iPod Considering iPod Touch for music and Reader

[momtodogs]

My early generation iPod Touch was stolen from my car, this week, and I am shopping for a replacement.

For years, I have been reading my ebooks on a Sony Reader, or on my Samsung smart phone. I have hundreds of books, mostly saved in epub format, and want to know what I would need to do to make them readable on an iPod touch. What format does the iPod use? Does the iPod allow use of a micro SD card?

I use Calibre for managing my book collection.

Is what I am thinking of doing, even possible?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by momtodogs

What format does the iPod use?

Depends on the app you're using to read from. Since your books are already ePub's you can use iBooks or an app like Marvin to read them without converting.

Does the iPod allow use of a micro SD card?

No

I use Calibre for managing my book collection.

Not sure if Calibre (or more accurately the iOS plugin) is working with newer versions of iOS, but you should be able to add books with iTunes (drag them to your reading app in iTunes) if nothing else.

Is what I am thinking of doing, even possible?

Sure, I don't see why not as long as you're okay with the screen size for reading.

[Kai Winters]

I can't answer specifically for the ipod Touch but I can speak to the iphone, calibre and ios.
I'm using an iphone 6+ for my reading pleasure. I use Calibre for my library management and my iphone is running the latest software and iTunes as well. I use iBooks as my reader software.

My iphone works great as a reader. It connects to Calibre without fuss and I easily move books from Calibre to my iphone using the "send to device" linky when connected.
I buy the vast majority of my books from Amazon and convert them from Kindle to Epub.
I can use the Kindle app on my iphone but prefer iBooks.
I've used the paid version of Marvin in the past but became dissatisfied with it and removed it. I like that iBooks automatically sorts my books in the series order I've designated in Calibre but I generally just use the "date added" mode when reading current purchases. I also created a "folder" in iBooks for my current reading queue...that is a nice feature.

Good luck on your purchase and keep us informed on how it works out.

[ekbell]

I use an Ipod Touch as my primary reader and Marvin as my primary reading app. Marvin can no longer make a direct connection to Calibre through USB (stuff broke with iOS updates) but it is possible to download books directly to Marvin using Calibre's content server.

The main disadvantage is that screen size is tiny. For me the ability to slip it into a pocket and read one-handed makes up for the screen size but it is a real disadvantage, particularly if you care about covers or your books have maps or other graphics.

I used an iPod touch 4 I think before getting an iPhone 5. Same screen size and resolution. Both were great for reading when sitting at the doctor office, etc. I preferred my iPad Mini for longer reading sessions, but the iPod/iPhone were quite acceptable platforms to me. I now predominantly use my iPhone 6 Plus for reading preferring it to the bulkier iPad Mini for most books. When it comes to PDFs or magazines though, the smaller screens are not very good. However, for books with mostly text the 3.5" screens are not bad at all since they have such high resolution. You have to turn the page more often, and hyphenation is not as good, but neither of those things ever bothered me.

[elaysee]

I do some of my reading on an iPod in GoodReader. It's primarily a PDF reader but handle plain text files as well. It has a scrolling view for text where you press play and the text unrolls for you. Between adjusting the text speed and font size I can usually find something that works for a given book. You can still swipe w/o stopping scrolling so it isn't all or nothing if you need to back up on a paragraph. Can mean a lot of plain text conversions but not so bad w/ bulk conversion.

[The Old Man]

If you can accommodate the larger size and price I would recommend the iPad mini for ebook reading. For music the iTouch and iPad mini are the same.

[momtodogs]

Thank you, all, for your answers to my questions, and reassurances about reading my epub books on an Apple device. I am so glad I will be able to load books from Calibre, since I am comfortable with that program.

First, I went to Best Buy to "handle" the iPod, and decided it would be too small for my purpose. I have a Samsung Note 3 phone, and it is adequate (but small) as a book, and I discovered that the new iPod Touch was even smaller than my old one that had been stolen.

Then, I went to the Apple Store at the local mall to check out the iPad mini, as The Old Man suggested (and a friend who has a mini), and fell in love with the look and feel of it and the iBooks app that was on the demo model. The newest Mini 4 64GB model was too steep for me, though, so I came home and found the Mini 3 on Amazon for a manageable price. I already have 34GB of music, and wanted room to grow, since I am adding my considerable ebook library.

Now I have to wait a couple of days for it to arrive. I'm so excited!

I am sure I will have more questions, so stand by, please.

[momtodogs]

Kai,

I got my new iPad Mini, today. It has the iBooks app on it. How do I get Calibre on my PC to sync and upload epub books? Is there something I need to add to Calibre to get it to talk to my iPad? I literally have hundreds of books, with several series, and I like what you said about iBooks keeping them together.

Thanks, Rikki

[pwalker8]

If you want to use iBooks, then you need to convert the ebooks to the epub format, if they are not already in epub, and then import the books into iTunes/iBooks on the pc. I'm not sure exactly what the pc uses since I use a mac. On the mac they are separate programs. Then sync your iPad and tell iTunes to sync the books.