Apple’s hoping to recreate the magic of what iTunes did for music with the addition of a vast selection of electronic books. Announced at Apple’s event today, the iBook store.
Book pricing has been set similarly to what’s offered on Amazon.com’s Kindle platform — the first book shown at Apple’s event was priced $14.99, a Ted Kennedy book (available on Kindle for $14.78).
The books you own will be displayed on a bookshelf and the pages inside the books themselves are displayed on an off-white background. Page turns are handled simply by tapping on the right or left sides of the screen and showcase a nice page-curling effect.
According to Jobs, “Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this tech. We’re gonna stand on their shoulders and go farther. Five of the largest publishers in the world are supporting us with all their books and we want everyone in there.”
The iPad will support the popular ePub format and authors will be able to embed multimedia such as photos, videos, and audio files directly into books. That’s a cool feature for standard books and an outstanding feature for textbooks. Imagine your history book containing video and audio snippets.
Honestly, I just don’t see using it for books over the kindle. It might wipe the floor with it on features, but I love the e-ink display for readability and battery life.
The Kindle is just a reader. This is infinitely more.
That is why the kindle is so great. it does one thing very well. one of the pleasures of reading on a kindle is NOT being distracted by anything else running on the machine. you simply focus on the book ;-)
No doubt the iPad looks slick and has its place but even if i get one i’ll still enjoy reading on my kindle.
dm
Looks promising… but cost is a bit too high I feel.
Kindle shmindle. Feels like I’m looking at a calculator from 1985. The iPad color and moving image support will be awesome for ebooks. Hopefully they add the ability to attach notes to any page.
The ability to add and manage notes would be revolutionary for writing essays based on e-book sources. Teachers and students could seriously use this. Why does it not have a camera though? Recording lectures etc for journalists is pretty important.
Oh you so correct, I love my Kindle so much I take it every where me and it is just the best. I do love Mac for everything else but sorry the Amazon Kindle wins this one hands down and why would I buy the ipad just for books that is clearly what Kindle is for thanks keep reading.
Wish i could say the same, but my kindle no longer holds a charge like it should. Bought a new battery, that won’t hold a charge either. Turned off, it drains within a week or so.
When I first called, The kindle people told me that they never heard of that problem ( i reminded them of the people online that all had the same problem), by the end of the call the girl admitted she had the same problem and wasn’t sure she was going to go for the $99 offer either. Hate that she lied to me.
They offered me a “new” refurbished one for $99. They can’t guarantee it won’t have the same problem. I’m saving up for an IPAD, hoping it will last me more than the 2 years my $499 kindle did. yay for first generation!
Will get more out of an IPad than the kindle could ever hope for. I am handicapped and can’t read regular books, so an e-reader is very important to me. Thank you Ipad for this new option.
Nope it’s not.. You know Yes, e-ink does the job perfectly without burning your corneas.. Perhaps, Apple have seen this flaw, but were planning to release this on the 2G. No?
More details: http://bit.ly/apple-ipad-advantages-disadvantages-details
The Kindle is just a reader right NOW. I’d like to see what the next version of the Kindle has in store. It would be funny if it came with a camera, an item missing from the ipad.
That’s the whole point: it is a reader and has e-ink that doesn’t hurt your eyes, unlike the iPad. That is the only huge difference and the reason why the iPad is NOT and e-book reader. A laptop will do infinitely better than the iPad for reading ebooks.
Techcrunch is down. Database error. I think someone in Techcrunch messed with someone that’s why they got hacked or something.
First of all it’s multitouch, it’s colorful, and besides all these it has many other awsome features! Have a look yourself: http://magazine.joomag.com/iPad/179
Ibook is interesting but purchasing one for that addition of ebooks would be more interesting if Mac will provide access to those comparing the selection and avaiability of titles. I choose Kindle because the competitors did not offer the selection and diversity of titles. Question now is will MAC match what is available through Amazon
All Kindle books should be readable on the iPad since it has the same OS as the iPod Phone/Touch.
I have a bunch of Kindle books on my iPod Touch.
Very small, easy to carry. I can read anywhere.
What does the operating system have to do with it? I had a Google Voice native app on my iPhone, right up until Apple decided it didn’t want to compete with it and pulled the Google Voice apps retroactively.
