Calibre to add Apple iPad Output Profile?

[sk8bit]

Originally Posted by Starson17

I'm confused. What does making an Apple product work well with PDFs have to do with piracy?

I'm just used to so many restrictions with apple Products, so I figured they forced the ePUB format for the iBook app to prevent users from just importing PDF's. This would force the average user who doesn't know where to get "things" to purchase content from the iBook/iTunes store. I'm not saying everyones a pirate, but its similar to the restrictions you have when taking a random iPod thats been synced with another computer, iTunes will refuse to import the content because "it doesn't know if you got it legally"....

[itimpi]

No. It just think they have gone with ePub as it is now the commonest standard for new eBooks.

[Daddy Warpig]

Originally Posted by sk8bit

its similar to the restrictions you have when taking a random iPod thats been synced with another computer, iTunes will refuse to import the content because "it doesn't know if you got it legally"....

That's sort of correct. In actuality, this "feature" exists for two reasons:

1.) Obligated by RIAA + associated music labels, to avoid being sued. (Remember, this started in 2001 with the first iPod when Apple was an also-ran in the computer world, not the 800 lb. music gorilla).

2.) Deliberate design decision. Steve Jobs announced, and implemented, a strategy of "Mac computer as Digital Hub", where one's Mac would be the central device to create and manage content across multiple personal devices.

The "hub" stores all content and syncs it to the secondary device (originally, the iPod). Want to edit metadata? Edit it on the hub and it syncs to the iPod. You can't edit meta data on the iPod: the secondary device is supposed to be a mobile version of the exact information from your hub.

Hence, the iPod syncs from one iTunes Library because that's your hub. They're specifically designed not to sync with multiple libraries. Nor is the "hub" synced from the device- the device gets information from the hub, not the other way around*.

Doing it otherwise brings up syncing issues- if multiple versions of the same file exist (A on the original mac, B on the iPod, C on another PC), which is the correct one and how do you adjudicate conflicts? Hub->device simplifies this. The information on the hub is the master, everything else mirrors of it.

The alternative to syncing- sync ensures same info on multiple devices- is just copying: "Gimme the file, I don't care what it says." That would make the iPod nothing more than a personal file-sharing device, a mobile Pirate Bay. In such a case, refer to point 1, re: getting sued to smithereens.

So, anti-piracy plays a part, because the RIAA mandated this. Most of the design is due to a carefully thought out metaphor**, not just arbitrary decisions.

(* This changed with the iPhone 2.0, obviously, but only in regards to purchasing music on the device and adding it to the hub. One the hub has the data, it becomes the master again.)

(** A metaphor admittedly designed to add value to a Mac by making it the hub, on which to create and manage data. As a hub, the Mac would be indispensable and people would continue to buy them. It's a sales strategy, but selling based on adding functionality. Many of Apple's products- such as iPhoto and iMovie- are best understood as parts of the "hub creates, secondary device displays" strategy.)

[Eric Lindsay]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

what do those meta tags achieve?

Basically the metas tell WebKit on an iPhone or an iPad to look up their own width or height, and use them when deciding how to display a web page. As long as the web page is written to be fluid, you usually end up with a reasonable text size. Obviously not specifically intended for book use, but I suspect they will work. Now Apple have announced iBook will be available on iPhone, and ePub books on iPhone will sync with iPad, you can not rely upon any particular display pixel count.

[kovidgoyal]

When you say "decide how to display the web page, you mean pick a font size?

[Pranananda]

Originally Posted by Firepong

I had found this to be a problem as well when converting RTF to ePub. The thing that was messing it up for me was this code surrounding most of the book:

<div class="s">

and at the end the close tag </div>

After I removed all of those and re-uploaded the book back to my IPad via iTunes and opened it up, it was wall crystal clear. Might want to check to make sure that that that book if he opens a ticket doesn't have those.

Think it might be something that was transfered over on me from my RTF files that made it do that.

I had this same issue with my epub files for the iBooks, when the text in a div works on the first page of a chapter, but not on the subsequent pages. When I removed the <div> tags, all the text appeared just fine.