iPad Owners: What was the first Star Trek title you bought/loaded?

[sfroth]

Thanks for the input guys.

Just let me clarify something reguarding the Kindel in this situationn. Although it has audio output capability, it is down to the publishers to decide whether or not it is enabled for a perticular title. This is beecause when it first came out the publishers wern't happy claiming that it would effect the sales of audio books! Rather than make a fight of it Amazon just gave them the option to deny this feature to users if they so chose. As a result just about all of the latest trek books do not have audio output enabled for the Kindle. This is why I was looking at the Ipad as they clame they can read all-comers.

I think that there are ways to use the Ipad when voice-over is activated but I only know this from reading up, Ive never even held an Ipad before mutch less tried to use it. As I am blind I dont relish the idea of working with a touch screen, although I'm sure I'll figure it out. Especially since it looks like it's going to be my best chance of reading trek lit.

Glad to help. The stuff I found on the web said that publishers have the ability to disable voiceover in an iBook. I buy my books from B&N and remove the DRM so I can read in iBooks, so I can't guarantee that a book purchased from the iBooks store would allow voiceover. Like I said, Apple seems to have put a lot of thought into voiceover - it will read the names of apps to you when you tap them on the home screen, and most Apple-sourced apps have voiceover support built in (according to the web site). My biggest problem with using it was discovering how to get iBooks to read more than just a single line at a time, and navigation - double tap, triple tap, two finger twist, two finger drag, tapping in the right spot. The actions never seemed to do the same thing, and only did what I wanted about a quarter of the time. Once you got used to it, though, it would probably be easier.

 

[JWolf]

Just remember, if you buy Star Trek eBooks from Apple, you've locked yourself in big time. You cannot strip the DRM. You cannot view them without iBooks.

But, if you use the txtr, Bluefire, or B&N apps, you can buy from other shops and strip the DRM. So your investments are not lost if you ever move away from Apple.

 

[Kataaran]

Just remember, if you buy Star Trek eBooks from Apple, you've locked yourself in big time. You cannot strip the DRM. You cannot view them without iBooks.

I've got an iPad and an iPhone but I don't buy anything from their book or music store for this reason. In a couple of years I may have switched to Android, I don't want to have to repurchase content I've already paid for.

 

[Blackbird]

Just remember, if you buy Star Trek eBooks from Apple, you've locked yourself in big time. You cannot strip the DRM. You cannot view them without iBooks.

But, if you use the txtr, Bluefire, or B&N apps, you can buy from other shops and strip the DRM. So your investments are not lost if you ever move away from Apple.

The ideal option for me would be if I could just buy the e-books from somewhere, strip the DRM and convert them to txt files. Then I could just read them using my existing screen reader software.

Unfortunately, for me, I have no idea how to go about removing DRM.

 

[Rosalind]

Just remember, if you buy Star Trek eBooks from Apple, you've locked yourself in big time. You cannot strip the DRM. You cannot view them without iBooks.

I've got an iPad and an iPhone but I don't buy anything from their book or music store for this reason. In a couple of years I may have switched to Android, I don't want to have to repurchase content I've already paid for.

I thought iTune music is now DRM-free?

 

[Steve Roby]

I think pretty much all music on itunes is drm-free these days, yeah. And much, much better sound quality than the original itunes.

My first ipad Trek ebook: Trek Fail! by SNW contributor Robert Jeschonek. He's done a few ebooks with Trek connections. This one's a look at his various Trek pitches and fiction, analyzing what made them work or fail. It'd be interesting to see something like this from someone who's had more stuff actually published, but that kind of writer is probably busy enough already.

 

[mmtz]

Has anyone read any of the Trek comics on iPad? If so, how would you say that experience was?

The iPad is terrific for comics in PDF, CBZ or CBR formats.

There are dozens of PDF reader apps including several that are free, like iBooks. I prefer GoodReader for iPad which has lots of built-in tools for moving files to the device. GoodReader is $4.99 these days but has been on sale for $0.99 before.

There are about a dozen CBZ/CBR reader apps, some free. I've been using Comic Zeal Comic Reader, a $7.99 app, because it handles poorly produced CBZ/CBR files gracefully. CloudReaders is a decent free app for CBZ/CBR files.

