Q: Why are there so many different e-book readers for my iPad? How do they differ? And, which one should I use?
E-BOOKS FOR YOUR IPAD
The Kindle lit the fuse, but the iPad lit up the sky. E-books have suddenly become the hottest topic in publishing, and almost every publisher now has an e-book publishing plan.
You can get a variety of e-book reader apps for your iPad, including Apple's iBooks, Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's eReader, and Lexcycle's Stanza. Here's the rub: Except for Stanza, each app is tied to one specific online bookstore, and you have to use that app to read your purchases from that store on your iPad.
Here's where and how to get books for the preceding e-book readers:
IBOOKS: Tap the app's Store button to browse the integrated iBookstore. For iBookstore purchases you use your iTunes Store account (which contains your credit-card information). Purchased books download to iBooks immediately. If you delete a book on your iPad (or on an iPhone that has the iBooks app), you can download it again for free.
KINDLE: Tap the Shop In Kindle Store button in the Kindle app, and it opens Safari on your iPad. When you purchase a book from the Kindle store, it's sent immediately to the Kindle-compatible device you specify. (First, of course, you must register each of your Kindle-compatible devices with the Amazon Web site.) If you have a Kindle Reader app on your PC, on your iPhone, and on your iPad, for example, you choose which device gets the book first. Don't worry, though: You can download purchased Kindle books to the other devices from within the app on each of those devices. Also, you can always download deleted books again.