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eBook reader

S

shk718

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
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personally i love to read ebooks. I can carry a ton of books on my phone and i think the iPhone will be the best phone out there to read books on. so i'm glad that ereader has said their going to make an ebook reader for the iPhone. but i was reading somewhere else that the SDK may not allow file folders to be created to load files into???? have you guys heard anything like that?


http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/06/16/ereader-for-iphone-in-the-works/
 
shk718 said:
personally i love to read ebooks. I can carry a ton of books on my phone and i think the iPhone will be the best phone out there to read books on. so i'm glad that ereader has said their going to make an ebook reader for the iPhone. but i was reading somewhere else that the SDK may not allow file folders to be created to load files into???? have you guys heard anything like that?http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/06/16/ereader-for-iphone-in-the-works/
Click to expand...

I had a couple of developers forward their ebooks for me to test, and the format was adjusted several times before I received the final product. Just some page formatting issues and a couple of alignment of button issues, but beyond that it seemed to read rather well. I enjoyed the landscape viewing more than the portrait view, but that was one of the issues that the developers were tweaking. I really wanted them to format legal briefs for my research from JSTOR, Academic Search Premier, and LexisNexis Academic and Factiva, but that involved much more formatting and work on my part. The final products looked OK, but I wanted to just paste, click, release and formatting would be on auto-pilot. Still a few kinks in the test product, but they were working really hard with me to meet my needs. :cool:
 
shk718 said:
personally i love to read ebooks. I can carry a ton of books on my phone and i think the iPhone will be the best phone out there to read books on. so i'm glad that ereader has said their going to make an ebook reader for the iPhone. but i was reading somewhere else that the SDK may not allow file folders to be created to load files into???? have you guys heard anything like that?


http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/06/16/ereader-for-iphone-in-the-works/
Click to expand...

I think you people who want to use an iPhone as an ebook reader are out of your minds for several reason:

1) The Kindle and Sony Reader use electronic ink technology that is as easy or in some cases easier on the eyes as ink on paper. You can adjust the type face sizes too. The iPhone to read a long book? You're going to be asking for non-stop headaches ... literally.

2) Smudges. You do not want to use a touch screen device to read ebooks, not unless you wipe down your iPhone after every time you touch it.

3) Titles. The Amazon Kindle has a great supply of available ebooks, but even it fall short of your average Borders or Barnes & Noble. If you read mostly non-fiction, then you're probably fine. Fiction? Just awful in every ebook format.

4) Jobs hates ebooks, therefore he will not do anything to improve the iPhone/iPod Touch as an ebook device. The Kindle, on the other hand, is in its infancy and Amazon is going to throw lots of development dollars into making it better.
 
"chicagdan;5606783" I think you people who want to use an iPhone as an ebook reader are out of your minds for several reason:

1) Some of us aren't looking for ebooks, but dedicated research that can be read and reviewed while on the go. I've never developed headaches while reading or viewing anything on my iPhone, so that point is moot, at least for me.

2) Not sure where you're going with this, but smudges aren't a problem with my iPhone, you might be thinking of the BlackBook!

3) Sorry, this doesn't apply to me.

4) Once again, doesn't apply to me. :cool:
 
earnjam said:
If you're looking to read books on your iPhone, check this site out. They have thousands of choices.

http://www.textonphone.com/
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i found that site this past weekend and loaded up a book - the problem is it only caches about 10 pages or so - so on my long subway ride i can't use it. they do have an option to "download" 100 pages - but it doesn't keep track of which page your on. The only true method is a dedicated book reader that works offline. They did a great job with what they had to work with but for my needs it didn't work. I hope that developer switches over to the SDK - they look like their very clever programmers!
 
chicagdan said:
I think you people who want to use an iPhone as an ebook reader are out of your minds for several reason:

QUOTE]

for the past 5 years or so i have been reading all of my books on my phone/pda. i find them very easy to read on - i can change the font size and background color to make any necessary adjustment. i love having to carry only one device that has all of my books - newspapers - games... living in Manhattan i am always on the subway so to carry around a bunch of devices is very inconvenient for me. Plus when waiting in a line i can pop out my phone read a page or two then put it back in my pocket. i went thru the entire Harry Potter series on my treo last summer. With the iPhone's huge and gorgeous screen i bet it will be even better!! Just my thoughts on the subject.
Click to expand...
 
I used to happily read ebooks on my Palm TX, so I think the iphone would be an ideal ebook reader. Text on the iphone is much clearer on iphone than on the TX.
 
shk718 said:
i found that site this past weekend and loaded up a book - the problem is it only caches about 10 pages or so - so on my long subway ride i can't use it. they do have an option to "download" 100 pages - but it doesn't keep track of which page your on. The only true method is a dedicated book reader that works offline. They did a great job with what they had to work with but for my needs it didn't work. I hope that developer switches over to the SDK - they look like their very clever programmers!
Click to expand...

Yeah, obviously the main drawback is the requirement of internet access.

Not bad for a web app though! And they have a huge selection.
 
I use Text On Iphone for ebook reading a lot. I use the download option a lot and just leave the window open to mark my place. I really hope someone comes up with an SDK eBook reader though. In fact, I am hoping iSilo will step forward and do it. As far as the fellow who says we're nuts for reading eBooks on our iPhones, once again folks are showing how shortsighted they are. I've been reading eBooks on various smartphones and PDA phones for years. It's become one of the main things I use them for. At any given time I have half a dozen books loaded on my phones plus I use them a lot to just read things I've captured off the Internet. I hate it when folks try to put limitations on what I can do just because they don't have the imagination to do it themselves. This seems to be typical of a lot of iPhone users - if Steve Jobs doesn't tell you, you can do it - you can't do it. You don't need to edit Word and Excel documents, you don't need to read eBooks, you don't need a video camera, you don't need Notes sync, you don't need cut and paste, etc. I'm really tired of Apples Big Brother attitude.
 
