Official page/Demo video (http://www.lexcycle.com/iphone)
Help page on Feedbooks (http://www.feedbooks.com/help/iphone)

Available for free

Presentation on the App Store:
"Read electronic books on your iPhone and iPod Touch! With a reading interface that is unprecedented in its clarity and ease of use, Stanza is bringing the eBook revolution to your pocket. Store and categorize hundreds of books in the organizer, choose from thousands of free books available in the Lexcycle Online Library, and transfer books you share from your computer using Stanza Desktop. Your entire summer reading, your class syllabus for the whole year, or all the reference material you will ever need: all at your fingertips. Literally."

This is great news for iPhone/iPod Touch owners: ePub support, thousands of books to download from Feedbooks and the possibility to transfer your own files in any format supported by Stanza Desktop.

Hope it works better than eReader from Fictionwise which only works on non-DRN books on your Bookshelf unless I'm doing something wrong.

Hope it works better than eReader from Fictionwise which only works on non-DRN books on your Bookshelf unless I'm doing something wrong.

It works on DRMed eReader format books... since that is what the reader supports. But, no you wont be able to read secure mobi or lit books with the eReader app.

I was looking for this yesterday and couldn't find it so I had to download it and try it. I downloaded Cory Doctorow's "I, Robot" from Feedbooks and it worked great. Congratulations Hadrien.

The page turns works great except there seems to be a pause when changing chapters. I assume it's calculating the page numbers? The eReader app takes a lot longer to calculate when you change font or orientation and I assume it's doing the same thing.

My biggest problem is that my finger keeps hitting the "Super Money Ball" game instead of the "Stanza" application. Must learn will power.

Now I can try reading on my iPhone 3G.

Ahemnn... without the Phone or 3G parts. [Cough]

Unfortunately, you can only use Stanza for your existing library if you have a Mac.

Unfortunately, you can only use Stanza for your existing library if you have a Mac.

They're porting Stanza Destkop for Windows too.

Unfortunately, you can only use Stanza for your existing library if you have a Mac.

Does Stanza have Library management features? If so where? I don't see any in the beta that I have.

BOb

Love the concept (love Feedbooks on my Kindle!) even though I'm not big on reading on my iPhone - it's great for reference!

However, it's crashing and freezing up a lot.

Scratch that... It pretty much won't work at all.

I finally got it to download Leaves of Grass, but I can't get it to start to save my life. The little ball just spins and spins, and then it finally shows up and then shuts down almost immediately.

I've got a book I converted that's doing the same thing - a couple of others are working fine, so I'm not sure what's wrong with this particular one.

So far, even with the problems, I'm liking the Stanza app. I also have the Bookshelf app and the free Ereader as well. Stanza seems to give a little more library organization, which I like, but I'm not sure about having to have the file open in the desktop app to download it.

Okay, so I opening the file I was having trouble with, left the ball spinning while I ate dinner, and it finished. It was a really quick-and-dirty conversion from e-reader, and it had no TOC, so the spinning ball was while it formatted(?) about 1900 iphone pages all in one large chapter. The bad news is that it seems to spin just as long if I exit the program and re-open the book. Looks like I'll have to spend some time in BD/Mobicreator.

The page turns works great except there seems to be a pause when changing chapters. I assume it's calculating the page numbers? The eReader app takes a lot longer to calculate when you change font or orientation and I assume it's doing the same thing.

In ePub, it is a best practice to use more than a single XML flow for a file. On Feedbooks, whenever we have a page break (between chapters for example), we create a new flow. When you get to the next chapter, the reading system loads the new flow which explains the delay.

Okay, so I opening the file I was having trouble with, left the ball spinning while I ate dinner, and it finished. It was a really quick-and-dirty conversion from e-reader, and it had no TOC, so the spinning ball was while it formatted(?) about 1900 iphone pages all in one large chapter. The bad news is that it seems to spin just as long if I exit the program and re-open the book. Looks like I'll have to spend some time in BD/Mobicreator.

