Sleeptite
Level 1 (1 points)

Q: How Can I Read iBooks on my Laptop?

On my Laptop, I can:
a) Listen to songs I purchased, with iTunes
b) Listen to podcasts I subscribe to, with iTunes
c) Listen to Audio Books I purchased, with iTunes
d) Watch Videos i purchased, with iTunes

WHY CAN"T I READ BOOKS I PURCHASED with iBooks, with iTunes?

Amazon's Kindle lets me read Kindle Books on my iPad, my iPhone, and my LAPTOP.
Shouldn't APPLE let me do the same?
Please, Apple, give me an iBook Reader for my laptop.

iMac 21, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jul 17, 2010 4:57 PM

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Q: How Can I Read iBooks on my Laptop?

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  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Apr 3, 2012 3:08 PM in response to LEE 3103
    Level 9 (79,555 points)
    Apr 3, 2012 3:08 PM in response to LEE 3103

    LEE 3103 wrote:

     

    As I have scanned in many books from my library and edited them, the books I want to have read aloud are mine and paid for. 

     

    Understood.  But reading books aloud has nothing to do with this thread, which concerns how people can visually read the books they have paid for from the iBookstore on their Mac or PC.

  • by magnusfromarlington,

    magnusfromarlington magnusfromarlington Apr 11, 2012 8:20 PM in response to Sleeptite
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iTunes
    Apr 11, 2012 8:20 PM in response to Sleeptite

    Something is fundamentally wrong here - Who decided you can only read an iBook on a portable device with iOS? What happened to the simple integrated experience philosiphy? Apple, you are loosing your touch!!

  • by infomagick,

    infomagick infomagick Apr 11, 2012 9:09 PM in response to magnusfromarlington
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 11, 2012 9:09 PM in response to magnusfromarlington

    magnusfromarlington wrote:

     

    Something is fundamentally wrong here - Who decided you can only read an iBook on a portable device with iOS? What happened to the simple integrated experience philosiphy? Apple, you are loosing your touch!!

    Yes, I'm afraid that, in general, I have to agree.   Why is it that the Kindle software allows this with Amazon and Apple cannot get the same deal for it's customers?  

     

    Maybe they want an even better deal?  :-)

  • by pft44,

    pft44 pft44 Apr 11, 2012 9:28 PM in response to magnusfromarlington
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 11, 2012 9:28 PM in response to magnusfromarlington

    I'm sorry to be a party pooper Magnus but our 'hero' Steve Jobs decided for us, just like his management decided that we have to lose access to .me accounts and switch to 'Lion' - which means a new machine.

    However, I've been very happy with Kindle's software on the iPad, Mac and iPhone, for a year or so and the only minor rritation for me with the iBookand epub situation is the inability to be able to take marked up proofs back from the iPad to my source files.

    Are Apple losing touch, well not really.  Its like signing on for a cruise and then complaining that you get sea-sick.

     

    Message was edited by: pft44

  • by maryhowardsen,

    maryhowardsen maryhowardsen May 29, 2012 8:44 AM in response to Sleeptite
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 29, 2012 8:44 AM in response to Sleeptite

    You can read your books via Calibre's viewer. However your e-reader needs to be connected to your computer so Calibre can "read" the books files. Calibre's viewer allows you to adjust font size and even has a bookmark feature but won't track last page read like Kindle's app will across platforms.

    If you have books already on Calibre, you can read them anytime without tethering your device.

    More related articles about iBook:

    How to transfer or backup iBooks from iPhone to PC

    How to transfer iBook (ePub format) from iPhone to Mac

  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke May 29, 2012 9:10 AM in response to maryhowardsen
    Level 9 (79,555 points)
    May 29, 2012 9:10 AM in response to maryhowardsen

    maryhowardsen wrote:

     

    You can read your books via Calibre's viewer

     

    Calibre cannot read anything purchased from the iBookstore which has DRM protection, which is what most people want to do.

  • by Jaybird1378,

    Jaybird1378 Jaybird1378 Jun 7, 2012 3:24 PM in response to Sleeptite
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 7, 2012 3:24 PM in response to Sleeptite

    Duh.. they want you to buy an iPad and iPhone. If you could just read them on your laptop, you may or may not buy an iPad.

  • by CarltonBanks,

    CarltonBanks CarltonBanks Jun 7, 2012 3:29 PM in response to Jaybird1378
    Level 1 (32 points)
    Jun 7, 2012 3:29 PM in response to Jaybird1378

    I bought an ipad and already own an iphone and just bought a new ipad with the HD display.

     

    But I still can't read ibooks on my macbook air or my macbook pro for some reason.

  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Jun 7, 2012 4:06 PM in response to CarltonBanks
    Level 9 (79,555 points)
    Jun 7, 2012 4:06 PM in response to CarltonBanks

    CarltonBanks wrote:

     

    I still can't read ibooks on my macbook air or my macbook pro for some reason.

     

    It tells you on every purchase page in the ibookstore that  you can only read them on an iOS device.

  • by slmUSA,

    slmUSA slmUSA Jul 6, 2012 3:52 PM in response to threesixty
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 6, 2012 3:52 PM in response to threesixty

    The whole point of having a Mac (or any Apple product) is for the seamless integrated experience.  I don't want 10 electronic devices!  I just want to read the iBooks that I downloaded with iTunes on my MacBook Pro.  Seems like a reasonable request since I can read books purchased from amazon.com on any device.  Steve Jobs wouldn't have put up with this if he were healthy while he was living; Apple Inc. should know better.  Thanks for your post.

  • by slmUSA,

    slmUSA slmUSA Jul 6, 2012 3:53 PM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 6, 2012 3:53 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Stupid if you can BUY them on a MacBook but not READ them!  Sigh :/

  • by eurotek,

    eurotek eurotek Jul 6, 2012 4:15 PM in response to Sleeptite
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 6, 2012 4:15 PM in response to Sleeptite

    just get a bookreader from app store.enjoy

  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Jul 6, 2012 4:17 PM in response to eurotek
    Level 9 (79,555 points)
    Jul 6, 2012 4:17 PM in response to eurotek

    eurotek wrote:

     

    just get a bookreader from app store.enjoy

     

    There isn't any "bookreader" for OS X than can open DRM'd paid-for books from the iBookstore.  That is why this thread exists.

  • by slmUSA,

    slmUSA slmUSA Jul 9, 2012 5:25 PM in response to eurotek
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 9, 2012 5:25 PM in response to eurotek

    What Tom Gewecke said.   Thanks, Tom.

  • by Garry Mueller,

    Garry Mueller Garry Mueller Jul 16, 2012 12:29 AM in response to Sleeptite
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jul 16, 2012 12:29 AM in response to Sleeptite

    Thanks for this post everyone. I now know that Apple doesn't support reading of DRM iBooks on a Mac.

     

    Well Apple, if you are reading, I am studying and the ability to read purchased textbooks on my Mac as well as my iOS devices is very important to me. Therefore I will be buying my e-textbooks from Amazon and using the Kindle App which syncs across iOS devices and Macs. Noting that Amazon is in most cases the same price as iBooks for purchases. Lost sale to Apple. Amazon wins. So do I. Shame because I really value Apple's products, especially when "things" work seamlessly across all of its devices.

     

    NB: What is interesting is that iTunes seems to download the full DRM book file to my Mac, even though my iOS devices get the book through iCloud. Why would Apple bother with having the Mac download the whole DRM book file if I can't read it in my Mac?

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