Books, Newspapers, and Magazines

Before we leave the subject of apps and the App Store, we want to tell you how to find, buy, and read books and magazines on your iPhone.

We’ve run into plenty of skeptics who beg the question, “What’s so wrong with paper books, which folks have been reading for centuries, that we now have to go digital?” The short answer is that nothing is wrong with physical books — except maybe that, over the long term, paper is fragile, and books tend to be bulky, a potential impediment for travelers.

On the other hand, when asked why he prefers paper books, Bob likes to drop one from shoulder height and ask, “Can your iPad (or Kindle) do that?”

Having read that, consider the electronic advantages:

Forget weight constraints: You can cart a whole bunch of e-books around when you travel, without breaking your back. To the avid bookworm, this could change the way you read. Because you can carry so many books wherever you go, you can read whatever type of book strikes your fancy at the moment, kind of like listening to a song that fits your current mood. And you’ll always have your reference library in your pocket or purse when you need it.

Switch genres at will: Go for it. Rather immerse yourself in classic literature? Go for that. You might read a textbook, cookbook, or biography. Or gaze in wonder at an illustrated beauty. What’s more, you can switch among the various titles and styles of books at will, before finishing any single title.

Change fonts and type sizes: With e-books, or what Apple prefers to call iBooks, you can change the text size and fonts on the fly, quite useful for those with less than 20/20 vision.

Get the meaning of a word on the spot: No more searching for a physical dictionary. You can look up an unfamiliar word on the spot.

Search with ease: Looking to do research on a particular subject? Enter a search term to find each and every mention of the subject in the book you’re reading.

See all the artwork in color: Indeed, you’re making no real visual sacrifices anymore. For example, the latest iBooks software from Apple lets you experience (within certain limits) the kind of stunning art book once reserved for a coffee table. Or you can display a colorful children’s picture book. Although artwork is even more stunning on an iPad, it’s still impressive on the iPhone’s smaller screen.

Read in the dark: The iPhone has a high-resolution backlit display so that you can read without a lamp nearby, which is useful in bed when your partner is trying to sleep.

Truth is, this backlit story has two sides. The grayscale electronic ink displays on Amazon’s Kindle and several other e-readers may be easier on the eyes and reduce fatigue, especially if you read for hours on end. And although you may indeed have to supply your own lighting source to read in low-light situations, those screens are somewhat easier to see than the iPhone screen when you’re out and about in bright sunshine.

iBooks for your iPhone

To start reading electronic books on your iPhone, the simplest option is to fetch the iBooks app in the App Store. You should know how to do that (if not, the instructions for finding and downloading apps are in this very chapter, just a few pages back from here).

The app is free and comes with access to Apple’s iBookstore, which looks and feels almost exactly like the App Store, which is to say it’s an inviting place to browse and shop for books 24 hours a day.

iBooks and the iBookstore aren’t the only game in town. Check out other e-book options such as the Kindle, Nook, Bluefire, or Stanza apps, which many users prefer over the iBooks experience. Your mileage may vary.

You can buy iBooks on your computer in the App Store’s Books section or on your iPhone by tapping the Store button at the top of the iBooks app’s main screen.

You can only read iBooks on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You can buy an iBook using iTunes on your Mac or PC but you can’t read that iBook using iTunes (or any other app we know of) on your Mac or PC. We hope this anomaly will be corrected, but as we write this you can read iBooks only on i-devices.

Newspapers and magazines

Those in the newspaper business know that it’s been tough sledding in recent years. The Internet has proved to be a disruptive force in media, as it has in so many areas.

It remains to be seen what role Apple generally, and the iPhone specifically, will play in the future of electronic periodicals or in helping to turn around sagging media enterprises. It’s also uncertain which pricing models will make the most sense from a business perspective.

What we can tell you is that reading newspapers and magazines on the iPhone is not like reading newspapers and magazines in any other electronic form. The experience can be slick, but only you can decide whether it’s worth paying the tab (in the cases where you do have to pay).

Don’t look for newspapers and magazines in the iBooks app’s iBookstore. Periodicals are not considered books and are handled differently.

Newspaper and magazine apps

You can follow two paths to subscribe to or read a single issue of a newspaper or magazine. The first includes several fine publishing apps worth checking out, including USA TODAY (where Ed works), The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Thomson Reuters News Pro, BBC News, and Popular Mechanics. We also recommend fetching the free Zinio app, which offers publications including Rolling Stone, The Economist, Macworld, PC Magazine, Car and Driver, National Geographic, Spin, Business Week, and Sporting News. You can buy single issues of a magazine or subscribe, and sample and share some articles without a subscription.

You have to pay handsomely or subscribe to some of these newspapers and magazines, and most (if not all) of them contain ads (somebody has to pay the freight).

Newsstand

The second path to periodicals is iOS 6’s Newsstand. This handy icon on your Home screen is a special folder that gathers newspaper and magazine apps from participating publishers in a single convenient location.

To shop for periodicals on your computer, launch iTunes and then click the iTunes Store in the list on the left. Next, press and hold down the Apps link near the top of the screen, and then select Newsstand from the drop-down menu.

On your iPhone, you can peruse periodicals in the Newsstand section of the App Store. Tap App Store, tap the Categories icon at the bottom of the screen, and then tap Newsstand. In addition, you can tap the Store button in the Newsstand icon on your Home screen to go to the App Store’s Newsstand section.

It’s too soon to tell how many publications will adopt the Newsstand paradigm, how many will choose custom apps or Zinio, and how many will do both. Stay tuned.

As the late Steve Jobs was so fond of saying in his keynotes, “There is one last thing”: If you’re into apps, we are happy to inform you that Chapters 17 and 18, in the famous Part of Tens, are about our ten favorite free iPhone apps and our ten favorites with a price on their virtual heads.