iPad Reading on the iPad

[nikkie]

Here's what I have:

The bad:

• Stanza is not usable in full screen mode - fonts are aliased badly because the zoom didn't properly scale fonts
• Same thing for B&N.
• Same thing with txtr.
• No white on black mode (night mode) in Apple's iBooks application
• It's kind of heavy in comparison to other book readers on the market.

The good:

• iBooks looks great, has bookmarking and dictionary. Easy to "highlight" words.
• I love the interface in iBooks - it's extremely responsive. The page turning gesture is very fluid.
• Search in iBooks is impressively fast, and the interface is extremely simple to use.
• iBooks has a dimmer.
• Kindle app works well.
• Kobo app also works well.
• Unrelated - but Netflix is awesome.
• Importing books into iTunes is extremely simple. I just picked up the folder my Kindle library was in and dropped it into the Books section in iTunes. It recursively found all ePubs. It did not add any PDFs.
• The ePubs of comics I made in Calibre look fantastic on this screen.

In general, I really like it. My biggest issue right now is the lack of Stanza. Since iBooks has no night mode, I really don't have a reading application right now that I can (happily) use for non-DRM ePubs.

Edit: I'm now using readMe to download books from calibre server. It works just fine for non-DRM ePubs, and has night mode.

Any more questions?

[fugazied]

Stanza will have an update coming I am sure.

I read on mine today for about an hour no eyestrain, so far so good! Comics on this thing are just... incredible. Time for some gaming

[foghat]

I don't think Stanza is coming for ipad. I read in another thread here that amazon is not allowing stanza on ipad.

Regarding reading at night, what about just turning the brightness down? That is all I do with Stanza - because of the easy brightness adjustment, I have no need for night mode.

And yes, a question: how does ibooks hand series/collections?

[leebase]

I ditto your remarks, I am going to miss Stanza. IBooks is nice, but missing some things I liked about Stanza

Lee

[foghat]

^ Can you provide some examples?

From what I have seen Ibooks looks superior to stanza - for my uses. Which is purely as a novel reader (no highlighting passages/taking notes, etc).

The only thing I see Stanza doing better is allowing for different background/text colors. And perhaps colletions, as I have not seen any info on how ibooks handles them. Of course I don't own an ipad yet, so this all based on screens and video I have seen of ibooks.

The one thing I really don't like about stanza is the way it loads each chapter as you go and hence does not give you a total number of pages. That really bugs me, as I like to know roughly how big a book is when I start reading.

I love the way ibooks tells you the total number of pages and also how many pages till the end of the chapter.

Stanza dictionary support is also really weak. that said, Stanza certainly is the best ereader on the iphone right now.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by foghat

^ Can you provide some examples?

From what I have seen Ibooks looks superior to stanza - for my uses. Which is purely as a novel reader (no highlighting passages/taking notes, etc).

The only thing I see Stanza doing better is allowing for different background/text colors. And perhaps colletions, as I have not seen any info on how ibooks handles them. Of course I don't own an ipad yet, so this all based on screens and video I have seen of ibooks.

The one thing I really don't like about stanza is the way it loads each chapter as you go and hence does not give you a total number of pages. That really bugs me, as I like to know roughly how big a book is when I start reading.

I love the way ibooks tells you the total number of pages and also how many pages till the end of the chapter.

Stanza dictionary support is also really weak. that said, Stanza certainly is the best ereader on the iphone right now.

Does iBooks have hyphenation support? The justified Pooh sample in the videos I've seen so far looked like...well Pooh. I don't use an iPhone, but I've read that Stanza is capable of hyphenation, which would go a long way to overcome the eyesore that is crappy justification.

[Tamara]

For missing features in iBooks, send Apple feedback - http://apple.com/feedback

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by fugazied

Stanza will have an update coming I am sure.

I read on mine today for about an hour no eyestrain, so far so good! Comics on this thing are just... incredible. Time for some gaming

No it won't. This is Amazon we are talking about. No Stanza is good for business.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

Does iBooks have hyphenation support? The justified Pooh sample in the videos I've seen so far looked like...well Pooh. I don't use an iPhone, but I've read that Stanza is capable of hyphenation, which would go a long way to overcome the eyesore that is crappy justification.

Why are you still here? You hate everything. Please go away.

[leebase]

Stanzas integration with lots of bother book sources (fiction wise, calibre) is a big thing to me. I liked how easy it was to change font size and to dim the screen. The white on black night mode as nice as well.

Lee

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

No it won't. This is Amazon we are talking about. No Stanza is good for business.

Yes, Amazon is the only company that makes decisions that are good for its business. Shame on them... unless you are a stock holder of course.

BOb

[Sonist]

I am curious how the IPS screen performs for long-term reading.

Can someone who DID NOT like to read on the iPhone, but has experienced the iPad, chime in? How does it compare to eInk?

[thinkpad]

I'm interested in the reading experience when there is no physical buttons for page turns. Do you have to adjust you hands for every page flip or does it feel natural. Is it enough with a tap on the screen or do you have to swipe with the finger.

[Mirrorlike]

Originally Posted by thinkpadx

I'm interested in the reading experience when there is no physical buttons for page turns. Do you have to adjust you hands for every page flip or does it feel natural. Is it enough with a tap on the screen or do you have to swipe with the finger.

Depends on the app. Goodrread turns on tap @ bottom right. It's really easy.

[tlrowley]

Originally Posted by Sonist

I am curious how the IPS screen performs for long-term reading.

Can someone who DID NOT like to read on the iPhone, but has experienced the iPad, chime in? How does it compare to eInk?

I hated reading on my iPhone but the experience in iBooks is much better for me. I think the iPhone problems were caused by the fact that I was focussing my eyes on such a small area and they didn't have to scan along a line (did I explain that right?)

I though that I'd prefer the portrait mode in iBook, but I've been using landscape (2-up) most of the time. I do like iBook much more than the Kindle app, and I'm trying to read on the iPad exclusively for a few days to see how I manage compared to the Kindle device.