Barnes and Noble eReader
I reviewed the Amazon Kindle app for iPhone a while back for ExtremeTech.com. I was pleased to find out that Barnes and Noble had released their own ebook app for the iPhone as competition usually brings out the best in all companies. And, given Amazon’s recent screw up in deleting books from people’s Kindles without getting permission, I think it’s a great idea for other companies to offer ebook reader apps to provide an alternative to what Amazon is offering. No one company should ever have a monopoly on the distribution of ebooks or on ebook reader apps or hardware.
Cost & File Size
The B&N eReader app is free and weighs in at a reasonable 5.1MB.
It’s been tested and works fine with iPhone OS 3.0 so you shouldn’t have a problem if you’ve upgraded your iPhone or if you’ve purchased a new iPhone 3GS. My iPhone 3G is running iPhone OS 3.0 and the B&N app worked fine for me.
Creating A B&N Account
If you don’t already have a B&N online account you’ll need to create one. Just start the app and you’ll be able to set up account in less than a minute.
Don’t worry if you’ve never used an ebook reader app before, there’s a very helpful B&N Reader User Guide that comes with the B&N eReader app. So if you take a few minutes to browse through that you’ll know pretty much everything you need to know to use the B&N eReader app.
User Interface & Features
When you first start the B&N app after creating your account, you’ll see the Categories screen. You can choose from the following:
Shop for eBooks
My Online Library
All eBooks
Fiction
History
Mystery & Crime
Nonfiction
Romance
Sci Fi & Fantasy
Thrillers
Samples
Books At the Movies
Fiction & Literature Classics
Teen Fiction & Suspense
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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I’ve thought about getting an eBook reader, but some things come to mind.
How’s the reading experience on the small backlit screen? What’s the effect on battery life? How long can you read for on your iPhone with a full charge?
How were your experiences in these areas?
Hi Tom,
Reading on an iPhone isn’t quite as good as on a Kindle. But it’s quite tolerable for reasonable periods of time. It all depends on your own eye comfort level with the screen.
I didn’t test it long enough to run through an entire charge on my iPhone. My guess is that you’d have at least a few hours but you’d have to give it a shot to find out how much power it used.
It may depend on your iPhone model too as the 3GS supposedly has a bit better battery life. I have a regular 3G though so I couldn’t tell you what results you’d get with a 3GS.
The app is free though so snag a copy and give it a shot.
B&N bought eReader (which was owned by Fictionwise, so I guess B&N technically bought Fictionwise) a little while ago. This app is a rebranded version. It looks almost exactly the same except for the links in the app and the color scheme. All the options look the same.
That said, I’ve read 20ish books on a Tungsten and now 10ish on the iPhone with the eReader software. It’s a royal flush compared to the Kindle’s pair of twos. The lack of integration to buy books is a pain, but it’s a minor one. Especially when comparing the options in eReader to Kindle. Kindle typically is cheaper per book than eReader though. I haven’t investigated B&N book pricing compared to the other two.
Books at the eReader site are in a proprietary format, sorry Jim. I’m assuming b&n ones are also.
I’ve read books, with music playing, for hours (at least 5 or more) on a full charge.
With some adjustments to the brightness and the screen colors/themes (smoke and mirrors is pretty good for night reading), it’s great for reading at night since you don’t need lighting in the room for the LOYL to complain about. You can get some pretty serious eye-strain if you don’t find a comfortable size, brightness and color setting. Oh yeah, Kindle has black on white or white on black. That’s it. C’mon Amazon, that’s sad.
If I could find a waterproof iPhone so I could reliably read books outside by the pool or in the spa, I don’t know that I’d ever read a paper book again. ebooks are lighter, typically cheaper, always with me for when I’ve got 15 minutes waiting around in the doctor’s office, have music in the background…I got over the need to feel a book to read it a long time ago.
@ Shane:
Sorry, just for clarity, my references to “Kindle” in the post above are for the Kindle iPhone app, not an actual Kindle. I don’t own a Kindle device.