Seems like Google is late to the game more and more these days. They are what, the fifth or sixth major eBook store out there now (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Nook, etc.)? I've tried all the ones on iPhone, and for me Kindle hands down wins for best selection and most devices supported. It's going to take a lot for Google to be able to come close to that.
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'Google eBookstore' Launches in U.S. With iOS Support
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I agree that the Kindle store is probably the best store. I still find Stanza to be the best app for reading though.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the iBooks app is horrible. The margins are simply way too big to the point where I can't read anything on it. I still like Stanza the best for reading with the Kindle not far behind. Stanza has the best touch support from my usage making it easy to adjust brightness by simply sliding your finger up and down the page.
Hoping for so much more...
Edit: my 2c I like iBooks, though I wish they'd add a way to record your voice reading each page for kids books (like some of those sticker-pens) for us long-distance parents. Is there an app for that? (or anyone want to build one with me?!)
I was really hoping for so much more. Just the same Kindle crap in terms of COST. Look, if in the middle of an economic downturn the books I as a young professional and grad student need cost 70% less shipped used and frequently can be found cheaper on Amazon prime or used, why on earth would I buy a drm'd, non-printable/exportable ebook, that I can't even mark up except on a tiny or fragile screen? $2.99 pdf copies with an extensive catalogue, similar to what Apple did with iTunes songs, or a subscription model such as Netflix/Hulu is doing with video, (some companies are already doing this academically, but its expensive and somewhat limited in terms of content).
I use and love the Kindle freebies, and would consider buying, say, a new Physics text book if it was cheaper than using re-selling it (>%30) and not crippled with DRM, but the Google Book scans that are free are riddled with OCR errors, especially since they are older books and frequently use larger, fancy characters, Greek, and or have artifacts from prior physical annotation, making it hard to even search within them, let alone convert for cross-platform (ebook/txt) viewing.
I was hoping for so much more, and I do love Google books/academic search....Damn, I guess I will hold out for professors, such as the MicroBio depts at and Maryland (ah Dr. Smith!), or the Philosophy/Com Lit schools like Princeton who are simply publishing their own Textbooks and papers online...
I can't even afford to try out Google Books....neither this nor Google TV are what are on my Xmas list!! Just more bills (for coal! ha) with dreams of sugarplums by which I mean those elusive, unattainable $399 iPads...
Edit: my 2c I like iBooks, though I wish they'd add a way to record your voice reading each page for kids books (like some of those sticker-pens) for us long-distance parents. Is there an app for that? (or anyone want to build one with me?!)
I was really hoping for so much more. Just the same Kindle crap in terms of COST. Look, if in the middle of an economic downturn the books I as a young professional and grad student need cost 70% less shipped used and frequently can be found cheaper on Amazon prime or used, why on earth would I buy a drm'd, non-printable/exportable ebook, that I can't even mark up except on a tiny or fragile screen? $2.99 pdf copies with an extensive catalogue, similar to what Apple did with iTunes songs, or a subscription model such as Netflix/Hulu is doing with video, (some companies are already doing this academically, but its expensive and somewhat limited in terms of content).
I use and love the Kindle freebies, and would consider buying, say, a new Physics text book if it was cheaper than using re-selling it (>%30) and not crippled with DRM, but the Google Book scans that are free are riddled with OCR errors, especially since they are older books and frequently use larger, fancy characters, Greek, and or have artifacts from prior physical annotation, making it hard to even search within them, let alone convert for cross-platform (ebook/txt) viewing.
I was hoping for so much more, and I do love Google books/academic search....Damn, I guess I will hold out for professors, such as the MicroBio depts at and Maryland (ah Dr. Smith!), or the Philosophy/Com Lit schools like Princeton who are simply publishing their own Textbooks and papers online...
I can't even afford to try out Google Books....neither this nor Google TV are what are on my Xmas list!! Just more bills (for coal! ha) with dreams of sugarplums by which I mean those elusive, unattainable $399 iPads...
