Apple Announces Updated iBooks App With Continuous Scrolling

[nutmac]

iBooks 3.0 is finally available for download.

Introducing iBooks 3

• See all your iBookstore purchases in iCloud—right on your bookshelf with iOS 6
• Scroll vertically through your books with the flick of a finger using the new Scroll theme
• Receive free updates to purchased books—including new chapters, corrections, and other improvements
• Look up definitions for words in German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese with iOS 6
• Share quotes or thoughts about your favorite book with friends on Facebook, Twitter, Messages, or Mail

[philipk]

Originally Posted by thefourthpope

Just call this a hobby and kill it already

http://feldmanfile.blogspot.com/2012...-shift-to.html

Read 2/3 of the way down the page. From July 2012

With no more than 10% of the U.S. eBook market and even less internationally, Apple's jump into the eBook business has largely been a bust...

[pubwvj]

Originally Posted by unobtainium

Where is iBooks for Mac? That's what I was hoping for :-/

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This is my suspicion too. Apple wants iBooks to be an iOS exclusive. But who wants to spend money on a book they can only read on one device, when there are so many cross-platform alternatives out there? It's sad when Kindle offers a better option for eBooks across all your Mac devices than Apple itself is willing to offer.

It just means I don't tend to use iBooks. Nor do I want to release books in iBooks format since it is limited in platforms. At least Kindle is available on Kindle, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Android. Probably Linux too. That makes Kindle a much more appealing platform to release titles for. Apple is really goofing up on this.

[kbmb]

Originally Posted by nutmac

iBooks 3.0 is finally available for download.

Introducing iBooks 3

• See all your iBookstore purchases in iCloud—right on your bookshelf with iOS 6
• Scroll vertically through your books with the flick of a finger using the new Scroll theme
• Receive free updates to purchased books—including new chapters, corrections, and other improvements
• Look up definitions for words in German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese with iOS 6
• Share quotes or thoughts about your favorite book with friends on Facebook, Twitter, Messages, or Mail

Update installed, but the new Purchased Books shelf is empty......even though I have plenty of purchased books in my account.

Anyone else seeing this as well?

-Kevin

[joseph2166]

Originally Posted by pubwvj

It just means I don't tend to use iBooks. Nor do I want to release books in iBooks format since it is limited in platforms. At least Kindle is available on Kindle, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Android. Probably Linux too. That makes Kindle a much more appealing platform to release titles for. Apple is really goofing up on this.

You can see how they can't win though. If they put it into iTunes there will be complaints about bloat; if they make a separate app then it will probably be OSX only (as it seems they've given up on windows program's other than iTunes).

I can see how its great to have diversity of options, but out of interest in what sort of situation do people read books on computers? Not having a laptop it's never occurred to me. In bed, at a desk, on the train...?

[hankydysplasia]

What's the deal with still not being able to sync content purchased elsewhere or PDF's?

Is this another example of intentionally forcing people to use their store by withholding a feature or laziness?

[HMI]

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but Apple just released the new version of iBooks 3.0 for iOS 6.

[imerc08]

Originally Posted by kbmb

Update installed, but the new Purchased Books shelf is empty......even though I have plenty of purchased books in my account.

Anyone else seeing this as well?

-Kevin

On my iPhone, the Purchased Books shelf is also empty. On my iPad, they're all there. I'm not sure what's going on here..

[joseph2166]

Originally Posted by HMI

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but Apple just released the new version of iBooks 3.0 for iOS 6.

Thanks for updating us. This topic's a bit too long for newcomers to check these sorts of things

[bwillwall]

Originally Posted by Belgrano

Yup. I'm never buying anything on iBooks until things work with my Macbook/ iTunes.

Not reading books on my iPhone. No way.

It's actually quite a joy, I prefer it to awkward books that you have to hold open.

[trunten]

I CAN SELECT TEXT IN MY PDFS!

Still can't highlight though

[anjinha]

Originally Posted by kbmb

Update installed, but the new Purchased Books shelf is empty......even though I have plenty of purchased books in my account.

Anyone else seeing this as well?

-Kevin

Mine didn't show up right away, it took a few minutes.

[therockyroad]

Darn, when I first read the headline I thought "continuous scroll" meant "auto scroll", like what I had on my Palm Tungsten ten years ago. I used to enjoy reading "no hands" from time to time.

If they really want to Think Different, they should try the single line horizontal auto-scroll (ticker style) mode that I saw in a reader for Mac once.

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Originally Posted by bwillwall

It's actually quite a joy, I prefer it to awkward books that you have to hold open.

If they add auto-scroll one day you won't even have to hold it at all

[everything-i]

Originally Posted by milo

STILL no app for mac, pc, or any other platform? **** that.

Have to agree, for me iBooks is a non-starter until its at least available on all Apple platforms. Never understood why OSX version hasn't bean released unless its down to contracts with publishers which wouldn't surprise me.

[mac2thefuture]

I can select and highlight text that I'd like to share, but I don't get the option to share. I have the iPad 2. Is there a minimum requirement??

[thefourthpope]

Originally Posted by philipk

http://feldmanfile.blogspot.com/2012...-shift-to.html

Read 2/3 of the way down the page. From July 2012

Thanks for the link.

That's exactly the type of info that makes me want apple to kill this effort and re-assign those assets to improving other areas. I know, huge company with huge coffers, but even wildly wealthy AAPL seems to spread out at times.

[cfs112]

yeah, we definitely need an iBooks app for the Mac, not sure why this has not been implemented yet . . . prolly to save something for next years apple event?

[imstacydavids]

"As a publisher, I look forward to the day when all ebooks are DRM-free. "
I can relate to this. Publishers really need ebooks that are DRM-free.

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by squidkitten

So far I'm annoyed at the new continuous scrolling feature. I hope there's an option for page turning. One of my favorite things about iBooks is how the reading experience is very similar to reading a real book, and I may switch back to the Kindle App :/

If you haven't noticed that continuous scrolling is an option, and that the page turning works exactly the same as it always did, then I suggest iBooks isn't dumbed down enough.

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Originally Posted by japanime

Which is particularly frustrating to publishing companies such as mine. When we submit our ebooks to the iBookstore, we ALWAYS choose the "No DRM" option. Yet, Apple still apparently slaps a layer of DRM onto everything it sells.

I don't even know why they bother to offer that option if it's not actually going to be honored.

As a publisher, I look forward to the day when all ebooks are DRM-free.

I got a few paid for books from the iTunes store that are DRM free (from a publisher who wishes to publish everything DRM free, except that Amazon doesn't allow it). They are standard ePub format, which is basically a zip file containing all the files making up the book. The DRM infrastructure is all in place, all the key handling resources etc., including a list of the encrypted files - however, that list is empty. None of the files are encrypted. All the information to decrypt encrypted files, if there were any, is there, but there are none.

If you checked whether there is DRM by using some tool, it is quite possible that this tool found the DRM infrastructure, even though the book is completely readable if a reader just ignores the DRM infrastructure. Simple manual check: Rename the file from ".epub" to ".zip". Right-click on it in the Finder and decompress. Check if all the bits are there and readable.

[Oman]

it appears that only books purchased via iBooks will be able to use the continuous scrolling feature....

[squidkitten]

Originally Posted by gnasher729

If you haven't noticed that continuous scrolling is an option, and that the page turning works exactly the same as it always did, then I suggest iBooks isn't dumbed down enough

Don't be an ass, this was posted a few hours before the iBooks update was available, and I had only seen the Engadget liveblog of the keynote at the time, which used ambiguous language as to whether or not it was an "option" or the default.