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Entries in iBooks (4)

iBooks: Classic Videogames Hardware 01

Over the next few months we plan to highlight a selection of books that focus on some of the key areas that we often write about here at iPad Creative. All the books we refer to can be found in the iBooks Store right there on your iPad. We'll be sure to provide the appropriate link for each publication, but due to publishing restrictions we can't promise that the book we feature will be available in your country. Sorry.

This week's book is Classic Videogames Hardware 01. 'A collector's guide to history's greatest gaming machines', this 400+ page book features 35 gaming hardware platforms.

Each piece of hardware gets its own chapter that covers the history of the development of the device plus the top 10 games that run on it. We like to think that we know quite a bit about the history of video game hardware, but we learnt something new on almost every page. Would you like to know who were the first non-Nintendo employees to see the legendary Gameboy hardware? Yes, the answer to that and many other intriguing gaming questions can be found among this book's virtual pages.

Like all the books available in the iBook Store you can grab a sample before committing to purchase.

For more articles about the iBooks Store, and books in general check out our iBooks and Children's Books section.

iBooks Store Link: Classic Videogames Hardware 01.

The printed book is doomed

The Telegraph's Shane Richmond puts forth a convincing argument for why the printed book is doomed. Here's a snippet to whet your appetite, but be sure to read the entire article.

"My daughter’s generation will probably have ebook textbooks. They will never experience dog-eared, vandalised, outdated school books, shared one-between-two. They will enjoy books that are enhanced with video, interactive graphics and picture galleries. And they will see these things are the norm. Printed books will be strange relics from their parents’ generation."

We have to say that despite our love of printed books and magazines, everything that we have seen over the last 16 months leads us to agree with Shane's conclusion.

Print still has the upper hand in a few key areas, but as we proposed recently in an article about the possibility of an iPad Pro and ealier in a post about the merits of an iPad with a Retina class display, even those key strengths may soon arrive on the iPad platform.

iBooks: After an uninspiring start it's finally beginning to get exciting

We have read quite a number of books on the iPad, some via bespoke apps, others through Apple's own iBooks app. Though the experience is nearly always an enjoyable one, we have to say that it's certainly not our favourite iPad activity.

The problem with iBooks is twofold

Firstly, the selection on offer, at least in the UK, has been very poor. Search for your favourite author and you'll most likely be disappointed. After a few disappointments your excitement wanes... The second issue that we have with iBooks is the limited typographical and design controls that are made available to book publishers. Some books, especially illustrated publications like children's books, simply need a richer format.

Fortunately things are changing

Not only is the range of books available for purchase in the iBooks Store increasing week by week, but it's now possible to add ePub books to your iBooks library directly from any iPad web browser. When combined with iBooks' superb PDF support, the iPad is well served for digital books.

The other important change is the introduction of enhanced books within the iBooks Store. Enhanced books offer almost all of the advantages of traditional print; high resolution photos and pixel precise page layouts with non-standard type faces are very common.

Why not check out a few samples of this new enhanced book format? In the UK we can certainly recommend Landscape Photographer of The Year by AA Media Ltd. At £9.99 it's quite pricey, but it contains some equisite photography and serves as a nice way to demonstrate the beauty of the iPad display. The images within this article give an indication of the quality of the photography and type faces on offer.

We plan to feature more electronic books here on iPad Creative. Please let us know if you find any - in the iBooks Store or otherwise - that you feel our readers might like.

iBooks: Build your own Jules Verne library

We haven't mentioned iBooks a great deal on iPad Creative. This is in part because of our continuing frustration over the lack of content and reasonable pricing structure. Apple really need to get their act together with iBooks, before Amazon and perhaps even Google corner the market for digital books. However, when it comes to classic works of literature that are already in the public domain, iBooks is an invaluable part of any iPad.

Jules Verne, the French author who pioneered the science-fiction genre, was born on this day in 1928. Head on over to iBooks and pick up some of his classics, many of which are free to download to your collection.

Is there any doubt that the enigmatic author of such classics as 'A Journey to the Centre of the Earth' and 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' would have loved something as empowering as the iPad?