If you’re a frequent reader of EPUB format e-books in iBooks (try saying that 10 times fast!), your life is about to get a little easier -- Apple has quietly enabled the ability to open EPUB files in iBooks right from web pages and email messages.
9to5Mac is reporting that another brick has fallen from Apple’s gated iOS community. According to TidBITS, the most recent version of iBooks actually allows EPUB format files from websites or email messages to be opened without having to transfer them to your device via iTunes File Sharing.
“You can now transfer EPUB files into iBooks far more easily than before, when the only way was to drop them into iTunes and do a USB sync,” explains TidBITS’ Adam Engst after discovering this tip. “For individual users, that means you can send yourself an EPUB via email and transfer the attachment to iBooks, and you can also copy EPUB files into Dropbox and use the iOS Dropbox app to send them to iBooks.”
The newly discovered iBooks feature also means that you can purchase, download and import EPUB format e-books right into Apple’s own e-reader without the need for a computer -- your files will then get transferred over to iTunes on your next sync.
While we’re not quite sure why Apple wouldn’t have made this feature more public, it’s welcome nonetheless, and gives us plenty to look forward to in the future as other iOS apps expand their abilities in a similar manner.
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(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac)
