Apple has released its iBooks application for download, ahead of Saturday’s official launch of the Cupertino, Calif. company’s iPad tablet device. The application, which allows iPad users to read e-books as well as purchase titles from the iBookstore, can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.
To get iPad owners started, Apple will include the children’s favorite Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne.
Apple announced the 18.1MB download as “an amazing way to download and read books, designed exclusively for iPad.” “iBooks includes the iBookstore,” where you can download the latest best-selling books or your favorite classics — day or night,” the company said.
The iBooks application supports the ePub format, allowing iPad owners to download out-of-copyright titles.
iBook’s features include the ability to :
Because iBooks is not pre-installed on iPads, owners of the new device can choose to use Apple’s app, or an e-reading application from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
[via AppleInsider]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
