Conversely, this means that every extant e-book app on the iPhone at the moment has to have its own separate method of syncing books.

Stanza and Bookshelf: You can download books directly from the Internet within the reader (both these apps have a number of public-domain e-book catalogs set up by default, plus you can add Baen Webscriptions and others—so if you want to read a Baen EPUB in Stanza, it’s just a matter of going to the on-line library and pulling it down). Both these apps also have their own “servers”—conduit apps that you can run on your PC that will let you sync books into the device via Rendezvous; you can also run a Stanza server from within Calibre.

eReader: You can download e-books from the Fictionwise.com and eReader.com stores directly by logging in—or you can download a book directly from the web by entering a special URL within Mobile Safari. Instead of “http://sitename.tld/filename.pdb” you enter “ereader://sitename.tld/filename.pdb” and it knows to call eReader for that file.

As for loading your own books in, you either have to upload them into a personal directory on ereader.com or fictionwise.com, or else put them on a webserver of your own and enter the URL.

Kindle Reader: It pretends it’s a Kindle, and syncs with your Amazon Kindle account via the Internet to download whatever books you “own” whenever you want. (There’s no way to load your own documents into this one.)

iSilo, AirSharing, GoodReader: These apps have the ability to make your iPhone act like a network hard drive. You start the server, add an entry for it in “My Network Places” (or the equivalent on your Mac or Linux), then you can drag and drop files into it and they transfer across the network. I think GoodReader can download files from on-line, too, but I’ve never really looked into it.

Given that you can currently purchase and install apps, podcasts, music, and movies directly from the iPhone and iPod Touch without having to go near a computer, I don’t think there’s any reason to think you couldn’t do the same for e-books when they come around for the iPad.

Hey iPhone/iPod Touch users: What can you download directly and use without using itunes on a separate computer? Can you download a file to the iPhone/iPod Touch via the web then open that file?

If I want to read a Baen epub why do I need to go through iTunes?

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/2010/03/epub_and_ibooks.html

Barnes & Noble and Amazon have already said they expect to have their own iPad apps, assuming Apple doesn’t throw a last minute knock out punch a la Google Voice.

Given how closely Apple has worked with the major publishers, it would be pretty shocking if read-aloud functionality was unlimited.

And I’m wondering if Apple will allow for iPad apps that will unlock or read Adobe Digital Editions DRM epub books. They ought to, if their goal is to sell a ton of iPads; but if their real goal is to become a publishing monopoly, they won’t. And the way they’ve been running their app-approvals, nobody can say for sure, since Apple won’t.

— asotir

Really says something, don’t you think, if even Apple—who is breaking compatibility with ADEPT—knows that people don’t like to hear about DRM.

(Word is, early BAEN epubs were made that way.)

And I see they spent a lot of time designing the app to pretend it is a real book–maybe we should start calling this Pinocchio’s Syndrome.