Somewhere, Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) is smiling. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for iPhone turns the classic tale into a superb interactive e-book, one that's as much a learning tool as it is an entertaining diversion.
With all the fuss over Kindles, Nooks, and other e-book readers, I've often wondered why there's been so little focus on children's books--arguably the ideal media for a portable device.
After all, what parent hasn't wished for something wholesome to keep young kids occupied during car rides, long waits in a restaurant, endless hours on a plane, and so on?
Kids can tap a word to hear it pronounced and see it grow big.
"Grinch" offers two modes: "Read to Me" and "Read It Myself." In both cases, readers are treated to the original artwork and text, but with some clever panning and zooming that adds an animated touch.
The reader, professional actor Lee Abbott, lends just the right kind of kid-formal voice to the story. And because each word is highlighted as he reads, kids have the opportunity to learn along the way.
Another perk: each page is interactive. Kids can tap an item on the screen (such as "tree" or "Grinch") to hear it pronounced and see the accompanying word.
In short, this is exactly what you'd hope for from a Dr. Seuss book made electronic. And the $3.99 price tag is more than reasonable, especially considering that the noninteractive hardcover lists for $15.
As the parent of a learning-to-read 7-year-old who loved every bit of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on my iPhone, I'm sold. Note to developer Oceanside Media: keep the Seuss books coming. (Can I get my order in now for "Yertle the Turtle"?)
The Colossal Short Story Collection includes more than 2,000 stories--all for 99 cents.
Great news for fans of short fiction: The Colossal Short Stories Collection just landed in the App Store packing a whopping 2,222 public-domain works.
There are, of course, other story collections available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but this is by far the largest one.
You'll find authors ranging from H.G. Wells and Mark Twain to Leo Tolstoy and Ring Lardner. All the greats are here, along with plenty of authors known mostly in scholarly circles.
The app lists them alphabetically by last name. Unfortunately, that's the only way to peruse the collection: you can't browse by story title, and there's no search option.
On the plus side, Colossal offers a font-size slider, automatic bookmarking (meaning it returns you to where you left off in any given story), manual bookmarking (for easy revisiting of a selected page or story), and a variable-speed auto-scrolling option.
If you've balked at the idea of reading books on your phone, perhaps because you think the screen is too small or there's too much page flipping involved, this might be a great way to start.
The average story in the Colossal collection takes 10-15 minutes to read, so it's like you get to test-drive e-books without committing to (or paying for) an entire novel.
The app has an introductory price of just 99 cents, meaning it's a no-brainer for anyone who likes to read. Even after it jumps to its permanent price of $4.99, it might just be the e-book bargain of the century.
The Shortcovers e-book reader that's available now for BlackBerry, iPhones, and Google Android phones sounded like a good idea when we first heard about it back in February. It still is a good idea, but falls a little short in the execution.
Shortcovers is attractive and modern-looking with a nice, legible default font throughout and a menu system you can find your way around. What it trips on are the details. For instance, thumbnail images draw you in on the page of featured e-books, but are excluded from the actual content. Sometimes the only freebie you get is the acknowledgments, a big let-down when you're hoping to learn more about the book than whose husband or wife suffered through its making. Also, the reading experience leaves much to be desired, especially when compared to the paragon of the Kindle's reading delight, or even the gorgeous iPhone e-reader, Classics. Rather than simulate page turning, Shortcovers emulates the Web metaphor of scrolling long passages and clicking arrows to advance to the next page. Also unfortunately, some spaces between words have been noticeably lost in the digital translation.
The app does have potential--there's the usual bookmarking to remember your place when you leave a read, and the ability to share favorites via e-mail or Twitter. Plus, the model to pay 99 cents for a book excerpt before committing to a $7-10 cost of an e-book is a fine idea, though of course, you can browse a title with much more freedom in a brick and mortar store before deciding to buy. If Shortcovers can overcome its shortcomings, its good looks and ambitious mobile platform penetration schedule will lend it a competitive chance.
Calibre is a cross-platform, open-source library for your e-books that can also sync them to your e-book reader. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, it offers a massive range of individual book customizations, as well as format conversion and newspaper-style RSS feed grabbing, but lacks a slick interface that would go a long way toward convincing skeptics that it's a powerful tool.
Calibre's lackluster interface is nevertheless replete with features.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)The number of things that Calibre can do for your digital book collection is stunning. You can view books in a basic spreadsheet layout or with an adaptation of Apple's Cover Flow. Cover Flow here lacks a default image, and the sudden white rectangle where the book cover should be is jarring. It can be toggled with the big, white arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the main window--an equally awkward placement.
