We’ve been hearing chitter-chatter of late that an update to iBooks is coming that will add “folders” or “collections” as well as being able to print and email PDF files. Tonight 9to5Mac says they have documents from Apple giving more detail to the potentially coming soon features. From 9to5Mac’s post here is what they say they got from a source at Apple:
Create, rename, or delete a collection: Tap Collections to display the collections list. Tap New to add a new collection. To delete a collection tap Edit, then tap and tap Delete. You can’t edit or remove the built-in Books and PDFs collections. To edit the name of a collection, tap its name. When you finish, tap Done.
Move a book or PDF to a collection: Go to the bookshelf and tap Edit. Tap each book or PDF that you want to move so that a checkmark appears, then tap Move and select a collection. An item can be in only one collection at a time. When you add a book or PDF to your bookshelf, it’s put in the Books or PDF collection. From there, you can move it to a different collection. You might want to create collections for work and school, for example, or for reference and leisure reading.
View a collection: Tap Collections, then tap an item in the list that appears.
You can use iBooks to send a copy of a PDF via email, or to print all or a portion of the PDF to a supported printer.
Email a PDF: Open the PDF, then tap and choose Email Document. A new message appears with the PDF attached. Tap Send when you finish addressing and writing your message.
Print a PDF: Open the PDF, then tap and choose Print. Select a printer and the page range and number of copies, then tap Print. For information about supported printers, see “Printing” on page 39.
You can only email or print PDFs. These options aren’t available for ePub books.
Here’s my first question: Does this even matter?
Seriously.
Like a good iPad owner I downloaded and installed iBooks, but I don’t think I’ve bought a single book through it. Sure I’ve loaded a bunch of free books into iBooks as well as a few PDF files, but buy books? Nope, not only is the selection pretty “meh,” but there are much better ebook options out there (especially for Canadians), and I’m not even just talking about Amazon. I really like Kobo because the prices are more in line with what I’d like to pay, it’s in Canadian dollars, and the selection is rather good (yes, Amazon has them beat).
What about iBooks as a PDF reader? I have better options for that already; GoodReader and ReaddleDocs are better and support emailing (even Kobo Reader now supports PDF files) .
It’s good that Apple is keeping iBooks fresh, but I wonder how long it will be before iBooks is taken off the new arrivals shelf and thrown into the discount bin? Though maybe the forthcoming iPad magazine and newspaper could be the salvation to iBooks.
In the meantime, just keep checking those App updates for an update to iBooks.
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