Think Apple won’t try this with the Nook App or the Kindle App? You are kidding yourself. Has Apple publicly stated these apps would be permitted? Why don’t you think that is?
Why build a better product when you can just take your ball and go home with it. This is Apple’s perfect solution to competition; don’t allow any competing products or choices, problem solved.
That book is actually available on the Kindle for $9.99.
You can still use the Kindle App on this, right?
This is going to be make-or-break for me. If I can use an Amazon Kindle app on this device, I’ll buy it. If not, I won’t. I have too large a library on my Kindle, too much of an investment, to lose it otherwise, regardless if the the Apple reader software is better or not.
Well, I have the iPod-Touch and with free software from the Apps I have so far read 8 Kindle books, it’s awesome.
And this new Gizmo has the same software and access to the Apps than the iPod-Touch, you should be able to read all your Kindle books.
Unless you are talking about some other Kindle software that I am not aweare off.
Ah, I know the iPhone version will, but it will be lo-rez. What I’m asking is when Amazon releases a version of the Kindle App specifically designed for the iPad, will Steve Jobs permit it into the app store.
It would compete directly with their own iBooks app. My guess is that Steve won’t, just like he doesn’t permit Google Voice apps on the iPhone. I hope I’m wrong but I doubt it.
Honestly I won’t give up my Kindle library for this device. If it doesn’t play well with Amazon I’m not interested. No more closed gardens.
i hope you have been reading on amazons own site about the problems with kindle books.
1. can not be easily if ever transfered from one kindle to a newer kindle. upgrading hurts you.
2. some books are download only once.
3. books people own are not being saved as promised on amazon.
4. there is NO BACKUP feature thus your kindle dies, and some if not most of your books will have to be repurchased because of 2 and 3 above.
So while the kindle is nice, amazons own policys must be adressed before i even think of buying one. If they say i own it forever but then after 1 or 2 downloads of it i have to rebuy it, or worse yet my kindle dies and i lose it all my investment is gone anyways.
Untill they offer a backup the kindle is not worth the investment. also they need to add in what barnes and noble has, which is being able to loan a bought book out to others. i cant read it while its gone, but in 2 weeks i get it back no matter what. If the IPAD offers these things then im sold.
1. can not be easily if ever transfered from one kindle to a newer kindle. upgrading hurts you.
–Not true. Easily transferable via your online Kindle account. In fact transferable to multiple Kindles, my two PC’s, and my iPhone!
2. some books are download only once.
–Never once have I run into this kind of issue
3. books people own are not being saved as promised on amazon.
–Once again not true, unless there is a good reason for the book to be removed from Amazon, i.e. the person “publishing” it doesn’t have the rights to do so. Or if you didn’t get the book from Amazon in the first place.
4. there is NO BACKUP feature thus your kindle dies, and some if not most of your books will have to be repurchased because of 2 and 3 above.
–ALL my Kindle Books are backed up on my PC. You can download the files right from “My Account” on Amazon. Of course I’ve never had to restore anything even with the backup files.
You seriously have to get your facts straight.
The Kindle is doomed. There will always be a samll demographic of kindle lovers, but Amazon needs to make money. Once this iPad is launched into the market place and the new development software is completed, which Jobs has recently said, “I personally give the new iPhone UPGRADE an A+!” That means, the new software is going to rock on the iPad because they are one in the same. The Kindle days are numbered accept for those who own one. Amazon should just build an app, put it on itunes so that you can migrate your content from you kindle to your new iPad. Amazon is in the business of making money. Their device does have a purpose, but people are ultimately going to want more and they’re going to want to surf the web and then they’re going to want to write a book and research things on the web for their book on a stable OS. People are not going to want a device that serves only one purpose. We are a society that demands things now and the Kindle just isn’t going to be able to compete unless they’re price drops and they’re nearly giving it away. That might not be a bad strategy… I read a ton. My wife has a Kindle and she can’t wait to ditch for the iPad. Craigslist, here we come. I never bought one and would never buy one, because it only serves one purpose and at that price point, I couldn’t justify it. Now, with the iPad, I can read a book and get some work done. Our family will own at least 2.
kindle books are maintained at amazon once purchased they are yours forever, calling kindle support when changing kindle devices is simple and effortless. I have a library of books not all stored on my kindle. But accessible at any time I have upgraded my kindle still have the first book I ever bought accessible.
