how can i read ibooks on my mac

First off, I completely and utterly agree with the general consensus here that Apple really needs to produce an iBooks app for the Mac (and Windows).

I have never bought any books from the iBookstore and never plan to because of DRM. I choose not to support DRM if at all possible. I absolutely despise DRM restricted content. Back when Amazon started offering DRM free MP3s I switched to buying only from them (as did many others, I'm sure), and I think Apple got the message and quickly followed suit. Now practically all of iTunes store music is DRM free, and I have since switched back to buying music from Apple for convenience sake.

So even though my books are DRM free, and I can use Adobe Digital Editions to read my epubs (bought from O'Reilly.com, etc.) I don't really want to because I prefer the features of iBooks. I have an iPad which I use for reading (among other things), and I like how I can highlight text and bookmark pages, and those stay synced to my iPhone as well. It's probably just a matter of time before they add this functionality to the Mac too.

I'm going to head over to: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html and submit my feedback to let them know this is important to me. Since Apple doesn't read these forums, but (presumably) does read their feedback, I ask everyone who has taken the time to post (or read) here, to also go and submit their feedback to Apple.

aquariusrick wrote:

Back when Amazon started offering DRM free MP3s I switched to buying only from them (as did many others, I'm sure), and I think Apple got the message and quickly followed suit.

Bear in mind that DRM itself exists because the publishers demand it, not Apple. Even as an individual, when you put your book in the iBookstore, it is up to you to tell Apple whether you want DRM or not. So getting DRM free content means convincing the major publishers to go that route, like O'Reilly has.

In the case of music, Apple was in fact a strong advocate for DRM-free content:

http://www.apple.com/fr/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

Of course Apple's unwillingness to license its particular DRM scheme to others does mean that nobody can create an app to read DRM'd iBooks on non-iOS platforms.

At ZDNet, the author is of the opinion that Apple may never release a reader for Mac. Read the article here (I guess, if he's right, that puts to rest any questions we have but only puncuates our need to bring this to Apple direct):

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/why-ibooks-will-never-come-to-mac-os/12067

Jules1857 wrote:

At ZDNet, the author is of the opinion that Apple may never release a reader for Mac. Read the article here (I guess, if he's right, that puts to rest any questions we have but only puncuates our need to bring this to Apple direct):

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/why-ibooks-will-never-come-to-mac-os/12067

That's an interesting perspective, but I truly hope (and believe) he's wrong. I think people want to use their devices interchangably (as much as possible, within the limitations of the hardware), and Apple seems to be heading in that direction.

FWIW, as stated in the article, here's why I think Apple WILL release iBooks for Mac:

"Had I purchased my ebook from the iBookstore, I'd have to switch from my production workstation to my iPad each time I wanted to look something up. This kind of workflow is this unpractical, cumbersome and makes researching ebooks on my Mac completely impossible."

I couldn't have said it better myself!

botro wrote:

Too add insult to injury, iBooks 3.0 that was just released does not address this issue of reading DRM pubs on a Mac. Looking into this issue further, it turns out we don't purchase digital books, we license them. Unlike a hard copy we don't own our purchases.

Exactly! Barnes and Noble was recently accused of expiring any ebooks purchased when the credit card with which it was purchased expired. This is a form of planned obsolescence. There was an article on NPR not that long ago regarding this very thing. Students who downloaded textbooks found that the ebooks were expiring as soon as 18 months in. You never really own anything you buy electronically, not like when you had the genuine article in your possesion. Progress,,,huh.

Greetings friends,

There are third party readers such as Calibre where you can read books you bought from itunes.

1. Install Calibre,

2. Find your purchased ebook in your itunes folder (For me its Music>iTunes>iTunes Media>Books>)

3. Right click on the book. Open with Calibre.

Though this comes nowhere close to kindle's synchronized reading where you can switch devices. Hence I strongly recommend buying books off Kindle than rather overpriced iTunes store.

--

Manu Sharma

diabloSharma wrote:

There are third party readers such as Calibre where you can read books you bought from itunes.

Neither Calibre nor any other app will read paid-for ebooks from the iBookstore with DRM (or any .ibooks Textbooks), which is what most people want to do and why these threads exist.

There has never been any problem to read epub ebooks without DRM on your Mac or any other platform.

