Stanza 2.0 and beyond: Forthcoming version lets you Tweet annotations to friends
The word from Lexcyle, developer of the Stanza e-reader for the iPhone, is that Version 2.0 is to have such features as tabbed navigation and improved backup speed for large libraries. What’s more, you’ll be able to use Twitter, Facebook, etc., to share your notes with friends. Good luck to Lexcyle with the oh-so-capricious App Store. Hopefully we’ll see 2.0 Real Soon.
I remain curious about the ultimate future of the Stanza, given Amazon’s tendency to chew up what it buys. Will Stanza eventually be cannibalized for the Kindle for iPhone app? So far, so good. But then we remember the tender care that Amazon has shown toward Mobipocket, which even now lacks an iPhone client.
Yet another issue is how Stanza will fare in the Androidom. Aldiko and WordPlayer so far seem to be the Stanzas within that world, in terms of the philosophy toward user customization. Will Amazon let the real Stanza set up shop in Android-dom? I doubt that Android is about to take over the universe in 2010, but further out, things could be different.
One real test of Amazon’s commitment to Stanza: Will Jeff Bezos let Stanza read the sacred Kindle format complete with DRM? The Kindle app for the iPhone remains pathetic compared to Stanza.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:49 am
I don’t agree with the “So far so good” for Stanza. Since its buyout by Amazon, the announced DRMed ePub support as been cancelled, and that was a huge drawback.
December 9th, 2009 at 4:51 am
Hi, foux. I meant so far so good in regard to Stanza being folded into the Kindle for iPhone app. Agree with you re DRM support. I dislike DRM, but that’s one way of determining of Stanza will really be around for the long term. If Amazon isn’t even letting Stanza support DRMed Kindle format, then we really need to worry about the app’s ultimate future. Big thanks for your thoughts.
David