14. Staying Informed Using the iBooks and Newsstand Apps

In This Chapter

• Find, purchase, download and read eBooks on your iPad

• Read digital editions of newspapers and magazines on your iPad

• Use the iBooks app to view PDF files

By downloading the free iBooks 2 app from the App Store (which replaces the original iBooks app and offers more features), you can transform your iPad into a powerful eBook reader, purchase eBooks from Apple’s online-based iBookstore, and view PDF files imported into your tablet.

However, if you already have an eBook reader, such as Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes & Noble’s NOOK, in addition to the iBooks app, you can download the free Kindle or NOOK app from the App Store. Using one of these other eBook reader apps, you can then download and read eBooks formatted for the Kindle or NOOK, respectively. You also can access your personal library of eBooks that you’ve already acquired for your other eBook reader without having to repurchase them.

Each eBook reader, such as the iPad, Kindle, or NOOK, formats eBook files differently and features a different interface for reading eBooks. In addition, each of the different online-based eBook stores offers a different selection of eBooks titles and charges different prices to purchase eBooks. What’s available from Apple’s own iBookstore via the iBooks app is only one option when it comes to shopping for, purchasing, and adding eBooks to your iPad.

Regardless of which eBook reader you use with your iPad, you have access to millions of eBook titles published by the world’s leading publishers. You also have access to electronically published works from self-published authors, as well as free eBook content that’s in the public domain. Chapter 17, “Creating and Distributing Content on the iPad,” covers how you can use the free iBooks Author software on a Mac to create and distribute your own eBook content for the iPad.

Selecting and Downloading eBooks

The free iBooks 2 app has two distinct, but related, purposes. It serves as a conduit for accessing Apple’s online-based iBookstore, from which you can find, purchase, and download eBooks from publishers, as well as download free eBooks that are in the public domain.

After you have used iBooks to load eBook content onto your iPad, this same app is used to read eBooks (see Figure 14.1) using a customizable user interface that enables you to personalize how the pages of your eBook appear on the screen.

Figure 14.1. As you read a text-based eBook, your iPad’s screen will look like the pages of a traditionally printed hardcover or paperback book. However, you can adjust the appearance of the text on the screen, making it larger or smaller, for example.

iBooks 2 offers the ability to view enhanced interactive eBooks, which can include text, photos, animated graphics, audio and other interactive elements. Textbooks, children’s books, cookbooks, and photo books are among the types of books that offer the enhanced, multi-touch reading experience available exclusively on an iPad.

Accessing the iBookstore

From the main iBooks Library screen, which looks like a virtual bookshelf (see Figure 14.2), tap the Store icon near the upper-left corner of the screen to access the online-based iBookstore.

Figure 14.2. The main Library screen of iBooks. From here, you can access iBookstore or read an eBook by tapping its cover graphic.

Your tablet must have access to the Internet to find, download, and purchase eBooks from iBookstore. However, you don’t need Internet access to read eBooks after you’ve loaded them into your iPad.

After you access iBookstore, at the bottom of the screen are six command icons. They’re labeled Featured, NY Times, Top Charts, Categories, Browse, and Purchased. These six buttons, the Search field, the Library button in the upper-left corner of the screen, and the Featured and Release Date tabs enable you to quickly search the iBookstore’s multimillion title eBook selection to find exactly what you are looking for.

Here’s a rundown of how you can use these iBookstore command buttons and tabs:

• Featured: Titles in this category are eBooks featured by Apple that include new titles by best-selling authors. When you select this search option, you see two tabs near the top center of the screen: Featured and Release Date. When you select the Featured tab a listing of Apple-recommended eBook titles displays. When you select the Release Date tab, the recommended eBooks are sorted based on their release date, with the newest eBooks listed first.

• NY Times: Taken from the weekly New York Times bestsellers list, these are the books from the newspaper’s Fiction and Non-Fiction lists that are available in eBook form from iBookstore. Keep in mind that not all books that appear on the published New York Times bestseller lists are available in eBook form or are sold through Apple’s iBookstore.

