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Printing things out to read them away from your PC is so last century. Today devices like the iPhone offer perfectly readable displays, and bookmarking articles is no problem thanks to apps like [http://www.instapaper.com/ Instapaper].
But what about whole books? Think you need to invest in the Kindle? You could, but why lug around yet another device when the iPhone can do a perfectly acceptable job? We'll admit that the Kindle has a some nice features you won't find in iPhone readers, but if you've already got an iPhone it's worth a shot.
Here's a roundup of the best ebook reader software for the iPhone;
# [http://www.lexcycle.com/iphone Stanza] ([http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284956128&mt=8 App Store link]) -- far and away the nicest ebook reader for the iPhone, Stanza also happens to be free. Once you install Stanza and download some books (Stanza offers a large library of downloadable books, see below for more sources) reading is just a matter of flicking your fingers down the page.
Stanza also offers the ability to import your own ebooks into using a free computer-based app from [http://www.lexcycle.com/ LexCycle] (available for both Windows and Mac). It's currently a beta, but worked well in our testing. Ebooks you create are then available for download on your iPhone (or iPod Touch) and computer.
#[http://www.ereader.com/iphone/ eReader] ([http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284499993&mt=8 App Store link]) -- An iPhone version of the e-book reader popular on the Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms, eReader isn't quite a iPhone-esque as Stanza but it's still a capable app. And eReader has done a good job of porting to the iPhone, embracing the platform norms like accelerometer support for reading orientation and gestures for page-turning. Another very nice feature in eReader is the ability to look up words in a built-in dictionary app.
EReader is primarily tied to two online book services -- eReader.com and Fictionwise.com -- where you can buy and download texts. Sadly there's no way to purchase directly from the iPhone app, but the website does have an iPhone-optimized version to make purchasing a bit easier.
But despite some nice features eReader was a bit buggy in our testing, crashing repeatedly. EReader is a free download.
# [http://www.iphonebookshelf.com/ BookShelf] ([http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284934036&mt=8 App Store link]) -- another very nice option, BookShelf will set you back $10 but offers some nice extras not found in the others, like different color schemes (black on white, green on black and more), customizable fonts and more.
Other great features include custom bookmarks and the ability to make your book collection publicly available. The latter feature requires a desktop app which itself requires a recent version of Java.
== Finding books ==
We'd like to say that every book you want to read is available digitally in a nice common open format that makes loading it on the device of your choice a snap. But unfortunately there is no MP3 of digital books.
That said, things are improving. The ever-growing [http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page Project Gutenberg] has some 20,000 books available for free, though many of them are likely the "classics" you didn't read in high school and may not want to read now.
for something a bit more interesting try Diesel Books which has a pretty good selection of current and older, less mainstream options (we found a copy of Neil Stephenson's classic [http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/parent-9780380815937/In-the-BeginningWas-the-Command-Line-eBook.html In the Beginning was the Command Line] for just over 6 bucks).
For technical books try [http://www.ebookspyder.net/ eBookSpyder] or [http://www.pdfchm.com/ Pdfchm], both of which have a good catalog of programming and science books available.
Of course here's the dirty secret of ebooks: most can be had for free if you know where to look. For instance, don't want to pay six bucks for In the Beginning was the Command Line? Okay, just head to this page and save the file. Now load the resulting HTML file in your ebook reader.
What about new books? Have you ever heard of bittorrent? Sites like Pirate Bay and Mininova are overflowing with ebook options.
== Dealing with DRM and formats ==
one of the big problems with ebook readers -- on the iPhone and elsewhere -- is finding texts. Most of the major publishers ship their electronic books with cumbersome DRM that means they end up only working on certain devices.
But naturally where there's DRM there's someone who has already cracked it. One of the most common formats for DRMed ebooks is Microsoft .lit, which thankfully has been cracked. the excellent (though somewhat old) [http://dukelupus.pri.ee/convertlit.php ConvertLit] can take care of the process for you. For other formats like Mobipocket and eReader, check out cracker [http://darkreverser.wordpress.com/ Darkreverser’s Python Scripts] which can set your books free.
Even if you skirt the DRM by buying unencumbered ebooks, the world of digital books is still an acronym soup of formats. Luckily there are literally dozens of apps that can convert between them. Check out the [http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_conversion MobileRead wiki] for a vast selection of options that will work on Macs and PCs. There are also some online converters for changing formats.
Here are some common cross platform formats that most ebook readers support (though double check whatever app you chose just to be on the safe side):
# Plain Text [.txt]
# HTML with images [.html]
# FictionBook2 with images [.fb2]
# PalmDoc / AportisDoc [.pdb]
# MobiPocket (unencrypted) [.pdb, .prc, .mobi]
== Conclusion ==
Ebooks may not have made it to the mainstream yet, but if you need something more than a webpage to get you through the long commuters combining some free ebook downloads with one of the iphone ebook readers is pretty easy. And once you have a good library on your iPhone you'll wonder why others fuss about the expensive Kindle.
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