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My Reading List – iPad App Review
My Reading List – iPad App Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
My Reading List ($2.99)
Version 1.1
(only available for the iPad)
Are you an avid reader looking for a way to organize your future reading material? If so then you may enjoy My Reading List for the iPad. This app was developed by 59thirty LLC and is not only a catalog but also an integrated purchasing tool.
The app has a clean and simple interface to it. When you open the app it defaults to your Reading Wish List. In this menu you can see which books are on your list, preview the book cover (by clicking on the cover icon), rearrange or delete books, and even purchases books through amazon.com
In the upper left hand corner you can edit your list .. i.e. remove books you’ve already bought and even rearrange books within the list.
In the upper right hand corner you have the option to add new books to your list. You can add a book either by searching for the name of the book or the author’s name. Once you do that it populates a list of book options where you can select the book you were looking for.
Once a book is added to your list you have the option to buy it, using this app and Amazon.com. Simply click on the “Buy” button and it will pull the book in question up within amazon.com’s website and from there you can select the reading format you are interested in and place your order.
My biggest suggestion for this app would be to incorporate a means to track books that people have read, because that seems to be a common trait among avid readers. That could be as simple as a long, uncategorized list or as nice as breaking it out by genre (possibly pulled from amazon’s website as well), author, or similar categories / ordering.
All in all if you are an avid reading looking for a quick and easy way to keep track of your future reading list you may want to give My Reading List a look. It’s currently on sale in the App Store for $2.99 and currently is available as an iPad only version.
- Christina G
© 2010, iPhone and iPad app reviews. All rights reserved. An expedite fee may have been paid for some reviews. We work diligently to ensure that this does not affect the content of the review and strive to keep the journalistic integrity intact. All reviews are the personal opinion of the reviewer.
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iBooks on iPhone: What Apple Needs to Fix
Sideways Magazine for iPad Review
Calibre: iBooks’ Ideal Desktop Companion – Convert and Organize Your eBooks
iPad or Kindle? A Flawed, but Popular, Comparison
iPad or Kindle? A Flawed, but Popular, Comparison is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Most people who have seen my new iPad react with the same question, “should I get this or the Kindle?” Apple, obviously, intended its iPad to be perceived as much more than an eBook reader. Yet the much publicized launch of the iBookstore, along with the iPad’s slim form factor, have led many consumers to perceive the iPad as an expensive eBook reader.
The Kindle is the Premier eBook Reader
Amazon’s Kindle 2
The Kindle was launched solely as an eBook reader and is marketed as such. Jeff Bezos, on introducing the device, said of the Kindle that “it’s so ambitious to take something as highly evolved as the book and improve on it. And maybe even change the way people read.” Amazon has definitely done much of the legwork in improving the acceptability of the eBook as a new medium for written material. Amazon’s true innovation was bringing E-Ink technology to the consumer market, along with doing the technical legwork to simplify the reading experience. At its core, the Kindle is a delivery device – a user purchases a book as they would online and finds it available for reading seconds later.
The reading experience does everything it can to mimic the experience of paper, all of which is aided by E-Ink. The screen is technology’s response to those who complained that they would never be able to read a book on a traditional LCD screen or a laptop. The Kindle itself is merely the size of a large paperback and is lighter than most printed books. The Kindle is Bezos’ effort to translate the book for the digital age, and he has largely succeeded in providing a popular and widely accepted new platform.
The iPad as an eBook Reader
Apple’s iPad with iBooks
The iPad has benefited from terrific interest from both book publishers and book retailers. As a consequence we’ve seen innovative new packages like the Vook and traditional books from retailers like B&N, Amazon, and more. While the Kindle has a terrific – and probably the largest – bookstore, the iPad offers more choices for where you get your ebooks.
