[sword-devel] Google eBooks

[Chris Little]

On 12/6/2010 10:24 PM, Greg Hellings wrote:
> I don't know if Google has an application like that or if their books
> are compatible with other ebook readers which might be available on
> those platforms - though their scans of the PD works would still
> suffer the scrolling issues.

Google has apps for iOS & Android, plus support on desktops and Sony 
(recent, not the original, to my knowledge) & Nook readers, but not 
Kindle. But those scanned books would only look particularly good on an 
iPad or similar device with a 9"+ display, and personally I can't read 
books on the iPad, due to its weight and the glossy screen.

> I'd be astounded if Apple's ebooks are useful on anything other than
> an iDevice without some major hacking.

Apple's ebooks are EPUB, but with the standard iTunes DRM that they used 
to apply to music and still apply to apps (Fairplay). So, without 
cracking the DRM, their ebooks are locked into iBooks on iOS. 
Nevertheless, iBooks can read unprotected EPUB & PDF content from 
non-Apple sources. So most of Google's PD content has already been 
available for use in iBooks for a long time now, not to mention on 
Kindle, via EPUB to mobi conversion.

--Chris