There are now 4 major eBook stores and readers available for the iPad: iBooks, Kindle, Nook and Google Books. Which do you use? What made you choose it over the other options?
I use the Third-Generation Kindle because of the inter connectivity and range of devices that the Kindle supports. I can read a book on my eReader, then pick it back up on my iPhone while I'm waiting to get my hair cut or something like that.
So basically, for me, it's because of the cloud aspect - I can read on my phone, tablet, computer, eReader, or (now) actually in the cloud with their Cloud Reader.
For me it's through Kindle. In our house are two android phones, nookcolor (rooted), ipad2 and a kindle and Kindle allows us to access our books through any of those devices. Add to that the new web app they just deployed and you have a great combination of cross platform support.
I use my ipad with various ebook readers including ibooks, kindle, nook, goodreader, etc. I enjoy reading what I want from who I want. Haven't tried google books.
iPad with the Kindle app. I'd get a dedicated Kindle if I had the cash going spare as it's a much more distraction free and comfortable option, but the iPad does a perfectly good job for now.
I chose the 2nd gen Nook and like it a lot. I specifically wanted just and e-reader and it does the job well. The reason I chose the nook is because of the touch screen interface. It has a lot in common with the iOS devices and it took no time to get use to. I don't like the keyboard on the kindles so I went with the reader without one.
I have chosen the 3rd generation Kindle as my primary reading device. The availability of my Kindle content across many different platforms was also a factor considered. When I want to read, the less distractions, the better. My second choice was to use the iPad 2 (with Kindle content), but not sure how much reading I would accomplish in the long term with it.
I have been using the iBooks reader lately. Mostly because the material that I'm reading now is in .epub format. I of course have the other main readers installed as I own a few Amazon titles but iBooks is getting the most use today. The ability to stop and start reading again on a different device does certainly impress and make the Kindle app next in line.
I use Stanza on both my iPhone 3GS and iPad 1st Gen. I've read a few books on the Kindle app, but prefer the many display and font customization options within Stanza. I like reading with a sans-serif font and the Kindle app only has a Times Roman style font. I've been reading on various e-reading devices for the past 10 years or so (HP Jornada and other PDAs. phones) so I guess I'm pretty much set in my ways now.
Stanza also lets me wirelessly search for and download my ebooks from Calibre over my home network.
iBooks is a little better for me in that it does allow the user to change the font to a sans-serif one (Verdana). However, it seems to run a little slowly on my 3GS. I'm hoping to remedy that soon with a new iPhone. :-)
I'd love to see the Kindle store and Whispersync integrated within Stanza. Having to manually search to where I am within a book whenever I switch devices is a minor pain, but workable. I also like the selection within the Kindle store.
Perhaps they've not done anything with it to keep the experience the same across platforms, but that doesn't go along with having a single font in the iPhone app.
As an update, and unfortunately, the iOS 5 update has broken Stanza and it doesn't look like Amazon will be updating it. Since I can't do without an eBook reader on my iDevices, I began using MegaReader, by Inkstone Software. www.megareader.net
It's not an across the board Stanza replacement (yet!), but the developer has been actively soliciting feedback and ways to improve the app. He's even already put out a couple of updates since I began using it to give it more functionality. I definitely recommend it!