The price of the book on kindle is only 9.99 not 14.78.
http://www.amazon.com/True-Compass-A-Memoir-ebook/dp/B002ZL3BNA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1264621944&sr=1-3
Apple is a full $5 more expensive on the digital download. What a great deal…….
This is going to be interesting.
The iPad runs all the Apps that the iPod-Touch runs. In my iPod-Touch I have the free App to read Kindle books.
So… just install the freebie software to read kindle books on the iPad!
HA HA HA. Guys you just have too much imagination. It is simple:
The books are files just as music files and you will be able to move them around.
You will be able to sync them and open with the built in application exacly as you do with a mp3 file or movie or picture…
Many new physical books come with a CD where you can find the digital format of it. Pdf or epub formats.
I would like to know how you can see these files on the iPod-Touch. When I connect it to the computer via USB, I don’t see the Kindle files, they are there but not visible … I can’t copy the books to the computer. They don’t show up on itunes, on a PC, maybe on a Mac…
so what was the story with yesterday’s big b&n news? unsourced for a reason, i guess.
ouch. $5 for a book to compete with paperback, maybe…
$15 for a book is a bit out of the realm of the impulse buy consider I can get a dvd or blu ray instead.
I think I’ll wait
We have over 2 million ebooks on our coolerbooks.com site, and 1,490 e-newspapers.
Its nice Apple are following our lead on epub too!!
You have no books on your site, just an internal server error.
“Steve Jobs invents the ultimate bathroom aid.” That’s the best way to describe the functionality of this bad boy.
It’s what a netbook should be.
My first thought when they showed the book reading capability:
Damn, it skips every second page!
;-D
It’s a little weird, since there is no “left” part of the screen where the left page would go. But it’s still animated like a real book.
u can flip it to landscape to get both pages
Have you tried to read a book in a LCD screen… this Ipad thing getting above safety levels!!! E-ink is the best technology so far to read books digitally without destroy your vision.
Yes… I have read 8 books on my iPod-Touch since I discovered that I can read Kindle books on it. It’s awesome.
I have my iPodTouch with me all the time. And yes, I have used the Kindle, a friend has both models, the Kindle and the Kindle2.
I can’t put the Kindle in my pocket like I can do with my iPod-Touch.
@Jerry W.
I tried it in the store for a few minutes and walked straight out. When it comes to books: nothing beats printed letters on dead tree.
Where’s the Camera?
When asked about the naming of the new Apple “iPad” Steve Jobs is rumored to have said ….
……….”Well, it Depends”
Let’s open up our perspectives a bit on ease of reading front. The Kindle and e-ink device are great for many people and easier on *their* eyes. Yet, for many of us, the flashing screen each time you turn a page is problematic and a deal-breaker.
Millions use LED screens everyday and have no eye fatigue or issues whatsoever. The iPad will be similarly easy on the eyes! No flash– and readable at night, in the dark, so as to not disturb one’s sleeping partner!
Yes, many times I have been awake at 2 or 3am and I have read my iPod-Touch without bothering my wife.
I usually have it in white letters with black background and at minimum light, and still too bright in full darkness. I am 70 and fortunatelly don’t need glasses to read.
Very light, with one hand I can hold it and flip pages. Could not do that wih a p-Book at that time.
Ted Kennedy’s book is first on the list? Fail.
I smell an eReader price war brewing…
The question is, when will amazon respond with a reduction if the price of the Kindle and the Kindle DX?
yeah
sounds like price war and ebook is teh main culprit.
lets see how amazon takes the step of Apple
I cant see it working as a book reader compared to KIndle or the super cool Nook. No doubt it will be great for other things – reading books, not
Why not? The screen adjusts to match the look of a book perfectly. Is a real book not good enough anymore? I thought the whole idea behind eInk was to look like a book page. Now you have one that actually does and you complain?..WTF.
Graphic Designers have been adjusting their monitors for years to look like print. The iPad does the same thing automatically.
I just don’t get some of you people. Hate for hate sake?
We want PDF support.
Don’t need a DRM limited format.
There are plenty of PDF Apps in the store already.
The iPhone can view PDFs very nicely, so I imagine that the iPad should be able to do so as well.
