Now this is an app I can stand behind.  Like many of you, I am an avid reader.  I ride the train every day, and spend quite a bit of time with my nose buried in a book….well, lately an ebook or ibook, but you get the idea.  Sometimes, I read so much so quickly, that I can easily lose track of the books I have read or the books I plan to read, sometimes even the books I am reading when I get into two or three at a time…something else ebooks makes way too easy to do.  Yesterday, our friends at Electric Pocket have released a fantastic looking solution, with Book Lover, an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch (and with less than stellar graphics, the iPad as well).  Book Lover is not a reading app.  Instead, it is a catalog of your books.  From here, you can track the books you have read, the books you would like to read, and even the books you are currently reading.  The whole thing is organized in a bookshelf, like Apple’s iBook app.  The whole thing will even go online and download the cover art for you.  Pretty cool stuff.  Check out the full press release, below.

People who love to read and share their favorite books with friends now have a new iPhone app to help them recall each book they’ve read, enter notes on what they liked about each one, jot down the titles they’d like to read, and share favorites with friends by Facebook or email. BookLover, by Electric Pocket, also automatically fetches the book cover and, in many cases, a synopsis of each book in the reader’s collection or on their Wish List.

BookLover is ideal for true book lovers who not only are always on the lookout for good books, but eagerly share with friends after they’ve read a great one. They simply input the title and author (if known) and BookLover goes online to retrieve the cover art and any other information available.

Books are displayed on BookLover’s beautifully designed bookshelves for easy access when chatting with friends or shopping at the bookstore. Users can organize the books on the shelves however they’d like, and can easily drag and drop books between shelves to change how they are categorized.

For members of book clubs, or those who just enjoy discussing books with friends, BookLover enables them to jot their notes down for each book so they are prepared for the discussion with their insightful thoughts. This is also a handy feature to simply record who a book has been loaned to.

Sharing book reviews is a snap with BookLover’s Facebook and email sharing options. Users simply write their thoughts in BookLover’s text editor and with the click of a button, can email directly to friends or post on their Facebook walls.

BookLover for iPhone is available in the Apple App Store at an introductory rate of US$.99.
More information can be found on the Electric Pocket website at electricpocket.com/booklover.

Is this better late than never?  Or is it too little too late?  We will find out soon enough when the Kobo eReader finally lands at Borders.  It may not have wifi…or 3G connectivity, but what the heck, you can still transfer books from your computer via Bluetooth.  So, what else will you get for your $150?

• 100 free classic eBooks
• 6 inch e-ink display
• 5 selectable fonts
• 4-way D-pad controller
• 1 GB of built in storage plus an SD card slot

For you Borders fans out there who have been waiting on the edge of your seat for them to jump into the eBook waters, you can head over to Borders today and preorder this one.  Just don’t expect it until mid-June.  For the rest of you, Kobo also offers an eBook reader for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and pretty much any other mobile device.  The reader software is free, and taps into Borders’ complete eBook library.

What do you think?  Does the world have room for yet another stand alone eBook reader?  Or has the iPad and its multiple eBook apps made this a dying breed?  Better later than never?  Or too little too late?  Chime in  via the comments and let us know your thoughts.

[via Slashgear]

Kobo eReader

The last time we heard from our friends at Kobo, they were busy partnering with Borders.  I, of course, said it was about time.  With Amazon and Barnes & Noble already having eReaders, Borders was in need of something to keep it relevant.  Now, we finally get to see the new eReader.   This device has one focus, and that is reading.  I know its hard to believe that there is actually a product trying to just do one thing very well, but here it is. 

The specs:  6″ e-ink display, USB connectivity, 1GB of memory, SD card slot, and Bluetooth to sync reading lists with smartphones.  Those are pretty standard features.  The lack of 3G is a bit disappointing.  The ability to buy books on the go is a big selling point for Amazon & B&N, and Kobo should not have left it out.  Navigation is simple with a blue D-pad and 4 buttons on the left-handside of the device.  The hardware is also a bit outside the norm.  It has a quilted rubber back to make it easier for the user to handle.  Plus, you can also get skins to dress up the front of your reader.  There is one that is made of book cloth, so you feel like you are holding a real book.  How retro!  Kobo also mentions that they support manga in their offerings.  Now, I would love to see comics, but I need color on my eReader.  I’m not sure if you would lose something with the lack of color in manga.  One huge bonus for the Kobo eReader, they include 100 ebooks already loaded on the reader.  Wow!!!  Plus, they say you will be able to store over 1000 ebooks at one time.  No official price has been released, but anticipated price is $150. 

