With a rich, crisp screen like the iPhone it was only a matter of time before users began clamouring for an ebook reader.  Apple still haven’t come through with the goods, though, but that hasn’t stopped some from trying various web-based methods for getting their favourite electronic literature into the pinchable Safari screen.  Current consensus is that while it’s not perfect, it’s still pretty good.

Check out some of the iPhone ebook options after the cut

Kevin Tofel, cam-whore and raconteur, has been trying Amazon’s ebook Upgrade service, where you can choose to buy an electronic copy of a book for online access in addition to buying the hard-copy.  It cost him $3.79 to access the ebook version of a previously purchased title; it takes the form of scanned pages rather than html conversions, and while that means fitting everything width-wise in portrait mode leaves the text too small (see photo directly above), in horizontal orientation it all becomes easy on the eye (see photo directly below).

Issues remaining include finger-unfriendly controls (the narrow bar on the right of the screen flips forward through the pages), pregnant-pauses in download times because each page is a big photo, and lots of scrolling because you’re not fitting a huge amount on-screen at a time.

Meanwhile, retailer WOWIO has shown some pretty stunning screenshots of pre-optimisation ebooks viewed on the iPhone [via the indomitable Mike Cane]; they not only do traditional books but graphic novels and guide-books too, so appearance is extra important.  I have to say, these photos are luscious, showing off both the iPhone’s screen and the quality of the WOWIO material.

They go into some detail of what tweaks and changes they’d like to see on the handset before it might be the ideal ebook reader, but hopefully they’ll go ahead and optimise their pages anyway so that when Apple gets round to competing with, say, Sony’s Reader, we’ll have some great content to take advantage of it with.

Thanks to MyiTablet 

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