Grrr... Moving Apple iBooks to Kindle

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm not complaining about Apple hardware and such. Just their eBookstore and that really awful iBooks.

I don't really know what their devices are like. Always overpriced in my estimation so I never tried one. But after they went sue crazy against their competition, I actively began disliking Apple. At this point I simply wouldn't deal with them.

Curious, what's awful about their iBooks? I just assumed they were the same books in a different "wrapper."

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would not pay for any eBooks from Apple. It's Apple's fault eBook prices have gone up. I hope Apple's eBook sales tank so far they they give up and stop selling eBooks.

And that isn't even their major crime.
They are also the champion of multimedia ebooks, in a time when standards should be focusing on a consistent approach to ebook rendering rules.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And that isn't even their major crime.
They are also the champion of multimedia ebooks, in a time when standards should be focusing on a consistent approach to ebook rendering rules.

You say that as if "championing multimedia ebooks" was a bad thing. Apple had development tools to allow people to easily create good multimedia books, and a free viewing app (iBooks) to display them long before any of the other players in the market did, and iBooks was also the first mainstream reading app to support ePub3.

I don't personally use iBooks, because I prefer to remove DRM from the books I buy, but Apple really can't be faulted for their innovation in supporting such things as ePub3.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I don't really know what their devices are like. Always overpriced in my estimation so I never tried one. But after they went sue crazy against their competition, I actively began disliking Apple. At this point I simply wouldn't deal with them.

Curious, what's awful about their iBooks? I just assumed they were the same books in a different "wrapper."

iBooks the app is one of the most notoriously "quirky" EPUB renderers out there.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

iBooks the app is one of the most notoriously "quirky" EPUB renderers out there.

It's also the reading app with the best ePub3 support of any.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You say that as if "championing multimedia ebooks" was a bad thing. Apple had development tools to allow people to easily create good multimedia books, and a free viewing app (iBooks) to display them long before any of the other players in the market did, and iBooks was also the first mainstream reading app to support ePub3.

I don't personally use iBooks, because I prefer to remove DRM from the books I buy, but Apple really can't be faulted for their innovation in supporting such things as ePub3.

While multimedia ebooks may not be intrinsically evil, that still doesn't mean they are a particularly important objective. The IDPF should've focused on fixing the current standards, rather than introducing something few need.

But Apple needed something stylishly cool. And the world turned.

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's also the reading app with the best ePub3 support of any.

Which has no meaning for the vast majority of consumers and ebooks.
I would (and do) happily trade flashy gimcrackery for something that works in a mildly consistent manner.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

While multimedia ebooks may not be intrinsically evil, that still doesn't mean they are a particularly important objective.

They are certainly not important for people who want to read novels, I agree, but there's a whole range of different applications for multimedia content, and being able to produce such content in the form of a book is a heck of a lot better than having to write a separate app for each one individually.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They are certainly not important for people who want to read novels, I agree, but there's a whole range of different applications for multimedia content, and being able to produce such content in the form of a book is a heck of a lot better than having to write a separate app for each one individually.

I did not say they are useless, I said there are more important objectives that are useful in a far more general sense.

The IDPF would be better off standardizing the current standards, and getting the majority use up to snuff.

Apple iBooks doesn't really support EPUB3 anyway, it supports iPUB3.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would not pay for any eBooks from Apple. It's Apple's fault eBook prices have gone up. I hope Apple's eBook sales tank so far they they give up and stop selling eBooks.

Ebooks are plenty cheap if one is willing to be patient. I just got notified today that several ebooks on my ereaderiq wishlist dropped in price. I purchased 8 Harper Collins published ebooks for $14.92.

[thewitt]

Apple is a driver for standards in the IDPF.

Apple is also pushing the ePub3 spec hard, and as the first interest with both viable hardware and software for real multi-media ePubs, they will pave the way.

Like it or hate it the early adopters generally set the tone for the direction of the standard. I applaud Apple for pushing the envelope.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by thewitt

Apple is a driver for standards in the IDPF.

Apple is also pushing the ePub3 spec hard, and as the first interest with both viable hardware and software for real multi-media ePubs, they will pave the way.

Like it or hate it the early adopters generally set the tone for the direction of the standard. I applaud Apple for pushing the envelope.

You have to be kidding? If the crap added into ePub 3 is Apple's doing, then Apple is doing eBooks a huge disservice. ePub 3 has way too much crap and is more complicated to make a plain ordinary eBook with no multimedia. The same eBook that's easy to make in ePub 2 is more difficult to make in ePub 3 because some things that worked well as is and did not need to be changed were changed and changed not for the better.

So please do not applaud Apple for screwing things up.

[darryl]

Personally, I think that Epub3 is a mess, and I would rather have seen the effort expended on Multimedia ebooks directed elsewhere. But I am also a realist. Like it or not, Multimedia EBooks are here to stay and I expect they will do very well. It could be said that to some extent they are the way of the future. Imagine a medical textbook with video's and animations of medical procedures. Or a cookbook with videos of the steps and the ingredients. The potential is for some of these new EBooks to be far superior to their print counterparts, though of course we will also no doubt be inundated with a lot of rubbish. Were I younger I would probably have been able to muster some enthusiasm for the potential.

Now I just hope that the market for plain non-Multimedia ebooks remains strong, and that specialised e-ink readers survive until technology provides us with colour screens which are as easy on the eyes.

[thewitt]

The standard will evolve as more and more readers and authors take advantage of it. Those who complain were likely the same ones who said CSS were a waste of time and we should have never strayed from HTML 1.0.

[eschwartz]

I don't consider multimedia in EPUB3 to be a bad thing, I simply think it is misplaced priorities...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I don't consider multimedia in EPUB3 to be a bad thing

That's a change from describing it as "major crime" a few posts back .