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kindle app DESTROYS ibooks imo

rydenfan said:
My biggest issue with the Kindle app is the lack of page numbers. I never know exactly how much I have read, and more importantly how much I have left. I know they have some goofy location thing but the exact page numbers in iBooks is far superior. I buy the majority of my books through Kindle because of their superior selection but it would be nice to have this feature.
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The Kindle app gives you a percentage, which I consider more useful. Use what the publisher designates as the total page count and compute where you are page-wise from the percentage read.

Page numbers have less meaning with eBooks -- if you change the font/size, that causes the book to reflow which in turns changes the number of pages.
 
ffs the ibook store has only just come out, they are adding books all the time, how long has kindle been out? but the same thing is going to happen to ibooks as to what happened with the app store and itunes, just a matter of time...
 
Stanza blows both away. I can read all my books no matter how old I am not limited to what amazon or apple sells. I have about 900 books I have bought since I owned a palm and I can still read them even the secure ones.
 
RaceTripper said:
The Kindle app gives you a percentage, which I consider more useful. Use what the publisher designates as the total page count and compute where you are page-wise from the percentage read.

Page numbers have less meaning with eBooks -- if you change the font/size, that causes the book to reflow which in turns changes the number of pages.
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The number of pages remaining in a chapter recalculate when you change fonts and sizes in iBook ePub files. This is something that Kindle really needs to add. Percentage of book remaining is great to have, but that does not help you figure out how much of a chapter is left to read before you put the book down.
 
steve knight said:
Stanza blows both away. I can read all my books no matter how old I am not limited to what amazon or apple sells. I have about 900 books I have bought since I owned a palm and I can still read them even the secure ones.
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Someone else who read ebooks on a Palm - fantastic. I started in 1999 on my Palm V. I sat and unboxed my new Palm, installed some applications and downloaded my first ebook. That moment when I sat on my sofa with my brand new Palm reading the first page of my first ever ebook really is the one moment in my entire life using and working with technology where I truly felt that something had stepped out of the world of science fiction and into my hands. It really was quite a profound moment for me.

Back to the topic. Are you in the US? I also have many commercial ereader formatted books and Stanza was the obvious choice for me but I've decided to go with iBooks because I'm worried that if I stick in the ereader world then I'll have trouble buying new commercial (DRM protected) content. The ereader/Fictionwise/B&N world is horrible for non US residents because so much content is subject to geographical restrictions (i.e. not for sale in Europe). I admit that it's a leap of faith but I'm hoping that Apple won't take such a US-centric view and that, once it's got content flowing into the iBook store, I will be able to buy conveniently most of what I want. My approach does mean that I need to convert my old content to get it into iBooks but personally I'd rather do a one-off conversion of my 150 or so existing titles and hopefully have an easy life in the future.

If I was in the US and didn't have the issue with geographical restrictions, and if I had 900 existing books to convert, then I would probably have made the same choice as you.

- Julian
 
cmascatello said:
The number of pages remaining in a chapter recalculate when you change fonts and sizes in iBook ePub files. This is something that Kindle really needs to add. Percentage of book remaining is great to have, but that does not help you figure out how much of a chapter is left to read before you put the book down.
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I guess I just don't have the need to know how far I am from the end of a chapter.
 
I can see if your not in the us the issues you would have. Fictionwise lets me download most formats on non secure books even after I have download the book in another format.
 
I'm also an ex-Palm ebook reader. :) How did you get the secure books in Stanza? I was so relieved when eReader.com hit the App Store, I'd have been screwed had I mainly used Mobipocket instead (proof that you do have to be concerned about DRM, though I'm less worried now with the backing of companies like B&N and Amazon).
 
mobipocket I don't think stanza will read the secure books. but it will read secure ereader books just fine once you put your cc info in. mobi uses the code internally.
 
