Today’s WWDC 2010 keynote address was focused very much on the iPhone and the new iPhone 4 in particular – but there were still some bits of good news for iPad owners as well, starting with the new iOS 4 that is due to hit the iPad in the fall.
There was also word that the iBooks app is due for an update today, and is adding some major new features:
Now you can make notes. In addition, we’ve added a control to just tap and bookmark a page — under ToC you’ll see all the notes, highlights, and bookmarks
We’ve added another big enhancement — the ability to view and read PDFs. So we’ve built that in. You can now view PDFs. We’ve put a little selector at the top — books and PDFs. You get a whole new bookshelf just for PDFs, they just look gorgeous.
Those should knock off some of the biggest wish list items for many iBooks users.
At the tome of writing this post – around 4:45PM US Central – I don’t see the iBooks update in the App Store. Hopefully we’ll see it soon.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I'm pretty sure Steve Jobs said "update coming later this month" when I was following online?
Hmmm – I haven't seen the video yet – but gdgt's liveblog quoted him as saying:
“I’d like to tell you about one of our apps we’re updating today: iBooks. … "
Presumably, the new highlighting, notes and page-bookmarks
will be available on other iOS 4 devices as well, but
(1) why confine this functionality to ePub books and PDFs; and
(2) will we be able to EXPORT/SHARE our annotations outside
the realm of cloud-synced iBooks?
Good questions. I'm afraid I don't know any answers for them yet though.
Does anybody know if the sync/read PDF file function will include digital booklets that are included with CD purchases? I would imagine it does, but wonderinf if anyone can confirm this.
So, I wasted my money on Good Reader?
I don't think so. I haven't got to know GoodReader as well as I'd like as yet, but I do know it supports a range of document types, not just PDF – and has more features and abilities up its sleeve.
GoodReader and Readdle Docs broad document support and Dropbox integration are must haves for me.
Exactly – and I don 't think Apple has any need or desire to match capabilities like those of Readdle and GoodReader.
I thought he said “today” but there is still no sign of the update on the UK App Store today (Wednesday) :(
Ian
A rare Steve “mis-speak”. If you do a little further reading you’ll see that iTunes needs to be updated to enable the new PDF sync’ing, etc. The 9.2 version of iTunes will be released in tandem with iOS4 on the 21st. You may want to re-title your article. I am looking forward to the 21st.