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Reading on my iPhone

by Jon_B 05:08 PM
Categories: news
A few weeks ago I did something I’d been waiting to do for a long time – I bought an iPhone 3G.  I’ve had a lot of fun playing with a ton of cool apps and features, and this morning I was able to use the phone for a truly bookish purpose -- making my first foray into the realm of eBooks, by installing Barnes & Noble’s new free eReader app.

I downloaded the eReader from our brand-new eBooks store, which just launched today!

The Barnes & Noble eReader software works on four platforms – iPhone/iPod Touch, BlackBerry, PC, and Mac. Installation took only a few seconds, and I easily found my way to my eBooks Library, which was stocked with a selection of free eBooks, including Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a book I’ve been meaning to read for years. The eBooks Library also comes with a free edition of Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary, which should help with some of the scary words in Dracula.

The collection of available eBooks is already quite extensive, and ranges from classics to contemporary genres like romance and science fiction, from popular collections like the Twilight series to rising stars such as the authors selected for our Discover Great New Writers program. There’s a lot of great nonfiction as well, ranging from cookbooks to current events and beyond.

I’m definitely excited about testing out the eReader on my commute home today.  I always read on the subway, and having a book on my phone should be easier than holding a large hardcover with one hand while holding a pole with the other. It’ll be great to be able to listen to music on the same device, too. I think, however, I’m going to put off Dracula once again and instead buy the eBook version of Beat the Reaper, for what looks like a very entertaining evening read.    

How about you? Now that our eBooks store is ready to go, what are the first eBooks you’ll be downloading and reading, and where do you plan to read them?
6 comments
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by Moderator Melissa_W on 07-20-2009 05:14 PM
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Well, of my free e-books I'll probably read Pride and Prejudice :smileyhappy:

 

I have a Blackberry and the reader installed very quickly on my device.

 

I just wonder how all this will jive with Fictionwise since I also have a reader and an account there.

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by Jon_B on 07-20-2009 05:31 PM
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Hi pedsphleb,

 

Fictionwise will continue to be a seperate entity from BN.com, so your account over there will be seperate from your My B&N account and corresponding eBooks library.

 

Jon

 

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by Sunltcloud on 07-20-2009 05:44 PM
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Hi Jon,

 

It sounds exciting! I have a kindle which I can read without my glasses; how are your eyes holding up with the "fine print" and how much text do you get on one screen before you have to "turn the page?"  

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by B&N Bookseller Brad_W on 07-20-2009 08:20 PM
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This is really exciting.  The eReader on the IPod Touch and my PC are pretty nice.  The selction and pricing are awesome, and I'm really excitied about the future.  The news about Plastic Logic and their device is fantastic.  Their device is amazing!  In the words of the 80's song . . . "The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."

by Jon_B on 07-22-2009 03:47 PM
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@ Sunltcloud-

 

The amount of text per page varies by device - and you can also change the font size in your preferences, which also changes the amount of text in a page.  I'm using the default settings for iPhone, which is I think Arial 10 pt and this results in 21 lines of text per page.  So far I haven't had any particular eye pain or anything but I stare at a computer all day anyway so I'm used to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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by Choisya on 07-27-2009 03:49 AM
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Can you search the text on an Iphone  Jon?  I looked at the Sony e-reader when it came out and rejected it because there was no search facility, which I find very useful for our book clubs here.  I eventually bought an Ectaco which, though much more limited than the Kindle, supports a fair number of e-book formats and has a good search facility.  (The Kindle is not yet available in the UK.)

 

Is B&N likely to link up with one of the e-readers as Kindle did with Amazon and Sony did with Waterstones?   How universal is the format they use for their e-books - I wonder if I can download them onto my Ectaco? 

 

The Sony e-reader is the only one of the devices I have seen which feels like a book in the hand. It is the size of a Penguin paperback and has nice leather cover.     

 

I do not use my mobile phone very much and only have a pay-as-you-go contract, so I think the I-phone would be an expensive solution for me, great though it sounds.   

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