Stanza, my favourite e-book reader on the iPhone, has been downdated. It’s hard to call this newest version of the app an update when all it does is remove one feature. Granted, I’ve never actually synced a book over USB (wi-fi is fast enough), but that option will be gone for new users from here on out. Existing users don’t have to update, but since there’s no “ignore app update” button in iTunes, they’ll have to deal with the app update badge always teasing them about one more update.
TechCrunch tried to do a bit of follow-up with Stanza about why the change was made, but they hit up a legal brick wall pretty quickly. Stanza can’t seem to talk about anything that goes on behind the curtain. This news could simply be Apple being a little grumpy about USB syncing (they don’t really like apps doing this), but when you consider that Stanza is now owned by Amazon, it does sound a little fishier. Then again, there’s also the John Gruber school of thought, which argues that Apple is in this for the hardware game and doesn’t really give a hoot who is selling the books – as long as they’re being read on iPads. Amazon does make the Kindle, but they also have a Kindle iPhone app.
Honestly speaking, most of this is just news to me. Little bits of info to post about. As long as they don’t mess with Stanza’s amazing wi-fi syncing and great in-app bookstore, my Pitchfork of Righteousness and Ranting is going to stay in the shed.
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TAGS: ebook, ereader
