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iBooks vs. Kindle

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
74,688
45,007
I'm not sure if there's an ongoing debate about iBooks vs. Kindle, but it seems that Kindle has a higher volume of available books.

I prefer the look, feel and interface of iBooks but I'm frustrated by the lack of material - at least material that I'm interested in.

For instance, looking up books written by Issac Asimov in both highlights the issue.

I saw that there's a new starwars book out called starwars deceived (an old republic based story). Again available in kindle, not iBooks.

Is apple serious about providing a deep and rich set of books to purchase, or are they just dabbling in this, only to tire and move on.

Yeah, I have the kindle app, but as I said I prefer the iBook app instead.

Oh at let me get it out of the way right now.
Yeah, I'm a nerd and I'm proud of it :D
 
maflynn said:
I'm not sure if there's an ongoing debate about iBooks vs. Kindle, but it seems that Kindle has a higher volume of available books.
Click to expand...

I pirate ebooks, but I also pay for the same printed material(most authors deserve our support, but not Stephanie Meyer... Die). For example I may want to buy that Star Wars book off Amazon, so I do so. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I find the ebook in a DRM free ePub and start reading it.


No one has lost any money and I get to enjoy the book now and in the future when a huge EMP hits and all electronics are knocked out.
 
MadGoat said:
I pirate ebooks, but I also pay for the same printed material(most authors deserve our support, but not Stephanie Meyer... Die).
Click to expand...
Wow, I was totally not expecting that post :eek:

I was asking about iBooks and Kindle with kindle seemingly having a larger inventory of books.

I was not expecting a post about someone stealing, and his justification over that action.
 
maflynn said:
Wow, I was totally not expecting that post :eek:

I was asking about iBooks and Kindle with kindle seemingly having a larger inventory of books.

I was not expecting a post about someone stealing, and his justification over that action.
Click to expand...

This isn't about stealing... every ebook I have, I also have printed copy(4 book shelves, going onto 5). I would prefer not to buy into a closed DRM format ebook.


This allows me to read it on iBooks or some other ebook reader that I choose (and not have to rebuy something I already paid for.)


So again, my answer is buy the book, or even Kindle edition, just as long as the author gets their money (except Stephanie Meyer... Rot in hell Stephanie), and download an ePub of the same title and read it where you want to. I dislike the Kindle, but love Amazon's selection.

Personally I read all my books in iBooks, but in Canada their selection is even worse than in the USA.
 
>I'm pretty sure that's actually not piracy, if you own a hard copy of the book (?)

As for which app is better I like iBooks, and if I can't find a particular book for it then I buy it in the Kindle app and read it there. The app is free so why not get both?
 
MisterMe said:
This is classic piracy and you are using the classic excuse for piracy.
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No, the classic excuse would be more along the lines of, I want to see if I like the author before I buy their books.

I actually have purchased each and every title with real money for every ebook I've downloaded.

This is more akin to ripping each CD I have to an mp3. I would like to keep the original media unblemished while still enjoying the content.

And the content looks best in iBooks. So again my argument is pay for the book however you like and get a DRM free, future proof ePub copy as well.
 
Aside from pirating ebooks,as that was not my request, nor was the debate about is it stealing if you own the physical media.

Do people prefer using Kindle, or use it because the volume of available books is superior - at least superior to the books I'm interested in.

by the way the differences are just in sci-fi. I was looking for a quickbooks manual, and iBooks had only a couple, but amazon had many more. I opted for the iBook version, of the quickbooks 2011 missing manual mostly because I believed it was the best book.

I prefer the interface and interaction of ibooks over kindle but if the books I want are not available, then I have no choice
 
I use kindle just since it is available on almost every platform so I can switch to something else if I want to. with iBooks, you are stuck with Apple no matter what they decide to do with their hardware.
 
Regardless of whether you own a printed copy or not, or even if you own an electronic copy that you bought via Kindle or some other app, downloading a pirated DRM-free copy of a book that is still protected by copyright laws IS illegal, it IS piracy. The end.

I personally prefer the iBooks interface, it seems a lot more reader-friendly to me, but the iBookstore is woeful. Kindle has, by far, the better selection. If I could purchase elsewhere & read in iBooks, I would every time.
 
mrkramer said:
with iBooks, you are stuck with Apple no matter what they decide to do with their hardware.
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True, but most of us, use mostly apple products. Of course this begs the question where is iBooks for the Mac?

fifi77 said:
Regardless of whether you own a printed copy or not, or even if you own an electronic copy that you bought via Kindle or some other app, downloading a pirated DRM-free copy of a book that is still protected by copyright laws IS illegal, it IS piracy. The end.
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My thinking process is that you're getting something for nothing, and that something is what others sell. In other words, if you take something that is normally for sale, isn't that stealing, it doesn't matter if you already own the physical book, you're taking a retail product that you don't have the right too.
 
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MadGoat said:
I pirate ebooks, but I also pay for the same printed material(most authors deserve our support, but not Stephanie Meyer... Die). For example I may want to buy that Star Wars book off Amazon, so I do so. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I find the ebook in a DRM free ePub and start reading it.


