ipad - best site to purchase books? - Page 2

JohnHileman · 08-10-2010, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Any ePub that you get anywhere can be dropped into iTunes and will show up on the iBooks shelves.

Thanks for the tip! That is excellent. I'm gonna go see if it works with my iphone.

Regards,
John Michael Hileman

David Munch · 09-23-2010, 04:31 AM

So I get from this thread, that not one store is the best, at the moment?

HarryT · 09-23-2010, 04:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Munch

So I get from this thread, that not one store is the best, at the moment?

For commercial eBooks, at least here in the UK, Amazon are without a doubt the best, in terms of both price and selection.

David Munch · 09-23-2010, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

For commercial eBooks, at least here in the UK, Amazon are without a doubt the best, in terms of both price and selection.

Sounds good. Is there DRM on their books, which I also assume are ePub?

pdurrant · 09-23-2010, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Munch

Sounds good. Is there DRM on their books, which I also assume are ePub?

Most books are DRMed, some aren't. They are mostly in Mobipocket format, although some are in an Amazon-developed format known as Topaz.

DRM can be removed from the books if downloaded to Amazon's "Kindle for PC" software, or to an iOS device.

Mobipocket format books can be converted to ePub without noticeable loss of formatting. Topaz books are harder to convert, and require some manual tweaking to fix OCR errors (hidden when Topaz format is displayed by clever use of stored bitmaps of characters).

There's a Kindle app available for iOS devices that reads all Kindle format ebooks.

David Munch · 09-23-2010, 05:35 AM

Man, I hoped it would be more easy.. Well, I am going to be buying them on an iOS device (iPad), so thanks for the advices.

pdurrant · 09-23-2010, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Munch

Man, I hoped it would be more easy.. Well, I am going to be buying them on an iOS device (iPad), so thanks for the advices.

Buying them and reading them (using the Kindle application) on an iPad is easy.

It's the removal of DRM and conversion to other formats that's a little tricky.

David Munch · 09-23-2010, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Buying them and reading them (using the Kindle application) on an iPad is easy.

It's the removal of DRM and conversion to other formats that's a little tricky.

Yes, I know that.. I just wanted to have future proof books, without DRM as easy as possible.. Oh well.. I guess Amazon's store isn't going away soon.

HarryT · 09-23-2010, 06:28 AM

As you say, if you're going to be reading on the Kindle App on the iPad, there's no need to worry about DRM.

If you do want to remove DRM, the easiest way to do it by far is to install "Kindle for PC" on Windows, and use the "skindle" program (Google for it) to remove the DRM.

pdurrant · 09-23-2010, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

As you say, if you're going to be reading on the Kindle App on the iPad, there's no need to worry about DRM.

If you do want to remove DRM, the easiest way to do it by far is to install "Kindle for PC" on Windows, and use the "skindle" program (Google for it) to remove the DRM.

Easiest but not actually the best. There's a bug (well, old code) in the Skindle program that corrupts some Mobipocket files. K4PCDeDRM is currently the best solution, although I believe that even that (and MobiDeDRM on which it's based) fail on some files.

David Munch · 09-23-2010, 07:55 AM

I'm on a Mac, so I'll probably have to wait some years before being able to remove any DRM on Kindle files.. I can wait.

HarryT · 09-23-2010, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Easiest but not actually the best. There's a bug (well, old code) in the Skindle program that corrupts some Mobipocket files.

OK. It's worked for everything I've tried it on.

pdurrant · 09-23-2010, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

OK. It's worked for everything I've tried it on.

It will appear to work on everything. The corruption is subtle - the case of a few bytes extra or missing at intervals throughout the file.

pdurrant · 09-23-2010, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Munch

I'm on a Mac, so I'll probably have to wait some years before being able to remove any DRM on Kindle files.. I can wait.

On a Mac you'd either need something like Parallels and a Windows installation (ugh), or you can do it through copies downloaded to an iOS device (iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad).

HarryT · 09-23-2010, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It will appear to work on everything. The corruption is subtle - the case of a few bytes extra or missing at intervals throughout the file.

Thank you - I'll watch out for that in the future.

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09-23-2010, 04:31 AM	#17
David Munch Scholar Posts: 1,009 Karma: 3999312 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Denmark Device: Kobo Libra H2O + iPad Air 4	So I get from this thread, that not one store is the best, at the moment?

09-23-2010, 05:35 AM	#21
David Munch Scholar Posts: 1,009 Karma: 3999312 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Denmark Device: Kobo Libra H2O + iPad Air 4	Man, I hoped it would be more easy.. Well, I am going to be buying them on an iOS device (iPad), so thanks for the advices.

09-23-2010, 06:28 AM	#24
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	As you say, if you're going to be reading on the Kindle App on the iPad, there's no need to worry about DRM. If you do want to remove DRM, the easiest way to do it by far is to install "Kindle for PC" on Windows, and use the "skindle" program (Google for it) to remove the DRM.

09-23-2010, 07:55 AM	#26
David Munch Scholar Posts: 1,009 Karma: 3999312 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Denmark Device: Kobo Libra H2O + iPad Air 4	I'm on a Mac, so I'll probably have to wait some years before being able to remove any DRM on Kindle files.. I can wait.