November 5, 2012

The new iBooks puts your whole library on your bookshelf and delivers free updates.

Now with iBooks 3 on devices running iOS 6, iCloud stores every title you've purchased from the iBookstore, no matter which device you bought it on, and displays them all on your bookshelf so you can put any of them on the device you're holding, with a tap. If they're in the collection you're viewing but not on the device you're using, a small cloud icon will appear next to the title, and a tap will download the book. To view all your purchased books at once, tap the Collections button at the top (or Books on iPhone, iPod touch), and then Purchased Books. You can use the Shelf/List buttons to the right of Search to switch to List view and then use the buttons on the bottom to sort the list to help you find what you're looking for. iBooks 3 also supports free updates from publishers, taking advantage of the extra possibilities that digital format offers. Textbook authors and publishers are particularly enthusiastic supporters. (For example, see E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth and Frankenweenie, available for free.) And if you're interested in creating the kind of interactive books that iBooks 3 can offer to readers, get iBooks Author from the Mac App Store for free.