The rumors were true: Apple has included book and PDF based “collections” in the iBooks application with their recent 1.2 update, available as of today. But, the update also brings with it “fully illustrated books” and the ability to AirPrint the notes you’ve made in an iBook.
Few people make notes in books they read for leisure, but as mobile “tablets” like the iPad become more prevalent in the education world, having the AirPrint functionality will become increasingly important for students relying on digital textbooks.
Thomas over at iSource has noticed that the notes print-outs are lacking a little bit. Information on which book the notes came from, and what pages the notes are corresponding to are currently missing, making it difficult to reference when you need it.
The big inclusion in this update is the Collections. Being able to creat collections of books is great, but the process of creating a collection isn’t exactly straight forward.
First, you have to create a new collection. Click the collections button, then the new button, and name your new collection.
Second, click the edit button to the right, now tap on the books you want to combine into your newly created collection. Now click the move button, and select your collection.
The collection creation process took me a little bit of time to figure out, and it’s nothing like creating a group in iOS, which in my opinion would make way more sense. I prefer the way that collections are handled compared to groups in iOS, but setting up the collections could use some work. Oh yeah, if you want to hop between your collections without using the collections button, you can also swipe the bookcase in the direction you want to go.
iBook’s 1.2 is a nice little update. If you use the application for your eReading, you’re going to want to go update your app.