Tag Archives: iBooks
Read free eBooks on your iOS device the legal way, thanks to your local library
There seems to be a common misconception out there that because Apple hasn’t begun selling iBooks via its NZ iBookstore that the iPad is dead in the water in this country as far as functioning as an eBook Reader goes. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong! There are a number of perfectly capable alternatives available here including the Whitcoulls and Kindle apps which both incorporate NZ-accessible stores, as well as several stand-alone reader apps including Stanza which will allow you to import your own books / pdfs. But, little did we realise until we saw this comment from nz_ark, there is also a fabulous app called Overdrive Media Console which will allow members of Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland libraries to ‘borrow’ eBooks for free.…
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Posted in All, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Reviews
Winnie the Pooh goes MIA from NZ iBookstore, demands money from other territories
Ever-since the launch of iBooks, Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne has been supplied for free as a pre-installed starter title to show you what iBooks can do, complete with the original colour illustrations from the original publication. But following a comment from user Chiefie saying that he was unable to track it down, I went snooping through the minuscule NZ iBookstore expecting to find it easily and put him out of his misery. However, just as Chiefie had said, it was nowhere to be found.
Thinking it was probably just a glitch, I switched to my UK account and found that the title is no longer free in that territory, but £5.99! Obviously the agreement between Apple and Pooh’s publisher to provide this book at no charge has come to an end, and with no agreements in place to actually sell content via the NZ iBookstore this would explain its sudden absence here. But why? My bet is that the imminent release of Disney’s new Winnie the Pooh movie has the publisher hoping that renewed interest in all things Pooh will make them some money. What do you think?…
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Posted in All, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
Official Royal Wedding Souvenir Guide now available for free on iBookstore (yes, even the NZ one)
Did your invitation to the wedding of the century go missing in the post? Yeah, mine too. But never fear, you can still grab a slice of history in the form of an iBook version of the Official Royal Wedding Souvenir Guide which is available for free right now on the iBookstore, courtesy of The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry. The guide has been sumptuously put together and includes the full text of the service along with maps, full colour portraits of the royal couple, and a history of Westminster Abbey. Grab it here right now, if only to keep that lonely copy of Winnie the Pooh company.…
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Posted in All, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Other News
Apple adds Developer books to iBookstore
Hot on the heals of iBooks 1.2 going live, Apple has added a series of five free books to the iBookstore for the developers out there. Looking rather out-of-place alongside Charles Dickens and Jules Verne, the books explore the building blocks of coding for iOS including Objective-C and Cocoa. …
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Posted in All, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Other News
iBooks 1.2 available now – sadly still no decent books for NZ readers
Apple have just released iBooks 1.2 and with the update comes a few nice enhancements such as printing PDF’s (if you have an Airplay printer), Organising your books and PDFs into personal Collections and you can now get fully illustrated books…. well that’s assuming you’re not on the NZ store. You see unfortunately one of those enhancements is not an update to the NZ iBookstore, meaning the content is still just as bad as the day it launched.…
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Posted in All, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Other News
iPad 101: Essential apps for your new arrival
So, after a tense few days pacing up and down, your beautiful new iPad has arrived! Life will never be the same again, and as a proud parent you’ll want to do the best by your little one, so stop by after the ‘read more’ to find our list of essential iPad apps to help get you through those first few weeks.…
Read MoreiPad thoughts – one month on
Still weighing up an iPad purchase when they are released here? I’ve had mine for just over a month and I thought I’d share my opinion on the device and tell you how I’ve used it so far at home and at work. Read on for my thoughts.…
Read MoreiBooks vs Whitcoulls: FIGHT!
So, here we are: e/iBook heaven, spoilt for choice with not one but two book stores. But which one is best? The local retail heavyweight or the international and ‘official’ option? We’re going to put both apps to the test in both their iPhone and iPad incarnations so head past the ‘read more’ and let’s get ready to RUMBLE!…
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Posted in All, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Reviews
iBooks for iPhone now available
Well, after a false start and a gap that was filled by our own Whitcoulls for a while, iBooks is now available for iPhone and iPod touch. Strangely, it doesn’t seem to want to install via the App Store on your iPhone and wants to make its grand debut by being downloaded to your Mac or PC and synced across via iTunes (Seems to download fine now). Anyway, make sure you’ve installed iOS 4, then hit the App Store to grab iBooks (it’s a free download) and claim your free copy of Winnie the Pooh.
[UPDATE] – Sadly, there it nothing but free classics in the online iBookstore right now. Hopefully this will change over the next few days. The Three Musketeers, anyone?…
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Posted in All, iPhone, iPod touch
iBooks about to drop for iPhone?
We’re hearing reports of iBooks rearing its head on iPhones running iOS 4 — in fact our very own Paul has received the above pop-up today when logging in with his UK iTunes account, however hitting ‘download’ resulted in an error for him. His wife got the same message, hit ‘download’ and got a little bit further with the icon actually appearing on the homescreen, but then errored out. Screenshot of that after the ‘read more’.…
Read MoreApp Review: Whitcoulls eBook reader and store [gallery]
I don’t know, you wait around forever for a decent eBook reader with a store that actually works in New Zealand and what do you know – two turn up at once. Apple’s iBooks app has been drawing ever closer and tantilising the taste-buds of gadget-centric book fiends the length of breadth of the country, but look! Here comes Whitcoulls, completely out of the blue, crashing the party early and ready to nick your pocket money! Ready to go hands-on? Hit the link.…
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Posted in All, iPhone, iPod touch, Reviews
iWork and iBooks apps now available on NZ iTunes App Store
Well it seems that after all that teasing, Apple is finally throwing us a bone today! The iWork apps for iPad (Pages, Keynote and Numbers) as well as the iBooks app are all now available for purchase via the NZ iTunes / App Store. Sure, you can’t do an awful lot with them until that sweet slab of tablety goodness is in your hands, but there’s something satisfying about knowing that you’ve got some quality apps sat ready to go. The iWork apps are priced at $13.99 each which might seem expensive on the surface, but these are fully-fledged productivity apps which cost $179 in their Mac incarnation. iBooks is, of course, free.…
Read MoreApp store and iBook store for iPad now available in New Zealand (Updated)
A week ahead of the first wave of the international iPad release Apple have very quietly unlocked released the iPad App store and iBook store (kinda) worldwide and you can now access all the apps that are available from the New Zealand store directly on your iPad. This is a very welcome and long awaited change that makes using the iPad here all the sweeter.
Hit the read more for more info and screen shots.…
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Posted in All, iPad, Other News
Apple job listing suggests iBook Store coming to New Zealand after all
Back at the end of January, it looked as though the iBook Store (as announced at the iPad event just days before) was going to be for the US only. While that may well be the case at launch, three lucky countries appear to be almost certainly getting it at some point: and one of them is New Zealand.…
Read MoreNo iBooks Store for New Zealand
Sadly, it has transpired that one of the most compelling new features of the iPad (and no doubt a future feature of the iPhone) announced at yesterday’s Apple event won’t be available in New Zealand. The fineprint at apple.com states “iBooks available in the U.S. only” but for how long? A month? A year? Forever? Given how long it took us to get the iTunes Store, could we be in for another mammoth wait? It seems that nobody really wants a slice of the Kiwi book pie and that surprises me given how much we (as a country) love to read and how expensive actual books are here. Here’s hoping the wait won’t be long.…
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