E-books - (Kindle + Ipad) ...

My wife is thinking of getting a Kindle ... on the other hand it would be nice to have an iPad. But purely and simply with regard to the titles available from Amazon and the like, can the e-books which are sold for the Kindle also be used on an iPad? Or are there two different formats?

M

There is a Kindle App for the iPad, so you can purchase and read books for the Kindle as well.

To be clear, the Kindle book you buy is good for all your devices. So I have a Kindle, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, a few Macs, a few windows machines, and I can read any book I bought from the Amazon Kindle store on any of those devices. All the books show up as archive items and you can just download them at any time.

On top of that the "cloud" knows what you read last, and how far you read so if you open a book on one device, read a bit, then open it on another device - that second device will ask if you want to sync to the farthest read page.

All these benefits only work with Amazon bought books. If you put a mobi file or pdf - then you have to sync it to all devices via computer.

Kindle + iPad ...

Thanks for the helpful replies.

One query ... about your reference to 'cloud'.

But the books get put onto the HD of the Kindle/iPad, don't they?
You surely don't have to be within WIFI range in order to read.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I just don't know about i-Books.

Thanks

M

You are correct, the books are stored locally to your device. What Ivan is referring to is that either the kindle, kindle app (iOS), or on the computer can and will sync your last read page to the cloud, so that if you switch devices it will contact the cloud and remember which page you left off on the last device.

If you are not near a wifi connection then no worries it just won't open to your last read page.

Cheers,

M

To add yet again, every book you buy on the Kindle store is stored/backed up to Amazon servers. What this means is you can buy unlimited books for the kindle as you can always re-get the book. When reading the entire book is stored locally. The actual kindle can hold thousands of books so a vast library can be stored before having to go back to wifi.

The corollary to this is - all books are available for download on all devices. Again all reading is done on locally downloaded files.

Hope that makes sense.

Kindle + i-Pad ...

Thanks once more for the concise and helpful replies.

M

Nice description Ivan, thanks for the info.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I thought Kindle ie Amazon limited the # of devices to 5? Has that changed?

Does the Kindle app work differently from iBooks, Kobo and any other apps? I have bought 2 books so far co-incidentally both from Kobo. I have not read much of either one on my iPad yet, but have read a fair bit on my iPhone 4. Works great on the iPhone but I am always connected with 3G. Where I would want to read a book on my iPad there is no Wifi, nor have I activated any 3G yet. Would I have a problem with a book sync'd to my iPad in iTunes while not in either wifi or 3G? Or do all these apps store the book on the device?

MacLicious said:

Does the Kindle app work differently from iBooks, Kobo and any other apps? I have bought 2 books so far co-incidentally both from Kobo. I have not read much of either one on my iPad yet, but have read a fair bit on my iPhone 4. Works great on the iPhone but I am always connected with 3G. Where I would want to read a book on my iPad there is no Wifi, nor have I activated any 3G yet. Would I have a problem with a book sync'd to my iPad in iTunes while not in either wifi or 3G? Or do all these apps store the book on the device?

Click to expand...

You wouldn't be able to download without 3G or Wifi but books already downloaded would be available on your iPad.

EDIT: iBooks and Kindle have significant differences but I use them both and Stanza as all the reader APPs have differing strengths and weaknesses.

Thanks. I was under the impression you had to be connected to 'keep' your ebooks on your device after purchase. Good to know.
I haven't tried any other apps yet, but I think I like Kobo better due to the night setting. Although I haven't read more than an hour on the iPad yet, I find the night setting easier on the eyes than just reducing the brightness, which is the only option on iBooks.

With the Kindle APP you can even upload your own books if you have DRM free eBooks. I like to buy from the webscription site (Baen Books). They sell DRM free and you can download Kindle format (MobiPocket) or ePub or both if you wish.

Ok just downloaded the Kindle app and it works pretty much the same as the Kobo if you change the view settings to 'black'. I will try kindle format thru amazon next time. Thanks for the info.

The device limit is set by the publisher. So it just depends on the ebook. The usual limit is 6 devices for anything with DRM. I've read elsewhere - that if you just delete the book from one device - it will be available for another device - if you hit your limit. As I said the book is really stored in the cloud for backup. So far I haven't hit the limit but I only have 2 people in the house currently reading.

I have a kindle and an ipad and I really like the ipad because it is fast and has a color display. I also really like my kindle though, the kindle books will transer to the ipad with the kindle app of there is a program that my friend uses called calibre that allows you to convert epub books(ipad) to the kindle and convert the kindles (.amz) to epub so it can be used in ibooks.

rabbitjetta said:

I have a kindle and an ipad and I really like the ipad because it is fast and has a color display. I also really like my kindle though, the kindle books will transer to the ipad with the kindle app of there is a program that my friend uses called calibre that allows you to convert epub books(ipad) to the kindle and convert the kindles (.amz) to epub so it can be used in ibooks.

Click to expand...

+1 on Calibre

It also can be easily set up as a server for your library so you can do wireless upload of ePub books on your Mac to the Stanza Reader APP.