse and transfer books from pretty much anywhere instead of having to sync them all beforehand, which you need to do with iBooks. That's odd. You sure you're not just looking round the free section?
The iBookstore isn't available everywhere yet -- I'm in Canada and can't access it here (from my Canadian account - I can access it fine from my US account).
Is iBooks terribly unstable for anyone else? It crashed on me once with a free book, and when I tried opening my own eBook, the app froze. Re-entering the app had me frozen with an empty shelf.
That's my favourite feature of Calibre. I leave it running at home and I can download books with Stanza (and most web browsers) whenever I need them. I am hoping Wi-Fi Sync will eventually allow me to access my iTunes media from afar as well. MyTunesRSS, albeit ugly, kinda does the trick in the meantime.
it is also a little bit slow in comparison with other book readers on iphone. and the margins are too big for such small screen like iphones one, and overall lack of options is so stupid.
iBooks - and why you shouldn't open huge PDFs with it. I just downloaded iBooks last night, and this morning I loaded some PDFs into it (it makes a very good book reader, for sure, and comes with a copy of Whinnie the poo, which I thought was just a teeny story book, but really isn't) but anyway, I'm a tabletop roleplayer, so I stuck my copy of Pathfinder RPG core book on it, and tried to open it. firstly, the thing is huge, like, massive. loads of images, and such and I guess iBooks just couldn't handle the sheer size of loading more than one page at once, so it sploded, and now it won't open :C