For a proper TOC, I would advise you to use ePub. It's the only file format with a proper support for TOC, through the use of NCX files.

I downloaded an epub from jedisaber.com (it's the first site that popped up when I googled "creating ebooks epub", but it crashes the iPhone Stanza app every single time. This sounds more like what Gideon was seeing, than what I was seeing before. It simply dumps me back out to the home page.

The mobi files that I've loaded have worked - more-or-less :)

I downloaded an epub from jedisaber.com (it's the first site that popped up when I googled "creating ebooks epub", but it crashes the iPhone Stanza app every single time. This sounds more like what Gideon was seeing, than what I was seeing before. It simply dumps me back out to the home page.

The mobi files that I've loaded have worked - more-or-less :)

Have you tried to transfer ePub files from Feedbooks through the Desktop app ? A huge file, Moby Dick for example: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/54.epub

Now, We are talking, Yeah it may be small, and the backlighting isn't as easy on the eyes but in just over a weekend look at the options now available for having a choice of formats. I have been using stanza on my mac for about a month it only makes sense that it now works on an Iphone. ( I believe giddy as a school girls comes to mind) Also will there be a new version of Stanza for the Desktop? 1.0 does not have an epub option for export, So what format do I use for my existing library?

JJ

Have you tried to transfer ePub files from Feedbooks through the Desktop app ? A huge file, Moby Dick for example: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/54.epub

Moby Dick works fine, so it must be a problem with the specific book I downloaded. That book looks fine in the desktop program, though, so it can't be too bad.

I think there's going to be a lot of "working things out" now that all these apps are live. I have 3 different reader programs and all have their strengths and weaknesses. Right now, I think I like BookShelf.app the best, but it's the only one I paid for, so I would expect more from it.

As much as I love my iPhone, this really points out how happy I am with my Kindle. It will be nice to always have a book with me, I never go anywhere without my iPhone, but for actually "sitting down to read", I'll pull out the Kindle every time. These middle-aged eyes just can't take the backlit LCD for very long :(

Ah... more incentive to get the rest of my books converted to ePub! (If I can only find the time!...)

This is great! I'm so happy to see more ebook options for the iPhone.

Yummy!! Great demo video (I'm still waiting for AT&T to get more iPhones). Any chance of a similiar link (or 2nd free application) that points to the books available here on MobiRead? Just those in the appropriate format, of course.

Yummy!! Great demo video (I'm still waiting for AT&T to get more iPhones). Any chance of a similiar link (or 2nd free application) that points to the books available here on MobiRead? Just those in the appropriate format, of course.

To use the books from Mobileread you can use Stanza or Bookshelf and transfer the Mobipocket files. In both cases you'll need to run a server application on your desktop computer that will send your files to the device.

Have you tried to transfer ePub files from Feedbooks through the Desktop app ? [/url]

Could we have a brief explanation of how this is done? I don't have my iPhone yet, and i'm trying to know-everything in advance, as far as how to do things! If I learn what is involved, I'll start collecting books (from other sources) in epub format too!

Oh good, you already answered that mobipocket is the format I want. I *DO* have stanza on my Mac already ..... how does the transfer work?

Could we have a brief explanation of how this is done? I don't have my iPhone yet, and i'm trying to know-everything in advance, as far as how to do things! If I learn what is involved, I'll start collecting books (from other sources) in epub format too!

Oh good, you already answered that mobipocket is the format I want. I *DO* have stanza on my Mac already ..... how does the transfer work?

You simple activate the share feature on the desktop version and it'll find it on the iPhone version.

I would recommend using ePub over other file formats on Stanza for a few reasons:
- Table of Contents
- Books are made of multiple flows if created correctly, this should speed things up when you open a book on your iPhone
- Much more future proof than the other formats

All the books that you can get from the online catalog on the iPhone version (Feedbooks and Lexcycle) are in ePub by the way.