• Top Charts: Based on sales of eBooks through iBookstore, the Top Charts category lists the current most popular titles. Here, you find a master list of popular books from all categories, plus individual Top Charts lists within specific categories, such as Business & Personal Finance, Fiction & Literature, Professional & Technical, and Reference. These lists change frequently.

• Categories: iBookstore sorts its eBook offerings into 25 categories, such as Arts & Entertainment, Fiction & Literature, Computers & Internet, and Reference to make browsing for books about a specific topic easier.

• Browse: This search feature enables you to find eBook titles based on keywords, an author’s name, a publisher, a subject matter, or other search criteria.

• Purchased: iBookstore automatically keeps track of all your eBook purchases and downloads. Thus, if you delete an eBook from your tablet’s internal storage, you can download it again later at no charge. All of your online purchases are tracked by iBookstore and also stored on iCloud, so you never have to worry about accidentally purchasing the same eBook twice. An eBook purchased from iBookstore becomes readable on all of your iOS devices.

Understanding iBookstore’s eBook Listings

While browsing iBookstore, you see individual eBook listings for titles that relate to what you are looking for. As you can see in Figure 14.3, a typical eBook listing includes a graphic of the eBook’s cover, along with its title, author, category, star-based rating, and price icon.

Figure 14.3. An eBook listing offers a quick summary of a book title. As you’re browsing iBookstore, you can simultaneously view many eBook listings.

Tap a book’s title or cover artwork to access a detailed description of that eBook, which includes the capability to download and read a free sample of most eBook titles. Alternatively, to quickly purchase and download an eBook, tap the Price button within its listing or its Description window. When you tap a Price button, it changes to a Purchase button.

As soon as an eBook is downloaded and ready to read, the book’s front cover artwork displays as part of the iBook app’s Library screen.

Reviewing eBook Descriptions

When you’re looking at an eBook listing, if you tap the book’s title or cover thumbnail image, a new and detailed eBook Description screen is displayed. This screen is divided into several sections.

For example, there’s a Get Sample button, which you can tap to download a free sample of the eBook. Below the cover thumbnail is the eBook’s Price button. Tap this button to purchase the book and download it.

The Description screen also displays the eBook’s star-based rating. Here, you can view an overall average rating for the eBook. Five stars is the highest rating possible. Scroll down the Description window to read reviews written by others who have purchased, downloaded, and presumably read the eBook.

Customizing iBooks Settings

From the Library screen of iBooks, tap a book cover thumbnail to open that eBook and start reading it. While you’re reading most eBooks, you can hold the iPad in portrait or landscape mode. If you’re reading a digital edition of a traditional paperback or hardcover book your reading experience is more authentic if you hold the iPad in portrait mode (vertically).

As you’re reading an eBook, tap once anywhere on the screen to make the various command icons, buttons, and options appear. The Library button is displayed near the upper-left corner of the screen. Tap it to return to iBook’s Library screen.

To the right of the Library button is the Table of Contents button (shown in Figure 14.4). Tap it to display an interactive Table of Contents for the eBook you’re reading.

Figure 14.4. The Table of Contents screen for every eBook is interactive. Tap the chapter number or chapter title to jump to the appropriate page.

As you’re looking at a Table of Contents, tap any chapter number or title to immediately jump to that location in the book. Alternatively, tap the Bookmarks button to see a list of bookmarks you have previously saved as you were reading that eBook. You’ll find out how to set a bookmark later in this section.

As you’re reading an eBook, you’ll notice several additional command buttons and options near the upper-right corner of the screen. Shown in Figure 14.5, tap the aA icon to adjust the screen brightness, change the font size of the text displayed on the screen, change the font used to display the text, or switch between the Normal, Sepia, and Night visual themes (shown in Figure 14.6). You can also turn on Full Screen mode to fully utilize the iPad’s screen while you’re reading, and remove the clutter created by the various command icons.