That being said, PDF isn’t a great eBook format, because it is a fized-size picture of each page. This means that it isn’t intended to reflow a PDF to suit different sized screens, so while the nook (for example) has a hack that tries to reflow PDFs to suit the smaller screen, the results are rather inconsistent.
If your concern is DRM, you should know that both PDF and ePub can be DRM protected if the publisher chooses to. There are plenty of no-DRM ePub books, such as from Project Gutenberg, the Baen Free Library, Google, etc.
One nice thing about the iPad supporting ePub is that it is widely supported, allowing for portability between devices (except the Kindle, which uses a proprietary format). For example, I have a nook, and all of my books should be readable on the iPad just by copying them over.
You can get the PDF software from the Apps Store.
I have too of them in my iPod. The better one is “PDF Reader” $0.99. You can look at png, jpg, thn, tif, gif, bmp, etc and txt files as well.
Also MS Office: Word, Excel, Powerpoint
Seller: Kdan Mobile Software.
Well, I think DRM is necessary – pdfs are *far* too easy to pirate! Copy and paste…
Having said that I’m not pleased at all with the lack of e-ink! I suppose it’s one or the other but surely it’s e-ink that is necessary for a revolutionary e-reader/news reader?!
So disappointed, after all the hype… knowing how steve jobs hates messy stuff, or anything that is heavy to process, i dont see a day that ipods and ipads will support flash and other codecs. like i mean never.
I agree. Make the books available in PDF… isn’t that what Google is doing? All Adobe needs to do is have a slightly different interface for Reader for the iPad, and then this device can truly be revolutionary. I’d like to flip pages on any PDF by wiping my finger/mouse across a computer screen.
iTunes became a success because consumers would rather pay 99 cents for a single song than pay $15 or more for an album/CD where half the songs were crap (or at least ones they didn’t like). At this price points, there’s no price advantage, so people won’t buy ePub books the same way.
Books with video – 1998 PDF I think.
The reason it didn’t take of before was lack of broadband (file sizes of 1GB upwards) and repurposing the content (shooting video for a History book) is expensive.
Why does everyone have to rant on about it’s shortcomings. At the end of the day it will be a great device for the average consumer and EASY to use.
Thanks Apple for raising the bar, again. It may not have all the bells and whistles that every tech head wants but it’s a good start.
If it wasn’t for Apple and similar inovative companies we would all still be typing DOS commands. :)
Some people are just born to winge.
LOL…..Apple my arse!!! You must mean Microsoft!!!
Apple released the first GUI to the public, not Microsoft.
http://www.facebook.com
If you buy a book app for your iPhone, will you be able to have a copy of that on your iPad too?
I’m interested to understand how this works. Looks great otherwise.
Interesting question.
I have an iPod-Touch with the free software fo read Kindle books and recently I downloaded the software to read the same book in my Motion Computing LE1700. If the LE1700 was just 1 pound … wish, wish.
First off, I sit in front of an LCD screen all day, and I read it all day (with no issue)… I dont understand the e-ink hype.. to me a backlit display is far more important than e-ink.
for me, the lack of flash and multitasking is the deal breaker, both of which can be resolved through software (doubt it will happen).. I dont give a crap about a camera.. I dont want people watching me take a crap anyways
@joe: Completely agree. With proper contrast and brightness adjustment, an LCD screen is fine for reading. Never “burns” my corneas like others like to claim.
And the camera complaints are just dumb. The cameras in my phone and my laptop suck anyway, so why would I want another sucky camera built into my iPad? No thanks, just give me the sweet large display, multitouch, wi-fi and 3G connectivity, and some hot software and I’ll be happier than a pig in slop.
And now all you nocturnal creatures used reading books off LCD screens and iPhones take your shiny LCD book reader full of all bangs and whistles to your backyard and try to read it even not in direct sunlight, that would be plain unsafe for your eyes, but just in any daylight….
Fail. Miserable.
eInk however looks the better the brighter sun is. That’s what makes a huge difference.
If Apple does what the Kindle does with books you buy (you don’t actually own it and can’t share it), the $14.99 price for a book will be a killer.