OOoooohhh. I see my problem. I didn't notice there was a newer version of the desktop Stanza (mine was a month or two older). Coming right up! Thanks. :)

Where can one download Stanza?

http://www.lexcycle.com/

Thanks - didn't realise that it was only a Mac application :).

Thanks - didn't realise that it was only a Mac application :).

They're working on a Windows version.

http://www.lexcycle.com/

Do you know where the release notes are? I don't see them on the web site anywhere. I want to see what they added since the version I have.

BOb

I'm still not sold on reading on Ye Olde (or New) iPhone yet, but I like having the option to read Damned Near Anything.

Yeah.

I'm back :)

-K

I'm still not sold on reading on Ye Olde (or New) iPhone yet, but I like having the option to read Damned Near Anything.

Yeah.

I'm back :)

-K

the only problem with the Stanza is that you have to download to a mac. The iPhone can retrieve files all by itself from most anywhere if it knows the format. eReader works that way.

Dale

WOW! I am very impressed, Hadrien! I have used the Fictionwise ereader, and the bookshelf apps, but the stanza interface is much better than either of those.

I imagine they will all have their uses, but the formatting, and functionality of the Stanza app is far more useful. Almost limitless "font" sizing, and the navigation is superior.

I am looking forward to the eInk market getting software this advanced. The iPod Touch is getting to be my favorite reader (for the moment).

WOW! I am very impressed, Hadrien! I have used the Fictionwise ereader, and the bookshelf apps, but the stanza interface is much better than either of those.

I imagine they will all have their uses, but the formatting, and functionality of the Stanza app is far more useful. Almost limitless "font" sizing, and the navigation is superior.

I am looking forward to the eInk market getting software this advanced. The iPod Touch is getting to be my favorite reader (for the moment).

You should thank the Lexcycle team then (Marc for example) ! On my end, I'll continue on improving the API, and work with Lexcycle to bring more neat features to the iPhone.

I like reading on my iphone. I downloaded 4 free ebooks off the Stanza Library 1) Moby Dick 2) The Creature 3) Pride & Prejudice and 4) The Time Machine and didn't have a single problem. They were all loaded via Edge and took very little time but I also have my iphone hooked up to a power source at work so I think that helps. I love that I could change the font to Arial and make it Dark Green. :2thumbsup

I like reading on my iphone. I downloaded 4 free ebooks off the Stanza Library 1) Moby Dick 2) The Creature 3) Pride & Prejudice and 4) The Time Machine and didn't have a single problem. They were all loaded via Edge and took very little time but I also have my iphone hooked up to a power source at work so I think that helps. I love that I could change the font to Arial and make it Dark Green. :2thumbsup

Could you post some screen shot??

JJ

Do you know where the release notes are? I don't see them on the web site anywhere. I want to see what they added since the version I have.

BOb

Dunno which version you have, but they've added "export to iPhone" in the latest version. Dunno what else - but that part mattered to me.

Dunno which version you have, but they've added "export to iPhone" in the latest version. Dunno what else - but that part mattered to me.

Hmm isn't "export to iPhone" a feature to export as iPhone bookmarklets rather than to sync with the application ?

Just checked the list of top free apps on the App Store:
#66 Stanza
#74 eReader
If you take a look, something such as the app for Typepad is #63. This means that applications dedicated to e-books on the iPhone are fairly successful so far, and Stanza is leading the pack.

Hmm isn't "export to iPhone" a feature to export as iPhone bookmarklets rather than to sync with the application ?

Sorry, yeah. I hadn't actually tried it yet. The 'sync w application' part is under TOOLS -- "enable sharing" and "allow anonymous sharing". Haven't gotten it to work yet, but we have too many network zones at work for my iphone and my mac to be on the same zone. Will try at home.

HAVE experienced what someone said -- the mac application totally wedges itself and will no longer start at all, unless you turn both the above options
OFF before you quit it. I imagine that will be fixed in the next version!

