App of the Week, iBooks

This week’s App of the Week is iBooks.

Description: This app came with the download of the new iPhone OS 4, but if you have not uploaded the new OS, you should!  You can also go to the app store and download this one for free.  This app allows you to read books and more on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad anytime.

Cost: Free

Directions:

1. Download the application from the App Store.
2. Once you have downloaded the app, open it.
3. When you first open the app it will show you your “library”, where your books are located once they are downloaded from the bookstore.  It should automatically put the Winnie-the-poo on your iPhone, but if it does not go to step 4 for downloading books.
4. Tap on the “store” tab at the top right, select the book you want to download.  At the bottom you will notice tabs: Featured, Charts, Browse, Search, Purchases.  Featured is a bit self explainitory, this is the list of iBooks featured books.  Charts has two different types, the New Your Times Best Sellers and the iBooks top paid and top free. If you have an artist in mind, you can find their name in the Browse tab.  You can also search by categories.  The search tab is where you go if you know the name of the book you want to download and just start typing it and tap search.  The last tab is the Purchases and if you have two devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod, or combination of any) it will show you all of the items you have downloaded with your iTunes account.  For example, I downloaded some iBooks to my iPad and then went to the Purchases on my iPhone and it sows that I have them already, but it also has a tab next to it that says “redownload”.  This is handy if you are reading on your iPhone and want to switch to an iPad or iPod later.  Once you are done, you can go back to your library any time by taping on the Library tab at the top right.
5. Now that you have at least one book in your library, to read it, tap on the book on the shelf and it will open.  To turn the page, slide your finger from the right to the left side of the screen.  If you want to go back a page slide it the opposite way.  So if the print is too small, want to change the font size, book mark something, see the page number, go back to the library, view the table of contents, change the brightness, or search the book, just tap on anywhere on the page and you will see the menu.  Ok, so at the bottom it will now show you the page number you are on and how many are in the book.  Then at the top, from left to right is the library button, then the table of contents button.  About the top middle is the brightness button that will allow you to adjust the screen while reading.  Next you will see “aA” and that is for adjusting the font size, font type and turn on or off sepia.  Tap on the larger or smaller letters to change the size respectively and then select the font you prefer.  The sepia is nice for not having a pure white and black contrast, instead it will be a cream or off white color with more of brown type.  The last two at the top right are the magnifying glass which allows you to search the book for key words to find where they are referenced.  It also allows for searching Google and Wikipedia.  Last but not least is the bookmark.  When you tap on this, the red bookmark will come down over the corner of the page and then you can come back to your bookmarks by going to the contents page and then it will display a “bookmarks” tab so you can see each one that you placed in the book.  Tap on the screen again to remove the menu and go back to reading.
6. Back in the Library, you will notice a few things.  You have two different view options.  The default one looks like a wooden bookshelf, but if you prefer to view it based on a list, then tap on the 3 lines at the top of the bookshelf next to the search.  The 4 squares will take you back to the bookshelf view.  Tap on the “search” to find a particular book if you have more than you can see.  You can also remove a book by taping on the edit button and then the X by the book and it will delete it.
7. OK, here is the cool part that many of us have been waiting for!!  With the new iBooks, if you are in your email and a file is sent to you, now you can save it!!  To try this out, go into your email and find one with an attachment.  View the attachment and then you will see at the top right, “Open in…” and when you tap on it, it will give your the options based on the applications that you have on your iPhone, iPad or iPod.  I have documents to go and so it gives me two options, iBooks or Docs to Go.  Select iBooks and it will put it in your library under “PDF’s”.  The nice thing is that it will say in your iBooks until you delete it.  So now you can keep a contract on your iPhone and review it anytime during the transaction and then delete it when it is complete.  Or a party invitation or directions someone sent you.  There are many uses for this option.  Once you have at least one PDF, it will now show a tab in the middle for Books/PDF’s.

Options:

• When you are ready to delete your PDF’s, you can tap the edit button and then the X next to the document you want to remove.
• The Search button on the library only searches the titles, it does not search in each book.