Q: How Can I Read iBooks on my Laptop?

cath123,

cath123 wrote:

 

So how do your remove the DRM?

Be careful! If you remove DRM on copyrighted materials, you may not realize what you are getting into - this smell trouble BIG TIME. Please do not even think about it. Bad idea! That said, please respect copyrighted materials by any means.

The Amazon Kindle format does have readers for laptops etc but most of the good books only work on the Kindle reader.  So there is no good answer for reading DRM books at this point -- if I want to read an ebook I already bought on my laptop it seems that bittorrent is the only solution and laws may need to be violated.  Isn't corporate America wonderful?

Scott

scottfrsmith wrote:

 

but most of the good books only work on the Kindle reader. 

Could you elaborate on what you mean by that and give an example? I've never seen anyone else complain that they could read what they want on their laptop via either Kindle or Nook or Kobo or Googlebooks.

Tom, I just launched the Kindle reader for Mac and tried to open my already-purchased Kindle copy of Steve Jobs' bio.  It gave a cryptic error ("The book could not be opened. Please remove the book from your device and redownload it.").  I then tried to download my free Anna Karenina and it opened fine.  Then I bought a new 99 cent book and even that would not read on my Mac.  The "free preview" all ran fine however.  It is clear the DRM is getting in the way.

They used to have a list of what platforms each book would work on but they don't seem to have that any more.

Scott

I was just able to download 4 already purchased best sellers and read them with no problem via Kindle.app.  Is that what you are using for the Jobs Book?  Or the Cloud Reader?

What is the 99 cent book that would not read -- I will see if I can duplicate.

Tom I Googled that error message and someone suggested to deregister and re-register my amazon account in Kindle.app.  Now I can read the books!

So it looks like Amazon changed their policy in the last year or so to allow their books to be read on any platform with a Kindle reader.  Until recently I had no Kindle and was trying to use their Mac reader but found almost no content for it.  The Android reader had the same problem.  I will have to see if my phone Kindle app now works as well, that would be doubly awesome!

For those keeping score:

Amazon 1

Apple 0

Now I'm even more happy I have resisted getting any iOS devices.  And this after around 30 years of being in the Apple camp, from the days of the Apple I.  The only way to avoid the ramifactions of Apples policies is to exit their ecosphere - used iPads and iPhones are getting really good prices on eBay so its not hard to do so.

Scott

PS I just checked and Jobs' bio is also working fine on my Android Kindle reader.   Amazon 2 Apple 0.

What is the point of purchasing iBooks if they can" be read on my IMac?  Reading them on my phone is lame.

I was wondering the same thing glad I read this thread all very helpful. Thanks

So, only on a Mac can I use iBooks Author to create ibooks in the new .iba format, and only on iPad can I read them.  Apple says iBooks is amazing, and uses the same word to describe the authoring app.  I have to say I am amazed at these incompatibilities.

I downloaded Adobe Digital Editions and it will open iBooks I have in my iTunes library because they are in the ePub format. It works just fine on my PC with Windows XP. I just open ADE and then navigate to where the epub files are located on my computer.

kdlonghorn85 wrote:

 

I downloaded Adobe Digital Editions and it will open iBooks I have in my iTunes library because they are in the ePub format.

ADE only open free books and others with no DRM.  It will not open best sellers and other paid-for books from the iBookstore that have DRM.  That is what most people want to do and that is what this thread is about.

It is important not to mislead people about this.  If they buy a best seller from the iBookstore and think they can read it with ADE, they will find it does not work and will have to buy it again from another store to read it on their PC.

You are very fortunate that you can open those ibooks. I don't get  it.

I downloaded Adobe Digital Editions and it will NOT open the 2 epub books that I have in my iTunes library.

I have iMac i7 OS 10.6.8. I've tried and tried to open two free books: "The Beatles Yellow Submarine", and "Winnie the Pooh" epub books on my iMac using ADE, but to no avail.

In iTunes, the info  says "Kind: Protected book". It says it is an epub, but I cannot open it on my iMac. Maybe I can only open it on iOS device.

JaneTeis wrote:

 

Maybe I can only open it on iOS device.

That is correct, you must use the iBooks app, only available for iOS to read DRM protected books.

Various people post here that they can read their books using Adobe Digital Editions or Calibre on their Mac or PC, but they don't seem to be aware that it only works for unprotected (normally free) ibooks and thus is not what most users are looking for.

There is a new reader app for Mac OS -- Bookle -- that you can read about here:

http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2012/02/bookle-epub-reader-for-mac.html

She discusses some of what it does/does not handle, plus some useful links.  Also, a hint that there might be an Apple-supplied reader coming.

I have to say this is pretty Lame I will not be purchasing any more books from the Ibook store. I am a person that likes to have a back up of something incase something false take for example what if ipad gets stolen (it could happen) now i'm out all of those books that i've just bought. I will stick with my kindle app until Apple comes up with a sultion.