Sorry, yeah. I hadn't actually tried it yet. The 'sync w application' part is under TOOLS -- "enable sharing" and "allow anonymous sharing". Haven't gotten it to work yet, but we have too many network zones at work for my iphone and my mac to be on the same zone. Will try at home.

HAVE experienced what someone said -- the mac application totally wedges itself and will no longer start at all, unless you turn both the above options
OFF before you quit it. I imagine that will be fixed in the next version!

Stanza is still in a beta state, maybe you should mention such problems to Lexcycle directly ?

Try support@lexcycle.com for such feedback.

Just checked the list of top free apps on the App Store:
#66 Stanza
#74 eReader
If you take a look, something such as the app for Typepad is #63. This means that applications dedicated to e-books on the iPhone are fairly successful so far, and Stanza is leading the pack.

They must track this by each country. I checked my iTunes Store (Canada) and

# 42 eReader
# 61 Stanza

They must track this by each country. I checked my iTunes Store (Canada) and

# 42 eReader
# 61 Stanza

That would explain the bad french translations that they've got for most of the apps too...

Time.com just featured Stanza as one of the top 11 apps: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1823107_1823513_1823554,00.html

It's more 70,000 books than 20,000 books by the way...

This app has the potential of being the best ebook reader in pdas or smartphones. Right now is superb, and still is their first version. Lexcycle seem a very dynamic company and I'm sure they will improve their software fast. The potential of the iPhone as ebook platform is huge with ebook readers like this one :).

I think Stanza has great potential, but I don't like how they handle serving their books. Unless I'm missing something, my book has to be currently open on the desktop in order to download it to my iPhone. And it only works locally.

For serving, I prefer Bookshelf, which I know is a paid-for app, because I can leave the server running on my MacPro and download my books while I'm out and about.

If Stanza had a better serving solution in place, I think they'd win handily - I think they're a better reader experience.

I think Stanza has great potential, but I don't like how they handle serving their books. Unless I'm missing something, my book has to be currently open on the desktop in order to download it to my iPhone. And it only works locally.

For serving, I prefer Bookshelf, which I know is a paid-for app, because I can leave the server running on my MacPro and download my books while I'm out and about.

If Stanza had a better serving solution in place, I think they'd win handily - I think they're a better reader experience.

You could also set up your own catalog, but you need to be a bit of a techy (XML). With their current catalog system, they just need a simple GUI though, to make this easy enough to use.

With their current catalog system, they just need a simple GUI though, to make this easy enough to use.

That's what I'm hoping for :) They'll be a clear-cut winner with that added, IMO.

Just a quick question, We are just talking about Non DRM books here correct? Or can I buy and Epub format from say Books on Board and read it with Stanza?

JJ

Just a quick question, We are just talking about Non DRM books here correct? Or can I buy and Epub format from say Books on Board and read it with Stanza?

JJ

Strictly non-DRM indeed. The only DRM solution for ePub currently is ADEPT from Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/products/adept/). DE is strictly available on Windows and OS X for the moment, and Lexcycle haven't worked out a DRM solution yet.

my book has to be currently open on the desktop in order to download it to my iPhone. And it only works locally.


Have you tried doing this? Have you had success? I haven't gotten the "sharing" to work yet. Has anybody had success with this? [ my bad - it works fine! 7/23]

It does work wonderfully with downloading things from feedbooks.

(And yes, i just now reported the "don't exit with sharing on" bug to them. In case they aren't reading these forums!)

Sharing has worked just fine.

Though it's annoying to have to open each book to txfer it to the iPhone vice a "bookshelf"/library approach that would allow for mass txfers. (I may jailbreak again just so I can use dropcopy to copy stuff over again)

Yeah, I really hope that at some point in the future, Apple will change their mind and turn the iPhone into a UMS device. MIME handlers would be cool too, this way you'd be able to browse the web using Safari and download .epub files directly.

