Take Control Device Advice

Device Advice

Most people who shop in the Take Control cart ask us about reading ebooks on two types of mobile devices: Apple's various iOS devices and Amazon's Kindle. If you have questions about another type of mobile device, contact us, since it's possible we've heard from other users of that device.

How do I read a Take Control ebook on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch?

Try one of these options:

Read the PDF on the Web: From your device, log in to your account on the Take Control Web site. On your Library tab, tap a version number link in the Open in Safari column to view the PDF in Safari. (If you don't know your password, click Log In near the top right of this page and then click the “Reset password?” link.) Unfortunately, Safari doesn't support links, nor does it store the PDF for later reading offline, forcing you to download (slowly) each time.

All ebooks that you've purchased through the Take Control cart are available to you here. You can also (usually) add Take Control ebooks that you've purchased elsewhere, by clicking the Check for Updates button on the cover, or a link within the book, if there is no button on the cover. This is a great ad hoc option, but for a better PDF-reading experience, try the next suggestion...
Put the PDF in a third-party app: For the optimal experience, use an app that supports internal links within the PDF and external Web URLs, such as the elegant and full-featured GoodReader. To load a PDF into a third-party app, download the PDF on your computer and then make the transfer via the File Sharing section of the Apps tab in iTunes. Or, if you're using GoodReader, log in to your Take Control account and, on your Library tab, tap a version number link in the Open in GoodReader column to download a zipped PDF into GoodReader; another tap on it in GoodReader expands the Zip file into the full PDF, after which you can delete the Zip file.
Put the PDF in Apple’s iBooks app: To do this, you must be running at least version 1.1 of iBooks. First, drag the PDF file into the Books section of your iTunes library (or choose File > Add to Library). Then, select your device in the iTunes sidebar and click the Books tab. In Books, enable the checkbox for the PDF and then click Apply. Next, in iBooks on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, tap the PDF button on the toolbar to see your PDF “shelf.” Note that on an iPhone or iPod touch, iBooks doesn't retain zoom levels as you change pages; you'll probably find GoodReader a better option on these devices. For more information about iBooks 1.1, see the TidBITS article iBooks 1.1 Adds PDF Support, Runs on All iOS Devices.

Will you publish EPUB versions of your books?

We publish a Take Control ebook first in PDF format, and then (usually) convert it to EPUB within 1–2 weeks. If you've bought the PDF, and the EPUB is available, you can download it via your Take Control account to a Mac or PC. To do so, in your Library tab, click the Download link for the desired title in the Alternative Formats column. You can load the EPUB file into iBooks using the procedure outlined in the third bullet item of the previous answer. Links in the Take Control EPUBs appear to be working properly in iBooks, regardless of rotation.

As of June 2010, Macworld has no immediate plans to publish EPUB versions of their PDFs, so the Superguide series is available only in PDF format. However, recent Superguides have begun using a one-column layout that's more suitable for the smaller-screened iPhone and iPod touch.

What’s the difference between an EPUB and a PDF of a Take Control ebook?

We choose the fonts, spacing, and other visual aspects of the PDF to provide an excellent onscreen reading experience and we think it looks nice on the iPhone and iPod touch and gorgeous on the iPad. The PDF, like all PDFs, has a page-based layout in which a page break operates as a visual element. In contrast, the EPUB version is “reflowable,” meaning that you can customize the type and the text will reflow to fill the screen accordingly. Tables, captions, sidebars, and other complex visual elements may reflow oddly, so unless you have a special reason why the EPUB works better for you (like wanting a very large font size), we recommend the PDF.

Are the Take Control ebooks available in the iBookstore?

Some of our ebooks are there now, including the free "Take Control of iPad Basics" and "Take Control of VMware Fusion 3," so you can see what they're like. We are still perfecting the way we upload the EPUB files and sales information into the iBookstore. We think that most regular Take Control customers will prefer to shop directly from us, because the PDFs offer a better reading experience and because we can offer bundles and upgrade discounts. We hope that Apple will soon support PDF sales in the iBookstore.

Where can I learn more?

To learn more about using iBooks, read the TidBITS article iBooks 1.1 Adds PDF Support, Runs on All iOS Device. Or, read the "Read Books and Other Text" in Take Control of Media on the iPad, by Jeff Carlson.

To get an overview of the options noted above, with lots of details about GoodReader, but from a slightly dated perspective, see the April 2010 TidBITS article, Reading Take Control Ebooks on an iPad (or iPhone or iPod touch). When this article was written, Apple hadn't yet announced PDF support in iBooks 1.1.

How do I read a Take Control ebook on a Kindle?

Kindle 2 and Kindle DX

The Kindle 2 and DX support the PDF format, so you can move PDFs from your Mac to the Kindle via USB and read them without doing a conversion. We have tried this on the Kindle DX with the Take Control PDFs and the Macworld Superguide PDFs, and in both cases we think they look great! The Take Control PDFs use a fairly large type size, so they squish down to the Kindle DX's screen size in a wonderfully legible way (we don't have a Kindle 2 to check; our original Kindle still can't read PDFs without conversion). The Superguides use a smaller type size, so while they seem entirely readable to us, some older readers may disagree. Regrettably, in the PDFs, bookmarks do not appear on the Kindle DX and internal links and Web links do not work.

Read the TidBITS article, Reading Take Control Ebooks on an iPad (or iPhone or iPod touch) to learn how to get Mobipocket versions of your Take Control ebooks and load them on your Kindle.

Kindle 1

You can follow the advice below to convert your PDF, but you'll get a better layout if you use the Mobipocket version of your ebook, as described in the TidBITS article, Reading Take Control Ebooks on an iPad (or iPhone or iPod touch).

You can convert any Take Control ebook PDF to the Kindle format with Amazon's email conversion service: log in to your Amazon.com account, follow the "Manage Your Kindle" link, and configure your Kindle email address. Once that's done, simply email the PDF as an attachment and Amazon will do the conversion. There is a small charge, and the pricing seems to be changing over time, but at present the cost is .15 cents per MB (most Take Control ebook PDFs are under 5 MB in size). Amazon has posted complete details on their Web site.

Here's how the converted ebook looks and performs on the Kindle 1:

On the pro side, the PDF is reasonably legible and the graphics come through well, as do special characters and character-level formatting including bold, italics, and special type for Unix commands or text the reader should type.
The blue internal links that help with internal navigation don't work and the notion of a page is vague, so the page-number cross references are helpful but not exact. However, not being able to skip around might lead to reading more fully and linearly, thus gaining a deeper understanding of the topic.
Web URLs can't be "clicked" to open their Web pages (though even if they did, Web page display on the Kindle is poor). In particular, the Check for Updates button on the cover doesn't work.
Further problems fall in the realm of formatting: some covers convert poorly, heading formatting is sometimes wacky, tables are often unusable, and the formatting around small graphics is often odd.

Keep your PDF so you can access the Check for Updates Web page, since it may have interesting post-publication news or access to an updated PDF.

TidBITS is on the Kindle, Future Plans

We do hope to make the ebooks available in the Kindle Store at some point in the future. And, we are offering TidBITS (Mac and Internet news, reviews, and analysis) on the Kindle, so that readers can get some of our content natively on the Kindle and so we can become more adept with the Kindle's limited formatting options.

The above entry was updated June 24, 2010.