Iphone application from Sony ??

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by scottjl

the ebook store is just a small drop in the bucket for apple. after all, they already got to sell you (the consumer) the ipad, and it's unlikely that is the only app you'll be buying for that ipad, they also get to sell you video, music, audiobooks, podcasts.

While the ebook store isn't that important to apple, them seemingly conceding that market to the Kindle could actually backfire given that amazon also have mp3 and movie download services that could quite easily fit into that same app.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Bremen Cole

I read wherever I am.

Hey, calm down. I hasn't trying to be aggressive or anything. It's just because one of the reason i don't want a tablet is because it would be hard to carry everyday. So I was wondering if you read at home, or if it just not a problem to you and you carry the iPad around.

I think you should at least test reading on the iPhone and using for example the free Kindle App. I never thought I would like to read on such a small surface,

Honestly, I sometimes find the 5" a bit to tiny. Reading on iPhone, fine as backup, but as a main reader well. and the archos, even if a 5", requires landscape.
And well, I don't mean to change phone anytime soon.

[VictoriaP]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I don't know, i think most people buying an iPad buy if for totally something else than reading. Unless you're talking pdf, a reader will to the job better than any tablet. People how want to do some serious reading will get e-readers. Or already have one.
Plus, people using an iPad are more likely to go iBook than kindle apps.

While most people buy an iPad for more than just reading, most readers I know who bought an iPad after already owning another reader have put that other reader on the shelf. Obviously we're not finding that "a reader will do the job better." I rarely pick up my Kindle now except to make sure the battery isn't dead from neglect, yet I was one who swore I'd never use the iPad for reading. My sister-in-law, who travels two weeks out of every month and carried a Kindle for the last year dumped her K2 for an iPad after reading just one chapter on one. This is a woman who reads a MINIMUM of three books a week, all on the iPad. Most iPad owners I know who never had another reader (including my husband, who hated ebooks) now read on their iPads. And every one of them has the Kindle app, in part because the iBookstore has next to nothing in the way of content and is virtually unsearchable. I personally hate the iBooks app and have never bought a book in it.

No, it's not primarily a reader, but the fact remains that it's a damn good one for the most part.

[EowynCarter]

You know, I went from gen3 to opus, because of the size. The opus I can hold one hand, while holding the metro bar with the other hand of avoid falling. Try doing that with an iPad.
So no, a large screen tablet would not fit me
If I buy a tablet, it will be to use as a netbook for the holidays, occasional pdf reading. Though I might favor the smaller archos for that.

[scottjl]

Originally Posted by Crowl

While the ebook store isn't that important to apple, them seemingly conceding that market to the Kindle could actually backfire given that amazon also have mp3 and movie download services that could quite easily fit into that same app.

as they say, things never are as they seem. you don't know what apple's long term goals are.. neither do i.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

You know, I went from gen3 to opus, because of the size. The opus I can hold one hand, while holding the metro bar with the other hand of avoid falling. Try doing that with an iPad.
So no, a large screen tablet would not fit me
If I buy a tablet, it will be to use as a netbook for the holidays, occasional pdf reading. Though I might favor the smaller archos for that.

That's the point. You have preferences, as we all do. A good number of us on MR own or have owned dedicated devices and yet now prefer reading on iPad. We're speaking from experience. You, on the other hand, are speculating about things such as which book apps iPad owners use most often.

[Zevs]

Originally Posted by Zevs

I can buy books from different sources and read them on the same device, i.e. my iPhone. I don't really care so much where I buy books from and in which format, it is the availability and the price of the books that direct where I go. In a way very similar to with real physical books, where I go to different bookstores for the same reasons.

An interesting price comparison. Just looked at a book that I found in the reviews in NYT today, called: "The Cookbook Collector" by Allegra Goodman. At Amazon the hardcover book costs 15.21, the Kindle version costs an amazing 18.04. At the Sony book store the same book costs 9.99, i.e. is half the price if the Kindle version! iBooks doesn't even have it. So here it will be buying from Sony and reading it via Txtr on the iPhone.

[mjhudston]

If you use the app txtr, and create an account, you can then upload your adobe editions pubs to the online storage.

If you then in the txtr app enable drm, using the same details you used for Adobe editions, you should then be able to read the DRM'D files. It's working for me.

[Zevs]

Originally Posted by mjhudston

If you use the app txtr, and create an account, you can then upload your adobe editions pubs to the online storage.

If you then in the txtr app enable drm, using the same details you used for Adobe editions, you should then be able to read the DRM'D files. It's working for me.

Thanks for the tip! That is actually exactly what I started doing a couple of days ago, Bremen told me about this possiblity earlier on in this thread. It works quite well, I just wish that one could sort the books on the server somehow, i.e. by author, title and such. It seems that they are sorted in the order I uploaded them, and even if it says on the site that one can move things around, I found that quite unreliable.