They're working on a Windows version.
Too little too late. We need a Windows solution now. Not in some months time down the road.

Too little too late. We need a Windows solution now. Not in some months time down the road.

I wouldn't call a free application that supports epub right at the time of the App Store launch "too little, too late". None of the current reading applications for the iPhone are ideal yet, but I know that Lexcycle is working hard on improving their software. The fault is on Apple's side too: they made things much more complicated for the developers when they decided to lock the filesystem.

Stanza Desktop for Windows is available: http://www.lexcycle.com/forums/stanza/stanza_windows_release

The TOR books for some reason the last book was only available in ePub not mobi.... I tried to read the book with Stanza Beta 8 (Mac) and it only seemed to show a title page and TOC... there was not body of text. Anyone else seeing this?

BOb

The TOR books for some reason the last book was only available in ePub not mobi.... I tried to read the book with Stanza Beta 8 (Mac) and it only seemed to show a title page and TOC... there was not body of text. Anyone else seeing this?

BOb

The last file was a poorly formatted graphic novel. Maybe Stanza can't support the images displayed in this file ?

The last file was a poorly formatted graphic novel. Stanza does not support images at all. From its FAQ (http://www.lexcycle.com/faq):

Help! Stanza isn't displaying my graphics/tables/bullet lists/etc.

That is by design. Stanza removes nearly all of the formatting of the text that it reads. This is in order to maximize the flexibility of the user interface, as well as maximize the number of formats we can support. As mentioned above, this makes Stanza unsuitable for content where graphics or formatting is an intrinsic part of the reading experience.


I tried to read a PDF, and nothing shows up at all

Some PDFs do not actually contain any text that is readably by a computer, but instead contain a series of pictures of text. You can test to see if this is the case by opening the PDF in a PDF viewer (like Preview.app or Adobe Acrobat), and trying to select the text with the selection tool. If you are unable to highlight any individual letters in the text, then the document is simply a collection of images, and will be unreadable by Stanza.

The last file was a poorly formatted graphic novel.

Oh, I didn't even realize that. I wondered why I didn't remember getting an email about it. Thanks, I'll shred it when I get home to my Mac.

BOb

I'm accessing my Calibre ebook library (2 books as I experiment) on my ipod Touch's Stanza via a hand generated XML file. I've asked Kovid to add a feature to get Calibre to generate this for us as most of the info is already in Calibre's DB. The post hasn't been approved yet as it contains a screenshot from my touch.

With the XML atom feed you can see the cover image in Stanza's library screen and the Calibre converted epub's view great in Stanza with the correct cover, TOC and meta info. I just went to Settings->Stanza->advanced and changed the catalog url to http://myserver/ebooks/stanza.xml and made sure the XML file was in this location. Great stuff!

:2thumbsup

Crazy

Too little too late. We need a Windows solution now. Not in some months time down the road.

Add me to the "why is it too late?" crowd. If you have another, better solution to eBooks on the iPhone/Touch, that is fine. But I'm not sure what the supposed deadline is for good software to be released.

Latest version of Calibre now includes a webserver and can serve a working Stanza feed so no desktop stanza needed anymore.

Cheers,
CrazyIvan

Hmm, Stanza on the iPhone has been working ok over the few days I've been using it.
It did crash a few times, but that was no big deal, as it dosen't crash the whole phone (Something apple got right) :)

The major problem, being a Windows user is the limited functionality in the Beta Desktop Client. Having to have each book open as opposed to just being able to share a folder is a pain. Even having the ability to batch the sharing would do, but is not there yet.

Another pain is that there is no way to edit the Metadata (as Far as I can see) on the desktop client, so is the data when opening a file is wrong, the only way to edit is to download it and edit on the iPhone itself.

Still, for a Version 1 Product its looking quiet good, and shows a lot of promise for the future.

The major problem, being a Windows user is the limited functionality in the Beta Desktop Client. Having to have each book open as opposed to just being able to share a folder is a pain. Even having the ability to batch the sharing would do, but is not there yet.

