Our favorite e-book reader for the iPhone, Stanza, has been updated.
Already the best reader for the iPhone, the new version has had a major
overhaul and gets a whole new look and feel. That the version number
has only jumped to 1.8 is a surprise: The new Stanza feels like a v2.0
application.
There’s not really one standout change in Lexcycle’s update.
Instead, a lot of small tweaks add together to make Stanza even better.
We’ll take a quick tour of the screenshots and I’ll point out what is
new.
First, and probably the most requested new feature is a book-wide search. Previously you could only search within a chapter. That had its uses, we guess, but full book search means that you can store copies of heavy textbooks in your pocket and fully explore and annotate them.
Annotate? Yes. Stanza already had a robust bookmarking system, allowing you to not just bookmark multiple positions but also to name those bookmarks. You can still do that, but now you can also just touch the corner of the page to set a mark. That’s it, and it will appear in the bookmark list. It’s as easy as turning the corner down on a real book, only it doesn’t leave a crease when you straighten it out again.
Stanza now has a dictionary, although you’ll need a network connection to use it. And while the implementation is good, the dictionary pages themselves are a little clunky. You can either go straight in from the main Stanza page, or press and hold a word in a book. You’ll then see this screen:
Tap “Define” and you’ll see this:
Actually, you won’t. The word “agrees” came back as non-existent, so I truncated it to the singular, which worked.
If you take a look at these pictures again, you’ll see another subtle new tweak. The bar the bottom shows how far you are through the book. This makes a big difference. With paper books this is easy, as you can feel and see how many pages you have left. This new bar brings that to the e-book.
There is also more info on progress when you tap the screen once:
Next, screen controls. You can, as ever, set the font size from within the app, but now you can also control brightness — another oft-requested feature. Stanza can’t actually set the system screen brightness, which is a shame, but it offers a neat workaround — it changes the font color to make things appear darker. The shot below shows the difference.
The best part is the way you control this: put one finger on the screen and drag up or down to brighten or darken the screen. Top marks.
There are seemingly hundreds more tweaks, from the all-new home screen with redesigned icons to cover art icons which cartoonishly pop into view with a squeezy animation, to the online cover art lookup, allowing you to browse for covers.
Even the cover flow view has been redesigned. It now looks and works much like the one in iTunes, and although it’s still not quite as smooth, its actually useful now. That’s it at the top of the post.
If you have never used Stanza, go download it now. If you are a user already, I imagine you rushed to the App Store as soon as you read the headline of this post. Stanza is hands-down the best e-book reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and its free. Go. Get it now.
Product page [iTunes]
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