Honestly, I think this is a good basic eReader.  You have a huge selection of books with Kobo’s services and Borders Books.  If you don’t need all of the fancy features, I think this is worth a look. 

It has been eReader mania for the last two years.  I am beginning to wonder if tablets, or the iPad, will make eReaders extinct.  Convergence is all the rage.  Why carry 3 devices, when you can carry just one?  I am very interested in knowing, for people who use computers for ebooks, does the glare bother your eyes?  For me, the e-ink would be the selling point.  However, as much of a gadget geek that I am, I still love the feel of a real book, but I love watching what will happen next in the eReaer battle. 

Via GottaBeMobile

The biggest reason I preordered the iPad last week was eBooks.  Not just for the iPad store, which I think looks amazing, but also the promise of alternate ebook stores, including the Kindle and Barnes and Noble eReader.  Toss in Stanza, and you have the four amazing eBook readers, as well as eBook stores all in one device.   Now that is pretty amazing.

So, I was pretty excited today when we saw a sneak peek at the soon-to-be Kindle App for the iPad, and boy does it look amazing.  From the looks of it, it will fit extremely well with the overall iPad design, including the bookshelf style main page (which reminds us of the iBook store, without mimicking it), and the page turning animation looks fantastic.  Basically, they have taken the Kindle and made it more…iPad-y. 

Of course, this comes hot on the heels of news that Barnes and Noble will be updating their eReader app for iPad as well.  No word on the release date for either of these, but we can hope that they will both be available on April 3 when the iPad arrives, or shortly thereafter.  Oh, and as for Stanza, all I can say is that we have heard nothing out of the Lexcycle camp yet, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can go four for four on this one.

[Kindle news and photo via Slashgear.  Barnes and Noble news and photo via Engadget]

When Apple announced their new iPad Internet Tablet last week, one of the major features was their new e-Book reader and iBook store.  This was pretty exciting for me.  I am a huge fan of e-Books, and this is one of the nicest looking e-Book readers I have seen.  The interface is simply fantastic, and the bookstore is already stocked with a supply from several major publishers.  Sounds great, right?

Well, maybe not so much.  At least not for you and I.  One of the biggest problems I have had with e-Books has been the price of the books.  With no printing or distribution costs, you would expect the price of the books to be rock bottom, as in under $5.00.  This has not happened, though, mainly because the publishers cling to an antiquated pricing scheme, which focuses on the paper and ink version of the book.  To be honest, until publishers truly embrace the e-Book format and recognize it as a realistic alternative, if not replacement, for the pen and ink books, then this will not significantly chance.  Nonetheless, Amazon has done a fantastic job of negotiating lower and lower prices with the publishers, even offering significant incentives to publishers who offer lower priced books.  As a result, Amazon has been able to keep their Kindle e-Book prices below $10 for most books, including new releases.  Faced with the market dominance of Amazon’s Kindle, other e-Book stores quickly followed suit, with Barnes and Noble, Sony, and others soon lowering their prices to match or even beat Amazon’s.

This was all great news for consumers.  As 2009 turned to 2010, there were several fantastic e-Book readers available, with the promise of up to a dozen more by the end of the year, as well as several fantastic bookstores, and a price war which featured an apparent race to the bottom in terms of e-Book pricing.  2010 was shaping up to be the year of the e-Book.

Sadly, that all came to a screeching halt last week when Apple unveiled its iPad and iBook Store.  While Apple has not officially unveiled their iBook Store pricing scheme, it is rumored to raise the e-Book price ceiling to $15 per book or more.  One might expect Apple to feel the backlash from consumers as a result of this higher pricing scheme, but that has hardly been the base.  Instead, the backlash came almost immediately from publishers as MacMillan and Harper Collins demanded to renegotiate their pricing schemes with Amazon and raise the prices of e-Books to more closely match Apple’s pricing scheme.  Sadly, Amazon had no choice but to relent, effectively ending the downward trend of e-Book pricing.  The end of the $9.99 e-Book is nigh.  Can the end of Amazon’s market dominance be far behind?  Write in and let us know what you think.