There’s Apple’s iBooks, Amazon’s Kindle reading app, B&N’s new iPad reader, and more. The three largest players each offer different solutions to the eBook problem. iBooks tries to mimic the feel of a physical book, utilizing a color UI with beautifully rendered page turns. The Kindle’s UI is black and white and encourages the same type of user interaction as the physical Kindle – a simple tap on the side of the screen changes pages in a fluid transition not as visually distracting as that of iBooks. B&N’s app allows users to choose from dozens of different visual settings but maintains the same fluid page transitions as Amazon’s Kindle app. Only the iBooks app has a store in-app; the others force the reader to go to Safari to purchase books. This is a definite snag in the clear workflow Bezos presented with the original Kindle, but one that I’m sure both B&N and Amazon will surmount in future applications.
The iPad’s reflective LCD screen probably isn’t the best for simply reading a book. It’s a pain in the sun, where it’s nearly impossible to see the text on a page. E-Ink mainly solves this problem with its screen. People who have issues reading for long periods of time on their laptops may wish to reconsider an iPad purchase if it’s intended solely as an eBook reader. While the reading experience is cleaner and more enjoyable, it’s the same experience as the backlit screens most notebooks include. In addition, the iPad’s battery life is rated at 10 hours, enough for most commuters but nowhere near the weeks the Kindle can last for.
The iPad as a Platform: Bigger Than Books
A Vook on the iPad
The key differentiator between the two comes when we move beyond the simple eBook reading features. The Kindle includes a browser, but not one that functions nearly as well as the iPad’s. It’s black and white and renders incredibly slowly due to the E-Ink screen technology. The iPad’s Safari browser is widely regarded as one of the best on a mobile platform.
I’ve always seen the iPad as more than a traditional book reader as well. The Kindle simply translates the book reading experience into the digital age but strives not to completely alter the way we experience books. New features like Amazon’s Popular Highlights add subtle suggestions about the importance of a passage but do not redefine the reading workflow. Cool ideas like the aforementioned Vook change the reading experience by adding videos, multimedia, more information about certain topics (with links) and more. Could the iPad help the form of the written word change? Only time, and developers, will tell.
Decisions, Decisions
Those of you struggling with the decision to purchase an iPad or a Kindle might want to do some soul searching. What do you want from your portable device? Just books and nothing more? Buy a Kindle – that’s what it’s meant for. But if you’re looking for a small computer, with thousands of different and innovative new applications that could redefine reading, the iPad is for you.
[ iPad or Kindle? A Flawed, but Popular, Comparison is a post from 148Apps ]
Magazines on the iPad: A Round Up
Magazines on the iPad: A Round Up is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
The iPad has been heralded by many as the future of magazines and the savior of the publishing industry. Magazines like Newsweek are losing circulation and being purchased at fire sale prices. The iPad provides a blank canvas for publishers, content producers, and anyone who wants to innovate. The problem is that the opportunity has not yet been realized.
I remember being thrilled at the prospect of iPad magazines even before the device itself was announced. Sports Illustrated has showcased a great teaser video of their application, and Bonnier’s Mag+ platform also appeared to have potential. The arrival of the iPad shows unrealized potential. Reading apps, like iBooks and Stanza, have shown great ability at translating the book reading experience for a tablet.
PDFs for iPad?
Many publishers have simply translated their magazines to the iPad by making them into PDFs of the print version. Some, like Wired, have added custom UI layers and slight multimedia additions to spruce up their publications. The vertical and horizontal reading interface present in magazines like Wired show that publishers are trying to think out of the box, but they haven’t quite succeeded yet. Unfortunately, the current workflow may not work. A series by Ad Age this week shows that magazine publishers are taking the content from their print editions and dropping them into templates for the iPad. What would happen if magazines were custom designed for the iPad? If the content was specifically designed to take advantage of the iPad’s features? I hope we’ll be able to find out in the coming months.
A Roundup
I’ve reviewed six iPad magazine apps so far, each with their own set of pros and cons:
-
Wired: An interesting first attempt that falls short due to download size, quirky navigation, and its underlying architecture.
Time: Interesting effort tying live content (News Feed) with magazine content but this is essentially just a PDFed magazine.
Newsweek: The iPad-only edition it includes makes boastful claims, but the app itself can’t compete with the others listed here.
GQ: The men’s interest magazine’s first iPad edition includes a bizarre navigation system but some useful innovations.