Heard that Txtr is available now also for Android phones.

Zevs

[scottjl]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

That's the point. You have preferences, as we all do. A good number of us on MR own or have owned dedicated devices and yet now prefer reading on iPad. We're speaking from experience. You, on the other hand, are speculating about things such as which book apps iPad owners use most often.

well said..

To the list of failed Apple products add the Newton/Message Pad and the pre-OS X OS which never materialized but took years to develop then got dropped. The dumbest thing they did was to pull the hardware licensing away from other manufacturers in the 1990s. When Jobs returned, so did greed. Most of the third party hardware companies were turning out cheaper and much better MACs than Apple was! Had they backed away from hardware domination and focused on software they would have a much larger share of the market now. Eventually the iPhone will no longer be the cutting edge smartphone many still believe it is, and iPhone sales will plummet and one of their cash cows will go away.

To the list of Sony standards and products that failed add Betavision, the Clie line of PDAs, and whatever proprietary format they used with their clamshell Bookman. The clamshell Bookman of the mid-1990s used a minidisc, but Sony never provided more than a handful of books for the device.

[scottjl]

and your point is? every company has a list of failures.. as for not having dominant market share, doesn't seem to have hurt apple's success now has it?

[Bremen Cole]

Wow, have heard from ole negative Jack in ages! Actually I forgot all about him..... Oh well, I just put him on my ignore list so I don't have to endure his pointless posts. Looks liken he is now so obsessed with Apple, his avatar is advertising Steve and Apple....lol

By the way Jack, there is an awesome app I have on my iPad called 5-0 Radio HD... It's a worldwide scanner, works great! I mainly listen to Hood county here, and Fort Worth and Arlington. It also get a lot a amateur radio stuff. It is very cool, I was actually amazed just how good. I realize it's on my iPad and therefore sucks, but I enjoy it.....

Now, return to you obsession and your hate....

[KNI]

[QUOTE=Bremen Cole;1018616]Sony is a dying in the ebook industry. Amazon has readers for PC/Mac/Android/iDevices ...etc and has had for quite a while. Sony is stuck in a "buy our hardware" and we try to lock you in our books biz model.

I disagree. Sony Readers offer the most open platform I know of. Sony reads BBeB Book (LRF), PDF, TXT, RTF, and ePub. Sony added .epub support via upgrades to earlier models. And Sony supports MS Word .doc files as well if you use htier software and have MS Word on the same computer. Most of the other reader suppliers are trying to emulate the Apple model - buy their device, then keep buying content.

We should be thanking Sony and criticizing everyone else for NOT being open - like, why does Kindle not support .epub?

[Rique]

[QUOTE=KNI;]

Originally Posted by Bremen Cole;

Sony is a dying in the ebook industry. Amazon has readers for PC/Mac/Android/iDevices ...etc and has had for quite a while. Sony is stuck in a "buy our hardware" and we try to lock you in our books biz model.

I disagree. Sony Readers offer the most open platform I know of. Sony reads BBeB Book (LRF), PDF, TXT, RTF, and ePub. Sony added .epub support via upgrades to earlier models. And Sony supports MS Word .doc files as well if you use htier software and have MS Word on the same computer. Most of the other reader suppliers are trying to emulate the Apple model - buy their device, then keep buying content.

We should be thanking Sony and criticizing everyone else for NOT being open - like, why does Kindle not support .epub?

Hi KNI,

I own a Sony and I own an iPad. If I purchase an ePub doc from Sony, I'm not aware of other devices I could read that doc on, other than the Sony Reader for which it was intended. I'm sure there are others, but am just not aware of what they are. I know I can read it on my Mac, or on a PC. I'm assuming other portable Readers can read it, as well - is that right? If so, I concede that is a degree of open-ness which should be appreciated, no doubt! If not, then I don't see how Sony's tolerance for multiple file types makes it much more open than other Readers.

With my iPad, I know that Apple ePubs are not open at all. I can only read them with Apple's iBook software - and if that were the only choice available to me with an iPad, I would be sorely disappointed. The point is, it is not. I can read books purchased from Apple's bookstore with iBooks, I can read books purchased from Amazon with the Kindle app, I can read books from Barnes & Noble, Borders and Kobo, through the use of their apps. Taking advantage of what Stanza has to offer opens up still more possibilities. I can read PDFs with any number of readers (I think Good Reader is the best, but iBooks also reads PDF files).

I can read, I believe, every possible file format, from every possible store. if that is not an "open" device, I truly do not know what is. I take that back - Sony, in their infinite wisdom, has yet to see fit to make their store available to the iPad market yet. And you know what? That's their loss.

-- Rique