Reading iBooks on macBook Pro??

I will admit that like many others I have purchased more ebooks from Amazon than I have the ITMS. This has mostly been because of availability, but there is another reaason I would like to have an iBook reader on my MacBook Pro and desktop Macs--Studying.

About half of the ebook purchases that I make are not of the frivolous nature. They are serious books intended for study. The Kindle apps, across all of my devices, especially my computers with a keyboard and mouse, for now work the best for this purpose because I can open the reader app and a word processing app at the same time and take notes. I would much rather use the iBooks app because for this purpose it provides a more rich experience. You can highlight in five colors, instead of just one and you can cut and paste into other apps. How I would love to have just these two abilities on my computers with iBooks books.

I know that I can use multitasking on my iPad to do this as well, but I cannot have the two apps side-by-side on the same screen simultaneously. I can do this with the Kindle App, but I cannot cut and paste, except from notes and highlighting is a little flat for study purposes when you are limited to yellow only.

So I get this birthday gift card for an ibook so I can read it on my MacBook. The card says iBooks and it shows how to redeem on iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, or PC - click on iTunes Store and Redeem. Then go look for a reader and found this thread so it looks like I will have to go ask for cash back since I can't use any iBook on my MacBook. Looks like the print version wins again. I'm feeling like apple needs a reset again - as in Apple III to macintosh and then rebound as OS7 v to OSX with something to replace iTunes as in iTunes to iLibrary. I know - complain to Apple - not here. Hmmm the url says apple.com

If apple don't want for fixed the problem for reading ibook that we bought from store iBook Store.

I have another way that you able to read the ebook.

Now I'm using Borders.com, it able to read from iPhone, iPad and even on the MacBook, iMac or MacMini.

You can download Borders Apps into your iPhone or iPad and also visit Borders's website download the program into your MacBook or iMac. You have to register Borders Account.

The best thing that I would like you to know.... if you're a Borders member (it's free), you will get discount for the book every week too.

It works as good as reading ibook for Apple iBook.

By the way... I'm still waiting Apple to fixed this problem.
I heart they're going to have a new operation system call Lion to replace mac ox s the snow leopard. I wish they fixed this problem on the new O.S.

I really hate that Apple doesn't integrate the iBookstore into iTunes. And why can't we read books that we purchase through Apple's iBookstore on our computers? I know that it's a software thing, but come on! Give me a break, Apple!

Now that Steve Jobs himself has declared the "computer" another device, it seems that certain "iOS apps", such as iBooks, SHOULD be ported to MAC OSX. This will also fit nicely into the iCloud philosophy. I'm hopeful that it is just a matter of time.

This is something that I am hoping will be addressed with Tiger and the whole iCloud thing, it seems like Apple wants to give users the opportunity to pretty much sync all their devices, and content, which would be a God send.

just bought 2 ipad 2s and discovered that I cannot read books purchased from itunes store on my PC. will now download the kindle app and buy books from amazon instead. very dissapointing indeed

Not sure what you mean? If you used the same iTunes account on your iPad as on the PC, you should be able to get those books.

Arun@London wrote:

If you used the same iTunes account on your iPad as on the PC, you should be able to get those books.

But that doesn't matter -- you cannot read most paid-for books from the iBookstore on either a Mac or a PC, only on an iOS device. That is what this discussion is all about.

We are talking about to READ not to get.
The problem is we can't read book that we bought from Apple iBook Store on Mac.

This problem is so utterly mind-boggling as to why Apple has neglected the crossover capability of iBooks. Does anyone know whether or not this is resolved with the Tiger software upgrade?

Raccafracca wrote:

Does anyone know whether or not this is resolved with the Tiger software upgrade?

I don't think it has anything to do with the OS version, just a matter of Apple creating the iBooks app. There's no mention of it in the info provided about Lion.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/

So while it's not very glitzy there is one method of viewing some items from the iBooks store. I just downloaded a free book from the iTunes store and opened it using a program called TextWrangler. This opened up a list of folders on the side that could be viewed. Looking through the different folders and files listed you can see all of the different CSS style sheets and defining characteristics so the book appears nicely on the iPod but eventually you can find the content that shows what the book actually says. Unfortunately, it does appear as part of an html file but you can still read it nonetheless between the <p>'s.

This doesn't work with files that have to be purchased as they are encrypted by Apple before you download them. I'm not an encryption expert so I can't tell you how to get past that one, but for non-encrypted files you can use the method above. =)

Oh and TextWrangler is free btw and a great program for other things as well.

Nobody has ever had any problem reading free items from the iBookstore on a Mac. There is no need to resort to something like TextWrangler -- there are various epub reader apps that will read such books just fine, like Calibre.

Ridiculous... how can Apple not provide support accross platform. The issue was evident since the release of ibooks and they've still done nothing? Is this problem fixed in OS X lion? I'm switching to kindle, they got it right...