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iBooks Update Goes Live: iPhone and iPod Touch Compatibility, PDF Support, and More

rwilliams said:
Ok, I expected to not like iBooks as much as I do the Kindle app....but dammit if I'm not thoroughly impressed by iBooks. The app is just gorgeous. There's no other way to put it. If only I could transfer my Kindle books over to this...
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I still don't get this. Isn't it harder on the eyes to read an LCD at 132 ppi than e-ink? I can sorta buy that reading on the new iPhone will be okay given the pixel density of the retina display, but at 132 ppi, I imagine it'd be painful after a while.

Meh. Maybe I need to try it to find out. Clearly people like it, and no one's gone cross-eyed yet.
 
jdwusami said:
I cant seem to get the PDF support to work on either my iPad or iPhone 3Gs. Also you must download the dictionary to the iPhone version of iBooks.
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My apologies if this was answered already. For me to get the pdf button I emailed myself a pdf then within mail, I selected to use iBooks to open my pdf. Then poof, now I have that button.

This was on my iPad, fyi.
 
So, highlighting is limited to only a few PDFS, all of which you have to buy in the Bookstore.

Crap: I thought this update would make my workflow a bit better, in particular reading papers and manuscript.
 
goobot said:
still dont get why apple did this. takes one of the main features of the ipad as an ereader away.
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Because there are already book readers on the iPhone and Apple was missing out the revenue from those. Stanza is still a better ebook reader than the Apple one, but the Apple reader finally adds decent PDF support to the iPhone.
 
not trying to start an argument, but who wants to read a book on a tiny screen? i can completely understand the idea of the book store on the ipad, but on the touch and iphone.... just doesn't seem logical to squint at a screen for hours.
 
Anybody get the following error when trying to use the Dictionary feature in ver 1.1?

"Dictionary not available for this language"

I only get in some of my books (namely ones that I converted to epub). It was working in ver 1.0.1....weird.
 
Opening books and PDF books on my iPhone 3G is as clunky as trying to get the Task Manager to open during an XP virus raid.

iPhone 4 looks really tasty now.
 
WOW, iBooks is just awesome on the iPhone. A little slow with PDFs on the 3GS but I'm sure iPhone4 will take care of that :)
 
AppleInLVX said:
I still don't get this. Isn't it harder on the eyes to read an LCD at 132 ppi than e-ink? I can sorta buy that reading on the new iPhone will be okay given the pixel density of the retina display, but at 132 ppi, I imagine it'd be painful after a while.

Meh. Maybe I need to try it to find out. Clearly people like it, and no one's gone cross-eyed yet.
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Adjust the font size. Stanza allows you to adjust the font size, text color, background, etc... to something that you find comfortable. The last 10-20 books I've read have been on my iPhone and I haven't had any trouble with it.

casik said:
Yup... Just brought them in from mail tho.... There is no PDF highlight annotation feature tho.... So lame....
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Just drag PDFs into iTunes then go to the Books tab when your iPhone is selected and make sure syncing is checked. You also need to have the iBooks app installed, but I figured that is obvious.
 
Just a quick word of warning to iPad owners looking to sync your iBooks to the new iPhone application.

DOWNLOAD, INSTALL AND BOOKMARK the new update to iBooks on your iPad FIRST.

Then install the iPhone app.

The reason is that the iPhone asked if I wanted to sync bookmarks etc. automatically; to which I said yes. I then updated iBooks on the iPad, and it asked the same question, to which I said yes. Because the iPhone sync'd first and it had no idea about how far along I was in each book, I lost my place. The iPad (apparently) got that sync data and returned me to page 1 rather than being where I left off last night.

Found my place manually and applied a bookmark; re-opened on iPhone and bingo it takes me right to the page I left off on.

FYI.
 
mdatwood said:
....Just drag PDFs into iTunes then go to the Books tab when your iPhone is selected and make sure syncing is checked. You also need to have the iBooks app installed, but I figured that is obvious.
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What does that have to do with annotating imported PDFs?
 
Let me also add that after trying to read with iBooks that Stanza is a much better ebook reader. iBooks waste too much screen space on the margins, is not as configurable, and the page turning graphic is nauseating. I expected more out of Apple.
 
pruppert said:
Anyone successfully transferred PDFs yet? I couldn't get it to work.
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Yes. Use iTunes to import to your library a pdf file from your computer. Now look at your book options for syncing and you will see it.

Edit: sorry was late, had the reply window open while I was messing with it :)
 
Robbadore64 said:
My apologies if this was answered already. For me to get the pdf button I emailed myself a pdf then within mail, I selected to use iBooks to open my pdf. Then poof, now I have that button.

This was on my iPad, fyi.
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You dont have to email it to yourself. You can import into iTunes on your computer.
 
yvonnejim said:
How do I access the iBooks with my iPhone 3GS ? Is there a separate app? Or does it simply allow me to access it while visiting the iTunes store?
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If your trying to download the app. From your phone through app. Store search for apple Inc. Not iBooks that's how I found it hope this helps!!
 
JackieTreehorn said:
So, highlighting is limited to only a few PDFS, all of which you have to buy in the Bookstore.

Crap: I thought this update would make my workflow a bit better, in particular reading papers and manuscript.
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I too was very excited about the possibility of annotating PDFs and am disappointed with this. GoodReader is supposed to be bringing annotation soon, so I hope that is still coming.

iBooks is a very cool app. Just disappointed with the PDF support.
 
mdatwood said:
That you don't have to bring PDFs in from mail. Having to mail them to yourself is a hack solution.
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Well I know it's a hack solution but it works well on the road away from my iMac. My issue IS NOT importing books, it's annotating them. A simple bookmark is not enough annotation.
 
mdatwood said:
Let me also add that after trying to read with iBooks that Stanza is a much better ebook reader. iBooks waste too much screen space on the margins, is not as configurable, and the page turning graphic is nauseating. I expected more out of Apple.
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I really like the UI and the page turning animation. After almost two months, it still hasn't gotten old for me.
 
Good golly. iBooks performance is really bad on my 3G, testing with an .epub I had been reading in Stanza. I hate to say it but previous posters claiming Stanza to be a better book reader are right, even though I happen to like the Apple page turning animation.
 
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