Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"Another promising sign for e-books. The electronic version of a recently-released mystery novel outsold the hardcover version, according to the publisher, HarperCollins.

The thriller by Laura Lippman, "I'd Know You Anywhere," which hit bookstands Aug. 17 sold 4,739 e-books versus 4,000 hardcover versions during the first five days the title was available. However, there's no mystery why e-book sales are edging out physical book purchases."

No surprise that eBook sales are in ascent, despite the somewhat misleading title of the referenced article. Harper Collins has seen their eBook sales double in the last year, (but) today comprising (only) about 8 percent of their sales. Why, you may ask? One theory: A positive review gets posted online, and readers are immediately able to buy (acquire/download) the book online, 24x7, at a variety of sources. No more waiting for the bookstore to open at 10am tomorrow. No more "out of stock." Regardless of the platform, the book is often immediately available online, whether you're using a Kindle (number one!), a Nook, a Sony Reader, something else, or an iBooks-capable device. Instant gratification. In an attempt to appease print publishers losing revenue over sales of eBooks, Apple has offered to add iAds to books sold by Apple, but this idea has been rejected by publishers - so far. I'm a pretty avid reader, and I try to find new books online before browsing the bookshelves in bricks-and-mortar stores, but I don't think that eBooks will overtake printed books until a eBook reader arrives on the scene that is affordable to everyone. What do you believe is a realistic price point for "the eReader for the rest of us?" $29? $49? $99?

"A beautiful high-resolution illustrated edition of Tips and Tricks - iPad Secrets is now available as an iBook to download through the iBooks store. Featuring over 80 great illustrated tips, it utilizes the iBooks reader to provide a brilliant reading experience to learn all about the iPad. With over 3 million iPads sold, this is the perfect companion to the iPad."

It looks like a pretty handy book to have on your iPad if your unfamiliar with how iOS and the iPad work. And it's pretty hard to beat the price. It's available for $1.99 in the iBook store and it is available internationally.

"Reading on an iPad is better than a Kindle, a study by Nielsen Norman has found."

image credit: iPhone App Freelancer

An interesting study found that reading on an iPad was faster than on a Kindle, but both were slower than reading from paper. The iPad beat the Kindle in usability, with more clearly defined fonts, and an easier to understand page marker. In an enjoyability scale, the iPad won, followed by the Kindle, with traditional books last. Interesting but odd mixture of quantitative and qualitative statistics, with no indication of sample size or how the study was conducted. I prefer reading on the iPad over the Kindle, but still find that I'm still reading a lot of paper books.

"Most iPhone and iPod touch users are likely on a downloading binge today. Not only has iOS 4 been released, but tons of apps have been receiving multitasking updates, and now Apple has released an update to iBooks that adds universal support, among the many other new features."

So what are those new features?

Read more...