How can I read my iBooks on my PC?

Thanks Tom.

I'm familiar with Pages ePub and InDesign having just published a book using both on Lulu. The Pages ePub export worked well. Trying to put a Word file through Lulu's converter was a nightmare.

Interesting to hear that iBooks Author exports PDF, I wonder how that works with the interactive, video and audio content. Best to get a manual for Author and find out. Also interesting to hear about ePub 3, I looked into this briefly but it seems to be a work-in-progress at the moment, we sorely need a better ePub standard though.

Kandy73 wrote:

I just found this hopefully it works. http://www.ipad-to-pc.com/guides/read-ibooks-on-computer.html

Neither that nor any other app will let you read paid-for books from the iBookstore with DRM protection on your Mac or PC, and that is what most people are interested in doing and why these threads exist. There has never been any problem reading epubs without DRM on other platforms.

This is ridiculous. I have just purchased a book intending to read it on i tunes. What the **** is wrong with apple? I have kept away from apple for years because of cross platform compatability issues and this has reinforced my view. have never owned an apple product and never will. a company run by hipsters for the sheep! style over substance.

The only reason I bought it on iTunes is because of the gift cards I keep getting. I dont eve n have any Apple devices. I jusr wanted to readbmy book. But noooooo Apple is so f*cking prissy they wont let me convert it. I mean come on. You will probably get more sales on iTunes if I could convert this sh*t but no. Ypu had to make it freaking impossible. This does not make me want to BUY an Apple device. This makes me want to NEVER USE IOS AGAIN. If anybody from Apple reads this please try to accommodate those of us who actually like our Andriods and PCs.

Thank You

Never put it by a person looking for an exception to a rule, when it is not stated to not exist. In fact, the lack of statement to the contrary will always get hackers trying to find a contrary solution. If it clearly says it isn't supported no way, no how, then people can start focussing on feedback through the appropriate channels, rather than complaining here that it does not exist.

a brody wrote:

people can start focussing on feedback through the appropriate channels,

I doubt there has been any neglect of the feedback channels over the last 3 years that this problem has been discussed here, since that is a frequent recommendation in the half-dozen complaint threads (I count about 700 messages and 700,000 views altogether) which have developed on this topic over that period. But of course more can never hurt. Perhaps the 3rd anniversary of iBooks on March 31 will bring a pleasant surprise in the form of a version for at least OS X....

The ibooks that I've downloaded, some have their 'Kind' as 'Protected books' in my iTunes library, whilst older out-of-copyright books show as 'Purchased books'. I can't see any difference for how they are listed in the store, but I'm assuming that recent/paid-for books are 'protected'.

mreawh wrote:

Are you saying that only some ebooks have DRM from iTunes , if so how do we tell which ones have DRM.?

You can't really tell before buying. Whether a book has DRM is determined by the publisher. You can be sure that all the bestsellers that most people want to buy and read have DRM. O'Reilly and Take Control books definitely do not have DRM. Free books I would not expect to have it.

While I personally feel that purchasing a book does not permit you to redistribute it at your own free will (I am speaking of the collective whole here, and as an issue of morals not copyright law), but purchasing a book SHALL, however, bestow the right to the purchaser to view the aforementioned book on ANY device, in ANY manner, for however long the purchaser wishes. Period. End of Story. (unless of course N.C., USA is code for <enter your favorite oppressive country here>).

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Fah\'rilla Gah\'rilla wrote:

While I personally feel that purchasing a book does not permit you to redistribute it at your own free will (I am speaking of the collective whole here, and as an issue of morals not copyright law), but purchasing a book SHALL, however, bestow the right to the purchaser to view the aforementioned book on ANY device, in ANY manner, for however long the purchaser wishes. Period. End of Story. (unless of course N.C., USA is code for <enter your favorite oppressive country here>).

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You may take whatever moral stance you wish on the issue of distribution of copyright material and use thereof. The FACT is, that most iBooks sold through the iBook store ARE DRM locked to Apple's iBook Reader, and there is nothing illegal in that practice. Apple chooses not to make an iBook Reader App for anything but iOS. Moral stances aside, the FACT is that most iBooks can only be read with the iBook Reader on an iOS device.

This forum exists for pragmatic solutions to technical problems, and in terms of the practical issue of reading ebooks purchased form the Apple iBook Store on a computer or non-Apple mobile device, the answer is, you cannot do so - period.

I think apple with iCloud feature they should be able to create iBooks in the cloud accessed via a web browser similar to kindle cloud reader. https://read.amazon.com/

for the time i am going to stick to amazon, till ibooks in the cloud comes to light.

Plain and simple..

Apple owns the books and lets you read what you purchase. Even though you paid for it doesn't mean you OWN it, obviouly Apple still owns it.

Is this right......no. But Apple rules Apple.

NetNathan wrote:

Plain and simple..

Apple owns the books and lets you read what you purchase. Even though you paid for it doesn't mean you OWN it, obviouly Apple still owns it.

Is this right......no. But Apple rules Apple.

Actually Apple owns the platform and infrastructure; the publisher owns the book.

James Ward4 wrote:

Actually Apple owns the platform and infrastructure; the publisher owns the book.

The publisher forces Apple to use DRM, and Apple determines that its DRM can only be read on an iOS device.

This is not a new thing. For years we have bought items that were not useable on other formats or devices. Think back to when CDs replaced vinyl albums. If you wanted to listen to an old album on a CD player, but you only had it in vinyl, then you had to purchase the album again on CD ... or cassette ... or 8-track. Apple is really just doing the same thing ... they have a device that plays/views items on that device in a specific format. If you want to switch to a different format then you need another device.

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