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Bookle: Hands-on with the new Mac EPUB reader app
During Apple's January education event, one thing that many Apple bloggers were waiting for never appeared -- a version of iBooks for Mac. While that was a surprising omission, at least there's a new and well-implemented Mac book reader app that handles the EPUB format of most iBooks with ease and grace. Bookle (US$9.99) is a collaboration of Take Control Books publisher Adam Engst and Australian developer Peter Lewis of Stairways Software. Bookle, which is available in the Mac App Store, reads non-DRM versions of EPUB books from the iBookstore. This is one of my few concerns about the app at this point, as many iBooks are copy-protected by digital rights management encryption. As Engst points out in the Introduction of the "Take Control of Bookle (1.0)" ebook that ships with the app, the main goal of this version of the app was to "get a program out quickly that can help you read our ebooks in the here and now." He admits that they may not be able to add support for reading DRM-encrypted ebooks, since "Neither Apple nor Amazon will license their DRM systems, and while Adobe will license Adobe Digital Editions, it's a six-figure cost...". Getting that out of the way, let's take a look at the app. Bookle's icon is gloriously and beautifully designed (see image at top), which gives you an idea of the attention to detail given to the entire app. Bookle stores the EPUB files in the Application Support directory due to the Mac App Store sandboxing requirements, and books are easy to add to the Bookle library. You can use File > Open, drag the EPUB file onto the Bookle icon in the Dock or Finder, or just double-click the EPUB file. Once the EPUBs are in the Library, they appear in a sidebar on the left side of the app's window. The sidebar of Bookle displays the list of ebooks and the table of contents of the ebook being read. At the top of the window are buttons to go back and forth in your reading history or up or down in chapters. There are also controls for changing the ebook's font and the font size, as well as setting the background color of the page. %Gallery-147124% As with many Lion apps, Bookle supports full-screen mode. I found this to be overkill on a 27" iMac, but it works very nicely on a smaller screen such as that on an 11" MacBook Air. If you close a window or quit the app, Bookle brings you right back to the last page you were reading when you open the book again. Bookle also has support for multi-touch gestures. Swiping two fingers left or right changes chapters when using a trackpad. There's also support for text-to-speech, so if you'd prefer to have an ebook read to you by your Mac, that's easy to do. If you want to do side-by-side reading of two texts, all you need to do with Bookle is open each book in a separate window. I found this to be useful while making a comparison of two editions of one ebook, and I think it could also be very helpful if you're reading an ebook in one window and an explanatory text in the other window. I mentioned earlier that I had a few concerns about Bookle -- one glaring omission is the inability to search a book for a specific word or phrase. I'd also like to see the ability to add bookmarks and make notations included in future versions of the app. I'm sure that some TUAW readers will balk at Bookle's $10 price tag when Calibre is available for free. Frankly, I find Calibre to be a bloated (210.8 MB compared to Bookle's 4.1 MB) and poorly-implemented app that's horrible to use, and for reading ebooks it actually launches a separate ebook app called E-book Viewer. Bookle looks good, and is an excellent 1.0 implementation of a Mac ebook reader. I can't wait to see what the team of Lewis and Engst is able to add to Bookle in future versions.