... Read moreIf you don't feel like spending more than $300 on the Kindle 2, Amazon's free Kindle ebook application for the iPhone and iPod Touch may be a much more affordable, if imperfect, solution.
We compared the Kindle 2 and the Kindle application for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and came to the conclusion that the Kindle iPhone application is great for reading short passages, but the Kindle 2 is better for longer reading.
Also, you can't get subscriptions on the iPhone version and you can't buy books from within the application. Still, $359 is a lot to pay for an e-book reader (though the addition of free cellular Web access and a basic Web browser does make the cost slightly more palatable), so the Kindle for iPhone app may still be the preferable e-book reader for people who already have iPhones or iPod Touches
.For more information about the Kindle for iPhone application, check out our video first look or read our extensive review.
With all the buzz about Amazon's new Kindle 2, you'd think this revamped e-book reader was the most advanced piece of technology this side of designer babies. After all, for $359, you get a color screen, Wi-Fi and full-function Web browsing, video playback, 60GB of storage, and a reasonably usable keyboard.
Oh wait, you don't get any of that stuff. No, that's what $350 can get you if invested in even a low-end Netbook, such as the new 10-inch Acer Aspire One. Not only is there a wide range of PC software available for buying and displaying e-books (and tons of free content as well), when you're done with all that highbrow readin', pop open a Web browser and rot your brain with some Hulu videos.
Unlike the closed-loop system on the Kindle (it generally only works with e-books from Amazon, and Amazon e-books only work on the Kindle and the related iPhone app -- although there are some Kindle conversion tools out there, and Amazon will convert your personal docs for Kindle use at 10-cents a pop), at least you have a variety of different software and content provider options with my proposed $350 Kindle alternative.
Microsoft's Reader app will also read out loud to you in a Stephen-Hawking-style voice.
We'll be the first to admit, none of these options are as seamless or easy to use as the Kindle (especially with its always-on wireless digital download store), and companies like Microsoft and Adobe aren't exactly known for building great software user experiences.
We tried installing and using a couple of e-book reading software packages on our Acer Aspire One, with mixed, but not wholly unsatisfactory results. First up was Microsoft Reader, which uses .lit files, available from several online e-book retailers (although not Amazon). Originally released in 2000, the software has a dated, inelegant interface, but displayed our e-book files cleanly. Like the Kindle, Microsoft Reader also has a built-in text-to-speech feature, although the results are just as robotic.
... Read moreOn Sale Now: $274.95
View the latest prices for Acer Aspire One D150
Kindle users know they can e-mail documents as attachments to their Kindle account and Amazon will convert and upload them to the e-book reader for a 10-cent fee. Windows users aren't tied to the e-mail option, though, thanks to the Auto Kindle eBook Converter.
This PDF-to-Kindle converter doesn't have much of a GUI, but works fine.
(Credit: Art by Alex Samlihan/CNET)Compatible with PDF, HTML, LIT, PDB, and CHM files, the program opens to a Windows file browser. Choose the file you want to convert, hit Open, and then choose your destination folder. The converter goes to work, generally converting files quickly--although this depends on the length of your document.
When it's done, connect your Kindle to your computer and move the MOBI file into the Documents folder. Safely disconnect the Kindle, and the converted file will appear in your main list of documents, automatically converted on the Kindle to its default MPB format.
However, it lacks a decent interface. The file-browsing option that you get doesn't slow down the conversion process--it's just jarring. There are other areas where the program will hopefully be improved, too. A setting for a default directory isn't dependent on getting that GUI and would cut out the unnecessary step of navigating to your preferred output folder.
Ideally, the program will eventually auto-detect your Kindle and save the converted document directly to the proper folder on the e-book reader.
Auto Kindle eBook Converter bridges the gap between DOC and TXT files and the Kindle. Using a print-to-PDF program like doPDF or PrimoPDF, you can convert a DOC or TXT to PDF, and then use the Auto Kindle eBook Converter to make your document Kindle-friendly. While not the slickest of methods, it should work for most users. Even saddled with a list of improvements, the Auto Kindle eBook Converter holds a lot of promise.
Stanza (Download.com link | iTunes Link) from Lexcycle is one of the most downloaded iPhone apps, but it previously could not handle any content that was purchased from the eReader store. In order for you to view these formats you had to use eReader for the iPhone (iTunes Link), but that is not true any more.
