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iBooks VS Kindle for iPad

Ever since the iBooks was announced, this is probably the single biggest issue an avid ebook reader will ultimately have to deal with: Kindle app or iBooks. What should you pick? Well, no one can tell you that for certain, but I hope to give you a little insight that might help you decide.

The fundamental difference between iBooks and Kindle for iPad is the Kindle app has a very large ebook selection by comparison. 750,000 ebooks on Kindle and 60,000 books at iBooks launch. To me, this is the differentiating factor. Both applications support landscape view with two columns and a built-in dictionary as well as syncing of bookmarks, highlights and notes.

iBooks VS Kindle for iPad: iBooks

It doesn't come as a surprise that Apple managed to develop the prettier e-reader app. Switching from the iBooks store which looks a lot like the App Store to your bookshelf is done through a nifty animation. Newly downloaded books and samples smoothly slide into the bookshelf and thanks to a faux 3d look and a page-flip animation, the app itself mimics the look and feel of a book. When you click on a book in your shelf, it flips open and zoom to the page you left off.

With regards to customization, iBooks allows its users to change the size of the font, but also the font itself. You can also set the screen brightness right from within any book, which is great for reading at night. As far as we can see, however, you can't switch to white text on a black background.

The iBooks app can also read DRM-free ePub texts. You simply download the e-book to your computer, drag it into iTunes and after your next sync, it will appear in iBooks.

For DRM protection books, you can use ePub DRM Removal software to remove DRM from ePub files with one-click.

iBooks VS Kindle for iPad: iBooks Store

The iBooks store mostly features books between $9.99 and $14.99. There are currently about 30,000 free books in the store and about 60,000 books from most major publishers - though there are still some holdouts. Every book in the store allows you to download a free sample (sometimes more than 50 pages long).

iBooks VS Kindle for iPad: Kindle for iPad

Compared to iBooks, Kindle for iPad feels a bit more pedestrian, as it doesn't feature fancy animations. Pages just slide left and right and instead of two-page view when you flip the iPad to landscape mode, you just get a single page with a very wide layout. The Kindle app also doesn't allow users to customize the font of a book, though it does offer the standard screen brightness and font size settings.

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