Breaking news- eReader for the iPhone in the works

I read so many ebooks and I do it using the great reader application eReader.  I have over 350 books in my eReader bookshelf and was happy to hear from the Fictionwise founder that they would continue to develop versions of eReader for different platforms.  You may recall that Fictionwise recently bought eReader from Motricity and it was good to hear that they intended to keep eReader growing in the future.  Now that I'm tempted to pick up an iPhone 3G when it's released next month I began thinking that I would need a version of eReader to use for my ebooks.  I feel pretty confident that the big screen of the iPhone would make for a sterling ebook reader but I'd need Fictionwise to pump out a version for that phone.  I reached out to the folks at Fictionwise and asked them if they plan on a version of eReader for the iPhone and this is what they said:

Apple released their SDK for iphone/itouch on March 6. We have two Mac development experts doing the work to make eReader function on the iphone/itouch right now. Apple will allow third party applications, like eReader, to be used by customers after the next iPhone/iTouch firmware update which is currently estimated to be released on June 30 and we expect to be done with our porting work at about the same time.

However, there is also a wild card in that Apple must approve of each and every application released for iphone/itouch, and we are currently seeking information about what the criteria are to qualify. We will certainly support these devices if we possibly can and Apple allows it.

Thank you!

Best Regards,

Fictionwise/eReader Support Team

Woot!  Come on Apple, get the iPhone eReader version approved ASAP!

Comments

[cr0ft]

... unless Apple happen to have realized that iTunes is a brilliant way to sell e-books as well and have something in the works themselves?

[paul robinson]

I still imagine Apple coming out with the ebook store on iTunes and Steve Jobs making a presentation at which the MSM (mainstream media) dutifully reports that Apple has created something new called ebook reading!

Hope they get smart and make agreements with Fictionwise and others and open the iPhone to competing readers...

eReader's pretty good, but has some serious interface issues (e.g., inability to categorize docs from the doc list screen!).

I'd like to see TiBr Pro (fast, well designed) ported and Palm Fiction (especially for its ability to handle many different doc types).

This is good news, though, about eReader!

[Paul]

What matters is e-Ink.

If people wanted to read books in conventional screens they could use a notebook, no need for fancy iPhones.

[Mobile Phone Shop Uk]

Nice Posting about Apple iPhone mobile phone. Apple iPhone is the best technology for mobile phone. There is one "app" that I would like to see on the iPhone... it's called Flash.

[Mike]

It's nice to see 3rd party vendors interested in ebooks, since Jobs clearly is not. Speaking of the amazon kindle ebook reader, Jobs said "It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore," he said. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."

A back-lit, tiny screen will not make a good ebook reader anyway - I've tried.

[Partners in Grime]

Put the best on the best.

[Jack]

Great news, but rather stale. The email you quote is from May 7th on the Fictionwise Yahoo group. The subject came up again this week, but no new info is available. Looking forward to it, though.

[James Kendrick]

Jack, the email I quote was sent to me personally yesterday.

[Mike O]

It is great news. What many don't understand is that many of us like our phone to be secondary ebook readers. I often get stuck in line at the store, waiting rooms, etc and always have my phone with me. Being able to pop open a book and read for 20 minuets is such a luxury.

I don't understand why many people have to deride the concept. No, it is not a Kindle or a real book. It is a convenient alternative when on the go. Someday people on the internet will stop making universal pronouncements based on their individual usage needs.

[Saints.SQPN.com]

Glad to see a 3rd party ebook reader for the iPhone. An ebook reader is the first app I put on my BlackBerry, and has been the most used app on the PDAs, handheld PCs and smart-phones I've owned. The backlit screen works great; you can even read in the dark. Pretty easy on the eyes when you toggle to white text on black background. The big money target for Jobs & Co probably doesn't read much, but they don't gotta. The lack of reading among the general populace has not destroyed the book industry, and does not preclude their being a need for good ebook apps on phones, including the hallowed iPhone.

[slappy]

Finally. I love to read books. Lugging books during my business trips is not what I like to do. To have them all in my iPhone would be nice.