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It is shame that no matter what new ebook store we get, textbooks, are stilll left out...
There is people out there like me, that would like to have some of those 5Lb books available on their devices...
I imagine that it has to do with the fact that the ePub format is though when something different than harry potter is the subject...
What ever happened to the giant text book publishers, like McGraw Hill and their "support" for the iBooks store before its launch?????
I think I will email Steve-o and ask him...
When it comes to textbooks, even the Kindle SUCKS!
Whoeve gets Civetta's critical care medicine book on any electronic format wins my money (As I will pay even more for an electronic version than the printed one for this book)....
with textbooks you make money selling a different edition every year
if they came out with e text books all you need is a few people to buy a few copies and share the problems/homework assignments in the book with the rest of the class. not like the rest of the book will change much
I think this is why Textbook (Wiley) publishers are pushing a highly DRM'd subscription model, (the access privileges expire after 3 months, etc. similar to web-based course assignments now.) Personally, I would pool the $$ for one physical copy, get the rich kid in the dorm to buy a sheet-fed scanner...
However, last I had heard, the teachers editions (and proof copies) did exist in PDF form.
I predict Blackboard will get into the eText game at some point however...
For everyone complaining about the lack of Harry Potter, this makes an interesting read:
http://www.bradsreader.com/2009/01/jk-rowling-harry-potter-ebooks-and-the-definition-of-irony/
Basically Rowling refuses ebook versions due to 'piracy' fears, regardless of the fact that her books were scanned and on the Internet inside of 12 hours of release.
She should weigh that against all the comments on that blog, and indeed here whenever ebook topics come up. There are plenty of people who WANT to pay for ebooks legally, and if someone wanted them pirated then they likely have them already.
I suspect it's more down to greed and royalties.
http://www.bradsreader.com/2009/01/jk-rowling-harry-potter-ebooks-and-the-definition-of-irony/
Basically Rowling refuses ebook versions due to 'piracy' fears, regardless of the fact that her books were scanned and on the Internet inside of 12 hours of release.
She should weigh that against all the comments on that blog, and indeed here whenever ebook topics come up. There are plenty of people who WANT to pay for ebooks legally, and if someone wanted them pirated then they likely have them already.
I suspect it's more down to greed and royalties.
iPad app fail
It doesn't support landscape format, which stinks for iPad use. When you switch to it from another app, it launches in portrait format, which leaves the multitasking dock in a weird position.
Also, even if you change it to flowing text mode, it doesn't support notes or highlights. Even the Borders app does.
And finally, since it clearly uses the scanned PDFs from Google Books, you'd think it would work as a regular PDF viewer. (Imagine being able to open a PDF on your iPad and sync it to your Google account available from everywhere.) But no, the only documents it supports are Google eBookstore books.
Yeah, these are all issues that can be fixed, but these are all issues almost everyone got right from the beginning.
Also, everyone else has multimedia books, some even with audio and video. Google's PDF based solution leaves quite a bit to be desired here. I think I'll stick with my current Kindle/iBooks/nook combination.
It doesn't support landscape format, which stinks for iPad use. When you switch to it from another app, it launches in portrait format, which leaves the multitasking dock in a weird position.
Also, even if you change it to flowing text mode, it doesn't support notes or highlights. Even the Borders app does.
And finally, since it clearly uses the scanned PDFs from Google Books, you'd think it would work as a regular PDF viewer. (Imagine being able to open a PDF on your iPad and sync it to your Google account available from everywhere.) But no, the only documents it supports are Google eBookstore books.
Yeah, these are all issues that can be fixed, but these are all issues almost everyone got right from the beginning.
Also, everyone else has multimedia books, some even with audio and video. Google's PDF based solution leaves quite a bit to be desired here. I think I'll stick with my current Kindle/iBooks/nook combination.
I use Stanza too. I love it. I guess I would use the Kindle app if I actually bought Amazon eBooks (but no, I don't support DRM content). As for the iBooks app, that's a no go. Seems to be used a lot by people who either have an iPad, like to show off the page-turning animation, or for those that don't know any better.
