eReader

I really have an issue purchasing a Kindle cost over $200 when I have an adequate reader in the iPhone. Yes the screen is a great deal smaller, but I still enjoy reading from my eReader account books that I have purchased in the past. I?ve had no issues with this reader. You can easily pick a book from your library and start reading right away. With the optional dictionary you can check the meaning of most words with just at touch. There is also table of contents (though some books it only shows chapter numbers), search and search again, contrast flip (for reading white characters on a black background) font and font size, orientation (portrait or landscape) and different finger gestures to turn a page (I prefer top to bottom), and finally justification. All and all a good value for the money.

Like to read? Want to be able to carry around multiple books on your iPhone with you everywhere? Want to have access to your entire eReader library on the go? If any of these apply, eReader would be a good app for you.

If you are just getting into ebooks, you should know that there are various ebook retailers out there, and many of them have their own Digital Rights Management (DRM) standard (in the same way that some songs purchased through iTunes have limitations on how they can be shared and what players they work on). eReader does have its own DRM standard that is not compatible with other ebook readers. The bottom line is that you should choose an ebook reader and ebook store and "stick" with it since the ebooks you purchase will most likely only work on the reader provided by that company. eReader provides reader software for a number of platforms, so you can view your purchased books on a Mac, PC,

With that said, I have been purchasing eReader ebooks for several years and have a large existing library of ebooks purchased from them. You cannot purchase new ebooks directly through the iPhone app, but you can access your ENTIRE eReader ebook library through your iPhone. To buy a new book, you log into eReader's site and make your purchase (you can even do this through Safari on your iPhone ; no need to get to your computer), then to access it on your iPhone, you follow the straightforward prompts to log in to your account within the eReader app and download the new book from your online library. The book is then saved to your iPhone and is accessible anytime, even when you cannot connect to the internet via 3G, EDGE, or wifi. This is one of the best features in my view, since it means you can read a book even when you're on a plane and can't use wifi or the cellular radio.

Note that eReader is part of Fictionwise, and your Fictionwise ebook library can also be accessed through this app.

While reading, there are some user-selectable options to customize the screen to your liking. With a book open, you can simply tap once on the screen to bring up an icon menu across the bottom. From here, you can choose between 3 fonts (Georgia, Helvetica, and Marker Felt) and 4 font sizes, go to the book's table of contents, or search the book's text for a specific word or phrase. It automatically remembers the last page you viewed in a book and goes back to it when you re-open the application later.

The application can use the iPhone's accelerometer to detect when you've changed the orientation of the iPhone to landscape mode and re-orient the book you're reading. Changing pages is as simply as flicking your finger forward or backward to advance or go back.

I have not tried this yet, but you can also load a dictionary from your online library onto your iPhone, and then you can tap and hold on a word in a book to view its definition in that dictionary.

There are a few things that the app doesn't have (yet) that I'd like to see, you can't choose to bookmark a page so you can browse another part of the book and go back immediately to your desired page. I'd also love to see direct access to the Brightness setting for the iPhone so you don't have to exit the app to adjust the brightness down or up. And there's no way to go to a specific page in the book, you can only get to chapters listed in the table of contents. At the time of this review, eReader has stated on their site that they plan on further updates to the app, but this version is a great start in my opinion!

eReader is from a long line of eReader products for Windows Mobile and Palm. It does what it is supposed to do very well... let's the user read books from ereader.com. What it doesn't do well is the download process from eReader. I have books that the system says that I own (and remember purchasing back in the Palm Treo 600 days), but does not let me download. Other books it does (very weird). Also, you cannot purchase new eReader books on the client software. For that, you need to go to ereader.com. Not a big deal, but hey, we want everything don't we?