Aug

25

Reading Books on Your Blackberry - Ereader Apps

Filed Under Mobipocket, PDAs and Handhelds, eReader

Blackberry owners who would like the capability to read ebooks on their Blackberry device have at least a couple of options. Whether you regard the Blackberry as your preferred ereader, or as a useful alternative to other ereaders in your ebook reading device arsenal, there are apps and online services available to you.

Mobipocket Reader and OTA Bookstore Access
Mobipocket.com offers its free Mobipocket Reader software for the Blackberry, as well as Over the Air (OTA) access to the Mobipocket bookstore via the Blackberry. Books can also be downloaded to the Blackberry user’s desktop PC (the Mobipocket Reader software for Windows Vixta and XP is also free).

The Mobipocket Reader allows the Blackberry user to select font styles and sizes, customize margins, select background colors, and make other custom choices for the ereading environment.  Through the Mobipocket bookstore, the Blackberry user has access to thousands of books, book samples, and reviews.

More Online Bookstores
Additional bookstores that offer titles in the Mobipocket format include Fictionwise.com and Booksonboard.com.  Free public domain ebooks are available in a variety of formats, including Mobipocket, from Manybooks.net. Titles in several formats are also available at Feedbooks.com, which recommends the Mobipocket Reader and Mobipocket format for Blackberry, PDA and smartphone users.

Wattpad
Wattpad.com is an online book reading and sharing community that is available for Blackberry and mobile phone users.  Members of the Wattpad community upload books, which can then be read by a Blackberry user who has downloaded the free Wattpad Reader.

BooksinMyPhone
Booksinmyphone.com is a site that formats and packages books for java-enabled phones.  Its reader app is bundled with each downloaded book.  The site notes that Blackberry owners “can make use of our books.”  Most of the books available via BooksinMyPhone are titles that are in the public domain.

Repligo Reader
Cerience.com has announced plans “to release the world’s first native PDF viewer for BlackBerry.”  This application, the Repligo Reader, is currently in beta; Blackberry users are invited to sign up to take part in the beta testing.

eReader - not yet for Blackberry
eReader.com offers its eReader software for Palm devices and a variety of other devices, but at this point the software is not available for the Blackberry.  The site’s FAQs do state that “[w]e understand that our users are very interested in this platform and we are currently investigating supporting this device.”

Comments

4 Responses to “Reading Books on Your Blackberry - Ereader Apps”

  1. Ed(new comment) on October 14th, 2008 8:15 am

    IMO, the Blackberry is good, but its not designed for reading. the screen is way to small, even the iPhone’s screen is too small.

    Audiobooks are my preferred method when I am using a phone, you can just sitback, relax and listen!

  2. Melodie Boyd(new comment) on November 12th, 2008 8:18 pm

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  3. Larry Magid(new comment) on November 27th, 2008 1:37 pm

    The Blackberry Storm is as good a device for reading books as is the iphone or my old Windows PDA, Axim 30 on which I love reading my novels. I’m hoping I’ll be doing that soon on the Storm I just obtained.

  4. dom(new comment) on December 17th, 2008 12:46 pm

    Blackberry Storm has a great screen & really good sound quality - it looks and sounds great. Shame about the lack of WiFi but it’s a good first attempt & will only get better.

    doms last blog post..Scratch Proof BlackBerry Storm Screen

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