iPad iPad Mini as an ereader

[m00min]

Originally Posted by afv011

And therein lies the problem, most PDFs are formatted for A4 or Letter, and being non-reflowable format, PDFs don't display well on 6" (and though OK, not great on 10" either), and hence make for a poor reading experience. The "bashing" you refer too is not for the format per-se, but how it renders on small screen readers.

I've read a lot of PDF textbooks on my iPad, swapped an iPad 3 to an iPad Mini. There's no doubt that the retina screen displays text a lot sharper, but I'm not finding any problems reading the same books on the smaller screen. Of course it would be nice to use the ePub versions of my books but I can't stand iBooks. For PDF reading I'm using ReaddleDocs, it's got a page crop feature that's really useful on the Mini to get the text to display just that little bit larger.

PDFs follow that old school of thought that content must look the same everywhere, something that is at odds with how they are used now. Problem is they have a lot of useful features; annotations that are stored in the file being the key one. We need a new format; PDFX say, with everything that current PDFs have but resolution independent.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by m00min

PDFs follow that old school of thought that content must look the same everywhere, something that is at odds with how they are used now.

But bear in mind what PDFs were designed for in the first place: to be a digital representation of a printed page. The problem is not with PDFs - they do their job excellently. The problem is that people are attempting to use PDFs for a purpose that they were never intended for.

[m00min]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But bear in mind what PDFs were designed for in the first place: to be a digital representation of a printed page. The problem is not with PDFs - they do their job excellently. The problem is that people are attempting to use PDFs for a purpose that they were never intended for.

Yep, they are a product of their time. Technology has moved on though, hence the need for something more flexible.

There's been a similar shift in web design. Back in the late 90's there was an obsession with making a site look the same everywhere. Remember the "best viewed in" banners? Modern sites now accommodate a variety of devices and screen sizes (or readers for the visually impaired). PDF is still stuck in the "best viewed" era. ePub is close in that it reflows, but it's not quite there as a replacement.

[sun surfer]

I couldn't wait any longer - I took the plunge and ordered an iPad mini for pick-up at the Apple store! So I'm going today or tomorrow to pick it up.

I didn't really mean to. I was looking around just to see how available it was, and delivery time online said at least two weeks, and most random stores were out of the model I wanted (in silver/white definitely ) then the Apple Store I called around closing time said they had a few and if I wanted to secure it I could order it for pick-up online after a certain time when the inventory updates. I wasn't going to buy one right away, but it seemed like my options were now or possibly two weeks after whenever I decided or constantly checking to see when it might happen to be in stock in stores...so I decided now.

Ordering for pick-up was easy, and sure enough, before the particular inventory update time, I would try and all of the 20 closest Apple stores (lol since most all are very far away) that it searches were sold out of the model I wanted. Then at the appointed time, boom, the one store here said it was in stock. Out of curiosity I looked at the other 19 stores it displays and they were all still sold out after the inventory update. And after I bought mine, I looked again out of curiosity and the store I had bought it from showed sold out. So it seems like I got the very last one for now at any of the 20 closest Apple stores.

I'm so excited to get it! It's an early Christmas present to myself since I wouldn't ask anyone else to get me something that costs this much. It's my first tablet and I'm hoping it will become my main e-reader.

But looking at my username and the ad pics it should've been obvious I was going to choose the iPad mini:

Spoiler:

[kyteflyer]

And I have gone down the other path. Looked at Mini again this morning and realised how spoilt rotten I have become with the screen on the iPad3 and iphone4S (though the 3GS screen is fine, for me, even at the lower resolution). As a result, I shan't be getting a mini for reading. I did play with a Nexus 7 though, and the 1280x800 screen is just about good enough to be called as good as the ipad3 screen. Therefore I am back on the "android instead" bandwagon. I won't give up iPad, and if ever Mini has a higher resolution screen, I'll be there on launch day to buy one... but for now, I want and need the higher res. So its no for now... Bit sad, but cant be helped.

[Djpsycamore93]

I bought an eBook from the Barnes and noble bookstore. I have it on my laptop but I am trying to put it on my Ipad Mini. When I try to sync it with my ipad mini this error message keeps coming up: the security plug-in required by this command is unavailable. I downloaded the security plug and I am still getting that error message. What is the problem? Please HELP ASAP

[MeSue]

It's probably because the book has DRM. You need to get the Nook app for iPad and then it should show in your library in the app.

[artbatista]

Originally Posted by Djpsycamore93

I bought an eBook from the Barnes and noble bookstore. I have it on my laptop but I am trying to put it on my Ipad Mini. When I try to sync it with my ipad mini this error message keeps coming up: the security plug-in required by this command is unavailable. I downloaded the security plug and I am still getting that error message. What is the problem? Please HELP ASAP

B&N has given up support for any device other than Nooks.

I stopped buying books from them a while back because they stopped supporting the PC Nook app, then a while after they absorbed Fictionwise, I could not even download my large library (nearly 100 books) to my PC.

Posting to their support site has gotten no response in months for the many users that have the same problem. Apparently the support policy is "ignore them, and they'll go away"

I have learned my lesson, no longer do I buy books I can't remove DRM from.

So for now, I buy only from Amazon.

Art

[alicepattinson]

There's a loooot of people who use ipad mini as an e-reader. Some also use it for pure games. I use it to read ebooks as well