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sandlll

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 19, 2009
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I am a new Iphone user with the 3gs and I am trying to choose between Kindle, Stanza, and E-Reader. I am used to buying books from Amazon in general, but not sure Kindle is good? Any rec's would be great, thanks!
 
I am a new Iphone user with the 3gs and I am trying to choose between Kindle, Stanza, and E-Reader. I am used to buying books from Amazon in general, but not sure Kindle is good? Any rec's would be great, thanks!

I use Kindle and E-Reader. I like them both equally well.
 
Stanza, hands down. Or, Kindle, but only if you plan on buying (or already have) a lot of Kindle books from Amazon.
 
I love eReader, but I did have a fairly large library coming from the Palm E/TX to begin with. (Still grateful I never went with Mobipocket as my primary source!)
 
I am a new Iphone user with the 3gs and I am trying to choose between Kindle, Stanza, and E-Reader. I am used to buying books from Amazon in general, but not sure Kindle is good? Any rec's would be great, thanks!

I am an actual Kindle owner (in fact, I have more than one), so I can highly recommend to you the Kindle app. It makes for a pleasant reading experience, which as you may know as with all e-readers, allows one to wolf down books -- which even for my normally speedy pace, is amazing to me.

I've read that there are some dual iPhone/Kindle owners in the Amazon forums that actually PREFER reading their bought books on the i-Device platform; I suppose they prefer its backlit and coloured platform better than e-Ink. I wouldn't go so far as to say that myself, as naturally, one can do a lot less with the app than one can with the actual Kindle.

Stanza is great if you stick to free e-Books, like the Gutenberg treasure trove. I believe one can also upload e-Books one already has unto it, but since I have AirSharing to read my PDFs, I've never attempted that. The Kindle app as yet doesn't allow one to do that.

My recommendation of the Kindle app comes with the caveat that if you are really not a BIG BIG reader, you should stick to others like Stanza.

I have well over 300 bought Amazon books, so it's a no-brainer for those of us who like its functionality.
 
the problem with kindle for me is that, as a non-american, i have no access to books at the amazon store. it may be my lovely internet in korea or just the fact that i cannot download books from amazon. i have tried on multiple instances using several computers to no avail.

I find that downloading books from stanza and ereader pro to be painful. finding authors is not so good except in recent additions that include a search bar. both have great night-time themes and can be read either in landscape or portrait, using auto-rotation or locked mode.

stanza's companion mac osx software is simply great. it takes a huge amount of processor power for some reason, but works nearly flawlessly on most of my articles and some books too. i have not tried to purchase using stanza as the prices for most books seem too high (same with ereader). I will pay less than the paperback version, but not more!
 
Stanza is great if you stick to free e-Books, like the Gutenberg treasure trove. I believe one can also upload e-Books one already has unto it, but since I have AirSharing to read my PDFs, I've never attempted that. The Kindle app as yet doesn't allow one to do that.

My recommendation of the Kindle app comes with the caveat that if you are really not a BIG BIG reader, you should stick to others like Stanza.

I have well over 300 bought Amazon books, so it's a no-brainer for those of us who like its functionality.

This is a good post. Just be aware some of us have different ideas of what "free" means. Put in another way, any files obtained (except for Kindle and PDF files) can be read with ease. Make it easy on yourself and download both. You can use Kindle App for Kindle files (only) and Stanza for everything else (except PDFs).
 
As a new iPhone 3GS user, I found this very informative. I notice that there are a number of other readers mentioned in the Store, most of which are dedicated to their own limited selection (which is undoubtedly why they weren't mentioned here): Iceberg, Shortcovers, BookShelf, Books.app, BeamItDown, etc. Has anyone had any experience with therse that they'd care to share?
 
Stanza. I rarely have access to a computer, and certainly not one with WiFi, and I can't download books from Kindle cause I'm based in Japan. Stanza allows me to dowload books from within the app.
 