Lexcycle has signed a license agreement with Fictionwise, the company behind the eReader format, to bring that eReader-compatible books to Stanza. Lexcycle will be launching a Stanza eReader store, giving Stanza users total access to 40,000 or more eReader titles. Stanza was recently updated in the iTunes App Store with the enhanced eReader capability.
According to the press release:
"In an agreement between the two companies, Lexcycle has licensed Fictionwise's eReader eBook reading format for integration with the Stanza iPhone application. In addition, Fictionwise will operate the "Stanza by Fictionwise" eBook store, which is accessible directly through the Stanza app, and gives Stanza users access to over 40,000 titles from all major trade publishers.
"We are very excited that our large and growing catalog of electronic books is now available to Stanza users," said Steve Pendergrast, co-founder of Fictionwise, Inc. "eReader continues to be the only eBook distribution format on the iPhone and iPod touch that is widely accepted by virtually all major publishers. Our goal is to make the eReader format available everywhere."
The integration of the "Stanza by Fictionwise" eBook store with the Stanza app enables customers to browse and search for eBooks based on title, author, genre, or popularity. Customers can then purchase and wirelessly download eBooks right on their iPhone or iPod touch for immediate reading.""
Stanza is a free application that lets you read electronic books on your iPhone. It's an excellent value, albeit with a no-frills approach that stops short of handling DRM-protected content and docs with heavy formatting or images.
Stanza provides a comfortable, customizable reading experience. You can quickly change text size via a slider in the settings, or using pinch and reverse pinch, adjust line and margin spacing, and choose from many different fonts. You can even pick your own text and background colors, in case you want old-school, CRT-style green on black. You can flip through chapters, rotate portrait or landscape, and search through text. Stanza also lets you leave multiple bookmarks and always remembers where you last left off.
It handles a wide variety of non-DRM formats (including Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, PalmDoc, and more), but PDFs and HTML don't always work quite like you'd expect since Stanza strips out images and formatting. Overall, this is an easy-to-use and useful app for anyone with a DRM-free e-book collection.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Before I unveil this week's iPhone apps, I wanted to see if anyone else had the same iPhone problem I have. I keep having this issue with iPhone app updates that won't finish downloading and demand that I connect to iTunes to finish the update. But even when connected to iTunes, not all of the apps update and I'm left with that number on my home screen saying I need to update when I've done everything I can to complete the process. I also get some update notices dated before I downloaded the app, which clearly doesn't make any sense. I've looked at a number of sites that don't specifically list my problem--even our trusty iPhone Atlas site, which is one of the best places to look for common iPhone problems (and fixes). If any of you have experienced this issue and have a fix (or if I'm missing something), please let me know in the comments!
Fortunately, my update problems haven't prevented me from downloading new iPhone apps. This week I've got a couple new free apps that are definitely worth checking out.
Search for title on your iPhone or check out online catalogs for new things to read.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Stanza lets you read eBooks on your iPhone and it has a lot of great features making it better than you might expect. My first thought was it would be difficult to read on my iPhone, but Stanza offers excellent text size, screen color, and font options to make reading comfortable for anyone. You can import eBooks you already own on your computer and Stanza offers several online catalogs so you can download eBooks directly on your iPhone. The only area Stanza is lacking is when there are images in your book--Stanza strips out images and custom formatting. Aside from this easy-to-overlook problem, Stanza is a great way to read any eBooks you might already own and also discover new ones through its many included online resources. One of my favorite features is that it automatically remembers where I left off so I can get back to reading a story the next time I open Stanza.
Get detailed listings with user reviews and plot summaries for both TV shows and movies.
(Credit: CNET Networks)i.TV is my second iPhone app this week, and it has already shot to the top of the most popular list for good reason. i.TV is your television and movie guide for whatever area you're in. Either let your GPS determine your location (great for when you're out of town) or type in your ZIP code to get all the movie and TV listings in your current area. You'll be able to browse through times to see what's on television and you can browse by current movies or by theater to find a movie you want to see. You also can view almost 6,000 TV and movie previews. i.TV offers user reviews of TV shows and movies, but there aren't many up there as this app is still fairly new. At the iTunes Store, they say upcoming versions will allow you to watch actual TV shows, but even in its current state, i.TV is an incredibly useful app.
What are your favorite iPhone apps? Do you have the same problem with iPhone app updates? Let me know in the comments!
