Bookworms Unite for E-Book Apps

The iPad, as multi-functional as it is, has primarily become a gadget that has a specific purpose for most of its owners.  For most, it allows them to surf the net in the absence of their laptops.  Some use it specifically for FaceTime, a built-in app that allows fellow iPad owners to virtually chat while seeing each other.  There are those who heavily use their iPads to store and share their pictures and videos in real time.  Of course, there are those who use the iPad primarily as an electronic reader.  While there are manufacturers of gadgets that specifically function as e-book readers like Amazon (Kindle), Barnes and Noble (Nook), and Kobo, among others, there are solid Apple fans who are willing to sell old iPads just to stay updated with the features and apps that will enhance their experience of reading through their iPads.

Electronic books or e-books these days have become a must-have for bookworms.  While there are those traditionalist who insist that e-books do not give people the experience actual books provide, more practical users don’t mind missing out on these pleasures, as they claim reading e-books through an iPad has benefits that outweigh the cons.  For one, you can carry thousands of books with you on your iPad, whereas carrying the same number of actual books would be impossible, unless you want to break your back or look crazy lugging along thousands of books.  Moreover, many people claim they read an e-book faster than an actual book.  Lastly, downloading bootleg e-books, albeit illegally, makes it cheaper to amass a library rather than buying books.

So, should you sell broken iPad to have the new iPad that features the Retina Display for clearer text?  For e-book fans, the answer is yes; especially since the iBooks app of the iPad has been given a facelift and more features to delight any reader.  What’s great is that iBooks recognizes a number of e-book file types, including PDF and epub.

Amazon also has a free app called Kindle, which you can install in your iPad.  It has a larger collection of books, which is about 700,000 and growing.  This app allows you to see the highlighted texts of other people.  It also has a two-page layout when the iPad is placed horizontally.   The downside of Kindle is that it does not recognize the rather popular epub e-book format.  It also does not open PDF files.

The Nook, Barnes and Noble’s free app, boasts of having the largest collection of books among the three.  Most of the books available here are those that are already out of print.    The nice thing about the Nook is that it allows you to borrow and lend titles to other Nook users for two weeks at a time.  The drawback here is that it is quite slow when loading the pages and the horizontal view does not work at times. 

With the temptation of owning thousands of titles and bringing them anywhere you want, e-books have certainly taken the reading world by storm.  You certainly won’t regret it if you decide to sell your iPad for the new model so you can experience the difference.