Looking for Kindle vs. iBook opinions

The problem with Apple's bookstore is that it is shoe horned into a shopping environment created originally for music (which for quite a while wasn't the greatest thing itself). The iTunes software for computers and iPhone/touche/iPad will need some reworking for books. I hope that iTunes 10 gets a serious reworking.

IBooks does not allow for changing the background color nor the font, only the brightness. I have my brightness set at about 2/3. Kindle for iPad does allow for color change and font change.

The Kindle app for the iPad is great. It turns your iPad into a Kindle, with Whispernet. I like it a lot better than iBook. The Amazon store is so far much more convenient than the iTunes store with its horrible GUI, and has many, many more ebooks. I just synched my iPad with my Kindle account and all the books I had bought were downloaded. You can shop the kindle store from the app which opens Safari containing the appropriate link.

There are 3 font sizes, 1 font-face, and 3 backgrounds: white, black and sepia. I like the sepia. iBook is much better for annotating, finding words in the dictionary etc, which the Kindle app does not do (unless I have not figured it out yet). So it sort of depends on what one is reading.

What I would really like is an iPad app which would look for AZWs on my iPad and then convert them to ePub and make them available to iBook.

Bill

I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but the iPad represents books much better. The Kindle represents them like a photocopy.

I have been using Kindle for more than a year.

Kindle:
1. Syncs between all my devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro)
2. Will have built-in dictionary
3. Can change background colors
4. Better online bookstore than iBooks
5. More books, over 400k

IBook
1. iPad is kind of heavy but can do everything (web, videos, music, email, so on)
2. iBook has better GUI IMO
3. Only few book titles. It is a new store. I know it will grow fast
4. Can create or convert your own books
5. No sync between devices at the moment

If iBooks will sync with all my devices and if I can find any book as in kindle I would prefer iBooks. Right now kindle's app is the best option.

IBooks does not allow for changing ... the font

That's wrong, you can choose among 5 fonts.

I read a lot of e-books and have used a Kindle, Kindle app on my iPhone and now the iPad (Kindle app and iBooks). For just e-book reading, it sort of depends on what you're personally most comfortable with. I prefer reading in a dark room, so the iPhone or iPad causes me less eye strain. If you like reading in bright light (particularly sunlight) the Kindle is much better. The Kindle is easier to hold, but the iPad is more comfortable for page turning. Ultimately, the iPad caused me to stop using my Kindle all together and I gave it away

What about the books you buy through iBooks? On Amazon if you buy too many to hold on your Kindle, they stay are no longer on your Kindle but still available. With iBooks where do they go when you run out of room on the iPad? To your computer? Won't that eat up a ton of space on my computer?

You can store books in iTunes and choose to sync only certain ones if you want. However, books take up very little space so the chance of you filling up a hard disk full of books is practically null. In other words, your life would be over before you'd have a chance to even come close to reading enough books to fill up a modern day hard drive.

Kindle's 6" device can hold up to 1,500 books. I sure our iPad will hold more than that, and I doubt you will read more than 2,000 books. IMO

I liked the iBook app over Kindle app, but that's me. I still prefer the Kindle store because of its rich online library and sync capabilities. I search the iBookstore in a daily basis but nothing new. Go Steve!

I've had the Sony Reader (similar eInk display to the Kindle) for 3 years. For reading in bed, the adjustable back-light of the iPad is a marriage saver. My wife hated the little reading light a had to clip to the Sony. Too much light for her to sleep easily. Turning the iPad's back-light to low makes for comfortable reading and she hardly notices it. I don't find the extra weight of the iPad to be too much of a problem as I normally lean it against something. Love the dictionary on iBook and find that I am constantly looking things up on the web that I'm reading about. Very cool to be able to do that on one device.

I have never owned a Kindle, but I have (for the next few days because I am selling it) a B&N Nook and my best friend and his wife have Kindles.
As other's have said - if you only plan on using the device for ebooks - then get a Kindle or Nook (personal preference and needs will determine which one is best for you). The eInk screen they both use is very easy on the eyes and works better in bright light. (Then again....it won't work in a really dim/dark room since it is not backlit.)
However - aside from wishing that in iBook I could change from the bright white background, I really prefer the way books are presented on the iPad. There is just something cool about iBooks' presentation. And as far as magazines and newspapers - yes iBooks does not display them (yet), but there are other apps that do and they BLOW AWAY the way either a paper or magazine look on the Nook/Kindle.
But - even though I am selling my Nook because I really don't see myself using/needing both - if I just wanted an ebook reader (and willing to ignore how much better newspapers and magazines look on the iPad), I would stick with either the Nook or the Kindle.
Steve

swandy wrote:

However - aside from wishing that in iBook I could change from the bright white background, I really prefer the way books are presented on the iPad. There is just something cool about iBooks' presentation. And as far as magazines and newspapers - yes iBooks does not display them (yet), but there are other apps that do and they BLOW AWAY the way either a paper or magazine look on the Nook/Kindle.

Steve

I would also like to be able to change the background. On my phone's Kindle app I have it set to sepia which is much more comfortable for my eyes. I also prefer reading on the Kindle app to reading on my wife's actual Kindle.

What I find incredibly frustrating and offending is that ibooks are priced so very randomly, some almost to be a joke. Atlas Shrugged is listed for $27.99 on ibook--really, are you kidding. Kindle: $9.99. The ibook selection: a joke. Kindle: very extensive. In my eyes, apple has to reign in this greed that book publishers are showing, trying to make up lost revenue in a new venue by ripping people off. Sort of like US Postal Service trying to make up for less letters being mailed by increasing prices of stamps, oh, yeah, wait let me mail a letter now that I can pay more for a stamp. As for the visual experience: I loved my Kindle, but am a mac geek, so gave Kindle to friend, and using ipad. But I will continue to get my books from Kindle for ipad. Ipad ***** for reading outdoors, otherwise, both are exceptable.