iTunes now supports ebooks

dham340 · 03-31-2010, 03:44 AM

Apple released iTunes 9.1 today in preparation for ipad release saturday. The 9.1 update allows you to add epub format books to the itunes library. They show up under the "books" section (which was named audiobooks in prior version).

iLounge has the details.

Works fine. I was able to add epub versions of the entire Harvard Classics series

EowynCarter · 03-31-2010, 04:31 AM

But these ePub have the apple drm i wont be able to read right ?

sianon · 03-31-2010, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

But these ePub have the apple drm i wont be able to read right ?

No none of the Apple DRM books are avaiabe yet. ITunes will alow epubs without DRM

EowynCarter · 03-31-2010, 05:32 AM

Now, that might make me install iTunes.
Well, seam to be us-only for now...

carlobee · 03-31-2010, 05:33 AM

Oooh! Thanks for this info! I haven't opened my iTunes yet! Will now open to update.

dham340 · 03-31-2010, 11:29 AM

iLounge has posted its usual deep dive into yesterday's iTunes update.

Here's the portion about books:

The most notable change in iTunes 9.1 is support for storage and synchronization of eBooks, specifically for the iPad. Rather than adding a separate section, however, Apple has simply re-labelled the “Audiobooks” section to just “Books” and now combines both audiobooks and text-based eBooks in the same sorting area.

As with the Audiobooks section before it, the Books section can be displayed in List, Grid or Cover Flow views. In Grid View, Books and Audiobooks can be grouped into separate sections as shown above or you can choose to group by Author or Category. In List and Cover Flow views, both types of content are mixed together into the same list, although the “Kind” column can be used to differentiate books from audio books.

iTunes 9.1 also lets users import their own ePub-format books from other sources such as Project Gutenberg. ePub files are imported in the same manner as other types of media content—drag and drop into iTunes—then are automatically grouped into the Books section. Books are managed in much the same way as other types of media content as well: the File Info dialog box can also be used to update metadata for Books, and cover artwork can be added in the normal manner.

For Books, the Options page currently only provides one user-settable option: VoiceOver Language, which will presumably be tied to the VoiceOver feature on the iPad itself. Apple has also released a new VoiceOver pack (version 1.3), which signals that iTunes will automatically download pronunciation updates for this feature going forward.

Note that iTunes 9.1 does not provide any support for actually opening ePub files directly on your Mac or PC—these files are stored in iTunes only as a repository for syncing with the iPad and any future devices that may provide support for Apple’s iBooks app.

It is unclear at this time whether the iBookstore will be available through iTunes or only on the iPad. As of this writing it is not yet appearing on the iTunes Store, however Apple may be waiting for the actual launch of iPad before opening the iBookstore. At the very least it seems likely that iBooks purchased on the iPad itself will sync back to iTunes and be displayed and managed in the Books section. We’ll update this section when the iPad is available.

yvanleterrible · 03-31-2010, 05:30 PM

I've installed iTunes on my Vista and now doing it to the old XP.
So far I've installed a few books just to see. They're showing up.

I think that Apple wants us to get iBooks to allow an epub reader on the host. And to get iBooks you need an account.

fizzwinkus · 03-31-2010, 11:53 PM

i've added about 30 epubs to my itunes. they show a "play" option, but nothing happens. i don't know if apple is wanting you to read only on the ipad or if it's a feature that will unlock after the ipad release date (to keep the whole experience grouped)

yvanleterrible · 04-01-2010, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fizzwinkus

i've added about 30 epubs to my itunes. they show a "play" option, but nothing happens. i don't know if apple is wanting you to read only on the ipad or if it's a feature that will unlock after the ipad release date (to keep the whole experience grouped)

It will probably work when iBooks is installed.
In the same vein, I don't have nor an iPhone nor an iPod touch so the Apps feature is deactivated in my copy of iTunes.

Fat Abe · 04-01-2010, 03:56 PM

Hey guys and gals, try this experiment. Drop a few pdf files into your Folder. Instead of going into Books, it ends up as an Unknown Album under music. Geez, I always wanted to listen to a pdf file. The droll of equations, the soothing techno babble ...

I guess I'll check for another iTunes and Mobile Me update in a few hours. Apple has some of the most overpaid programmers in the business, and between their latte breaks, they can't even get iconv.dll onto some Windows systems.

mgmueller · 04-01-2010, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

Hey guys and gals, try this experiment. Drop a few pdf files into your Folder. Instead of going into Books, it ends up as an Unknown Album under music. Geez, I always wanted to listen to a pdf file. The droll of equations, the soothing techno babble ...

I guess I'll check for another iTunes and Mobile Me update in a few hours. Apple has some of the most overpaid programmers in the business, and between their latte breaks, they can't even get iconv.dll onto some Windows systems.

PDFs have been in iTunes for at least 1 year. So far, they have been album booklets, when you bought some special albums from iTunes. No DRM - but no real use either...

Fat Abe · 04-02-2010, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgmueller

PDFs have been in iTunes for at least 1 year.

Thank you for the information. I always had a suspicion that Apple puts it junior programmers on apps such as iTunes. They have had months to clean up the Folder mess, and now, one day before the launch of the iPad (the greatest development since Moses carved the 10 commandments on a tablet), Apple still can't figure out where to put the words. All the early reviewers seem to have declared victory when they could get an epub document from iTunes into the iPad. But what about pdf, the most ubiquitous document format next to html and text? If you drop a pdf document to the top leftmost folder in iTunes 9.1 for windows, the program puts it into an album with Unknown artist. Great. You cannot drag this anywhere into your iPod touch device. (Apple disabled "Enable disk use" on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad). You seem to need a third party program, or methodology, which you can find by googling with the string:

"ipod touch" save pdf files

Boy, I'm going to have a lot of fun ftp'ing to my new iPad on Monday. Some of my pdfs are over 10 MB! Emailing yourself an attachment is not an option. Since there is no perfect PDF to EPUB converter, the new iPad user community has to start getting creative.

