Finally an eBook reader that is good enough to put the real book down

Submitted by Ivan on Thu, 2008-10-23 19:41.

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I was hoping for an eBook reader that would gain enough acceptance worldwide, so that it can become the new standard for all book publishers. Kindle was a great start, but the device doesn't has enough copies sold to become mainstream.

By some estimates there are more than 10 million iPhones and iTouches are out there worldwide. The iPhone's mobile platform supports rich media, touch sensitivity and great wireless connectivity. This device can potentially be the first mass market eBook as well. While there are several eBook reader applications out there for the iPhone already, none of them are good enough to capture the imagination of a real book lover. But this may soon change.

Classics

Meet the soon to be released the Classics iPhone application. It looks great, feels great and retains as much authenticity of the books as possible on a small screen. The page turn animation even supported by a sound effect. You can almost smell the old paper.

I read The New York Times on the small screen for the last few weeks instead of a laptop and I must say it is convenient. I do not miss a larger screen and it doesn't put a strain on my eyes or brain.

I'm not yet sure if the small screen will work just as well for long text. We'll just have to try and see, but if anything Classics will be a turning point.

Hopefully iTunes MS will soon feature thousands of free and payed eBooks that we can read on our touchscreen devices.

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I fail to see how this is

Submitted by whywaitwebs on Thu, 2008-10-23 23:08.

I fail to see how this is any better than the other iPhone e-reader, Stanza? Slick animation and fancy design aside, this app can only read a select few classic books. To me, Stanza is a much better choice, which is free, has a very large selection of books, and lets you convert any PDF into a useable format by Stanza.

By default, Stanza uses a white background (which is incredibly stupid IMO), but the good news is you can change it to whatever you want. Same goes for font color, and font size. I like big black text on a yellowish bg much like Classics.

Anyway, props to the app's design, it looks very nice, but unfortunately I don't think it's very useable to most. Of course if they allow you to read more than just Classics, I'd be all over it, it's much nicer looking after all and even if you can't customize the colors/font, the default looks to be just about what I'd choose anyway.

eBooks just don't sound good

Submitted by JimD on Mon, 2008-10-27 13:03.

First off, the last thing anyone wants to do is carry around another electronic device. The only way eBooks really take off is if the reader is something we already have - such as an iPhone, or other smart phone. The problem is, the screens are simply too small for regular reading, and the price tag is simply too high for 90% of people who read books.

Second, no matter how good the reader software/hardware is, people still like to have a hard copy. This is especially true for computer related titles. People want to be able to quickly move from room to room with a book. It's not terribly easy to do this with a laptop or dedicated reader. It's not that it can't be done, it's just not convenient.

Third, battery life of the reader hardware is going to have to be dramatically improved.

Finally, they're going to have to find a way to do eBooks without all the bullshit DRM. I have a few eBooks/eMagazines that I can't print. The DRM prevents it. WTF? People are just fed-up with DRM.

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