Figure 14.5. The aA command icon offers a menu that allows you to fully customize the appearance of an eBook’s text on the iPad’s screen.

Figure 14.6. Themes are a relatively new feature added to the iBooks 2 app. With a touch of an icon, you can change the appearance of an eBook’s text.

Also displayed near the top-right corner of the screen is a magnifying glass icon. Tap this to access a Search field and quickly locate any keyword or search phrase that appears in the eBook you are currently reading.

The Bookmark button is located near the extreme upper-right corner of the iBooks screen. When you tap this button, you add a red bookmark to the page you’re reading. Any time you exit out of iBooks, the page number you’re currently on is automatically saved, so when you return to reading the eBook later, you can immediately pick up where you left off. However, adding a red bookmark to a page also stores that page. You can later access your list of saved bookmarks from the Table of Contents page, so you can instantly jump to any bookmarked page to refer to it.

Displayed near the bottom center of the screen is the page number in the eBook you’re currently reading, as well as the total number of pages in the eBook. The number of pages remaining in the current chapter is displayed to the right of the page number.

As you’re reading, hold your finger on any single word (shown in Figure 14.7) to look up its definition instantly, begin highlighting text, add a note to the margin, or search the text for a specific keyword or phrase.

Figure 14.7. Hold your finger briefly on a word to make a pop-up menu appear that includes the Define, Highlight, Note, and Search commands.

If you tap the Highlight command that appears after holding your finder on a word, you’ll be able to select surrounding text and choose from five highlight colors. You can also underline text in red.

Or, if you tap on the Note command, a pop-up sticky note window displays along with the virtual keyboard. You can then enter notes that will be saved within the text, allowing you to refer back to them later.

Reading PDF Files Using the iBooks App

In addition to reading eBooks, you can use the iBooks 2 app to read (not edit or annotate) PDF files you download or transfer to your iPad. This can include a wide range of business-related documents that vary in length from a single page to a book-length manuscript.

When you receive an email with a PDF file as an attachment, tap and hold your finger on the email’s PDF file attachment thumbnail for a few seconds to download and open it.

When a menu window appears, you have several options that depend on which PDF reader apps you have installed on your iPad. In Figure 14.8, the available options are Quick Look, Open in “iBooks,” and Open In. If you also have other PDF reader apps installed on your iPad, such as Evernote, PDFpen, or GoodReader for iPad, those apps are listed here as well because you can use them to open and read (as well as edit or annotate) PDF files.

Figure 14.8. From the Mail app, you can open and read a PDF file that is an attachment in an incoming email using the iBooks app.

Quick Look enables you to view a PDF document on your iPad’s screen. Using the buttons in the upper-right corner of the document preview window, you can then open the PDF file in iBooks, or print the file if you have your iPad configured to work with a wireless printer.

The Open in iBooks command automatically launches the iBooks 2 app and enables you to read the PDF document as if you’re reading an eBook you downloaded from iBookstore.

When a PDF file opens in iBooks 2, you see command buttons along the top of the screen and small thumbnails of the PDF document’s pages displayed along the bottom of the screen.

Tap the Library button to return to iBook’s main Library screen. Notice when you do this that the Library displays all the PDF files stored on your iPad, not only eBooks you downloaded from iBookstore. To access your eBooks, tap the Collections button in the upper-left corner of the iBooks Library screen, and tap the Books option.

As you’re viewing a PDF file from within iBooks, next to the Library button is the Table of Contents button. Tap it to display larger thumbnails of each page in your PDF document, and then tap any of the thumbnails to jump to that page. Alternatively, tap the Resume button to return to the main view of your PDF file.

Reading Newspapers and Magazines on Your iPad

Many local, regional, and national newspapers, as well as popular consumer and industry-oriented magazines, are now available in digital form and accessible from your iPad via the Newsstand app that comes preinstalled with iOS 5.1 (or later).

