Currently to read e-books I’m using two devices (iPhone and iPad) and three apps (Kindle, Stanza and iBooks).
I don’t have any problem with using either iPad or iPhone. The devices are perfectly complementary. I read on iPad mostly at home and when on the move an iPhone is a perfect reading companion.
It’s not that easy with applications. They all have their pros and cons, some of them have features the others are missing. This is easily leading to disappointment, as a personal e-book library is split in three places and sometimes I get lost where is a book I feel like reading right now.
So here is a wish list of features a confused reader would love to have in one application to stick to it. The list only contains features which are not available in all three applications. Is there anything missing? Please leave your tips in the comments.
ePub support
Available: Stanza, iBooks
Bookshelf synchronisation
Available: Kindle
Support for audio and video
Available: Kindle, iBooks
Dictionary lookup
Available: Stanza, iBooks
Sharing options
Available: Stanza
In-app purchase
Available: iBooks
Catalog of free resources
Available: Stanza, iBooks
In-app book download from other resources
Available: Stanza
Thank you for the comparison.
Please keep in mind that I, like many people who pay attention these reviews, don’t yet have an ipad or an iphone to try the apps out for ourselves (otherwise we would just download the app and check it out).
I just checked the itunes store on my computer and Stanza is the #193 top loaded free app, while Borders is #169 and the Barnes and Noble e-reader is #27. I’m not sure of the relative iphone rankings; only ibooks and amazon make the top downloads list (at 16 and 119). If you’re going to include Stanza, why not toss in those two apps on this list as well? Isn’t there a seperate Kobo app as well?
Also, is Stanza ADE epub compatible?
Can any of the apps read overdrive or otherwise DRM encrypted mobi? ADE PDFs?
The most important thing people like me need to know (and have a hard time finding out pre-device purchase) is whether an app will be able to read their books/ library books/ books from source xyz?
One of my major wish list items is for the Kindle device apps (particularly PC) to feature auto-scroll. It is available on the ereader and Barnes & Noble programs, but they have less content available – at least for a Canadian reader.