The key issue with reading comics on the iPad is the quality of the scanning. The PDF files in Star Trek: The Complete Comic Book Collection on DVD (only $8.40 at Amazon today) are nice to have on my iPad, but are a little difficult to read because they were scanned two pages at a time. If you want to see a page at the full size of the iPad screen, you have to zoom in, which isn't very convenient. I have other comics that have been scanned one page at a time, making them very easy to read. I took all of Rich Handley's scans of the British Star Trek comic strips, loaded them into CBZ files and moved them to my iPad, where they are much easier to read than on a desktop display.

The major comic publishers all offer digital comics and their own apps for buying and reading new comics on the iPad. I've tried a few and found the reading experience acceptable. This is a good way to explore new titles. I still buy new Star Trek comics in print though and I'm waiting to learn if IDW has anything more in the pipeline.

 

[Kataaran]

The ideal option for me would be if I could just buy the e-books from somewhere, strip the DRM and convert them to txt files. Then I could just read them using my existing screen reader software.

Unfortunately, for me, I have no idea how to go about removing DRM.

If I was gonna do that I'd go the Amazon route as the DRM is removable. What prevents me from doing this however is that there's no way to register my intentions to remove the DRM. Without that it just looks like I don't have a problem with DRM.

I thought iTune music is now DRM-free?

It is, it's the AAC format that causes me difficulties. I can't play them on my car stereo.

 

[Brikar99]

I thought iTune music is now DRM-free?

It is, it's the AAC format that causes me difficulties. I can't play them on my car stereo.

iTunes can convert those to mp3 under the 'Advanced' menu, IIRC.

 

[David cgc]

Well, it'll convert to whatever you have set as the default import setting in preferences. If it's set to AAC or Apple Lossless or something, then that's what'll show up in the menu. So if you don't see "Convert to MP3" and see "Convert to something else," that's what you need to adjust.

 

[Kataaran]

I thought iTune music is now DRM-free?

It is, it's the AAC format that causes me difficulties. I can't play them on my car stereo.

iTunes can convert those to mp3 under the 'Advanced' menu, IIRC.

I'd rather not have to convert and loose more quality.

 

[cml898]

I'm happy with my Kindle App on my iPhone. I feel secure knowing if I ever change phones my purchases are tied to my amazon account so I'm not limited regarding what I can view my purchases on. When I started reading ebooks I had already bought the first Typhon Pact paperback, so I felt I had to finish out the series in paperback form. Right now my first Trek ebook is the new Myriad Universe book and from this point forward I plan to buy all future new Trek books as ebooks.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It is, it's the AAC format that causes me difficulties. I can't play them on my car stereo.

iTunes can convert those to mp3 under the 'Advanced' menu, IIRC.

I'd rather not have to convert and loose more quality.

Then just get a car stereo with an AUX input. You can connect your iPod and listen to AAC's directly.

 

[Infern0]

Destiny trilogy all at the same time

 

[Kataaran]

iTunes can convert those to mp3 under the 'Advanced' menu, IIRC.

I'd rather not have to convert and loose more quality.

Then just get a car stereo with an AUX input. You can connect your iPod and listen to AAC's directly.

I already have one, I use the input occasionally. I prefer to use the built-in SD card reader with MP3s though, it's tidier.

 

[Brikar99]

I'd rather not have to convert and loose more quality.

Then just get a car stereo with an AUX input. You can connect your iPod and listen to AAC's directly.

I already have one, I use the input occasionally. I prefer to use the built-in SD card reader with MP3s though, it's tidier.

I wish I had one of those. I still burn CDs.

 

[JWolf]

I use my radio transmitter with my Rio Karma. It's not as nice as an aux input, but it works well enough.

 

[Anika Hanson]

The first Trek ebook I read/ purchased was Double or nothing from the double helix series by Peter David. I purchased it from fictionwise and read it on the stanza app on my iPhone. It was also the first ebook I read. I've since purchased a Sony reader and a kindle but now exclusively read on my kindle.

 

[popsicle]

Just bought myself a kindle and my first ever ebook is Star Trek Vanguard: Harbinger (after reading you all rave about it on these boards!)