[Macworld]

Post your comments for How Apple could make e-books work here

[dshan]

I've been waiting for this to happen too. I wish Apple would just do it! However, I am pretty happy with the free ebook readers now available for the iPhone/touch - I have many ebooks already in eReader format for my Palm T|X and they work well with eReader for iPhone (though on the iPhone eReader still lacks several features it has on Palm and other platforms) and then there's Stanza too which is pretty good also.
I wouldn't bother buying a Kindle even if they were available outside the US, the iPod touch and Palm are already "good enough" readers - it's the cost and availability of ebooks, the incompatible file formats and insane DRM schemes that are holding the market back.
Apple could still revolutionise ebooks with it's own reader and the iTunes store and driving the adoption of the open ebook file format, etc. But time is running out, they'll have to move fast or the window of opportunity to fix the ebook market will be gone.

[Gatesbasher]

I expected to hate reading off a computer screen, but now that I've done it for a while, I don't. I've got my old Indigo slot-loader on my bedside table, and I've been doing a lot of reading on it. (Yes, I know i should be using a more expensive computer for this, but why? It works just fine and it keeps a perfectly good appliance out of the landfill.)
I've got over 3800 titles (OK, not all of them are book-length) on its tiny hard drive, in PDF (small majority,) HTML (anything with illustrations of links to footnotes, etc.,) and a small but growing percentage in the infinitely superior DjVu format. They were all free, from gutenberg.org, manybooks.net, Google Books, archive.org, Blackmask, etc., etc. I think it would be very cool to be able to carry these around with me everywhere I go. (I ride the bus a lot.) The iPhone or iPod Touch would be great, or something with a little larger screen would be better yet. Really, all that's missing are these readers, and some way to transfer data to the device and then access it.
Just please, Apple, steer clear of proprietary formats like the Kindle. .txt, .rtf, PDF, HTML, and DjVu are all you need. Since that "Nobody reads any more" crack that Steve got reamed about, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop: "Because they didn't have THIS!" Make it soon, Steve, make it soon!

[KenCarpenter]

I had downloaded a Web app called, inventively, "Reader," from dB element (http://dbelement.com/index.php), and thought they'd release an updated version when the App Store opened. So far, not there. The Web app functioned OK, but suffered on my slow Edge connection.

[rab777hp]

The iPhone/iPod Touch screen is way to small for an ebook, let alone a etextbook.

[Jason Snell]

Agreed... that's why I think that a larger device would work better. As Andy mentions in the article you're commenting on. ("released a larger version of the iPod touch that could display a credible, book-size page")

[rab777hp]

A larger version of the iPod Touch/iPhone would completely change its meaning.

[MontanaJake]

You did not mention that the IPod, Itunes and the IPhone revolutionized talking books. Apple working together with Audible has made buying, storing and listening to talking books very easy.
Although, I used to buy many hard backed books for before the IPod, I have bought few since. I now have an Audible library of over 450 books.

[brutledge]

Not having a an ebook reader built-in is one of the main reasons I haven't upgraded to an iPhone from my Kyocera 7135-where I generally have 20 full-length novels and a smattering of smaller titles, mostly from ereader, ready for consumption at opportune moments. These are supplemented by the Audible spoken books on my iPod. Now that ereader has gotten out a reader program for the iPhone (and iPod Touch), I'll have to make the upgrade.

[dshan]

Although a slightly larger screened touch (not iPhone though) might be useful the current size is perfectly adequate for reading, I use it with eReader and Stanza frequently and it's great.
The idea that a useable ebook reader must have a display as big as a regular book is simply not true. Ebooks shouldn't try to ape the old technology (that's what's wrong with most of the dedicated ebook readers - too big, too expensive and too functionally limited, all due to them trying to be "just like a regular book"); they need to sell on the advantages they have over dead tree books, and a small, pocketable size reading device is one of them.

[etn4]

The iPhone is absolutely perfect for reading eBooks. I've been reading eBooks for several years now on different devices and I must say the screen on iPhone is really good for the purpose. A lot of people are using games to kill down time, I don't like games, I read. So having my library in my pocket when traveling or commute is perfect. I'm using Stanza (free at the App Store) right now but I would like to see Apple take a stab on this especially with books on sale in iTunes. I could even see renting books as you do with movies as an bold way to introduce this, almost as a "pay library".
It takes a couple books to get used to reading eBooks but after that it is, at least for me and many others I know, a prefered way to read novels.

[rab777hp]

Even so, it's practical to be big, it needs to be large so that people can see the words, and also, with textbooks, people would be squinting at diagrams trying to make out details, etc. There's a reason why textbook pages are big.

[etn4]

rab777hp, no, the convenience of having your books in the pocket is the big thing here and I think reading novels, not picture books or books with diagrams is the target. If you have an iPhone you should try it out for yourself, download Stanza and download a couple of free books, but remember to read at least 2 books before your verdict.
Also read the reply from "dshan", he or she is right:

"The idea that a useable ebook reader must have a display as big as a regular book is simply not true. Ebooks shouldn't try to ape the old technology (that's what's wrong with most of the dedicated ebook readers - too big, too expensive and too functionally limited, all due to them trying to be "just like a regular book"); they need to sell on the advantages they have over dead tree books, and a small, pocketable size reading device is one of them"

[prl]

I suspect that Apple is not going to make e-book, because they're aiming at e-book plus plus. Otherwise known as tablet computer. iPhone is essentially already a tablet computer, albeit in small form factor. Scale it up to the size of B6 paper, add processing power, add USB, remove phone circuitry, and there you have it. From engineering point of view, there's no major hurdle.
Let me speculate further that, rather than starting a new e-book store, they will choose to team up with existing big players (Amazon?). Apple has tasted the meaning of spreading too thin recently. I don't think they want to further that experience.