Today Michael and Peter bring you the e-reading experience found on the iPad Mini with Retina. Often, Apple products make fairly solid eBook readers and you can get a sense on how the iBooks app works and get an overview of the bookstore.
The iPad Mini with Retina has one of the highest resolution displays on the market and features a 8.9 inch screen. The extra real estate allows you to fit more text on the screen at any given time. The iBooks app doesn’t come pre-loaded on the iPad, but instead is one of the recommended installs when you fire up the App Store for the first time.
The iBooks app and Apple Bookstore is the only ecosystem found on the iPad that allows you to buy books. Amazon, Kobo, Sony, B&N and hundreds of other retailers do not allow you buy books via their apps. This is attributed to the mandatory percentage Apple takes off the top, out of any in-app purchase. Can you imagine how much extra revenue they would glean if Amazon had to give them 30% of each book purchased?
If you are looking to utilize the second generation iPad Mini as an e-reader to read fiction or non-fiction novels, this video will help decide if it ideal for your circumstances.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.