AppleInsider Staff
Just hours after Apple announced iBooks 3.0 at its special iPad mini event on Tuesday, the company has made the app available for download, bringing a number of new features to the iOS e-reader.
Among the most notable updates to come with version 3.0 is the new scrolling feature that displays content in a modified unpaginated layout, allowing users to navigate by "flicking" up and down through text. The endless scrolling lets readers quickly jump forward and back, and removes the restriction of having to wait for page turn animations.
Also added to the iBooks is the ability to view all previous iBookstore purchases from the bookshelf, a feature much like the purchase history seen in the iOS version of iTunes.
From the release notes:
Introducing iBooks 3
- See all your iBookstore purchases in iCloud—right on your bookshelf with iOS 6
- Scroll vertically through your books with the flick of a finger using the new Scroll theme
- Receive free updates to purchased books—including new chapters, corrections, and other improvements
- Look up definitions for words in German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese with iOS 6
- Share quotes or thoughts about your favorite book with friends on Facebook, Twitter, Messages, or Mail
Apple's iBooks 3.0 weighs in at 40.8MB and can be downloaded for free through the iOS App Store.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
21 Comments
I'll sure appreciate the scrolling theme.
Tested it. Other than using it for Technical Books its not something I like for leisure reading.
[quote name="mdriftmeyer" url="/t/153708/ibooks-3-0-now-available-adds-icloud-purchase-support-scrolling-theme#post_2217934"]Tested it. Other than using it for Technical Books its not something I like for leisure reading.[/quote] I've been wanting this feature for a long time. The page turning is one of the few software-based skeuomorphs that seems to be universally liked but I hope I can find the utility of being to scroll test and not lose my place as I read.
Gauging from the amount of posts regarding iBooks and iBooks Author this is certainly not a hot topic, If it was supposed to be a focus of the presentations as billed it would have earned more than the 15 seconds of the session. iBooks ubiquity is unfortunately still a very distant possibility.
[quote name="mstone" url="/t/153708/ibooks-3-0-now-available-adds-icloud-purchase-support-scrolling-theme#post_2217973"]Gauging from the amount of posts regarding iBooks and iBooks Author this is certainly not a hot topic, If it was supposed to be a focus of the presentations as billed it would have earned more than the 15 seconds of the session. iBooks ubiquity is unfortunately still a very distant possibility. [/quote] Yeah, would have been nice to see some more effort to buoy this segment of the market, including a way to read iBooks on a Mac. Can you even demo the iBooks you make on a Mac or do you still have to sync them to an iDevice to see how they turn out?