No one has lost any money and I get to enjoy the book now and in the future when a huge EMP hits and all electronics are knocked out.
Click to expand...

So you're getting 2 books for the price of one lol... one printed and one digital. even if its the same book with the same content you are still getting two products and just paying for one.... unless you come across a 2 for 1 sale you my friend are stealing.
 
maflynn said:
True, but most of us, use mostly apple products. Of course this begs the question where is iBooks for the Mac?
Click to expand...

Yeah, we may mostly use apple products, but like you pointed out you can use Kindle on your computer and you can't use iBooks there. Also do you really want to be stuck with Apple hardware if some other company is able to make something better? Android, and WebOS are both catching up to iOS, and while right now the iPad is the best tablet out there I don't want to have to count on that staying the same in the future.
 
Relevant to the OP's question, I always seem to default to Kindle. I also prefer the format and look of the iBooks, but when I first started using the Apple bookstore, I found that some of the titles I wanted were either not available or more expensive than Kindle. So now I simply use Kindle. I think that as Apple builds their library I will likely use them more, but for now the selection just isn't there for my obscure reading tastes.
 
bigjnyc said:
So you're getting 2 books for the price of one lol... one printed and one digital. even if its the same book with the same content you are still getting two products and just paying for one.... unless you come across a 2 for 1 sale you my friend are stealing.
Click to expand...

Stealing is when you physically remove a book from the book store.

If you buy a book, e.g. a novel from a store, you are allowed to make a copy of it for your own use. And when you legally own a specimen of the novel already, it's not a crime to make a copy of somebody else's specimen of the same novel, same edition.

Copying/downloading is not stealing, as it doesn't entail the removal of a tangible object (the original is still there). Nor can it be it illegal in any other ways to possess it when you legally own an original specimen in the first place. But of course, if you sell the original, you have to delete the copy or let the buyer have that too.
 
MisterMe said:
This is classic piracy and you are using the classic excuse for piracy.
Click to expand...
Your high horse, get off it.


Before I bought a Kindle 3G I carefully looked through both stores. Apple's store simply sucks and the application interface really isn't that big of a deal to me since all I care about is the content. I like that the Amazon Book Store is available on just about every device I may use.
 
torbjoern said:
Stealing is when you physically remove a book from the book store.

If you buy a book, e.g. a novel from a store, you are allowed to make a copy of it for your own use. And when you legally own a specimen of the novel already, it's not a crime to make a copy of somebody else's specimen of the same novel, same edition.

Copying/downloading is not stealing, as it doesn't entail the removal of a tangible object (the original is still there). Nor can it be it illegal in any other ways to possess it when you legally own an original specimen in the first place. But of course, if you sell the original, you have to delete the copy or let the buyer have that too.
Click to expand...

I don't really care either way about downloading books, but this post is just wrong, at least under US laws.
 
torbjoern said:
The Kindle works even if your iPhone is jailbroken.
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That's been fixed in the latest Jailbreaks. There are even fixes in Cydia if you don't want to redo the jailbreak.

OP, I don't really understand what you're getting at. It's widely known that the Kindle store is the best eBook store around currently and that iBooks is the most anemic. If you're wondering if that's actually the case, it definitely is.

As for me, I need the feel of iBooks for me to read for long periods. I'm the type that plays with physical pages while reading and iBooks allows me to fiddle with the pages (it helps things sink in for some reason). I don't really buy books online though as my library pretty much has anything I could ever want to read (I never re-read) and has check-outable eBooks.

The thing about downloading DRM eBooks that gets me is that I'm not required to read a Barnes & Noble book in a B&N store and no where else. Why should publishers force us to read their eBooks in whatever reader is attached to the store we bought it from? That is BEYOND idiotic.
 
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I use iBooks for PDFs from my professors, and basically nothing else.

I use Kindle for everything else, because I also have several other devices that use it and other people on my account, so it makes my life simpler.

Pick the one that fits your needs. :)
 
torbjoern said:
Copying/downloading is not stealing, as it doesn't entail the removal of a tangible object (the original is still there). Nor can it be it illegal in any other ways to possess it when you legally own an original specimen in the first place. But of course, if you sell the original, you have to delete the copy or let the buyer have that too.
Click to expand...

Are you using torrents to pirate your books? In that case you are distributing it to people who may not own a copy of the book if you seed at all.
Anyway, you have the right to take your scanner and scan each page of the book, but not to download a copy from the internet.
 
Back on topic: I much prefer the interface for iBooks. So far, they've had all the books I've wanted to purchase, and I have no complaints so far. A few Photoshop books I wanted weren't available through iBooks, but they were available for download from the publisher as a DRM-free EPUB formatted book.

I did check out the Kindle app, and I have to say it's pretty dull. It looks more like I'm reading blocked-off paragraphs on a computer screen than anything resembling a "book". It's a small but significant difference to me. With eBooks, I do care more about the presentation. If there's a book I can't get on iBooks or through a publisher directly, I'd rather buy the physical book than get it through the Kindle app.
 
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