Is Google selling the books whose contents they scanned without permission?
Edit: I guess they're all friends now.
Edit: I guess they're all friends now.
You'll need to talk to J.K. Rowlings about that. She's the reason HP isn't out in ebooks (she's afraid that people will then steal the book instead of paying for it. I got news for her, not putting it out on ebook doesn't stop that and it just ignores an opportunity to get more readership or even get people to buy the book again when they want one on ebook format when they already have the paper books).
I like the iBooks store. Prefer being able to buy right from the app rather than having it have to open up safari, load up, and that's just to look for books.
Personally, I was interested in checking out google books when I saw the title to this thread, until I learned the books would be "in the cloud". I'd like an actual copy on my device honestly. If nothing else, one big reason I like ebooks is to not have to pack a lot of books when traveling by airline. Having to have internet kinda kills that. Plus I just like having the copy on my hard drive.
Has a ways to go
I gave the app 5* because I love Google but I don't plan on using it in the near future. The Kobo app is much more polished (personally I think it's even nicer than iBooks). Better styling and control over page turning etc. And!!! You can import any epub you have laying around into it via Dropbox.
I'd love to see Google top the Kobo app. And match Amazon on selection and price. That's my dream.
I gave the app 5* because I love Google but I don't plan on using it in the near future. The Kobo app is much more polished (personally I think it's even nicer than iBooks). Better styling and control over page turning etc. And!!! You can import any epub you have laying around into it via Dropbox.
I'd love to see Google top the Kobo app. And match Amazon on selection and price. That's my dream.
I use the Kindle app much more than Books on my ipad, because there's more content and access from more platforms. Don't care about page turn animations. The killer app for the kindle is newspapers automatically delivered - when the iPad gets these too (coming soon), it'll be my only source of paid-for news content, except maybe the Economist app, which is wonderful.
This is no more open than any other store - the Kindle platform is more open, if anything, because you can access it on the Kindle too. I don't want to hear 'open' wrt books unless it means 'DRM-Free'!
This is no more open than any other store - the Kindle platform is more open, if anything, because you can access it on the Kindle too. I don't want to hear 'open' wrt books unless it means 'DRM-Free'!
You are probably right, although I dont know how many of these textbooks are actually being refreshed that quick. Some of the ones we use go through a 4 to 5yrs cycle. And in this case I would not object heavy DRMing the content to give a better guarantee to the authors and publishers. At the end of the day, even a hard copy is easily xeroxed or scanned, having an electronic DRMed copy through iTunes, probably would not be that different.
My initial thoughts on the iPad did include a heavy student use, the ultimate media consumption for the classroom... Being able to have the copy of your book in the device, anotate on it, be tested on the device via some sort of classroom wifi etc... iBooks had a nice platform, how easy is to take notes on the book, highlight etc.. I thought was a nice start....
Along with that, in Feb this year, there was a good amount of publishers that wanted to jump on the iPad frenzy bandwagon, and the Big textbook publishers were present too...
Its my wishful thinking. I know... Soooo how do I email steve-o??? J/K
Again, who cares about the store? I don't get my books from there, why would anyone else? the iBooks app supports EPUB! That's really all that matters, and the word "restriction" doesn't even factor in. I have thousands of digital books, all of which are easily converted to (or already are) ePub, and transferred to the iPad. Soon more organization is coming to iBooks, as Jobs as said, making it even better.
except that iTunes DRM is too easy to break unless the app is blank and downloads the content and DRM from the cloud
i did the Univ of Phoenix thing a few years back and they went to ebooks. i liked the paper books better since i could read my work on the train to and from work. the ebooks were DRM'd PDF's and screwed up my free time. of course this was way before the iphone
I bet dollars to donuts you're a patent attorney. At least, I am, and would kill for this feature (although the MIT library is close by and it is GREAT for tracking down old tech books).