Tom,

I am afraid you are going to have to have "External readers will not read iBooks content with DRM" tattooed on the inside of some posters' eyelids and I suspect they will still not get it. There are a number of DRM cracking/hacking programs around but they are pretty flaky and many of the download sites will give you a free worm or trojan along with your download, as a special offer, so best avoided.

Particulalry for the student and technical books markets, Apple are really shooting themselves in the foot with this approach and driving folks into the arms of Amazon, Samsung, Microsoft et al. However occasional block headed stupidity arising from arrogance, has never stopped Apple taking an eccentric and obtuse postion in the past (Blu-Ray just for one example) and I doubt if they will change their minds in this case. I had hoped that this was one of the areas that Tim Cook might have shaken the company up but there is no evidence of that to date. In fact with the debacle of "Maps" it seems the opposite may be the case.

Wilson

WilsonLaidlaw wrote:

I am afraid you are going to have to have "External readers will not read iBooks content with DRM" tattooed on the inside of some posters' eyelids and I suspect they will still not get it.

Yes, a surprising number seem to never read DRM books and thus don't understand what the problem is, so they propose the same non-solutions over and over again.

I agree Apple's failure to provide an ibooks app for OS X (or license its DRM to others for that purpose) makes no sense. Anyone in college who is using a iPad instead of a MacBook is probably not studying anything that will provide much in the way of employment after graduation.

Tom,

I totally agree about your comment on studying just with an iPad.

It is like the group of college graduates asked to comment on an object. The engineering graduate asks "how was it made": The science graduate asks "what is the basic theory underlying its operation": The accountancy graduate asks "how cheaply can the object be made": The arts graduate asks "do you want double fries with it".

Wilson

botro wrote:

I don't like the fact that I have multiple iOS6 devices - some for work and some for home and since I use different Apple ID's not only can't I share DRM but I can't share apps I've purchased from my personal iPad to my work iPhone. And I'm not going to purchase an App for each device.

Actually, it's quite easy to share your purchased apps, ibooks, and music with other iOS devices; simply go to settings, scroll down to iTunes & App Stores, click on the Apple ID, and sign out, then sign back in with an Apple ID that you used to purchase the stuff. Works for putting apps on more than one mac, for apps purchased through the mac app store.

I'm guessing here, but could the explanation for this strange gap simply have to do with the technology of unpacking, decrypting, and displaying protected information on the screen? Clearly, at some point between “file containing protected book” and “reading it”, the information has to be decrypted or otherwise unlocked. On OS/X, which of course is a powerful UNIX derivative, a DRM ebook owner with root access would have the maximum of possibilities of trapping the unprotected content and unlocking it. This is much more difficult on iOS devices, or so it seems to me. It's possible that this concession was necessary in order to get publishers to let Apple sell their ebooks, or at least maybe it was part of the negotiations.

greg.shenaut wrote:

I'm guessing here, but could the explanation for this strange gap simply have to do with the technology of unpacking, decrypting, and displaying protected information on the screen? Clearly, at some point between “file containing protected book” and “reading it”, the information has to be decrypted or otherwise unlocked. On OS/X, which of course is a powerful UNIX derivative, a DRM ebook owner with root access would have the maximum of possibilities of trapping the unprotected content and unlocking it. This is much more difficult on iOS devices, or so it seems to me. It's possible that this concession was necessary in order to get publishers to let Apple sell their ebooks, or at least maybe it was part of the negotiations.

I sincerely doubt that's the case. I think the argument about Apple wanting to sell more iPads is more likely.

It's pretty hard for me to imagine that many would buy an iPad just to read iBooks, but it's easy for me to imagine Apple wanting to coax as many publishers as possible to sell their books through the iBookstore. On the other hand, once the idea arose, I'm sure “and maybe we'll sell a few more iPads, too” didn't hurt.

greg.shenaut wrote:

It's pretty hard for me to imagine that many would buy an iPad just to read iBooks, but it's easy for me to imagine Apple wanting to coax as many publishers as possible to sell their books through the iBookstore. On the other hand, once the idea arose, I'm sure “and maybe we'll sell a few more iPads, too” didn't hurt.

Honestly I think it's matter of them not getting around to it yet. I truly believe we will see it within the next year or two.

greg.shenaut wrote:

...a DRM ebook owner with root access would have the maximum of possibilities of trapping the unprotected content and unlocking it.

But not creating iBooks for OSX due to the scenario you described, IMO seems the least likely of all. Just my 2 cents.