ScrollMotion's Iceberg in-app bookstore announced for iPhone, ready to take on the Kindle?

Over at WWDC (you may have heard about that event, right?), Apple's just announced ScrollMotion's Iceberg in-app bookstore for the iPhone. It's going to host more than 500 bestsellers, 50 major magazines and about 170 daily papers, with a total of over a million books at launch. Sounds like Apple's ready to take on the big boys at Amazon (who, at this writing, has about 250,000 books in its Kindle store)! More details as we get them.

[crescentdavid @ Jun 8th 2009 2:36PM]

This will make optometrists so damn happy ...

[HalfJoey @ Jun 8th 2009 2:41PM]

I tried reading a long document on my iPod Touch and it wasn't the easiest thing on my eyes. Perhaps with a different screen and easily scrollable large text?

[Dead_Rebel @ Jun 8th 2009 2:42PM]

Right, like I would seriously enjoy reading a damn book on my cell phone. C'mon people..... Just because it 'can' do something does it really, truly mean that it 'should'?

[mugupo @ Jun 8th 2009 2:51PM]

Problem is this might not work well it gonna eat up battery life.

[Volker @ Jun 8th 2009 3:02PM]

Engadget take it easy with the Apple posts. Wow, it's like the thing ain't over, and yet we're seeing already hyped up speculation on minor things.. Damn, talk about smoking, eating, and riding the apple pole.

[---- @ Jun 8th 2009 5:12PM]

guess you didnt notice last week all the post about the E3 video game conference. I love reading these apple haters and their whinny comments ... this crap makes me smile

notice how there are less and less apple hater comments the more posts about new features .. keep talking crap i need someone to laugh at

if you dont want to read it .. no one is forcing you

[Jonyah @ Jun 8th 2009 3:04PM]

you can't take on the kindle or any ebook reader with a phone. the pre already has an ebook reader (short covers out today), but i'll never use it. e-ink for the win!

[sam @ Jun 8th 2009 3:10PM]

like this deserved it's own post on the main page!

[Jason @ Jun 8th 2009 3:12PM]

I just saw a pic with the price of a book for the iphone, the prices these companies charge for digital copies makes me want to vomit everytime I see them (especially digital textbook prices, but that's for another post).

I will never understand reading on ANY cellphone unless it's the size of Zach's SBTB phone.

[Boards of Canada @ Jun 8th 2009 3:20PM]

Books on the iphone is a forget it. really, I tried. Now I've got myself a nice Sony PRS-505 black which is pretty cool to get out in the train. Unlike the kindle, it's perfect for the free content I find on the web.

[drzeller @ Jun 8th 2009 4:10PM]

Why is the Kindle not good for free content from the web? Or do you mean that they are equally good at it, but you don't like the premium price for the Kindle? Or that you don't think that the Kindle as good for the free stuff because you may have to convert some formats (for free, of course) for the Kindle? Or do you not like the built-in connectivity of the Kindle for some reason? Or...?

D.

[David Vogt @ Jun 8th 2009 3:36PM]

12 Apple posts? Really? TWELVE? What a joke.

[fergie @ Jun 8th 2009 3:51PM]

I use my Touch with eReader everyday. I invert the screen and it's not hard on my eyes and very readable. Little flick of my thumb changes pages. I'd look into this one, too IF I can invert the screen. Don't like the Kindle reader because I do not like black on white on this screen.

[samuel @ Jun 9th 2009 6:13PM]

@fergie:

the new kindle app (1.1) has 3 color themes (black on white, white on black, and sepia)

[drzeller @ Jun 8th 2009 4:13PM]

I know... 12... who would want in-depth coverage of Apple on one of their biggest announcement days of the year?! It's ridiculous! Shucks, can't people just go re-read the live blogs that are out there? Why have seperate articles on each topic, with some sort of actual comments about them instead of the short recaps from the live coverage. Idiotic! :-)

(Not a fanboy, just laughing at the comment...)

D.

[Alex @ Jun 8th 2009 5:14PM]

After doing speed reading on Brain Training on the DS, I thought that books on the DS would work great. That was, until, I was in a car journey for 8 hours going to Bournemouth, playing it non-stop. I had hand-cramp, and my eyes felt like they were bleeding from the inside.

[classy @ Jun 8th 2009 6:02PM]

this could be huge for the comics and manga market

[Steve Bryan @ Jun 8th 2009 6:09PM]

I was also initially skeptical about reading from an iPod touch. Since I just finished reading a novel I am no longer so skeptical. It is easy to adjust font size (I was using Stanza for the novel but I've also been using Kindle for iPhone) and the best feature is that it is so easy to read a bit anywhere and anytime because it is so much more portable than even a Kindle. I keep a dock in my backpack so I can set the iPod up and read hands free and just tap or the frequent page turns.

[darone @ Jun 8th 2009 8:35PM]

Since they are talking about a Late June event with the return of Jobs, and there was no new revolutionary device at today's event, I think that this post makes it obvious that the tablet that we have been hearing about for a while now will be launched with the return of SJ at the end of June.... Mark my words!

[rajanbharat @ Jun 9th 2009 12:06AM]

This reader is terrible compared to eReader and Eucalyptus. Try them. Iceberg is slow and you have to use a combination of scrolling and flicking to turn long pages to get through a book. Notebook feature might be useful if I wanted to make notes on a $12.99 download of a pulpy trade paperback.

[SteveJ @ Jun 9th 2009 8:57AM]

This would do better on a iPhone OS-based multitouch netbook, perhaps in tablet form. Essentially a netbook-screen-sized iPhone/iPod Touch tablet. Any sign within the OS that it supports higher resolution screens that might thus indicate such an incoming product, perhaps to replace the MacBook non-Pro "line"?