Not long ago, I took a look at a pretty cool new app, an interactive, 3D storybook for the iPad called The Wrong Side of The Bed.  My thoughts on it previously were pretty positive.  It is a good story, with great graphics…not to mention that it features eye popping 3D and a well read narration should you choose to listen to the book instead of reading it yourself.

The new upgrade features some fantastic interactive animation.  On many pages, you can tickle the main character, Mott, to see his different reactions to the situation at hand.  The new version of the book is also chock full of new animations and sound effects, which really add to the story’s entertainment value.  Check it out for all iOS devices in the iTunes App Store.  The interactive ebook costs $2.99 for the iPad and $1.99 on iPhone and iPod Touch.

Not long ago, my son had to spend some time in the hospital (he is much better now).  When we first arrived at the emergency room, we had nothing to entertain ourselves for the next eight hours or so except my iPad.  This turned out to be fortuitous.  Unlike the Kindle, with its monochromatic screen, the ipad’s full color monitor allows it to display crisp and vibrant full color images.  So…how did this help us in the hospital?  Two words.  Picture books.  If I had brought my Kindle, there would have been no way for me to read age appropriate stories to my five-year old son.  With the iPad, however, I was able to find a picture book in the iBook Store and read that all night.

In addition to including a few existing picture books in the various book stores, there are also quite a few freestanding eBooks aimed at young children.  One of my favorites is The Wrong Side Of The Bed.  This is a really fun story about a boy who wakes up, “on the wrong side of the bed” to find everything turned upside down.  His quest is to find a way to put things right…and right side up.

The book does a fantastic job of really using all of the iPad’s resources.  Not only that, the artwork is just spectacular, exactly the kind of bright colors and vivid details that are going to keep kids coming back for more.

Of course, just reading the story is not always going to be enough.  In addition to reading the story yourself, you can also choose to have the story read to you.  With this option, the eBook doubles as an audio book, with the author’s recorded voice reading the book to you, as well as a complete musical score.  This is perfect for younger children learning to read.  They can listen to the words and follow along on the pages.   Of course, this is also a perfect option for those lazy parents who don’t want to read to their kids themselves.

If we were going to stop there, this would be a pretty cool standalone book app.  But in addition to all of that, this one also comes in 3D.  Sure, you will have to find yourself some of those red and blue 3D glasses (you can order them straight from the app for a whopping $0.75 (the picture does not translate well without the glasses, but trust me, it looks pretty cool).  This really adds something impressive to the app.  The 3D images just pop off the screen and straight into your living room.  I thought this 3D effect was fantastic.  It really worked well without putting the technology ahead of the story.

I have to say that I have never been a fan of the comparison between the iPad and the Kindle (though Chris did take a great stab at it).  They really are apples and oranges, using very different forms of technology.  At the same time, even Kindle users will have to be impressed by this one.  Not only does it offer stunning, full color artwork, and a full soundtrack, but it does it all in eye popping 3D.   No other device offers that kind of entertainment. .

The Wrong Side Of The Bed is available in the iTunes App store from Seehere Studios for $2.99 for the iPad and $1.99 for the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Barnes & Noble announced that they are putting themselves on the market.  No, not the tablet market, but the company is selling itself.  So, if you want to buy a bookstore, there is currently one available.  This has renewed the debate of the coming end of the printed word.  I have seen the end coming for newspapers.  I know I get all of my news on-line or via TV.  Many papers have had cutbacks and even closed.  With the success of the Kindle, Nook, and iPad, the next item on the extinction list is the book.  Now, I am a big gadget geek.  If I wasn’t, would I be here writing for JAMM?  However, I love my books in their paper versions.  There is just something cozy about crawling into bed with a good book that would just lose that feeling if I’m holding onto an eReader, and not turning those paper pages.  I stare at a computer screen most of the day, so I want something different when I relax.  I am hoping that the books hold on for a while to come.

What do you prefer: paper or electronic?  Do you like the e-ink screen better than a traditional computer screen?  Is this the end for books?

Now this was a surprise.  While I was making my way through the iTunes App Store today on my iPad, I stumbled upon a somewhat unexpected treat: Stanza.  Yes, that’s right, Lexcycle brought the iPhone’s most popular eBook reader to the iPad platform.

Now, some of you may recall that some time ago, Lexcycle was bought out by Amazon, and a lot of us assumed that meant the end of Stanza as a stand alone app.  apparently, a lot of us were dead wrong. 

In addition to full iPad support, the newly released Stanza 3.0 features:

• PDF, DjVu, and Comic Book Archive support
• Turkish & Bulgarian translations
• Many, many bug fixes
• Transfer books to & from your desktop PC via iTunes
• Open books directly from web pages and e-mail attachments

I downloaded Stanza (as always, it is free) as soon as I found it this morning, though I have to say I was not as impressed as I expected to be.  The interface is a little too much like an iPhone interface.  While it has certainly been expanded to fill the entire screen, the interface, does not really utilize the expanded real estate and resolution of the iPad screen.  It offers nothing more than the same list view that it offered on the iPhone.  Nonetheless, like the iPhone version, stanza offers a portal to an impressive array of books, including Fictionwise and Project Gutenberg. 

Check it out for free in the iTunes App Store.

When the iPad launched earlier this year, one of the real treats for me was exploring the myriad of ebook reading options.  Not only was the highly touted iBooks and its accompanying Apple book store sitting there front and center, but much to many users’ surprise, we also found an incredible Kindle app, backed by the full Amazon bookstore and the Borders with its Kobo ereading app, backed, of course, by Borders extensive library. 

I have to admit that I was pretty shocked to find every major bookseller hitting the iPad right off the…waitaminute.  iBooks, Borders, Amazon…hang on, something is definitely missing.  One of the biggest mysteries for me on launch day was what the heck happened to Barnes & Noble?  They had a pretty good iPhone app, yet they were no where to be found on the iPad.  While everyone marveled over Apple’s new iBooks; Amazon’s Kindle killer, Kindle for iPad; and Border’s oddly named but fully functional Kobo, Barnes & Noble seems to slip out of the collective consciousness of iPad users. 

Well, the wait is now over.  Today (finally) Barnes & Noble released its BN eReader app to the iPad App Store.  Only time will tell how the BN eReader app will measure up to the other eBook readers available for the iPad.  I will say, however, that I am thrilled to find that Barnes & Noble finally brought its own extensive selection of books to the iPad.  Now, we can truly say that all of the major booksellers are available on the iPad…and there is nothing wrong with that.

Let’s take a quick look at what BN eReader brings to the table:

• Over one million titles
• LendMe technology lets you share the books in your personal library with friends
• Free samples of any book in the Barnes & Noble library
• Completely customizable interface
• Notes
• Free dictionary built into the app
• Attractive interface

The BN eReader for iPad is available for free from the iTunes App Store.  It is currently the number two ranked free app.