Amazon Kindle 2 is the Handheld Ebook Reader that everyone is talking about. The new release includes some great new features and enhancements, including a sleeker design and faster book downloads (for more details about Kindle 2 click here). Unfortunately, Kindle 2 is still only available in North America, but iPhone and iPod Touch owners should not despair, as there are a number of Kindle 2 alternatives for your Apple device.
There are quite a few decent ebook readers currently available for your iPhone, including eReader, Bookshelf and Wattpad, but my personal favourite is Stanza, by a company called Lexcycle.
Stanza on the iPhone 3G
You can either choose to download a book from a HUGE database of FREE books online, or you can transfer a book from your PC or Mac to your iPhone over Wi-Fi.
Downloading books really is a breeze, but I find the book transfer to be a little bit of a pain and hopefully this will be something that the developer will improve in a future release.
Once you have downloaded or transferred your choice of reading material to the iPhone, you are able to add a book cover, so that you can scroll through your library in a similar way to how you would scroll through your album covers on the iPod part of your phone. And then you are ready to start reading.
You turn pages in Stanza, by simply swiping your finger from right to left across the screen, as if you were flicking a page. Alternatively, you can tap on the right for the next page. And when you close down Stanza, it will automatically bookmark the last page you read, so that it is all ready for you the next time you open the application and read that book.
The fonts on Stanza are very good. You are able to read a book comfortably, without hurting your eyes and you are also able to turn on a “night interface”, which is basically white text on a black background.
Stanza is simple, but effective. It just works. Oh and did I mention that it is FREE! Go and get Stanza now, this is definitely a Must Have App for both the iPhone and iPod Touch.