I just use the mail app as an ebook reader

I made a folder in gmail and email PDF versions of the books to myself. The iPhone then saves the PDF in the same folder when I check my mail. The mail app opens all but one of my PDFs; I have 15 or so saved now. The only problem I've found is you need to manually scroll to the last page you were at.
 
i found this very cool program the other day called Stanza for the mac(http://www.lexcycle.com/).

Assuming no ebook reader on first day fo iphone store this program will create a bookmarklet of an ebook which actually has page advance features on it - its very cool - well worth looking at just to see what it can do. tap on right side of the iphone screen to page foreward tap on left to page back - tap in the center to get a menu.

second it will allow you to read microsoft's .lit format on the mac (as well as every other type of format).

third it will allow you to convert any format into any other format.

you can download the beta for free.
 
eReader is available for free in the iTunes app store.

Anyone know how to transfer books to the device?
 
I purchased and installed BookZ (in Productivity category) but it keeps crashing on me whenever I try to open a text file. Unfortunately this was not a free app.
 
I really think the Amazon Kindle is the way to go...

Before my iPhone, I used an HP PDA and I did use it as an ebook reader. To really enjoy reading a real book you need to have a larger screen, the e-ink (better on the eyes) and a bunch of other stuff. Before Kindle I would have asked Apple for a reader too, but I do think the Kindle is the "iPod" of Books. Check this out...http://www.macworld.com/article/61186/2007/11/kindle.html
 
chicagdan said:
I think you people who want to use an iPhone as an ebook reader are out of your minds for several reason:

1) The Kindle and Sony Reader use electronic ink technology that is as easy or in some cases easier on the eyes as ink on paper. You can adjust the type face sizes too. The iPhone to read a long book? You're going to be asking for non-stop headaches ... literally.

2) Smudges. You do not want to use a touch screen device to read ebooks, not unless you wipe down your iPhone after every time you touch it.

3) Titles. The Amazon Kindle has a great supply of available ebooks, but even it fall short of your average Borders or Barnes & Noble. If you read mostly non-fiction, then you're probably fine. Fiction? Just awful in every ebook format.

4) Jobs hates ebooks, therefore he will not do anything to improve the iPhone/iPod Touch as an ebook device. The Kindle, on the other hand, is in its infancy and Amazon is going to throw lots of development dollars into making it better.
Click to expand...

Get real. Who's going to buy a special purpose ebook reader. I won't. But read book on an iPhone. Sure!

Most folks won't notice the font. Apple could improve that or 3rd party software could do it too.

Smudges: wipe it clean. Whoa, that was hard.

Titles: That's Amazon's problem. They will need to support the up and coming platform.

Jobs hates ebooks. He's leaving it up to 3rd parties. Its a fine add on. It doesn't make sense to make a special purpose ebook device. Of course people read on the web, most of the web is still text.

Yes, Amazon is flushing lots of money at the Kindle. It has zero chance of succeeding.

I should mention that Amazon stock is WAY over valued.
 
Well, I have to say so far, I am totally unimpressed with the quality of Apps out in the App Store. The main thing I was looking for was a good eBook reader. I've tried both BookZ and eReader and both are a waste. Everytime I try to open a text file in BookZ, it crashes. And I try to download one of the free books off of the eReader website and it won't open either. Says there is an internal error. If this is a sign of things to come as far as Apps go, what a waste.
 
wolfpackfan said:
Well, I have to say so far, I am totally unimpressed with the quality of Apps out in the App Store. The main thing I was looking for was a good eBook reader. I've tried both BookZ and eReader and both are a waste. Everytime I try to open a text file in BookZ, it crashes. And I try to download one of the free books off of the eReader website and it won't open either. Says there is an internal error. If this is a sign of things to come as far as Apps go, what a waste.
Click to expand...

Well at least you tried more than 2 apps that do the same thing before you declared all the apps disappointing.
 
wolfpackfan said:
You have to go thru the eReader website and establish an account.
Click to expand...

has anyone been able to get this to work? The authentication process doesn't seem to work - whatever I enter as a username or password will just produce a seemingly empty bookshelf.

Using my correct ereader.com account does the same thing - so does my fictionwise account.

Anyone?

kis
 
kis said:
has anyone been able to get this to work? The authentication process doesn't seem to work - whatever I enter as a username or password will just produce a seemingly empty bookshelf.

Using my correct ereader.com account does the same thing - so does my fictionwise account.

Anyone?

kis
Click to expand...

i previously had anereader.com account and all of the books that i previously purchased show up on my iphone - but any new books that i purchase don't - so they obvously have a problem with the iphone application. i sent them an email and am waiting to hear back.

i've played with one of the old books that i had and i do like the application - the paging is nice - fonts look great - you can book mark and look up a word in the dictionary (this part could be smoother because you have to make a few taps to go back to the book after it looked up the word). its unfortunate that you cant buy the books on the iphone and download them - you have to do it thru their website.
 
kis said:
has anyone been able to get this to work? The authentication process doesn't seem to work - whatever I enter as a username or password will just produce a seemingly empty bookshelf.

Using my correct ereader.com account does the same thing - so does my fictionwise account.

Anyone?

kis
Click to expand...
Yes, I did. It works fine for me.
 
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