Ibis Reader now available for iPhone, Android, and desktop browsers

Back in November Jay told us about an ebook reader called Ibis Reader that would get around Apple's app store by being built as a web app rather than a native iPhone app. Well, Ibis Reader is now available, and the implementation is beautiful.

As expected, Ibis Reader is not a native iPhone (or Android) application, but rather is a mobile-optimized web application that makes use of HTML5 offline data stores to make your book available even when you don't have an internet connection. I don't have a Droid or Nexus One to test on, but on the iPhone you can add a shortcut to Ibis Reader to your home screen, and when you do that it launches in a chrome-less standalone version of Mobile Safari that feels very much like a native application.

Reading with Ibis Reader on the iPhone is exactly as you'd expect from an ebook reader; page turns are snappy and the visual presentation is moderately configurable, though thankfully the app is well designed, and needs very little tweaking.

The site still appears to be going through some growing pains, as one of the features I was most interested in (syncing your place among various reading locations) does not currently seem to be working. I also found the desktop browser-based reader to be completely underwhelming; clearly the focus is on reading on a mobile device.

Ibis Reader's library of ebooks leaves a lot to be desired, too. The list of titles that are available is very small. However, all the titles that are available are also available to be downloaded in the popular EPUB format, and you can add ebooks that you already own to the service.

All in all Ibis Reader looks like it will be a strong offering in the ebook reading space on mobile devices.

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Tags: android, droid, ebook, ebook reader, EbookReader, ebooks, epub, ibis reader, IbisReader, interne