iBooks vs. Kindle app

[Rasputina]

The kindle app was/is fine when using it on the iphones small screen, but the inferior formatting of kindle books is quite noticeable on ipad when compared to ibooks.

Right now the biggest drawback of ibooks is the lack of content compared to Amazon and that we can't read ibooks on ipod touch or iphone yet.

The kindle app wins on content and on background/font color options. I also prefer it's bookmark feature, when actually used as a bookmark. Also the ability to make notes.

ibooks wins in formatting, font choice, dictionary and highlights options.

For now I compare samples from both sources before making purchases.

 

[Bremen]

How do you remove the DRM from an epub book?

Will the iPad load the book without DRM attached?

A bit confused about the whole book thing.

iBooks will read ePub books without DRM. I remove DRM from all my books, and if it's too hard I just get them from the dark side....

As far as how to remove DRM.... I used to help people with this, but it quickly turned into a full time job, so I stopped. It is rather complicated to set up, but is pretty easy once you have every thing. Also the method used depends on where you bought the book, that is the reason I buy most of my books from Kobo......

You need to be pretty computer savvy to set it all up.... I will post a link in just a minute, but I will not answer questions about how to do it....sorry...

This is a link to some forum posts that give links and instructions.... The method shown WILL NOT remove DRM from books bought from Apple. This scheme works on any epub with Adobe Digital DRM... Books bought from Kobo, Sony and some others will work.... I buy from Kobo because they are in general cheaper...

Mods.... If what I am doing is against forum policy please delete....

http://stream-recorder.com/forum/remove-drm-sony-ebooks-bbeb-and-epub-t4779.html

 

[Heraclitus]

I like both apps but. . .

I like Ibooks because: it is prettier, shows facing pages in landscape mode, offers fast search capabilities.

I like Kindle because: it has a much larger selection of titles, books can be read on Iphone/Touch (yeah, I know this is coming to Ibooks with next OS upgrade) and you can insert notes.

I think the lack of note-taking/markups in Ibooks is a big negative mark against Ibooks. I'm one of those people who mark the hell out of printed books. I use margin comments to argue with the author and also have my own idiosyncratic highlighting system (using marks to label passages as "very important", "critically significant", "summary", etc. With these markings, I can pull a book off my shelf that I last read 30 years ago (yeah, I'm an old fart) and within 15-20 minutes bring myself up to speed on all the critical arguments and central points of the book.

The thing is, with a few minor software changes, both Ibooks and Kindle could do the same thing in magnificent style! They both already have a highlight/notes/summary page. However, your highlighting is only shown in truncated form. What I would like to see is this hightlighting/notes page show the full text that you have highlighted and that you can review in it's entirety without having to jump to the page featuring this same text.

This would be especially useful for folks in college cramming (er, uhh, "reviewing") their course materials for a mid-term or final exam. In one spot you would have all the critical (marked-up) material assembled for each book. I would have loved to have had such a tool before going into the classroom and writing my responses in those dreaded "blue books" (do they still use those anymore?)

I sum. I love e-books on the Ipad. The apps just need a bit of tweaking to bring out the full power the the medium.

 

[Bremen]

@Heraclitus ....welcome to the forum, and well said

I have 5 readers on my iPad. I like them all for different reasons.....

 

[Ichysak]

Is it just me or are the books on iBooks way more than on kindle. I love my iPad but kindle app syncs with my iPod touch,blackberry 9700 and iPad.and books are cheaper.

 

[Bremen]

It is not just you. I have yet to buy a book from Apple, but I use iBooks to read all my DRM freed ePubs.....

Apple and Sony stores tend to be the most expensive when it comes to ebooks. Amazon and Kobo tend to be the cheapest overall. Fictionwise can be cheap if you jump through all the coupon hoops, but I find it a PITA....