I prefer iBook, it just "feels" nicer when interacting with it. I use Kindle as well, it may not be pretty, but it works. I HATE the way you buy books over the Amazon site. Much prefer the "built in" buying of books in iBooks. It's a smoother process.
 
shellbryson said:
I prefer iBook, it just "feels" nicer when interacting with it. I use Kindle as well, it may not be pretty, but it works. I HATE the way you buy books over the Amazon site. Much prefer the "built in" buying of books in iBooks. It's a smoother process.
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I really like the "download a sample" feature in iBooks. I don't really find it terribly useful for reading any samples, more often than not there's so much index and preamble as to leave very little genuine content in the sample, but I download samples of the books I'm interested in and keep them on my bookshelf to give myself an equivalent of the wishlist on the Amazon website; this works really well for me.

- Julian
 
I was a big fan of iBooks until the latest Kindle app upgrade. I have it on both the iPad and the Touch and now, the app knows when you've read farther on one machine than the other and offers to sync to the latest read.

I love it. :)
 
iBooks seems to be a pretty app, but personally I'm sticking with the kindle for new book sales. Main reasons for me are:

- I can read my books on multiple devices
- Cheaper prices on many (if not all) the books I've looked up
- I already have a small library of books purchased through them
- I like having my books in their format, just in case I ever decide to purchase another amazon eInk reader down the road.

Colored highlighting and landscape mode are nice touches in the iBook app, but I don't see enough benefits in either to make me purchase books though apple just yet.

But even with that, options and choices are in our best interests.
 
Missing essentials that should be added to Kindle:

  • Copy text - really useful for taking notes, or quoting passages for projects.
  • Dictionary - for my wife in particular (who isn't a native English speaker), the one-tap dictionary that iBooks has is really useful.

Nice to have:
  • Cover art! Why are so many Kindle books missing the book cover art?
  • Multiple bookmarks - my wife and I share our iPad while it's at home, so it'd be nice to have our own bookmarks. We often read the same books :)
 
Davydd said:
I use iBooks, Kindle Reader and the B&N Reader. Which I use determines which has the book and the price. B&N is besting Amazon.com so far, surprisingly, in both price and selection of the books I have had interest in. Some other considerations.

My preference is to read in iBooks in the two page landscape format. So if prices and availability are equal I will buy the iBook.

My wife and I both have iPads. We are able to sync books bought at iTunes and B&N but not Amazon.com. So, if we both want to read the same book Amazon.com draws short straw and we choose between the other two.

B&N has the 14 day lending feature. We have not used that mainly because we don't know anyone to lend to.

Bottom line is it is nice to have choices. Borders will be coming to the iPad soon as well. You can't say that with the dedicated Kindle, Sony, Nook and Kobo readers.
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You should be able to sync the books through Amazon, given that you have both iPads registered with them.
 
Page numbers

For students or anyone doing research, you definitely need page numbers for citations. All the apps need to list an equivalent page number ref to the paper version for citation purposes.

It would be terrific if they had a citation icon a person could touch and even choose the format allowing copy and paste.
 
I had a Kindle and sold it once I got my iPad. So I have quite a few Kindle books.

Between the two apps I prefer iBooks for a couple reasons:
- "X pages left in this chapter" - When reading a real book I like to know where I am and this little feature helps just that much more.

- "pages" rather than "locations" - I get the idea of locations, but page numbers are just easier...both are still don't work for making citations though (Because not many people have Kindle books, and iBooks can have different fonts)

- Changing fonts - This is probably the biggest feature. Cochin is just so much easier to read than Times New Roman IMO, plus you can choose from a few others.

There are a few things the iBook should do though:
- As you read the book the 'book background' should change. So near the end of the book there would only be a few pages left, making the 'book' part of the interface functional rather than just aesthetic.

-A bigger selection because the Kindle currently dominates in terms of selection.

I do like iBooks new PDF support though, much better than goodreader if you have small pdfs.
 
I'm also using both and both have their merits. I'm a constant reader and really love the flexibility of the Kindle App.

