Use your iPhone as an e-book reader Video

Use your iPhone as an e-book reader Video Transcript

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>> If the high price of the Amazon Kindle and the Sony eReader have you thinking that maybe this is a better option than a stand-alone eBook reader, never fear. Your iPhone or iPod Touch could be the answer to that hardback elbow you've been suffering from. ^M00:00:14 [ Music ] ^M00:00:24 Hi. I'm Molly Wood from CNET.com and in this Insider's Secret, I'll show you how to use your iPhone or iPod touch as an eBook reader. The iPhone app store sells a few books, and most of them have their own reader software built in. But the selection is mainly public domain books, and that can a little thin. So what you really need is some good eReader software, some good book sources, and maybe a way to convert older eBooks or other documents to readable format. Now, there are a few eBook reader apps for the iPhone. The one we really like is called eReader. It's free, and it's owned by Fictionwise.com. It's available as an iPhone app, and it supports eBooks from Fictionwise.com or eReader.com. And between those two sites, you should be able to find most recent or popular books. And of course, you can download public domain eBooks from tons of places online. Once you install the eReader software in your iPhone, you can either download books that you've already bought at eReader.com or Fictionwise.com, or you can shop for them on the eReader mobile site or at Manybooks.net right there on the phone. Now, one downside to eReader is that there's no way to upload your own books to the iPhone. That's where you might want to consider another of our eReader favorites, Stanza. This software supports books in the ePub format, which are mostly public domain books, free, but kind of old usually. Fictionwise.com offers some ePub titles, but the main reason to use Stanza is that it lets you convert Kindle files, MSLit, PDFs, RTFs, and even word docs into ePub, and then sync with the Stanza desktop software to put those books, or your manuscripts, or whatever you want on your iPhone or iPod Touch. And actually, both Stanza and eReader support other devices like Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Palm, and Stanza supports BlackBerry, too. So either of these mobile reading options will keep you from lugging around a big old brick like this one or shelling out a ton for a dedicated device. Multipurpose all the way. Happy reading everybody. I'm Molly Wood from CNET.com, and you're welcome. ^M00:02:20 [ Music ]