Libris eBook Reader coming to iPhone, via Java Virtual Machine?
Sun will put a Java Virtual Machine on the iPhone, according to InfoWorld, and meanwhile, via MacRumors.com, I notice that among the sample Java apps is the Libris eBook Reader.
Yes, as Mike Cane and others keep observing, questions exist about whether the Software Development Kit will indeed allow e-book apps.
But ideally Apple can work things out with Sun, as well as open source folks at the grassroots level. Libris already runs on various phones from Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, among others.
The good and the bad
Good news about Libris: “Libris reads books in PalmDoc, unsecure eReader, plain text, and our own Libris formats [whoops: eBabel alert!]. Books in PalmDoc format are available from www.fictionwise.com (and other places), or you can produce your own books from text or HTML using the included MakeLibris tool. Its easy to convert books from sources such as Project Gutenberg.” See tech specs.
Bad news, perhaps: I tried Libris on my desktop and was less than impressed with the quality of the view. But who knows what the real thing would look like on the iPhone.
Price of commercial version: Hillbilly Software sells LIbris for $9.95.
Related: Apple and eBooks: Why the delay and the possibility of using WordPress from the iPhone, from Mike Cane, as a Mike Egan’s Computerworld blog post challenging Amazon to come out with sales stats for the Kindle. MC also has thoughts on that.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
eBabel may be with us a long, long time.
Someone pointed out to me that, in effect, iSDKed iPhone apps will be able to address their own files (like the “iPod app” on the iPhone does).
But here’s where it gets hairy, eBabelish, and no fun:
Let’s say you are a madman (ie, David Rothman!) and install all the book apps that come down the pike onto your iPhone.
Let’s say you have 3 of these apps that can read the same ebook format.
Well, guess what?
Each of those three will require *its own copy* of an ebook. All three can *not* dip into a shared storage area to, say, pull up an ebook in, say, I don’t know, Palm DOC format (or whatever). Each app will need *its own copy*, even though all three apps can read the same file format.
This is my understanding of how things work (with the beta iSDK of today).
Something for you to investigate, David!
April 24th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Give reader a try. http://reader.dbelement.com It’s perfect for eBooks and it has all features you would expect from a high quality eBook reader (One touch scrolling, font-size manipulation, section skipping, live bookmarking, and tons more. ) not to mention it looks better than any other eBook reader out there.
iphoneappreviews.blogspot.com/