Working with the Newsstand App

Not to be confused with the iBooks app (which is used for finding, purchasing, downloading, and reading eBooks), the Newsstand app is used to manage and access all of your digital newspaper and magazine subscriptions in one place. However, the iBooks and Newsstand apps have a similar user interface, so after you learn how to use one, you’ll have no trouble using the other.

After you launch Newsstand (shown in Figure 14.9), tap the Store icon and browse through the ever-growing selection of digital newspapers and magazines that are available for the iPad. With the tap of an icon, you can subscribe to any publication, or in some instances, purchase a single current or back issue.

Figure 14.9. The main Newsstand screen displays thumbnails for all newspaper and magazine issues currently stored on your iPad.

All purchases you make are automatically billed to the credit card you have on file with your Apple ID account, or you can pay using iTunes gift cards.

After you purchase a digital newspaper or magazine subscription (or a single issue of a publication), it appears on your Newsstand shelf in the Newsstand app. Tap the publication’s cover thumbnail to access the available issue(s).

If you’ve subscribed to a digital publication, Newsstand automatically downloads the most current issue as soon as it’s published (assuming your tablet has a Wi-Fi Internet connection available), so when you wake your tablet from Sleep Mode each morning, the latest edition of your favorite newspaper can be waiting for you.

A Home screen icon badge and the Notification Center notify you immediately whenever a new issue of a digital publication is automatically downloaded to your iPad and is ready for reading. When you access Newsstand, you also see a thumbnail of that publication’s cover on the main Newsstand shelf screen.

Although most digital publications allow you to view the newspaper or magazine’s content from within the Newsstand app, some digital publications are designed to be more interactive and have their own proprietary app. You can still find these publications using the Newsstand app (or the App Store app), however, you are prompted to download and install the proprietary app in order to view a publication’s content.

Reading Publications Using Newsstand

Every publisher utilizes the iPad’s vibrant touch screen in a different way in order to transform a traditionally printed newspaper or magazine into an engaging and interactive reading experience on the tablet. Thus, each publication has its own user interface.

In most cases, a digital edition of a publication faithfully reproduces the printed edition and features the same content. However, you’ll often discover that the digital edition of a publication that’s accessible from your iPad offers bonus content, such as links to websites, video clips, animated slide shows, or interactive elements not offered by the printed edition.

As you’ll discover, reading a digital publication is very much like reading an eBook. Figure 14.10 shows the digital edition of GQ. Use a finger swipe motion to turn the pages, or to scroll up or down on a page. Tap the Table of Contents icon to view an interactive table of contents for each issue of the publication. When viewing some publications, you can also use a reverse pinch, pinch, or double-tap finger motion to zoom in or zoom out on specific content.

Figure 14.10. Each page of GQ magazine’s digital edition looks very much like the printed edition.

Depending on the publisher, you might be able to access past issues of a publication at any given time in addition to the current issue.

Managing Your Newspaper and Magazine Subscriptions

If you opt to subscribe to a digital publication, you often need to select a duration for your subscription, such as one year. However, almost all digital subscriptions acquired through the Newsstand app are auto-renewing. Thus, when the subscription ends, unless you manually cancel it, Newsstand automatically renews your subscription and bills your credit card accordingly.

To manage your recurring subscriptions, launch the Newsstand app and tap the Store icon. From the Newsstand store, tap the Featured command icon near the bottom of the screen. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap the Apple ID icon. When prompted, enter your Apple ID password.

Next, from the Account Settings window that appears (shown in Figure 14.11), tap the Manage icon displayed under the Subscriptions heading. Displayed on the Subscriptions screen is a listing of all publications you’ve subscribed to. Tap any publication’s listing to see the expiration date of your subscription, to cancel a subscription, or to renew your subscription.

Figure 14.11. From within the Newsstand app, you can manage your subscriptions as long as your iPad has access to the Internet.