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Here’s a wee iPhone app I am sure you will love!

I always considered myself a “reader”, but over the years other things got in the way of wading through thick books. Suddenly I realised that the only books that were being bought and read were the text-books for college, or the three or four that were gathered up for holiday reading. Then I was introduced to Stanza for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Stanza is a free application for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Use it to download from a vast selection of over 100,000 books and periodicals, and read them right on your phone. It’s a wireless electronic library that stays open 24/7.

This reader has allowed me to download ebooks (either older, free, copyright-free books, or newer ones you pay for), and read them in a fantastically intuitive wee app. The library allows you to look at a list of the books, or, if you turn the iPhone on its side, you view your books’ covers with the now familiar “Cover Flow” feature. If the cover isn’t there yet it is easy to use the Cover Lookup to find it from online sources.

As you can see, in the months since I started using Stanza, I have read 11 books! You can add categories, I tend to add books to my Reading List and work my way through them. A recent update allows the use of new symbols, which I have had fun with!

The biggest selling point for me is the fact that you can read in bed, with the light off. No more having to remember to turn the light off before falling asleep! The iPhone will simply turn itself off and will even remember which page you were at!

It is really easy to bookmark the best bits, change the colour and size of font, even dim the brightness at night time!

I love this app, love the idea that it has brought me back to reading, and love that there are so many books out there that you can read free of charge due to them being public domain (just about any classic book from before 1923).

The only thing I complain about is the lack of a visual clue of how thick the book is. Quite often I have lamented the fact that I am stiiiilllll reading the same book, not realising that it was a weighty tome! Every ebook looks the same!

EDIT: I am going to edit this “slightly”. In my world “slightly” means “EEEK I totally forgot to put one point in, and I totally misrepresented another point!”

I have received a comment from Neelan Choksi from Lexcycle to say:

Just wanted to let you know that in the latest versions (1.8 or 1.8.1) of Stanza, we do provide a visual clue about how far you are in the book as well as how much further you have to go.

When you are in the middle of a book, you can get an exact indicator by tapping the middle third of the screen or alternatively, you can look at the very bottom of the screen and you will see a grey (usually) graphical line which is some percentage of the way across the width of the screen. Depending on how far the gray line is across the screen is a graphical clue as to how far along you are in the book. You can also see the same graphical line in the library in portrait mode under each title.

I hope that helps.

Neelan Choksi
Lexcycle

Neelan is perfectly correct! I have the latest version of Stanza, and am aware of the visual signs that are now built in to the app now. However, I choose to ignore these wonderful features because I still like to moan about things, even though they are pretty near damn perfect in every way! Be happy in the knowledge that there are ways for you to know where you are in the book and how far you have to go.

The thing I forgot to mention is the built in dictionary in the new version. This was something that I wanted. When I am in the middle of reading I don’t really want to have to get up and go look a word up in a dictionary, then return to the book. Normally I just flow over it and pretend I know what it means. This new feature means that I can stay with the story much easier, and is much appreciated.

Should you get it? YES! It is free of charge and very easy to use. You should try out one book on it and see if you become addicted. Bet you do!

For our first iPhone app recommendation I am going with the first one I had fun with, when using the camera.

The iPhone camera may not be as good as some other mobile phone cameras, but actually, I have been quite impressed with some of the photos it has churned out for me. I used to carry a phone and a compact camera but I have now ditched the compact in favour for just the iPhone.

iPhone apps are purchased through iTunes and generally, compared to prices for computer software, are fairly cheap. Some excellent apps are free of charge: free doesn’t always mean that the app is not worth going for. Next step up are the ones at 59p, then £1.19, £1.79, going up to £5.99, although there are some at £14.99 and higher. The majority of apps I have bought have been around the £1.79 mark and as the money comes straight out of the credit card you attach to your iTunes account, you hardly ever notice it, and it becomes far too easy to go on a bit of a spending spree!

As a photographer I am used to using presets and filters through the computer to make photos look different, but this application replicates actual cameras like the Holga (they call theirs “Helga”), Lomo (Lolo), real lenses such as a fisheye lens, and shows what your photo would have looked like had it been processed in the 60s or 70s.

The first while I had this, I felt the need to load every photo I took with every one of the effects. I bored not only my friends with every combination possible, but finally myself too! The trouble was, every single one of the effects added something to the original that the original lacked. It is extremely addictive, but also quite handy when you want to spruce up a blog entry with a photo, without firing up your photo editor.

When it first came out, the software only allowed you to share photos taken via usb to the computer, but after  a couple of updates, an email feature was added. This was a big boon to me as I had felt a tad short-changed without it. However, even a geek like me took quite a while to master the settings to get this function going.

All in all – if the company who made this for the iPhone (Never Center) were to sell the same software as an add-on for the computer, I would buy it!

Original – The unaltered image.

Helga – A square-format toy camera with washed-out highlights and old-school vignetting. Sometimes I prefer this one but not always. . .

Instant – Oh! The good old days of Polaroids! This is one that Maaike uses often, and I love the polaroid format but not the muted tones. . .

Mono – Smooth gradation from black to white.

Lolo – Shoot from the hip and take life as it comes with vibrant, colorful shots. This is the one I favour mostly. I love the colours it produces along with the square format and the nice border.

Cinema – Dramatic, moody, wide-screen stills from the movie of your life.

There are also other settings for you to play with, I’ll not bore you with examples of them all:

1974 – This is your father’s camera. Faded, tinted, and hip.
1962 – Dynamic black and whites from the photojournalists of a bygone era.
Infrared – Simulation of the popular landscape photography technique.
Fisheye – Popular fish eye lens effect – try it in combination with other filters.

Should you get it? If you use the camera at all then yes! At a mere £1.79 from the iTunes App Store it’s all good fun!

If you DO buy it, please send us a photo you have used it on – we would love to see which effect you liked the most.