For PDF Files Felaur PDF is the best I have found.
I notice that Stanza converted my iPhone PDF User Guide (170pp) with photos into all one long unformatted text doc which, for me, is simply unusable. Would Felaur keep the photos and formatting? What do you like about it?
 
I notice that Stanza converted my iPhone PDF User Guide (170pp) with photos into all one long unformatted text doc which, for me, is simply unusable. Would Felaur keep the photos and formatting? What do you like about it?

This is the same thing that happened to me and I'm curious about this question as well. If not then I suppose you simply can't convert a PDF with no real "pages" into a book form for Stanza/Kindle?
 
I use stanza for ebooks, pdf's and i use amazon kindle app for the books i don't have in .pdf format. I love both apps dearly. Stanza has far more customization though
 
that app looks cute and all. but they boost over 500 books able to download. Where as the kindle boosts 300,000 books to download. And stanza you can load your own books into. As far as i know iceberg cannot do that.

But it looks like a nice well made app though
 
Ebooks ftw

Between Stanza and the Kindle app, I've got too much too read! :D
True! I need to wait until I finish to add more. But, it's nice to have so many options!

For Kindle owners, the iPhone kindle app is a must. Not only can you pick up where you left on the Kindle, but vice versa.

Also, I use ereader (from my pda days, I have several books). It's not as good as Stanza, but I really like the font and color settings.
 
The Iceberg Reader beats them all...

http://www.icebergreader.com/

Okay, so maybe someone here can answer my question. I don't get Iceberg Reader at all. Every book that I see in the App Store that is powered by Iceberg Reader costs as much or more than the same book as a book:

Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Iceberg: $12.99 Amazon new paperback list price: $7.99 Actual price: $7.99

The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos by Margaret Mascarenhas
Iceberg: $13.99 Amazon new paperback list price: $13.99 Actual price: $10.97

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
Iceberg: $27.99 Amazon new paperback list price: $16.00 Actual price: $9.36

to name a few...

Can someone answer the question as to why anyone would pay as much or more for a simple data file? I mean, I'm honestly appalled that they have the gall to charge so much for these books. It seems to me that there is no where near the same value in an ebook as in a physical book. I can understand charging as much as, say, 20% less, but charging the same price or more?
 
As a new iPhone 3GS user, I found this very informative. I notice that there are a number of other readers mentioned in the Store, most of which are dedicated to their own limited selection (which is undoubtedly why they weren't mentioned here): Iceberg, Shortcovers, BookShelf, Books.app, BeamItDown, etc. Has anyone had any experience with therse that they'd care to share?

I have some books by Shortcovers and the formatting is HORRID. Words are run together on every page, and no where in teh description did it mention that i needed to be online while reading (i have a Touch). Discovered when i wanted to read while my internet was down this past week (it loads each chapter).... I left a poor review, and finally found a place to send and email to let them know (their screenshot sample even showed one of the errors, "ABaby".... and asked if i should apply for an editing job.

I have a few books i had bought on Peanut Press/eReader back on my Palm, and I have yet to go download them again. Need to do that. But that experience was EXCELLENT. The total opposite of the stuff from Shortcovers (which, TG, was free!).

I've only downloaded a sample chapter from Amazon, and honestly, i'm trying to NOT suck up the $10 and buy one right now. The thought of holding that big hardback book and having to have it done in a few days to return to the library is irking me.

Anyway, i honestly haven't had a chance to read much on the other readers because i just don't have funds to buy books right now :(
 
I love eReader and Stanza- both are great, full-featured, and can be used to actually comfortably read books "cover to cover". I don't really like kindle- it's not nearly as full-featured as eReader or Stanza. But my go-to is eReader- it has settings that I use which Stanza doesn't offer.
 
I use Kindle but I only have a couple of books which I got from the Kindle store. For what I use it for, it's great. I love its auto sync of last place read and bookmarks. I'm not a prolific reader and can fully understand those with loads of books already would find Kindle limiting.
 
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