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stagmeister

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 17, 2004
179
0
I am considering purchasing an iPad and one of the uses would be to read books. But I can't find a way to browse the iBook store and see what books they have available, without actually owning an iPad. Is it accessible via iTunes?
 
I am considering purchasing an iPad and one of the uses would be to read books. But I can't find a way to browse the iBook store and see what books they have available, without actually owning an iPad. Is it accessible via iTunes?

If you have an iPhone (3G or newer)/iPod touch (2nd generation or newer) you can download iBooks and view the iBookstore from there.

Ams.
 
If you have an iPhone (3G or newer)/iPod touch (2nd generation or newer) you can download iBooks and view the iBookstore from there.

Ams.

I have an iPod touch 2G, but the app store is telling me that iBooks is not available to download...
 
If there's an Apple store nearby, I bet you could go there and use one of their ipads to look up whats available. Not ideal, but one thought.

Also, iBook isn't the only option: Amazon has the Kindle app, B&N has a Nook reader app, Google has an ebook app and ebook store, etc. iBooks will read ePub format books just fine regardless of where you get them; I have several titles from fictionwise.com that I read within iBooks.

Plus there's Stanza as a general purpose ebook reader and Overdrive too -- Overdrive being useful if your public library has a system for loaning ebooks. (mine say's coming this month, so I don't know if there is or will be much).

With this said, there are a number of doomsayers claiming Amazon will remove the Kindle app from the App store rather than kow-tow to Apple's Subscription Model requirements. I'm thinking I'd worry about that if/when it happens more so than making a choice based on something that might happen. Plus, no telling how it would truly fall out, I'd be surprised if Amazon abandoned the iOS platform. (not impossible, but I'd be surprised)
 
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If your only going to be using the iPad for reading, have you considered a Kindle instead? For me they are much more practical to carry around and much easier to read from.

Obviously if you want to play angry birds kindle is rubbish.
 
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