# Mac Compatible eBook reader?



## emalen (Oct 10, 2004)

As my collection of books continue to take up room and gather dust on my shelf, I've come to the conclusion that I'd really like an eBook reader.

Now obviously the Kindle would be my first choice but since Amazon doesn't seem interested on bringing it to the great white north anytime soon I'm debating about the Sony eReader. (I noticed an ad for it in a sonystyle insert in the weekend Toronto Star).

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that the eReader is compatible with Macs. So my question for my fellow ehmacers is as follows. 

is there any ebook reader currently on the market that is mac compatible?

thanks,

Daniel


----------



## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

Which Mac are you running? Would Crossover, Parallels or VMWare work for you?


----------



## emalen (Oct 10, 2004)

Macified,

I was sort of hoping I could buy a $300 reader without investing more money in a 'virtual' program and a copy of windows. 

In this day and age, how is Sony ignoring the mac market?


----------



## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

emalen said:


> Macified,
> 
> I was sort of hoping I could buy a $300 reader without investing more money in a 'virtual' program and a copy of windows.
> 
> In this day and age, how is Sony ignoring the mac market?


They make Windows computers...


----------



## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

A more direct, "mac compatible" answer to your question could be...

iPhone.

I use my iPhone with eReader software (reader free, titles not free) as well as a couple of free readers pulling copyright free older titles. You can't purchase eReader titles directly from the iPhone but you can download titles that you have purchased directly from the online library.

Personally, while the Kindle is a great sales model for Amazon, the hardware is just hideous. I think they are still waiting for it to really catch on before investing in new design. With Oprah's recent endorsement, that may happen soon enough.


----------



## winwintoo (Nov 9, 2004)

An important consideration is what format you can get the books in. There are many formats and I don't know of any reader that can handle them all.

I've had a Palm T5 for several years and find it to very good for reading eBooks. It handles MobiPocket and eReader files as well as the various Palm incarnations.

When I got my iPod Touch, I looked forward to moving my reading to it, but sadly, there is (currently) no reader for iPod Touch that can handle the Mobi files and the readers available handle only some of the eReader and Palm formats.

As I understand it, the Kindle will only play content purchased from Amazon. The same has been true of various other one-trick readers - they only handle content purchased from the accompanying source.

Of course there is a lot of DRM-free content that most readers can handle, but I want to be able to read the current best-sellers so I'll stick with the Palm T5 for now.

This is my opinion, YMMV

Margaret


----------



## gmark2000 (Jun 4, 2003)

the Kindle runs its own version of Mobipocket files. Apparently you can add Mobipocket if you change to filename suffix.


----------



## winwintoo (Nov 9, 2004)

gmark2000 said:


> the Kindle runs its own version of Mobipocket files. Apparently you can add Mobipocket if you change to filename suffix.


That's good to know!

Margaret


----------



## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

I believe that any e-reader software for the iPhone would also work with the iPod Touch.

I was just discovering "Classics," a *gorgeous* ebook reader for the iPhone/Touch that comes preloaded with a bunch of public-domain classics (many that you've likely not read) and more to come. It's $2.99 for a limited time, well worth it for all that you get.


----------



## winwintoo (Nov 9, 2004)

chas_m said:


> I believe that any e-reader software for the iPhone would also work with the iPod Touch.
> 
> I was just discovering "Classics," a *gorgeous* ebook reader for the iPhone/Touch that comes preloaded with a bunch of public-domain classics (many that you've likely not read) and more to come. It's $2.99 for a limited time, well worth it for all that you get.


The readers do work on the iPod Touch and I've downloaded a bunch of them. Sadly all the ones I tried do not handle Mobi files and I have a fairly large investment in Mobi content - and most are books I will re-read. Don't want to have to buy them again.  

I also checked on the MobiPocket forum and there's no word when or even if there will ever be a Mobi reader for iPod Touch or iPhone.

My original point still stands. As the reader wars are currently stacked up, find the content you want and then find a device that can read it.

Margaret


----------

