southernm Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 DH surprised me with a new iPad!! Yay! I'm trying to decide how I want to do ebooks. I have a kindle so I'm familiar with it. I also downloaded the iBooks app. Comparing prices, there seems to be several dollar differences between the two stores. When I compared books there were some more expensive at amazon and some more expensive at iBooks. Makes no sense to me. I only have a 16g so space is a concern. At this point, I'm thinking about using both and comparing prices before I buy. Any opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 DH surprised me with a new iPad!! Yay! I'm trying to decide how I want to do ebooks. I have a kindle so I'm familiar with it. I also downloaded the iBooks app. Comparing prices, there seems to be several dollar differences between the two stores. When I compared books there were some more expensive at amazon and some more expensive at iBooks. Makes no sense to me. I only have a 16g so space is a concern. At this point, I'm thinking about using both and comparing prices before I buy. Any opinions?In general, I think there are more opportunities to get freebie books from Amazon. Since you already have a Kindle, you definitely will want to have the Kindle App (and the Kindle Cloud Reader link to Safari). But there is no reason to avoid iBooks, either. It is a very nice reader and, as you say, there will be some better deals from Apple occasionally. In summary, I would simply use iBooks for those and Kindle for everything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 I use both. There are more free kindle books but there are also some cool things available in the apple store that aren't available on kindle. Also, I put most PDF's that I download for in iBooks because it's easy to just click the open in iBooks option in the browser. I also have the kobo reading app because I had some books on a literati ereader before I bought the iPad. Reg - can u read kindle books on the cloud on the iPad? I think you mentioned that once befor but I couldn't remember the specifics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Reg - can u read kindle books on the cloud on the iPad? I think you mentioned that once befor but I couldn't remember the specifics.Yes. And you can make an in icon on your iPad that looks just like an application. To do this, simply open Safari on your iPad and browse to Amazon.com and then click on Kindle->Kindle Cloud Reader on the left side of the screen. Then click the 'Sign in to get started >' button. Sign in. You will see a message at the bottom of the screen which reads 'Saving app for offline use'. Next, you should click the icon at the top of the Safari screen just to the left of the url bar (it has a curved arrow on it) and then select 'Add to Home Screen'. I'm guessing this is just a standard feature of iOS which allows you to link a webpage to the homescreen on your iPad. Then click 'Add' and a new icon will appear on your iPad. You can now click this button to open the Kindle Cloud Reader within Safari directly. One of the main benefits of the Kindle Cloud Reader is that you can shop from directly within it, since you are really shopping from within Safari, even though it feels a lot like an app. Apparently Amazon had to remove its store from the Kindle App since Apples terms and conditions were demanding 30% of all of Amazon's sales from their app. (It's just as well, since I always have in-app purchases disabled on all the iPads.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernm Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 (edited) Ok thanks! I'm confused about what exactly the kindle cloud app is. Please excuse my ignorance lol. I probably won't be using my kindle much. It is having a horrible time staying charged. I have to recharge it every time I want to read it. I do like the screen though. I find it to be easier on my eyes! ETA I followed your directions and got the cloud. It says I can read books while offline. Is that not the case for the kindle app? Edited December 4, 2011 by southernm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Ok thanks! I'm confused about what exactly the kindle cloud app is. Please excuse my ignorance lol. I probably won't be using my kindle much. It is having a horrible time staying charged. I have to recharge it every time I want to read it. I do like the screen though. I find it to be easier on my eyes!To read on the iPad with the least amount of eye strain, turn the brightness down to the lowest level that allows you to see the letters comfortably. I find their minimum brightness is quite good for reading in the dark.ETA I followed your directions and got the cloud. It says I can read books while offline. Is that not the case for the kindle app?I'm not exactly sure how this works, but I would hope that both the Kindle App and the Kindle Cloud Reader access the same database of downloaded books so that you don't need two different copies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Thanks reg for the info about the kindle cloud and I agree about the adjustment to the brightness in iBooks and kindle app. I don't find it as difficult to read as I thought I would. I assumed the backlit screen would be hard on my eyes but I turn the brightness down and it's fine. I also like the night reading option in the kindle app since dh always falls asleep first and I prefer not to disturb him. I don't think you need books in both the kindle app and the cloud option but you probably need both loaded if you want to read offline because you can in the app but not in the cloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 What about the Google app? Anyone else use this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 I have google books and I just opened one of the books it came with and there are day and night reading options and options for line spacing and text size that seem nice. The ebook store has good prices. I tried to download a free book to check the process but it wouldn't work. It might be my connection speed or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 I have google books and I just opened one of the books it came with and there are day and night reading options and options for line spacing and text size that seem nice. The ebook store has good prices. I tried to download a free book to check the process but it wouldn't work. It might be my connection speed or something. I like google app because it gives us the night option (dark background, white words), but the downloading time is extremely slow for me. iBooks doesn't appear to have the night option. Or am I just not finding it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 The kindle app has the black background/night option but iBooks doesn't . You can adjust the brightness as Reg suggested and in the font selection menu you can turn sepia on to make the book background easier on the eyes. Eta: adjusting the brightness in iBooks seems to change my brightness in general so I have to change it back before exiting iBooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 The kindle app has the black background/night option but iBooks doesn't . You can adjust the brightness as Reg suggested and in the font selection menu you can turn sepia on to make the book background easier on the eyes. Eta: adjusting the brightness in iBooks seems to change my brightness in general so I have to change it back before exiting iBooks. For the Google app, I don't think you can pinch and zoom. I don't think the font can be enlarged, but the dark background is easier to read. iBooks allows us to pinch and zoom, but the white background is hard on the eyes. I'm going to download the Kindle app to try now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 For the Google app, I don't think you can pinch and zoom. I don't think the font can be enlarged, but the dark background is easier to read. iBooks allows us to pinch and zoom, but the white background is hard on the eyes. I'm going to download the Kindle app to try now. You can't pinch & zoom in google but you can change the text size and line spacing. When you touch the bottom of the book in the middle and select the Aa at the top to adjust font you can make the adjustments. Have you tried the sepia option in iBooks. It's much better IMHO than the bright white. You also get to that option by selecting Aa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 You can't pinch & zoom in google but you can change the text size and line spacing. When you touch the bottom of the book in the middle and select the Aa at the top to adjust font you can make the adjustments. Have you tried the sepia option in iBooks. It's much better IMHO than the bright white. You also get to that option by selecting Aa. Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe sepia doesn't work for PDF files because I don't see that option. It only gives me the option to adjust brightness. Maybe I have to download a book to try. For google, I've tried and tried what you've said but no luck. Maybe it doesn't work for scanned books. Everything in google is a vintage book, so Aa doesn't seem to offer a font change. Clearly, I need to play around with my iPad some more :D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 The book I tested in google had an option to switch between flowing text and scanned pages. I just checked and changing to the scanned pages options does make the text and line spacing options disappear. I was in a book not a PDF and that is where the sepia option appears. It looks like in pdf's you can only adjust brightness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolamum Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Both. :D I prefer ibooks because I can manoeuvre around it better, but I like having both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernm Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 The kindle app has the black background/night option but iBooks doesn't . You can adjust the brightness as Reg suggested and in the font selection menu you can turn sepia on to make the book background easier on the eyes. Eta: adjusting the brightness in iBooks seems to change my brightness in general so I have to change it back before exiting iBooks. Thanks for the sepia tip! That makes a world of difference for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 I use both but the prices for Kindle are usually better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.