The Mac client works the same way. I suggest you use calibre which now includes a content server with specific support for Stanza. On your iPod you can see all of the ePub books that you have in the calibre catalog.

BOb

The Mac client works the same way. I suggest you use calibre which now includes a content server with specific support for Stanza. On your iPod you can see all of the ePub books that you have in the calibre catalog.

BOb

I'll look into it. The main Problem I have is that Most of my Books are currently in a mixture of formats like mobi, txt, rtf, rtc, with almost none in ePub.

While Calibre can, I know convert them to ePub, I'm a little leery of adding ANOTHER format to the mix.

While Calibre can, I know convert them to ePub, I'm a little leery of adding ANOTHER format to the mix.

You do realize when you use Stanza desktop and d/l the file to your iPod Stanza PC is converting it to ePub on the fly?

BOb

You do realize when you use Stanza desktop and d/l the file to your iPod Stanza PC is converting it to ePub on the fly?

BOb

Hmm. Didn't know that, but then again, I'm still playing around with it.

The Question I have is not converting ePub as much as storing another Format on my computer, as I understand Calibre will do.

Whilst not a big deal, I do tend to be a bit anal about how and where I store My books, so I'll probably play around with Calibre a bit when I get a little free time.

The Question I have is not converting ePub as much as storing another Format on my computer, as I understand Calibre will do.

Whilst not a big deal, I do tend to be a bit anal about how and where I store My books, so I'll probably play around with Calibre a bit when I get a little free time.

Me too.. well I say I'm ADHD about my file system and desktop. But, as far as I am concerned the calibre files are "app data" not files I manage so it doesn't bother me. Also, you only need to convert to ePub the books you want to move to the Touch/Phone... then you can always delete them afterwards.

I was just offering an alternative... Stanza is fine if you want to open a bunch of files and do this. However, Stanza will not be a free beta forever where calibre will.

BOb

Me too.. well I say I'm ADHD about my file system and desktop. But, as far as I am concerned the calibre files are "app data" not files I manage so it doesn't bother me. Also, you only need to convert to ePub the books you want to move to the Touch/Phone... then you can always delete them afterwards.

I was just offering an alternative... Stanza is fine if you want to open a bunch of files and do this. However, Stanza will not be a free beta forever where calibre will.

BOb

Indeed :p

And I appreciate you suggestion.

Guess, I'm just feeling a little lazy about playing around with a new piece of software as I've not really ever used Calibre, and the few times I'd poked around in it was when it was still in its infancy.

Its come a very long way since then.

I didn't have any problems with downloading Stanza to my iPhone... I was able to successfully download a couple of books from BooksOnBoard (they have an iPhone-specific homepage that automatically pops up on my iPhone, which is cool). I can't get any of the other sites to work yet.

Well, Managed to get Calibre Webserver to work, with a few test files (90). It took a little bit of tinkering and hitting myself on the head for missing something so obvious a few times to get it working consistently.

The main problem I'm running into is that Stanza is crashing a lot, especially when trying to download books. Sometimes, its on the first book, others its on the 4th or 5th one, but the only thing certain is that its going to crash.

I've only been using the current release, so I'm wondering whether it was this crash prone earlier, or is it just this release.

Also, has anyone made use of the Bookshelf App. Is it more stable and offering an easier way to get a lot of books on and off? I; don't mind spending alittle money for something that I'll use a lot but want a few opinions first.

I've downloaded about 100 books into Stanza, most through the iPhone direct connect, but a considerable number through the Windows client.

The only book I've had a problem with was:
Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases
Though I haven't figured out why (I think maybe it has 15000 chapters or something).

I've downloaded dozens of books via stanza and calibre to an iPod Touch and have not had one problem with the latest version of Stanza. I wonder if its related to the iPhone/iPod Touch firmware version? 2.1 here.

Firmware 2.0.2 without any problems.