I know this topic has been touched on before, I’m trying to see if anyone has a workflow for unifying (for lack of a better word) Kindle content and Books content and make it all readable on one iPadOS app. I’m getting tired of having to remember where this book or that book lives, and getting it wrong half of the time.
If you are asking about reading non-DRM protected mobi and ePub files on your iPad there are several apps in the App Store. If you are asking about books you purchased from Amazon and Apple then the answer AFAIK is no. Both are protected by DRM.
I’m not trying to be a smart*ss when I recommend listing all your books in a spreadsheet. It is the quickest solution I know of and the only one that is legal.
If I did this in, say, Numbers, could I then link to each book, in the appropriate reader?
Perhaps using a url scheme, but I have no experience doing that. Maybe @RosemaryOrchard or another automation expert will have an idea. And talk.automators.fm might be a good source for help. Good luck
This may not be exactly what you want but I think is worth mentioning. Check out the app, Calibre at https://calibre-ebook.com/
It is an e-book manager. Free and open source.
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There are plug-ins of questionable legality that one can use in calibre to unify your books, and then I use Marvin on my iPad to download whatever I want to read
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This is why I decided some time ago to only use Amazon and the Kindle app. I found a greater selection and overall better prices on Amazon for books and it keeps things simpler and it is cross platform so I never have to worry about getting to my purchased material.
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In the past year I’ve gone in the opposite direction. I have hundreds of books on Kindle, but now I rarely purchase for Kindle, and buy most books from the Books store. I enjoy the reading experience with Books more than Kindle. I’ve also accumulated a lot of ePubs here and there in the past year, which work better for me on Books.
I have information from a reliable source that Epubor Ultimate works quite well on the Mac for removing DRM from purchased Kindle books, and is far easier to use on current Macs than the calibre plugin, which (I’m told) required an older version of calibre and an older version of the Kindle app for the Mac to work.
I’m not aware of any similar tool for removing DRM from books purchased from the iOS Books application, so I would recommend trying out Epubor. One minor bit of caution: it is not a pretty app, but it does work. I’m told.
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I too prefer the reading experience in Books but, and I may be missing this, I don’t think Books has the ability to download highlights and notes like one can on Amazon. I use this feature all the time to import all of my notes and annotations into DEVONthink. Have I missed this feature in Books?
The Calibre plugin does indeed require an older version of Calibre.
I can’t speak to the Mac app, but the plugin works fine with the SN of an e-ink Kindle.
“which (I’m told) required an older version of calibre and an older version of the Kindle app for the Mac to work.”
I assume we are still talking about Kindle books. There is a version 7 of the plugin, which works hunky dory with Calibre 5… so I’m told…
You can export all notes/highlights by sending a consolidated list to yourself via Mail. See here for info
Or, notes can be shared one-by-one to other apps.
So — possible but not pleasant.
For the most part I agree, but Apple developer documentation is essential for me and it’s only available in Books AFAIK.
I chose Amazon and the Kindle for some of the same reasons. A larger selection of books, the ability to loan and/or borrow books from friends, more integration with 3rd party apps, etc.
But the main reason is the Kindle is cross platform. My library cost more than my Apple devices and if my requirements should change I don’t want everything locked in Apple’s garden.
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Good for folks to know! I just checked, and it appears to be a pre-release version. It looks like there are a couple of nice new features in Calibre 5, so those who use it for purposes beyond book storage/cataloguing will no doubt be pleased about the new version.
Amazon’s garden is safer?
I suspect that Amazon’s garden is “safer” at least in the sense that:
- it’s a core part of their business
- they are less likely to wake up one day and decide to get out of the ebook business than Apple
- they have apps for platforms beyond what they own
- “let’s put the Kindle app on more devices because it’ll sell more books” seems like it’ll get a better response than “Let’s try to put the Apple Book Store on other devices because maybe it’ll sell more books?” (See also: cross-platform iMessage)
I can’t speak fir @WayneG but I would say yes in so far as the Kindle app works cross platforms whereas Apple’s is locked within the Apple’s ecosystem. I am completely in the Apple system but I want my books to be as portable as possible. The same goes for my files, which increasingly are in markdown.
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