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Apple Updates iBooks App with Nighttime Reading Theme, New Fonts, More

Sound like solid improvements, but my pet peeve is around organizing the books. Maybe this is the problem, but I have hundreds of books on my iPad, and the limited method of organizing into "collections" isn't enough.

Why not have the "collections" appear as mini-bookshelves on the main screen, like the grouping on the iOS5 interface?

I'd also like to be able to sort the titles by date added, so my newest books are always on top.

But, any improvement is welcome!
 
ibooks15.jpg


^ This image reminds me of a different time. Back when Apple was part of the rebellion before they became just another corporate Empire.
 
I'm really liking the new font Charter and I'm guessing the other fonts, especially Verdana, were dropped for licensing and cost related reasons.

Which of the new fonts is your favourite?
 
Night Mode was really available before this update. I had "White on black" set as my toggle for triple-click on the home button and just used that for when reading at night or in dark environments

Mike
 
While I still prefer e-ink for long reading sessions (or to be truthful.... A reader without any built-in distractions), I'm starting to really like the iBooks app. The biggest advantage over the Kindle app seems to be a much better annotation feature. I love that I can actually attach notes to a specific piece of highlighted text!

It's a shame that I can't sync my notes between the two devices. Reading on the Kindle is nicer (I find that I skim more when reading an LCD) but notes are much better on iBooks.
 
Does anyone else have the problem when after they update the App store still says there's an update for it? I want that 1 icon to go away. AHHHHHHHH!!!! :eek:
 
omro said:
I'm really liking the new font Charter and I'm guessing the other fonts, especially Verdana, were dropped for licensing and cost related reasons.

Which of the new fonts is your favourite?
Click to expand...

My problem with the new font set is that none of them seem to be true sans serif, like Verdana. I probably wouldn't mind if I hadn't got used to Verdana, but it was so clean and easy to read. Any other font feels less than optimal to me, now. :(


stickybuns said:
It's a shame that I can't sync my notes between the two devices. Reading on the Kindle is nicer (I find that I skim more when reading an LCD) but notes are much better on iBooks.
Click to expand...

You can. Well there's no computer version of iBooks yet, and an Android version is out of the question, but if you have multiple iDevices, make sure they are all signed into the same iTunes account, and then go to Settings > iBooks, and turn on bookmark syncing. Your notes sync along with your bookmarks.
 
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Night Spring said:
My problem with the new font set is that none of them seem to be true sans serif, like Verdana. I probably wouldn't mind if I hadn't got used to Verdana, but it was so clean and easy to read. Any other font feels less than optimal to me, now. :(
Click to expand...

Seravek looks very Verdanaesque to me
 
omro said:
Seravek looks very Verdanaesque to me
Click to expand...

It just feels weirdly "curly" to me. For instance, lower case "l" has a curl at the bottom instead of being a straight vertical line. Also, I think Verdana letters are overall a bit wider.

Not that I ever thought of such things before, but isn't it just weird how all these small details add up to affect my reading experience?
 
MultiMediaWill said:
Thanks to this update I can now read at night... oh wait. I could do that before. It's called Thomas Edison.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes: Yeah, I just love it when I'm trying to get to sleep and my spouse makes use of that Thomas Edison invention so he can read.

I think you kinda missed the point here. Night reading is for those who want to read in bed without turning on the lights. Usually, they go for this option because they don't want to disturb the person with whom they are sharing the bed--a boon for insomniacs. But it'd be very good for reading scary stories aloud around the campfire as well :p
 
chirpie said:
Between this and future retina displays (Fingers crossed) I think that leaves exactly 1 situation left where e ink makes sense. All other situations have been locked up tight.
Click to expand...
That one situation is when you are reading for more than 15 minutes.
 
APlotdevice said:
Other ebook apps had a night mode long before the Kindle app arrived on the app store.
Click to expand...

I never said Amazon invented it. I said if Apple had implemented it first, Amazon would be attacked as a copycat for implementing it as well.

Love the downvotes for pointing out the truth, too.
 
Night Spring said:
You can. Well there's no computer version of iBooks yet, and an Android version is out of the question, but if you have multiple iDevices, make sure they are all signed into the same iTunes account, and then go to Settings > iBooks, and turn on bookmark syncing. Your notes sync along with your bookmarks.
Click to expand...

I meant syncing between a Kindle e-reader (NOT the iPhone app) and iBooks. Kindle uses mobi/azw whereas iBooks uses ePub, so totally different formats.
 
Having a problem with iBooks

All my books are in PDF form and I can't seem to use all the new features in iBooks on the PDF books is there a reason why .
 
InfoTime said:
I can read all my Kindle books on any iOS device, Mac, PC, Android or Kindle. Unless there's some killer feature that iBooks have over Kindle books color me not interested.
Click to expand...

Exactly how I feel. Looks like a decent app but I would never consider buying a book from it until there's a reader for mac. It doesn't hurt that Kindle supports android devices as well. At this point I pretty much only use iBooks as a PDF reader.
 
GJN said:
For some reason it screws up titles of PDFs on my iPad 2. It changes my descriptive titles to what seems like the original cryptic PDF file name.
Click to expand...

Me, too. Is there any option to turn off that thing? I've manually changed the name of the pdf and now, it's all messed up.
 
And it only took them two years to add a night mode despite it being one of the most consistently requested features for their app and a half dozen other apps already having the feature. Bravo. World-class foot dragging on their part. I mean I know people were shocked when it was revealed they only had one (or was it two) guys who actually worked on the Apple apps (hence why Remote stagnated for years), but come on. Add a few extra programmers to the Apple Apps division. I'm sure that $75 Billion can pay for a few extra programmers.

Reading books on LCD displays is bad enough for long periods of time, at least night mode makes it less strenuous on the eyes.
 
Navdakilla said:
Does ibooks sync across devices?
I been having troubles reading a book on my iPad, and then picking it where I left off on the iPhone and then switching back.

Is there something I am just missing, or should I be doing something to make it sync?

Also cool update, I'll check it out once I get home
Click to expand...

Dropping a bookmarks syncs more consistently than just closing the book on your current page.
 
iBooks is almost feature-maxed, but there's a few more things I'd like to see:

* App-specific setting for orientation lock.
* Ability to add notes directly on the page for cookbooks.
* Siri reading books out loud (unless it's too annoying to listen to).

That's about all the tweaks Apple could make without adding completely new functionality -- like more multimedia -- that would be better suited to freestanding apps.
 
Configuration Error on JBed 5.01 w/ Redsnow 0.9.9b8

See title.

I got a configuration error on my JBed iPad 1(5.01 and Redsnow 0.9.9b8).

Anyone else?
 
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