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Stanza kicks ass. I love reading the classics again. Newer e-books would make it a home run.

Oct 02, 08 - 03:19 pm Comment from: oh no my shorts

I want an iPhoen!

Oct 02, 08 - 03:19 pm Comment from: Famous Grouse

Well, that didn't take long. My wife tried to buy me a Kindle last Christmas, I told her to just wait for the iPhone 3G. My birthday is in two weeks...

Man, I've gotta think of a killer app for the iPhone...

Oct 02, 08 - 03:28 pm Comment from: theloniousMac

Odd. Steve Jobs says people don't read books.

Apple to Mac fan boys:

Arrrrgggg! All your DRM are belong to us! Let there be Silence!

Oct 02, 08 - 03:32 pm Comment from: Scarbro

LOL! Love the John Dykstra Star Wars reference!

"All your DRM are belong to us!"

Excellent exhibition of missing the point of this article. Well done!

Here's a clue:

"Lexcycle currently offers only public domain books--most of which were published more than 50 years ago--and creative commons titles offered up without copyright by the books' authors."

Oct 02, 08 - 03:42 pm Comment from: ericdano

" iPhone doesn't look like something John Dykstra superglued together back in 1975."

Best take ever!

I have Stanza on my iPhone and agree. it's free and add capability to something I already own, rather than having to buy a specialized reader. Access to newer titles would be a home run. I'm bored of reading the classics

I've also borrowed and tried out using a Kindle for about a week, and while the device holds promise, it's not quite there yet - wireless access to the book store and the high contrast low-power e-paper display are definite strong points. but you're right about it looking like John Dykstra's superglue project!!

Oct 02, 08 - 03:55 pm Comment from: iamdj

Dykstra take is one for the ages! Well done, MDN!

AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!

Ye scurvy rats, I'll be takin' yer books to, no more readin' no more singin'. And you Modbus me matey, down to the pens for you laddie fer insubordination!


AAARRRRGH!

My personal favorite is iPhone Bookshelf. I don't like the way eReader takes up space along the left with that menu bar in landscape mode.

iPhone Bookshelf gives you the whole screen (save for the status bar but the author says he'll get rid of that in a future update), locks in either portrait or landscape mode, lets you add your own files, has auto-scrolling and lets you change the font, font size, font color and background color of the files you're reading.

I can't image reading a 1000 page novel on an iPhone. The Kindle is suited much better for this task!

Oct 02, 08 - 04:09 pm Comment from: Cubert

"Plus, as an added bonus, iPhone doesn't look like something John Dykstra superglued together back in 1975."

How about Lenny Dykstra?

This head line is very misleading....Basically what you are telling me is that the iphone has been used to read more books then the kindle. This is not true.

Oct 02, 08 - 04:12 pm Comment from: John

I can imagine the Kindle with laser bolts firing from it at an unfortunate rebel alliance cruiser.... I have a bad feeling about this!

Oct 02, 08 - 04:16 pm Comment from: John

By the by, the real issue Amazon has is this: their hardware and software are tied together, while the iPhone's aren't. In other words, if a better e-reader comes out for the iPhone, I'm free to buy/download that reader, whereas the Kindle is what it is, which means any problems it has are more difficult to get around.

Oct 02, 08 - 04:17 pm Comment from: Tommy Boy

Watch Apple pull the eReaders from the AppStore as soon as they realize they aren't getting a cut of that book revenue.

Stanza is my favorite app. Good to hear that they are looking to sell new books.

"Basically what you are telling me is that the iphone has been used to read more books then the kindle. This is not true."

How is it misleading?

Oct 02, 08 - 04:35 pm Comment from: treestman

R2,

Stanza does all that and more. Its customizability is one of its many strengths, in my opinion.

It's great to see the folks at Lexcycle get this attention. They deserve it.

I don't think Apple's ability to be a book reader is inadvertent at all...

@treestman,

It does, huh? I guess the last one I used was an old version. I'll have to check it out sometime and see how it stacks up.

Oct 02, 08 - 05:15 pm Comment from: treestman

R2,

The review I linked to includes screenshots.

Stanza can take over the entire screen, removing even the info bar at the top. I consider this critical as it helps to get completely absorbed in the reading process.

i don't get that quote from el jobso. if 40% read one book a year or less doesn't that mean tat 60% read more than book a a year and isn't that a huge market to adress? bigger than for ipods i suppose. i know that at least here in germany the publishing industry is in a very good shape. a huge and healthy industry.

