The British Apple site has revealed that the new iPad will be identical in every way to its US counterpart – except one. Reader Peter Lee points out that it’s missing the iBooks application, and down in the small print we find that the new online store – for me, the raison d’etre of purchase – won’t be available outside the US.
This means that deals with publishers have yet to be struck, so there’s a high chance that the device will go on sale without the means of downloading books, and there’s no indication of how long it will take to change matters.
Yes, same here in Australia. It was announced right up front that the iBook function would be disabled here.
But that was no surprise really as people here who have Sony Readers, Bebooks or similar can’t download many of the “popular” books for sale on ebook web sites due to to copyright restrictions. As soon as the site sees your IP address the barriers come up and no transaction is allowed. The sites usually list what countries a title is available for download to when you click on it. Very few include Australia. However, if you know how to spoof IP addresses…
Eh. That’s right now. And they could still give you iBooks if they lock off the bit that connects to the iBookstore. After all, you don’t have to buy from THEM in order to read — or at least you SHOULD NOT HAVE TO! We’ll see.
im loving the ipad personally. what do you think of it now? was it upto your standards?
We’re still waiting for it to arrive – next month, but without any details of the bookstore…