[Amy]

I've been using dBelement's reader (http://dbelement.com/apps/reader.php) the last few months and to be honest I love it. The only thing it's missing is PDB support. We'll see, if eReader can stack up to what dbelement team made I'll definitely give it a try.

[Mossy]

I use ruBooks reader on the iPhone (development of Books.app, needs jailbreak..). Works a charm with autoscrolling and, very nicely, white text on black background..

[Jim Beesley]

Just thought I'd mention that textReader http://code.google.com/p/iphonetextreader/ already handles non-DRM eReader, Mobipocket, Palm Doc, Text, Html, and FB2 eBooks.

-Jim

[RexDevious]

I've got 2 words for anyone who has trouble seeing the benefit of putting novels on smartphones:

Public Transportation

Steve is right, nobody reads anymore. Schools kill your love of fiction by making it tedious, and television, the internet, video games, ipods, etc all now compete, and usually beat, the appeal of reading at home.

But on the subway, bus or train, nothing else comes close. First, you frequently need to keep your hands free - you're carrying something, strap hanging, whatever. A book or newspaper can't be read with one hand, nor can it be put away quickly when you need both hands free. Listening to music over headphones prevents you from hearing important announcements, and usually has to be played so loud to hear it over the noise that you both annoy other riders and damage your hearing. Gameboys have the same problem, plus they require both your hands. Making phone calls bothers other riders even more because you have to speak loudly, and you frequently lose your signal. Signal loss also makes surfing the web dicey, plus it's usually slow, or eats up your minutes; and web pages don't translate to tiny screens nearly as easily as novels do.

I started reading programming books on the subway because waiting for a subway is the only time when there's nothing more exciting to do than read programming books. Then I got a PDA because it was just much smaller, and doubled as my address book so it was one less thing to remember to bring. When I was done reading programming books on it (which is tougher than reading them on a bigger screen or page because there's graphics or large chunks of text that need to be seen at once), I got a novel from Peanut Press. Which became eReader, then Motricity, now Fiction-wise (that's how long I've been doing it).

I *loved* it! Before I knew it, I'd read more novels in 6 months than I had in my entire adult life - all time that otherwise would have been wasted stewing about how boring taking the subway was.

EBooks on the iPhone are a no brainer for anyone using public transportation. And Fiction-wise has the model all worked out already. Yeah, the software interface could use some new features, but the whole "Unlocking code is your name and credit card number" approach is the most brilliant way to prevent piracy ever invented. Software pirates have no qualms about posting their serial numbers online, but their names and credit card numbers? I think not! Plus, each book comes with an updated version of the reader software, so even if any one cracked it, it's obsolete inside of a month.

I really hope they do this. And if they do, I hope the skeptics try it if they use public transportation - or do anything which involves being stuck somewhere where you have to wait quietly for long periods of time - like doctors or dentist appointments. Believe me, it's a lot more enjoyable than reading a 6 month old copy of "People" that a good four hundred sick people have thumbed through before you got to it :-).

[KojoZilla]

Any news on if/when the ereader will be available?

[Marc]

Lexcycle just announced that their Stanza eBook reader will be available at the App Store on (or shortly after) the opening. So no more need to jailbreak phones to read your books!

[Abel]

If you load the new version of iTunes (7.7) and perform a search in the iTunes Store for eReader the software is/will be available for download and installation! WooHoo!

[Richard]

Has anyone successfully downloaded an eBook to their iPhone from fictionwise.com? I am able to connect to my fictionwise account, view my bookshelf, select a book to download, but after a while get an "Error downloading bookid xxxxx, please contact support@ereader.com" ... and yes, I am downloading eReader format books, not Mobipocket, MS Reader, etc..

Anyone else?

[Angela]

I was having the same error as Richard above, and finally figured it out. There is a section on fictionwise where is says "update my profile" on the left side column. Under there is a place to enter a credit card number for the "secure ereader key" which apparently you must do in order to download any books. They don't actually charge anything to your card and as soon as I entered my info, I went to my iphone and was able to download the 2 books I purchased over the weekend. Hope this helps!