Oct 02, 08 - 05:23 pm Comment from: HolyMackerel

The BIG question is will Amazon, who own Audible the publisher of online electronic/audio books, open their electronic bookstore to the iTouch/iPhone (more than just audio content). Likewise, will Apple open the iTouch/iPhone to allow Amazon music directly. There is a Mexican stand-off currently.

It seems an Apple partnership with Amazon would provide much more to Apple than an Apple partnership with Google.

Oct 02, 08 - 05:23 pm Comment from: Jubei

Ahahaha... of course. What moron would walk around with that piece of large clunky device to read on the go? iPhone/Touch is all you need for EVERYTHING!!!!!

That 40% of people read one book or less per year sounds plausible, but I don't agree with Jobs' basic contention that "people don't read anymore" and that publishing books, whether physically or electronically is flawed. The facts don't bear him out. Millions of books are sold every year. Look around the next time you're in a coffee house or commuting or traveling and notice how many people are reading a book, magazine, or newspaper.

A news show recently went out in the street and stopped people at random. Virtually every one of them had a book among the stuff they were carrying.

I always keep stuff, including complete books, on my iPhone to read when I have to wait somewhere. I used to do that with my Palm Pilot.

R2 and others,

eReader 1.2 (released at the end of August) added the ability to hide the navigation and status bars, for completely full screen reading in any orientation.

eReader 1.3 is on the way.

Lee

Oct 02, 08 - 07:32 pm Comment from: Jubei

eReader is awesome. Great for getting mainstream books or new releases. Highly rated.

It's nice to see the iPhone getting this recognition in a major net news source, but annoying that it's so lopsided as to focus on Stanza and leave out all mentions of Fictionwise, eReader, the Baen Webscriptions/Bookshelf integration, and so on.

Comparing a mainly-pubdom app/library to the commercial Kindle library is comparing an Apple and oranges, and the article seems to imply that no commercial e-book vendors for the iPhone exist yet.

Great! I can get an iPhone and have a breat e-book reader but lose the most important feature - a reliable communications tool. Sorry, but the good service I get from Verizon is more important than having a fancier e-book reader.

Oct 03, 08 - 11:19 am Comment from: BillD

I read a lot. I have both an iPhone 3G and a Kindle. I'm very happy with both.

Having read numerous criticisms of the design and functionality of the Kindle before buying it, I bought it anyway, because of the enormous number of books and other publications available and the convenience of acquiring them. It has turned out to be a better device for reading a book than I had expected. It's small and light enough, with a large enough and crisp enough screen to approximate the experience of reading a book. It's great for text, but suffers in display of graphics. Battery life is incredible; I can read for days without a recharge. I've already bought and read more than 20 books and enjoyed them. I've subscribed to my favorite science fiction periodical, Analog. I'm glad I bought the Kindle.

I'm glad I bought the iPhone 3G, an incredibly useful and versatile device. The iPod screen technology is a pleasure, offering sharp text, brilliant images and even movies. I'm glad to see the appearance of ebook apps, as that makes it easier for me to carry around some of my documents.

But the screen of the iPhone 3G is just too small to satisfy me for reading a book. Even were the iPhone 3G given equal access to the Amazon Kindle library, or to one richer in graphics (which I hope will develop), reading on the Kindle would be more pleasurable. The iPhone's small screen requires too frequent intervention to see the next few lines of text.

In the long run, though, I would bet on Apple to produce the ultimate ebook reader along with access to much of the world's print (and online) publications via the iTunes store. The rumored Apple tablet device, perhaps an iPod Touch (or iPhone!) with a larger screen would be a wonderful ebook reader. I wouldn't attempt to read a Roger Tory Peterson bird book on the Kindle, because colored graphics are so important in those books. Ah, but on that Apple device!

Ummmmmm....using the logic of this post, wouldn't windows PCs be the #1 digital book reader? since ebook reader software is available for Windows? also, basically all cell phones released within the past several years can display ebooks in some form. does that make some nokia or motorola model the "#1 digital book reader" before the iphone became the "#1 digital book reader"?

Sir Jobs statement explains so much more than political analysts does on american politics. I just wish it became well known in the rest of the world.

We outside US wouldn't have to become chocked over american politics...