Comments on: Comparing e-book readers for the iPhone

By: Ally

Ally — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:22:40 +0000

I’ve been an avid e-book reader for 6 or 7 years on various palm devices. I was really happy that ebook.com put out the ebook reader for the iPhone/iPod Touch, since that was a great enticement for me for getting my iPod Touch. I love that all the books I have ever bought from them are available for me to download. The prices aren’t always the best (check out booksonboard.com for comparison pricing, but there many books are only available in protected mobipocket and not ereader format) but it’s great to read anywhere.

Also, I like to use it in the reverse mode (black background, white letters), thinking maybe it uses less power. Any insights on whether or not that’s true?

By: Reid

Reid — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:36:32 +0000

I’m liking Stanza, but given the price of these readers (and the release price for Stanza)…. I think I’ll write my own.

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:55:10 +0000

We have an iPod Touch, rather than the iPhone. (We like our cell phone service, which is not AT&T.) The first thing I did was download eReader. I pick up free books from manybooks.net. It has a lot of classics, as well as contemporary works released under a Creative Commons license, such as Cory Doctorow’s work. Currently, I’m reading Charles Stross’s Accelerando and really enjoying the freedom to take it with me!

Thanks for the reviews. I think I’ll stick with eReader.

By: danielle

danielle — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:37:35 +0000

Wow. Thanks for the reviews. I’ve been less than excited about e-books, and I don’t currently have an iPhone, but your reviews made me more interested in both. Now if I could get the iPhone with a different network….

By: Gwen

Gwen — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:35:37 +0000

Stanza reads .lit and .pdb and .doc and all kinds of other formats. My beef with it is that if you’ve bought a copy-protected book from Fictionwise (or anywhere else for that matter), it won’t open it; Stanza is currently not compatible with any sort of file copy protection. I also had a problem when I attempted to use eBook Studio to put a copy of my current WIP on the iPhone for easy reference. While desktop Stanza would open the file, it was complete gibberish. eReader performed much better when given this test, not surprisingly! (eBook Studio is sold through their website, I think).

-g

By: Aaron Pressman

Aaron Pressman — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:08:03 +0000

I think you have hit the nail on the head in re use of the iPhone as an e-reading platform — the portability makes it perfect for filling in those otherwise dreary times (doctor’s office, grocery line). But I’m still feeling like my dedicated e-reader device is a much better answer for reading in long chunks, reading big burly books, reading for a few hours and so on. I’m also not a fan of Fictionwise’s convoluted pricing and discounting scheme. I complained more on my blog here: http://gravitationalpull.net/wp/?p=396

By: ava gee

ava gee — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:15:43 +0000

For the iPhone-less you can try http://www.booksinmyphone.com – free books as apps for regular cell phones.

Their app makes the most of the screen you do have, gives you a fine reading experience, and if you have intenet connectivity you can browse and install direct from http://mobile.booksinmyphone.com with just a few clicks.