Zinio for iPad: The popular and experienced magazine digitizers bring their platform to the iPad and make it one of the few viable options for those interested in magazines.
Popular Science+: Like Wired’s app, bizarre navigation makes Pop Sci difficult to enjoy on Bonnier’s Mag+ platform.
Conclusion
So far, it appears that even lackluster efforts are producing success for publishers. There is clearly more potential for the medium and I’m sure content producers aren’t resting. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
[ Magazines on the iPad: A Round Up is a post from 148Apps ]
Zinio for iPad Review
Newsweek for iPad Review
TIME Magazine Review
Stanza Updates for the iPad
Stanza Updates for the iPad is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Stanza’s Options and Reading Screen
Lexcycle, acquired last year by Amazon, released a version of their popular iPhone/iPod touch eReader Stanza for the iPad last week. Stanza was my eReader of choice on my iPhone and I’m thrilled it’s finally been ported to the iPad. It’s a terrific reader that’s compatible with a wide variety of different formats. Before Stanza for iPad was released, I used Calibre to convert my eBooks to iBooks’ required ePub format. Stanza allows users to read in a whole bunch of formats, and the 3.0 release adds PDF, DjVu, and Comic Book Archive support to Stanza’s already extensive library of readable files.
Stanza includes the most customizable reading interface I’ve seen on a mobile application. It allows you to customize nearly everything, from the page turning animations (a slide like the Kindle’s or a page turning animation like iBooks’) to the background and color of the text. Stanza really does make the experience all about the text – the user is able to customize everything about the way the book is viewed. Barnes and Nobles’ app was lauded earlier this week for including the same customization but their application locks you into using their bookstore. Stanza lets you load your own books onto the iPad or iPhone. It also, however, allows you access to a variety of other eBook stores directly from the phone.
Stanza’s Text Descriptions
Perhaps the application’s best feature is Stanza’s Detail views for text. Highlighting text using the traditional copy and paste mechanism in iBooks yields a tooltip that lets you bookmark (highlight) and look things up in the dictionary. It’s a more complicated scenario in Stanza but one that offers one additional option – the ability to share text on Facebook, Twitter, and through email. The detail view pulls up the paragraph in question in an iPhone-sized window and makes it easier to select text.
Stanza works perfectly with Calibre, my app of choice for eBook conversion. It now allows for a really simple workflow to get eBooks from the desktop to an iPad. It’s possible to move books by utilizing a computer as a wireless server, or by pushing them from Calibre into iTunes. It’s also possible to drag books into iTunes and into Stanza.
Stanza is the ideal reading experience, with customizable colors, animations, and more and compatibility with dozens of different formats. The Lexcycle team has succeeded in bringing the great iPhone app to the iPad and I, as an avid reader, am glad they did so.
FREE!
+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad
Our Rating: 
:: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Read Our Full Review >>
:: HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDRead Our Full Review >>
Released: 2008-07-13 :: Category: Books
[ Stanza Updates for the iPad is a post from 148Apps ]
MobileRSS HD for Google RSS Reader – iPad App Review
WIRED Magazine
WIRED Magazine is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Developer: Conde Net
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
iPhone Integration Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use Value Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Chris Anderson, Wired’s editor, set high standards when he said that Wired’s tablet app was “what we’ve been waiting for for 15 years.” Their video demo that followed set high hopes for their app. They had some struggles along the way, with Apple’s spat with Adobe interfering with the release of their app, but this past week Wired finally hit the iPhone and made quite an impression, selling 24,000 copies in its first 24 hours on the App Store and occupying the App Store’s #1 spot for a while.
So does the app meet its promise as the future of magazines? Not quite. Wired has done a little to spice up the traditional magazine beyond adding a new navigation layer. Users scroll horizontally to move between articles and vertically to read articles themselves. They’ve included some multimedia, like special clips of Toy Story 3, audio for the reviews they do, and some graphics for features like a catalog of Mars missions. These are a nice touch but don’t do much to actually revolutionize the magazine’s experience. In fact, navigation may be a little more confusing than before – users may take a while to get used to scrolling down to browse through individual articles, especially when there’s no indicator that articles continue on the next page.
