Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

There have been some competitors to Stanza on the iPhone recently. These and Stanza are all doing well (Stanza is the #1 Books related Free App in the App Store). Here are the three other popular eReaders available for the iPhone -

1. Classics – The most popular paid books related Application in the App Store. Its selling for 99 cents.  It comes with 12 free classics – especially formatted for the iPhone and with illustrations included. It has a page turning motion incorporated into the software, and Ars Technica gave it a good review. You can check the Classics website for more details including a promise of them adding more classics with time.
   

   Classics ebook Reader for iPhone

2. Fictionwise’s eReader. This is the 3rd most popular books-related free application in the App Store. The screenshot shows a good clean interface -
   

   FictionWise's eReader for the iPhone

3. Which brings us to ScrollMotion’s Iceberg Reader – It’s the most interesting of the three because it arrives with strong tie-ups with Publishers. These publishers include Random House, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Houghton Mifflin. That means books like Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Series. I also like the way book pages are indicated. Interestingly enough, the founder of ScrollMotion has written a book of his own – “In 2000, Harper Perennial published Josh’s book, Good/Grief, a visual memoir”.
   

   ScrollMotion's Iceberg Reader for the iPhone

There’s a pretty decent range of eReader software available for the iPhone now – I personally think the small size of the iPhone’s screen ensures there is little competition with the Kindle and other full fledged readers. Its really comparing apples and oranges. There are a few features I do like and would like to see in the Kindle – the Page Number feature is one. I wouldn’t want it on the kindle’s screen all the time – just as an option. Another feature I’d like to see with both the Kindle and iPhone apps is an automatic scrolling feature, with an additional speedreading mode, that lets you scroll the text automatically at an adjustable rate and has a pause/restart scrolling option. That would really be the ultimate lazy person feature.