The Digital Reader

Ebooks.com are one of the ebookstores I have bought from occasionally. They’ve been quietly developing their own reading apps.

The iOS app came out a couple weeks ago. It’s an okay app, but it only works with Epub. The one ebook I bought from ebooks.com is in PDF, and I’m a little disappointed that I can read it with Amigo Reader but not the iOS app.

Update: They know about the PDF problem and they’re currently weighing the benefit of adding PDF support vs the cost (automated PDF conversions are usually horribly ugly).

They’re offering quite a few free ebooks  with the app (the usual PD titles). Unfortunately they make you jump through hoops to get the ebooks. You can’t just download them; no, you have to create an account and “buy” the free ebooks. How stupid. I can get the same titles in Stanza from just about anywhere.All this extra work does not make me like them.

The app has some basic features (font size, night reading mode rotation lock). But it can’t annotate, so I’d give this a pass.

Update: I’m told the annotation features will be coming in a later version of the app. Also, they’re going to better integrate the ebookstore.

P.S. I complained to the help desk about the PDF not working (before I figured out why). They responded within an hour and offered me a store credit. I’m not going to take them up on it, but it was a nice offer.

iTunes via The Ebook Reader blog