Kindle: I often read on my phone (Android) when I have a free moment to kill and like to open up my iPad and see that I am synced to the same page. It's also very nice to view highlights and notations, which I do review later. Unfortunately it's a closed platform which leads me to use...

iBooks: because I have hundreds of ePubs already as well as some older formats that I've converted to ePub's with Calibre (I've been reading on my phone and computers for years)... iBooks is also beautiful and has a much better store layout. Having to use a browser is inelegant.

Still, Kindle is the winner for me in terms of features.
 
cainnovacaine said:
I'm also using both and both have their merits. I'm a constant reader and really love the flexibility of the Kindle App.

Kindle: I often read on my phone (Android) when I have a free moment to kill and like to open up my iPad and see that I am synced to the same page.
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iBooks now syncs the current page between devices. I use the feature every day. Admittedly, since the iBooks reader isn't on Android, that's not a lot of help to you.

I think that whether Apple bring out versions of the iBook client for non-Apple devices will be an interesting test of how serious they are about the ebook market. To fully compete with Kindle on a basic-features basis they need to have a comparable range of devices supporrted. Apple do have history of doing this (e.g. Safari on Windows) but I have trouble imagining them doing iBooks for Android; if I was a publisher considering support for iBooks though, I'd be asking Apple this question.

- Julian
 
All this comparison of the reader apps is nice, but how about the content in the files purchased from the respective e-book stores? In the iBook store I see ther is an enhanced version of a title, which I suppose has more pictures or interactive content for the color iPad screen, but what about equivalent standard editions from amazon vs. iBooks? If a picture or illustration is included in the ebook will it be color in the iBook version and black and white only for the kindle version which then only shows up black and white in the kindle app?

Do little differences like that exist in the different stores files? Something like that might steer me to purchase a version from one store over another.
 
Content is about 100x more important than the look of the app.

Whocares if it's the best damn looking app ever made? If there are no books I am interested in reading, or are more expensive, why would I choose that?

Kindle app all the way for me. I wanted to love iBooks but it's selection is piss poor at best for my interests.
 
Did someone say that you can convert your Kindle books to iBooks? If so how do I do that?
 
Kindle app all the way... Content is more important than the looks of the app. It's just sad that we have to go trough the browser to buy books now...
 
Hi all, wanted to offer my perspective.

As a student who is constantly reading, and also uses textbooks and technical manuals (I'm a CS major at a tough Engineering school), I have found the iPad to have a solution for every occasion. I, like many others, use both iBooks and Kindle applications.

In terms of pure functionality, I believe Amazon's Kindle app to be superior. The selection is obviously far more broad thanks to Kindle's head-start in the market and publisher support. This is more than apparent when attempting to purchase textbooks and programming books. These kinds of books aren't necessarily so mainstream, so it's no surprise that Apple hasn't stocked them in the iBookstore - however, Kindle's library is massive, and it hasn't failed me yet. The app itself also provides a clean, minimalistic UI that doesn't get in the way with quirks and needless-yet-fancy graphical effects like page turning. I really don't mind the simple approach Amazon has taken to their UI design with the Kindle app - it provides all of the functionality that iBooks does and more without getting in the way.

While iBooks is gorgeous, I just don't really see UI quirks being a deal-breaker, especially when Amazon can offer me more books (the books I need) at a better price. Generally, Kindle is my preferred app, and I find myself using it the most.

All of that said, I still find my uses with iBooks. Namely, I use it for PDF reading (sheet music, my resume, other PDF manuals and books) and ePub books that I have stored on my computer from way back when. In a situation where I already own the source material for what I'm reading, I prefer iBooks for its organization through "Collections" and slick UI. This interface is especially valuable when, in an interview, I can pull out my resume in iBooks and show it off with technical finesse. A feature like that is priceless.

I have heard of Stanza being a viable option, and people in this thread have mentioned the B&N app. At this point in time, I haven't found a reason to go near either of those, and I doubt that I will. Kindle and iBooks make a great combination, and I will probably continue to use both in tandem.
 
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