Wired’s Navigation
The app has received lots of criticism. InterfaceLab, for instance, pointed out that the app itself is over 500MB. That’s a huge app and takes a while to download. With the restrictions on 3G downloading, it’s not even possible to do it without a Wi-Fi hotspot. So much for the logic of downloading an app while on the go. The same post revealed that Wired for iPad, much like the CD-ROM magazines that were supposed to save journalism in the 90s, is a series of PNGs instead of a fully interactive magazine in HTML5.
Adobe just announced that the tools Wired used to create their magazine will soon be available to the general public and other magazine creators. Hopefully, some of them will give more thought to layout and design and experiment with new forms of interaction for the iPad. Wired has taken a terrific first step with this app – it’s an attempt to re-engineer the magazine, but instead it adds multimedia here and there for something that doesn’t feel completely put together. I look forward to seeing what Wired can do for their next issue.
[ WIRED Magazine is a post from 148Apps ]
uBooks
Instapaper Pro
Instapaper Pro is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Developer: Marco Arment
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 2.2.1
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 2.2.1
iPhone Integration Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Utility RatingRating: 5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.88 out of 5 stars
Instapaper has been around for a while, but it doesn’t show a speck of age. This sleek app allows you to download text from websites for on-the-go reading. Sound simple? Sure, but Instapaper reigns supreme when it comes to finesse, functionality, and elegance. Think of it like an RSS reader or document storage…but simpler, less rigid, and better suited to the iPhone.
The concept is a simple one. Bookmark a website from your computer or the iPhone’s browser using a special bookmark, and it’ll be added to your Instapaper account. From there, you can read it in the app. Instapaper removes superfluous ads and other assorted clutter, and displays it in a clean, easily readable interface. Once it’s downloaded to Instapaper, you can read your articles offline, anywhere you can take your iPhone. It’s extremely convenient, especially for longer articles and blog posts that might take a solid chunk of time to read.
The cornerstone of Instapaper is simplicity, but the app provides plenty of features and options. First, when it comes to reading articles, you can customize your display. Font choices include Helvetica, Georgia, and Verdana; you can shrink the font size; a night mode inverts the background (white-text-against-black-screen works better at night). To scroll through an article, you can flick the screen as you would normally in Safari, or use the other two options: tilt scrolling and pagination. Tilt scrolling works fluidly and simply: tap a button to enable the mode, and the text scrolls based on angle of your device. Pagination requires a single tap to advance a page, much as you’d expect from an eBook reader. I don’t really like pagination—you have to tap the bottom of the page, not the right, and there’s no real animation to show the transition—but all three options work just fine.
This version of Instapaper also includes a bevy of other features. You can organize your articles in folders, and even set up folders that automatically import articles from RSS feeds. For example, right now I have a 148apps.com folder that automatically downloads all new posts, as well as a few others like ArsTechnica and PoliticsDaily. You can share articles via Tumblr and Twitter, and look up word definitions without leaving the app. You can lock rotation in the settings menu. Instapaper even remembers where in an article you stopped reading…perfect for if you get interrupted during a super-long article!
What Instapaper does is simple on the surface, but doing it well is another thing entirely. Instapaper looks, feels, and acts like a native Apple app: it has the same level of polish and a well-designed user interface. And, more importantly, it’s incredibly useful…especially if you’re a WiFi-bound iPod Touch user or don’t have a data plan. Last year, I used the free version extensively for storing AP US History notes for quick studying between classes and on the bus; having the full version’s features makes it even better. For long blog posts and articles, it’s also a very nice touch; sitting down to read an enormous post might not fit with your browsing habits, but it’s easy to set it aside for later.
I really don’t have any complaints about Instapaper Pro. Well…I wish I could download images along with the text, but with the option to view the original file in Mobile Safari, it’s not as necessary as it might have been. Other than that small caveat? This is perfect. If you’re a literate internet user, you owe it to yourself to get this app. At the very least, give its free version a spin!
Instapaper Free
Category: Productivity
Released: 2008-07-11
Price: FREE