Useful info getting out on new iPhone apps like e-reader

The iPhone coverage tsunami continues unabated and, thanks to the long-tail of new media and blogging, we can find people writing about just those aspects of this mega-story that we find most interesting.

For example, the What’s on iPhone blog has a lengthy review up of the new Fictionwise e-book reader for iPhones and iPods Touch. The reviewer notes that you can download books you’ve already purchased directly onto your device but that you do have to use the web site to buy new books and the web site is slow, especially when searching (“Searching for a book takes almost as long as it took the author to write it”). He ends with a quick comparison to the Kindle:

I briefly had a Kindle a few months ago. I loved the selection of books and the prices were amazing. Unfortunately, I hated the device itself. eReader, on the other hand works on a wide variety of devices but the selection is okay but not great and the prices are much higher than on the Kindle. For example, James Patterson’s new book is under $10 on the Kindle and, while available for eReader, is almost twice the price. That’s a big difference. Big enough, in fact, to allow for the purchase of, say, an extra iPhone game. In all, the eReader for works well. If you are like me and like reading on a device that is small, light, convenient and always with you, it is certainly worth a look.

I’m also getting excited about the Remote app. My idea is to grab a cheaper model of the iPod Touch running Remote to get almost all the features of the Sonos household music distribution system at a fraction of the price. CNET’s Crave blog has a detailed review of the Remote app up already, though I think they’re missing just how powerful the combo of an iPod with Remote and an Airport Express connected to your stereo will be. Brad Mohr also has a conceptual comparison of Sonos and Remote app, noting that the Sonos hardware is getting more than a little dated.

Getting an iPod Touch would also let me try out most of the other new gee-wizzy apps, I think. Sadly, there’s no GPS in the iPod, though, so the really cool astronomy program Uranus won’t be a go.