As long as I can read a paperback for way less than $5.00 and can sell the book when I am done, I’ll stick to reading paperbacks. If Apple or the Kindle ever decide to allow a resale or sharing, then I will consider them. It’s really a pity because my old eyes would sure like to have a reader where I can increase the type size. But at the prices for Kindle books and Apple books, I’ll just put up with my +2.0 reading glasses to read paperbacks.
” If Apple or the Kindle ever decide to allow a resale or sharing, then I will consider them. ”
This has been the main gripe for me with the Kindle books on my iPo-Touch.
My wife goes to the used bookstore and exhanges books for a couple of bucks. There needs to be a way of having an “electronic used book store”.
Kindle never made it in book marketing. Price was one minor objection but its like the marketing professor telling the story about a dogfood salesman telling his boss why his sales were down. “Best damn food and nurishment available—just that the damn dogs won’t eat it!” Same here, not enough unit population of Kindles to make it mass market qualified. think about it how many do you see in an airport? on airplanes? at the beach? IPAD will eat kindles lunch in a nanosecond. My work is going on IPAD asap.
I don’t understand those of you who think this won’t be a great ebook reader! When I decided I wanted an ebook reader I did my research on everything that was available at the time (the Nook was not) and I ended up going with the iTouch. One devise with apps to read any format! Plus listen to music, play games, watch videos/movies, and surf the web…how can you go wrong?! My only concern with the iPad is what everyone else likes…the size. I love that I can stick my iTouch in my pocket and go. The bigger screen may have it’s benefits, but I’m not sure it can replace my iTouch. And for me the Kindle can’t come close!
Dude, it’s “The bigger screen may have its benefits….”
I really like how you choose the books-the screen with the books on the shelf-pretty cool. I don’t think that this device will knock Kindle out-it’s too big and too expensive.
Too big and too expensive?
The iPad is the same screensize as the Kindle DX (9,7″) and only costs $10 more than he Kindle DX?
Why would you make a comment that doesn’t make any sense? They’re the same size. And like Lars said, the $10 difference and you have all of the functionality of the iPod? How can it not kill the Kindle. This price is only going to drop. The OS is much more stable and proven. Add a camera to this thing, which will happen, and the Kindle will be in a landfill. Amazon has one choice, give the Kindle away for free or pay for it and get a bundle of books with it for free worth the price of the kindle. They need market share to survive. they may keep who they have, but with the limited functionality this product will be recycled in no time.
People….you must stop comparing ipad and kindle….kindle is for ebooks….nothing more
ipad is a great looking tablet thats came up short.
Those that are open will truely see for themselves with upcoming tablets.
any idea if theres gonna be anime on the new bookstore?
OK first of all the i pad is not a tablet it is just a larger iPod touch it is honestly not a tablet PC and yes i said PC = personal computer
mac=os
The iPad, upon introduction was a must have for me. Then I found out that the iBook App will not be available in Canada. This may be more than a ereader but I need that feature. On my iPhone I have books downloaded from Kobo and Kindle. If I can’t get books on this, it’s garbage and we Canadians are thrown back to the Sony Digital Reader or Kindle. I sent an email to Apple, but no answer. I truly want this item but without question it has to have an iBook library for Canada, in addition to my other book apps. I really don’t want to go to Sony but what choice will I have? Wish someone who knows something ie Apple would address this.
y can’t the ibook app be available for iphone too
Its a real magic show that apple is showing.
eBook Store will become a super hit soon.
So disappointed, after all the hype… i dont see a day that ipods and ipads will support flash and other codecs. like i mean never.
Hey a big plus will be that countries, such as mine – New Zealand – where kindle isn’t available – i-Pad and e-book will be a big hit. Had the same problem with getting music in digital format from Amazon until i-Tunes came along. Also if Apple can do with online books what they’ve done with i-Tunes, it will be great.
First we had the slate and chalk, somehow managed to create books in paper form, used public libraries and got out and socialized, chatted in person. Now the batteries die after a while and we wait for the next ‘big thing’ that we think we can’t do without… its all great, fun etc but watching a movie on a big screen, writing with a pen and reading a real book and then having a bookshelf of real books still beats all of this here today, new tomorrow stuff….. ipad and ibook, another quick way to plagiarize for students!
jim_lacey@jamarassociates.com
What confuses me is that there seems no way to find out what books are for sale on the Apple site. Do you have to give them a credit card number just to see the catalog?