Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"While I haven't used every e-reader application on the market, when I can compare four of the major ones, eReader, Nook, Kindle, Stanza, Kobo, and iBooks, I found the latter to be the best software e-reader for navigating and annotating e-books."

To be honest, I haven't really done much reading with iBook, certainly not as much as I did on my Kindle. I get distracted with things like surfing the net or using Zinio to read the magazines I have in my account. So this article was good for me to read as it showed me just what I was missing with iBooks. I actually learned quite a bit about the program from someone that actually has used it extensively, so if you want to learn about it, it is well worth the read. Which is your favorite eReader?

"Barnes & Noble released its eReader for iPad (free) this week. This latest incarnation adds some features that the iPhone version lacks, like text highlighting and room for annotations (something I wish Apple's iBooks app did). But more than that, eReader for iPad is about sharing."

This app supports the ebook format, shopping in Barnes & Noble, some text highlighting and annotations and best of all it allows sharing, just like their Nook e-reader does. It's free [iTunes link] and available now.

"When Apple does eventually get around to shipping the iPad, which may not be as soon as many of us had hoped, we'll at least have some good quality, familiar content to enjoy on the platform according to an internal announcement by Condé Nast as reported by the New York Times."

They plan to have Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour ready to go after the release of the iPad, by staggering the launch of each title over the course of the next six months, ending sometime this summer. These will all be sold through iTunes, and I don't think they will be the only company doing this. I'm hoping Zinio has something available since they already have an iPhone app, as well as many titles to choose from. But I'm really hoping some kind of Kindle app will happen so I can use it for all those books I own.

"Overlooked in much of the hype about the iPad announcement earlier in the week was a comment by Steve Jobs in the Keynote presentation where he mentioned that the iBooks app for iPad would take advantage of the popular EPUB format for electronic books. Since we're all going to get a lot more familiar with this format in the near future, we felt it would be a good time to provide our readers with more information about EPUB."

And provide info they do, giving a complete run down on all you ever wanted to know about ePub standards and what your options are. Well, almost complete, since it still isn't clear how, or if the Amazon.com Kindle store will work with this new device. I'm hoping that Amazon.com continues with their Mac platform Kindle Reader like they have for the iPhone, then I'm pretty sure that I will be buying one of these. But if they don't, since the Barnes & Noble Nook uses the same standard as this device, I may just switch up my book buying to Barnes & Noble. And if it sounds like I'm trying to rationalize buying an iPad, well you may just be right.

"Amazon.com slashed the price of its Kindle e-reader, likely in response to vigorous competition from manufacturers such as Sony and the prospect of a huge battle with Apple in 2010."

That is if Apple comes out with a tablet, which seems to be at the forefront of the rumor mill these days. Regardless, the drop is to $259.00 USD for the regular Kindle, $279.00 USD if you want the one tied to 3G and able to download content while in the US as well as about 100 other countries.