TUAW TV Live: Completely paper-free and now with fewer calories
"Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends..." TUAW TV Live is back for another hour of discussion, chat, demonstrations and unplanned technical difficulties. Starting at 5 PM ET, I'll be firing up the cameras and studio lights, putting on my Apple logo'd hat and talking about everything that's happened in the world of Apple over the last week or two. Not that anything big has happened... Following that, I'll be talking about ways that you can reduce the amount of paperwork on your desktop by using a few commonly available software tools and some relatively inexpensive hardware. If you're fired with enthusiasm to make your workplace (or home office) paper-free after the show, then consider getting a copy of longtime TidBITS blogger and Mac author Joe Kissell's amazing electronic tome on the topic -- Take Control of Your Paperless Office. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Take Control Books, TUAW readers and TUAW TV Live viewers can get a 30% discount on this e-book. Just use the link above to view the description and purchase the e-book, and you'll get 30% off of the already bargain price of US$10. You can also manually enter in the coupon code CPN011310112UAW to get the discount. To watch TUAW TV Live from your Mac or PC, go to the next page by clicking the Read More link at the bottom of this post, and you'll find a livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments. If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application. If you're on an iPad, you should be able to use the Skyfire Browser to watch the stream, although you will not be able to participate in the chat. We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you get the live stream. (Photo: Flickr CC | Stephen Edmonds)
TidBITS celebrates 20 years of online publishing excellence
Although the Apple blogging community is fairly tight-knit, we usually don't go out of our way to laud our competitors. This week, however, we're making an exception. Back in 1990, Adam and Tonya Engst jump-started the online publishing world with TidBITS. Initially, TidBITS was distributed as a HyperCard stack filled with Mac news, reviews, and opinion articles. Later it became a text-based publication, then moved to the Web. Adam was responsible for getting many Mac users connected to the Internet in the early days through his classic book The Internet Starter Kit for Mac, which provided step-by-step instructions in how to connect to the 'net in the days before Wi-Fi and broadband. Many of the writers at TidBITS are well-known names in the digital world, and TidBITS has also spawned its own publishing house: Take Control Books. This week marks the 20th anniversary of TidBITS, and (fitting for a digital publication) issue 1,024 -- that's 2 to the 10th power for those of you who don't play with numbers. From all of us at TUAW to all of you at TidBITS, congratulations!
Two new Snow Leopard titles from Take Control Books -- and a giveaway
Do you have a few hours to kill while you're waiting in line at the Apple Store for your Snow Leopard upgrade? Take Control Books has just the thing to help fill your time and your mind! Two new Snow Leopard titles have been released today in both ebook and print format. The first, "Take Control of Upgrading to Snow Leopard" is author Joe Kissell's take on how to perform a flawless upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6. Kissell, a long-time contributor to TidBITS and Macworld, did many installations of Snow Leopard beta versions to create a process you can follow to insure a flawless upgrade. He describes how to make a bootable duplicate of your existing machine in case the upgrade doesn't work out as planned, and has tips and tricks for optimizing Snow Leopard or troubleshooting issues after the install. This 81-page ebook is available today for US$10 from Take Control Books, or you can order a printed copy for US$19.99.
Take Control of iWeb '09 with exclusive TUAW discount
With the introduction of iWeb '09, Apple pumped up the volume on its entry-level website authoring tool, making it more functional and flexible for novice users while adding enough power -- multi-site publishing options, FTP upload to unlock users from MobileMe, more capable RSS/podcasting tools and widgets, and links to social media sites like Facebook -- to merit a second look alongside midrange/prosumer apps like Sandvox, RapidWeaver, Flux & Freeway. Since the app is included in iLife '09 and bundled with every new Mac, it's likely to be the authoring app of first resort for many Mac users. If you want to get the most out of your iWeb '09 site, we're proud to say there's one guy who has your back: our own Steve Sande, who has revised his Take Control of iWeb ebook for the latest iLife version. The $10US digital title (also sold in printed form for $23.99) reviews all the new features, covers advanced tricks and techniques, and walks the reader through the creation of a sample site (online here). Steve did a great interview about the book on Chuck Joiner's MacVoices podcast last week. In the interest of sharing the iWeb love (and thanks to Tonya & Adam Engst at TidBITS Publishing), we've got an exclusive discount on Steve's ebook just for TUAW readers. Follow this referral link to place your order (be sure to click the big orange "Buy eBook" button) and you'll get a 30% discount off the ebook; it's normally $10US, but for you? $7. 143 pages + an appendix worth of iWeb goodness -- enjoy! If you just can't get enough of books from current and former TUAW team members, you can check out Steve's guide to making the most of your classic iPod, Scott McNulty's WordPress book, or multiple titles on iPhone development and maximizing your iPhone/iPod touch from Erica Sadun.
