Quote:
Originally Posted by setherd
A friend has an iPad and she wants to try reading some ebooks. we work together and I have many on my laptop.....but how the heck can I use my laptop (running ubuntu linux) to get some ebooks to her? I tried emailing some to her but of course apple couldn't let you simply import a file  |
A partial workaround is that if you have Stanza installed on your iPad (which is actually a good reader — not quite as pretty as iBooks, but in some ways a better reading experience) you can then receive DRM-free ePubs via email on the iPad itself. Just tap the attachment icon in the message, and the iPad offers to open the file in Stanza. Doing so will copy it into Stanza's Library.
On the other hand, if you have Stanza installed, you can connect directly to Calibre's content server over the Web, and select individual items or series to install. This works beautifully and, because ePubs are usually not large files, is even usable over a low bandwidth connection such as 3G, or talking to a machine at home over a poor ADSL connection like mine. I was recently chuffed to bits when I found I didn't have a book handy, and I was able to SSH to my Mac at home, launch Calibre, and then grab the book from the server straight to the Pad.
The downside of all this in your particular case is that it's not going through iTunes or doing things the "normal" way, so it may add complexity to your friend's setup rather than reduce it. Still, hope it helps.
-Jef.