DixieGal · 04-02-2010, 05:08 PM

Thanks for the heads up! Everyone involved must be upgrading, because I had to try 3 times to get it to connect to the download. It's huge, still downloading as I type.

03-31-2010, 03:44 AM	#1
dham340 Long Time Lurker Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: North east, md Device: Kindle Paperwhite	iTunes now supports ebooks Apple released iTunes 9.1 today in preparation for ipad release saturday. The 9.1 update allows you to add epub format books to the itunes library. They show up under the "books" section (which was named audiobooks in prior version). iLounge has the details. Works fine. I was able to add epub versions of the entire Harvard Classics series Last edited by dham340; 03-31-2010 at 03:47 AM.

03-31-2010, 11:29 AM	#6
dham340 Long Time Lurker Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: North east, md Device: Kindle Paperwhite	iTunes Deep Dive iLounge has posted its usual deep dive into yesterday's iTunes update. Here's the portion about books: The most notable change in iTunes 9.1 is support for storage and synchronization of eBooks, specifically for the iPad. Rather than adding a separate section, however, Apple has simply re-labelled the “Audiobooks” section to just “Books” and now combines both audiobooks and text-based eBooks in the same sorting area. As with the Audiobooks section before it, the Books section can be displayed in List, Grid or Cover Flow views. In Grid View, Books and Audiobooks can be grouped into separate sections as shown above or you can choose to group by Author or Category. In List and Cover Flow views, both types of content are mixed together into the same list, although the “Kind” column can be used to differentiate books from audio books. iTunes 9.1 also lets users import their own ePub-format books from other sources such as Project Gutenberg. ePub files are imported in the same manner as other types of media content—drag and drop into iTunes—then are automatically grouped into the Books section. Books are managed in much the same way as other types of media content as well: the File Info dialog box can also be used to update metadata for Books, and cover artwork can be added in the normal manner. For Books, the Options page currently only provides one user-settable option: VoiceOver Language, which will presumably be tied to the VoiceOver feature on the iPad itself. Apple has also released a new VoiceOver pack (version 1.3), which signals that iTunes will automatically download pronunciation updates for this feature going forward. Note that iTunes 9.1 does not provide any support for actually opening ePub files directly on your Mac or PC—these files are stored in iTunes only as a repository for syncing with the iPad and any future devices that may provide support for Apple’s iBooks app. It is unclear at this time whether the iBookstore will be available through iTunes or only on the iPad. As of this writing it is not yet appearing on the iTunes Store, however Apple may be waiting for the actual launch of iPad before opening the iBookstore. At the very least it seems likely that iBooks purchased on the iPad itself will sync back to iTunes and be displayed and managed in the Books section. We’ll update this section when the iPad is available.

04-01-2010, 03:56 PM	#10
Fat Abe Man Who Stares at Books Posts: 1,817 Karma: 10606722 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: 50th State, USA. Also, PA, NY, CA, and elsewhere. Device: All of the Above	PDF -- The New Music Format Hey guys and gals, try this experiment. Drop a few pdf files into your Folder. Instead of going into Books, it ends up as an Unknown Album under music. Geez, I always wanted to listen to a pdf file. The droll of equations, the soothing techno babble ... I guess I'll check for another iTunes and Mobile Me update in a few hours. Apple has some of the most overpaid programmers in the business, and between their latte breaks, they can't even get iconv.dll onto some Windows systems.

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03-31-2010, 04:31 AM	#2
EowynCarter Wizard Posts: 4,337 Karma: 4000000 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Paris Device: Cybooks; Sony PRS-T1	But these ePub have the apple drm i wont be able to read right ?

03-31-2010, 05:32 AM	#4
EowynCarter Wizard Posts: 4,337 Karma: 4000000 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Paris Device: Cybooks; Sony PRS-T1	Now, that might make me install iTunes. Well, seam to be us-only for now...

03-31-2010, 05:33 AM	#5
carlobee Fanatic Posts: 535 Karma: 972 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: The new iPad	Oooh! Thanks for this info! I haven't opened my iTunes yet! Will now open to update.

03-31-2010, 05:30 PM	#7
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	I've installed iTunes on my Vista and now doing it to the old XP. So far I've installed a few books just to see. They're showing up. I think that Apple wants us to get iBooks to allow an epub reader on the host. And to get iBooks you need an account.

03-31-2010, 11:53 PM	#8
fizzwinkus Rookie Posts: 25 Karma: 34 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: Philips Nino500, Palm 500, Palm 3c, Palm Vx, PRS-505, PRS-600, iPad	i've added about 30 epubs to my itunes. they show a "play" option, but nothing happens. i don't know if apple is wanting you to read only on the ipad or if it's a feature that will unlock after the ipad release date (to keep the whole experience grouped)

04-02-2010, 05:08 PM	#13
DixieGal Hi There! Posts: 7,473 Karma: 2930523 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Ft Lauderdale Device: iPad	Thanks for the heads up! Everyone involved must be upgrading, because I had to try 3 times to get it to connect to the download. It's huge, still downloading as I type.